Not Covered In The Training Manual

On Sunday evening, we stopped for a quick break in our "on the road" adventure at McDonalds.

I was standing by the beverage area and Rachel walked up to me with a few food items but she was crying. Looking in her direction I could see about 5 McDonald's employees were talking/whispering to each other and looking at her.

I said to her, "What's wrong?"

But she was crying and answering me at the same time so I could not understand what she was trying to say.

One of the managers of the restaurant walked up to us and said, "I'm sorry. We did not hear her full request when she placed her order. So, we only charged her for what we heard her order. Now, we realize she wanted some additional items. When we told her that she only purchased what we gave her and not the additional items she wanted she began to cry."

I think some of the McDonald's employees were as upset as Rachel.

The manager who explained the situation to me looked like she might start crying.

I said, "It's alright. Don't worry." With a big smile I added, "Allow me to order the other things she wanted and pay for them and it will be fine."

I went to the counter and placed the order and three or four employees jumped right into action (I suppose I should mention that no one else was in line ordering food at the moment). Rachel got what she wanted and was satisfied. (Chicken McNuggets almost always lead to satisfaction.)

I tried, again, to smile and reassure the crew that everything was alright. No serious damage was done! But I think it was a rough moment for them. This specific type of scenario is probably not covered in the training and procedures manual.