The Very Official McDonalds (and other fast food outlets) Thread

JAS84
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Location: Hull, UK

I actually overheard a staff member talking to a customer the other day. Apparently they'd ordered just the bread, turns out they meant to order a plain burger, no gherkin, sauce, or onion. So easy to make a mistake on that system it seems.
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WillPS
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My Mum once managed to order 4 pizzas from Dominos with no sauce and no cheese.
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bilky asko
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WillPS wrote: Sun 05 Nov, 2017 16.42 My Mum once managed to order 4 pizzas from Dominos with no sauce and no cheese.
Did she also manage to avoid using any one of their deals, to pay full price?
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WillPS
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bilky asko wrote: Sun 05 Nov, 2017 18.17
WillPS wrote: Sun 05 Nov, 2017 16.42 My Mum once managed to order 4 pizzas from Dominos with no sauce and no cheese.
Did she also manage to avoid using any one of their deals, to pay full price?
I'm pretty sure that is actually impossible.
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cwathen
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WillPS wrote: I'm pretty sure that is actually impossible.
This actually used to be possible. Many moons ago I worked for Domino's, and at the time (and up until about 5 years ago), they were still using an antiquated DOS-based EPOS system (albeit it was as solid as a rock with virtually 100% uptime).

Although things like the 'Manager's Special' type deals with a Pizza, Wedges, Drink etc could be programmed into the system to pull up all the menu items in the deal with the price set correctly, for other deals (like buy one get one free/half price, add x for y amount of money, get this for half price when you buy that, get one pizza for x price etc etc) you had to manually pull up various coupon codes to make the price right (or if you were important enough to have a 'level 8' password, you could just override the price and type the correct one in). If not everything would go through at full menu price.

Plenty of newbies who hadn't yet mastered the system made these mistakes, and plenty of customers didn't notice. These cockups could also work in the customer's favour too, with people being undercharged when their order taker didn't understand the deals and used the wrong coupons.

On a side note, their solution for delivering web/app based ordering through this system was pretty brave - all the database files were stored in dBase III format (an old DOS database from the 1980's) and so could be readily understood. They built their website/phone apps to push through orders to each store and then a middleware program on each store's server intercepted the order and directly modified the database, in real time with the system live and running and numerous other workstations accessing these files, to make these orders just appear on the system (and be charged to a special payment type which was set up for the purpose so the store's cash and cards still reconciled). The approach was in theory a disaster waiting to happen but in practice it worked just fine.
Square Eyes
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Is the 'Argos-isation' / modernisation of McDonalds with touch screens and table service now nearing completion ? Or are there loads of old school ones still out there?
Martin Phillp
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Richmond has been Argos'ifed. It's a tiny restaurant which has left tables being removed for the touch screens.

One annoying thing I found last weekend was that I didn't discover the Christmas menu until I went to the counter to collect my order and also on occasion don't get a receipt with my order number.
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Pete
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I tried the pre-ordering app the other day. What a shambles.

So having spent seemingly 10 mins setting up the app (no sign in with FB option) and ordered my food it simply said "scan the barcode at branch".

So I got to the restaurant and scanned the QR code. Only at this point did it ask for payment details.

Not to worry, I found a comfy seat (in zone B as selected on the app) and popped in my card details.

However my phone had logged onto the wifi, and the payment failed.

It then demanded I scan the QR code again for no apparent reason.

So I had to get up and walk across the shop to rescan this code, before trying again.

Second time it didn't quite work.

Third time lucky... and then the app crashed.

90 seconds later I got an email saying my order had been placed. It was then brought out as normal.

Waste of time, haven't tried again.
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Square Eyes
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Not really 'pre-ordering' that is it, more like 'pre-selection' given that the order isn't placed until you scan the QR code in the branch. I guess they don't take payment up front in the event they don't have something that you asked for. So really you are just placing the order in branch same as everyone else, which you could do in about 20 seconds anyway at a touch screen.

The pre-order experience would be of worth if upon arrival you were personally greeted by a member of the restaurant staff, lead to a table in your zone of choice and be fed chicken nuggets. :D
Alexia
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MarkAshley wrote: Wed 13 Dec, 2017 08.36 Off the top of my head, in London, Whitehall, Strand, Oxford Street, Marble Arch, Wimbledon, Victoria Street (between Victoria Station and Parliament Square) are all nonArgossy.
And Paddington Station, which to be honest could mount the touch screens by the side windows / entrance so you order *before* you enter the building. Plenty of room on Platform 1 for a little queue - not much room inside the actual restuarant and they're usually queuing out of the door at rush hour anyway.

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Martin Phillp
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I think I've figured out why none of the Croydon McD's have been given the 'Argos' treatment. They'll all be knocked down when the new Westfield/Hammerson development is built in the next couple of years, so no point giving them a refurb.
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