Monday, September 7, 2020

I Hate The McDonald's App

So I had to fill in for someone at work yesterday/Sunday, and since her shift is 6-2:30, I got up at 5 (well, I hit the snooze button twice, so I got up at 5:18).  I remembered my mistake from the last time I worked this shift and, instead of going to the Mickey D's closest to work and being surprised they are not open that early, I made a point of driving a bit further down to the closest 24/7 McDonald's so that I would be able to drive back, eat my sandwich in my car and report to work on time.

I have recently installed the Mickey D's app on my phone.  I finally gave in to all those offers of free food if only you would download the app!!! and I did so for occasions such as this.  And they do have a bunch of deals, seemingly every day.  They had an offer for two dollars off a breakfast sandwich I decided I would use.  When I brought up the app before I headed out the door, I saw that there was another deal whereby I could purchase a coffee for just 99 cents.  I decided I would use that, too.

So I drove down and, because of the deals, I ordered up the most expensive sandwich (the sausage [?], egg and cheese McGriddle) and a large coffee.  At the drive-thru window (I don't know about you guys, but all the McDonald's restaurants in this area closed their lobbies) I bring up the app and I thought I brought up the deal ... and I was expecting that square Quick Response (QR) code to pop up, and the goddamn code didn't pop up.  I didn't know where to go.  I panicked!!!  And then I just decided I would pay full price because I was wasting my time, wasting the cashier's time, and wasting the time of the person behind me.  I wake up early, looking forward to a sandwich and coffee at a rock-bottom price, and I have to fucking pay full price for it instead?!

After being able to eat my McGriddle at work (and I clocked in on time, thank Buddha) and checking first in my car and again at work, I think I understand what happened, even though I will not take responsibility for it.  When you select a deal, you are presented with two rectangles.  There is one word in each rectangle in bold: Pick-Up in the top rectangle, Scan in the bottom.  Both words have smaller type, basically a subheading, below them.  Those words are not the same between both rectangles, but "drive-thru" is in both.  At the drive-thru, I honed in on the word "drive-thru" in the Pick-Up box.  I hit that so I could get two bucks off the McGriddle.  But instead of a QR code, I think I just put that deal in my "shopping card," as if I needed to checkout and pay for it once I was done with my order.  When I got to that, I had nowhere else to turn, so I think I tried to back up all the way to the two rectangles so I could hit the Scan one.  I then selected the coffee deal.  But then I saw a warning that I cannot use two deals for the same order.  And that's where I got all discombobulated, because it's clear now that in order to get everything done correctly I would have had to delete the deal I selected for my sandwich, and that was something that I couldn't tell while I was under the gun at the drive-thru, and besides all this foofooraw had already taken up too much of everybody's time.

I'm not going to take responsibility for it because I think I should have immediately gotten a QR code once I selected a deal.  You know: Hit deal, get code.  That's what it should be.  Instead, I am presented with the choice of whether I want to order ahead online so I can pick it up once I get to the McDonald's.  But I was already there.  And I swear most people still go to the restaurant to pick up their food.  But this goddamn app is pushing online ordering so much that it's putting that option up first and confusing the shit outta Gen X'ers like me in the process.  Fucking technology.

So I paid ... fuck, I didn't get a fucking receipt ... two dollars plus the difference in the coffee, maybe? more than I should have.  So I need to make that up by not spending that money elsewhere.  After work yesterday I went to Target to buy a few things -- salsa for the chips Father bought, disinfectant wipes (first time in a long time that I saw a shelf stocked with more than one container of them), and tea tree oil for these bumps in the back of my head.  I looked at the price for that little bottle of tea tree oil, remembered that it's been more than ten bucks the last couple times I've bought it, and decided not to.  I would have felt differently if I had gotten the goddamn discounts for the McDonald's sandwich and coffee I was supposed to.

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