OK, before you answer that, let me give the story.
I went to McDonald's on 125th Street & St.Nicholas Avenue. Store #18093 to be exact. It was after a grueling choir rehearsal sangin' for the Lord, and I just wanted to get food and get in a cab to go home. Now, this McDonald's is notorious, NOTORIOUS for being a Hot Mess Factory. I'm talking homeless people turning over trash cans during the lunch hour to find food, drug addicts rolling around on the floor, and everything in between - including the ominous older men who come in and just sit and stare at everyone who comes to eat. Weird. I will NOT even mention how the floor is always sticky or how the air just has a heavy smell of misery, I will not.
So, the next question to ask is, "Why did you eat here?". The answer is simple. McDonald's, however morbid the environment may be, has always stood for uniformity in terms of the food and has been a staple in food service for decades. If a child wants a happy meal or something from the menu, no matter what the neighborhood or even the workers, you know the product you are paying for and what you will receive. Well, you are supposed to anyway, I just never knew this day I was going to receive some "nigga" with my order- again.
Now, this word is a word I do not activate in conversation, and not only because of the connotation, but more so because I do not want to send the message that it is OK to engage me in a conversation in which it will be used. I CERTAINLY do not want to go into an establishment in which I am spending my money and have to hear an employee refer to the management (which happened the first time) or another employee (happened this time) as a "nigga". I do not want to hear cursing or your vocal rantings or dissatisfaction with your job. I also do not want to be verbally assaulted and called stupid and other expletives because I point out the fact that you are at work and need to dig deeper into your vocabulary for alternate words to express yourself. All of these things happened to me at Store #18093.
Because I was with a young child and there were other young children in the store, I chose to end his verbal tirade and threats by taking my food and the young child out of the store. A few days later, I called McDonald's customer service and spoke to a very nice woman who entered my complaint into "the system". Following that, I received an email from a representative who told me she tried to call me several times (false) and could not get me, and for that reason she decided to email me some generic template response about how sorry she was for my experience and blah blah blah. At this point, I felt disrespected. I stood in a restaurant and basically paid to be a witness to verbal assault and then became the victim of the same. I replied back to this nice lady's email those very sentiments, along with the fact that I was pursuing this case on a legal level. MAGICALLY, my phone rang. I spent 20 minutes on the phone with this woman while she tried to "relate" to me, as she promised to fire this young man and send me some gift cards for my trouble. I nicely dismissed her and waited on this "compensation" while I sought legal counsel.
What happened next??
Attached you will find the letter that was sent to me along with a coupon for a free medium fry and a free sandwich which can be redeemed at a whopping 5 locations in New York City. Five. Five.
As you can guess I have decided to move forward with my lawsuit. McDonald's has disrespected, disappointed and degraded me with this attempt to value my self-respect and integrity with this despicable "offering". I would have rather received a handwritten or at least a personalized apology letter than some "coupons" and a cookie-cutter half-baked thrown together waste of time. At this point, NOTHING they can say will change my views on that corporation and establishment as a whole. After singing in their Gospel Fest for numerous years and supporting them endlessly; McDonald's has completely lost my respect. While I do not condone forcing my will or my actions on others, to all who support McDonald's I simply beg the question; How Much Are YOU Worth?
R.
So, the next question to ask is, "Why did you eat here?". The answer is simple. McDonald's, however morbid the environment may be, has always stood for uniformity in terms of the food and has been a staple in food service for decades. If a child wants a happy meal or something from the menu, no matter what the neighborhood or even the workers, you know the product you are paying for and what you will receive. Well, you are supposed to anyway, I just never knew this day I was going to receive some "nigga" with my order- again.
Now, this word is a word I do not activate in conversation, and not only because of the connotation, but more so because I do not want to send the message that it is OK to engage me in a conversation in which it will be used. I CERTAINLY do not want to go into an establishment in which I am spending my money and have to hear an employee refer to the management (which happened the first time) or another employee (happened this time) as a "nigga". I do not want to hear cursing or your vocal rantings or dissatisfaction with your job. I also do not want to be verbally assaulted and called stupid and other expletives because I point out the fact that you are at work and need to dig deeper into your vocabulary for alternate words to express yourself. All of these things happened to me at Store #18093.
Because I was with a young child and there were other young children in the store, I chose to end his verbal tirade and threats by taking my food and the young child out of the store. A few days later, I called McDonald's customer service and spoke to a very nice woman who entered my complaint into "the system". Following that, I received an email from a representative who told me she tried to call me several times (false) and could not get me, and for that reason she decided to email me some generic template response about how sorry she was for my experience and blah blah blah. At this point, I felt disrespected. I stood in a restaurant and basically paid to be a witness to verbal assault and then became the victim of the same. I replied back to this nice lady's email those very sentiments, along with the fact that I was pursuing this case on a legal level. MAGICALLY, my phone rang. I spent 20 minutes on the phone with this woman while she tried to "relate" to me, as she promised to fire this young man and send me some gift cards for my trouble. I nicely dismissed her and waited on this "compensation" while I sought legal counsel.
What happened next??
Attached you will find the letter that was sent to me along with a coupon for a free medium fry and a free sandwich which can be redeemed at a whopping 5 locations in New York City. Five. Five.
As you can guess I have decided to move forward with my lawsuit. McDonald's has disrespected, disappointed and degraded me with this attempt to value my self-respect and integrity with this despicable "offering". I would have rather received a handwritten or at least a personalized apology letter than some "coupons" and a cookie-cutter half-baked thrown together waste of time. At this point, NOTHING they can say will change my views on that corporation and establishment as a whole. After singing in their Gospel Fest for numerous years and supporting them endlessly; McDonald's has completely lost my respect. While I do not condone forcing my will or my actions on others, to all who support McDonald's I simply beg the question; How Much Are YOU Worth?
R.
