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I am the owner of the worlds most expensive Happy Meal™.
I had to drop a family member at Gatwick Airport coach station which unfortunately upset my 5 year old son (bless), so to cheer him up I took him to McDonald’s restaurant at Gatwick airport, South Terminal which is located on the way out of the airport.
As I am sure you are aware, a Happy Meal normally works wonders for these types of things! After eating and doing some colouring we left all happy, so it would seem.
Three weeks later a demand turned up in the post for £75, increasing to £125 in two weeks if unpaid, for a car parking violation - OUCH! (that’s $250 for my USA friends)
So I decided to investigate and dispute the fine as I had no idea that I had done anything wrong. It all gets a bit complicated here but suffice to say - McDonald’s Customer Services offered no support, lied and basically turn a blind eye to the problem. McDonald’s in fact help CAUSE the problem.
Some of the things I was told…
1. There is a 45 minute parking restriction - True.
2. I had to contact the car parking company directly however McDonald’s had forwarded a letter on my behalf - Lie, there was no letter forwarded by McDonald’s.
3. My dispute was valid and had “ticked all the right boxes” - Lie, there were no boxes to tick as my dispute would not be followed up by McDonald’s.
4. There are ample signs within the restaurant - Lie, there is one A4 sized poster located near the toilets.
5. There are signs within the restaurant saying if you need more time, ask the manager in the store - Lie, there are two tiny lines at the bottom of the aforementioned poster located near the toilets.
6. The car parking company told me “Complaints are received about this EVERY DAY” - Kim Rezk from McDonald’s customer services denies this, wanted the name of the person who told me and then got very stroppy about it when I said “No”.
7. Kim Rezk from McDonald’s customer services told me McDonald’s have “already received bad press over this issue” - I don’t know why she told me this when she should have been saying “How can we help you to resolve this matter?” Do they actually expect me to be sympathetic about this??? Do I care that they have alreay had bad press? Nope.
8. There are ample signs in the carpark to stop any confusion - Lie, I revisited the carpark and whilst I agree there are a lot of signs, I spoke to 15 customers walking into the store to see if they knew how long they were allowed to stay parked, 14 told me they had absolutlely no idea and the person who knew it was 45 minutes had actually ALREADY BEEN FINED! (which was just unbelievable!)
My complaint is as follows:
I appreciate that they have to have a parking restriction to stop people from parking their cars and then just walking off to the airport terminal to meet a flight (which could involve a long wait) or from using it as a general free car park when going to work, but why do they enforce a policy for people who actually use the restaurant correctly? I am a local and I went with my 5 year old son. We did not hang around for several hours to meet a flight, there was no hidden agenda.
Basically every customer who passes through the door must have parked in the car park, the restaurant is in the middle of nowhere. It’s not like someone would actually walk there from their home.
Therefore (and most importantly) why is it that if McDonald’s have a 45 minute parking restriction in place for that restaurant, and they know that you will get screwed if you go beyond 45 minutes, do they provide crayons and pictures for children to colour? Come on! I mean they might as well add a bouncy castle or a magic show! It is fundamentally WRONG for them to encourage you to stay longer when there is a £75 parking charge!
Why was it that no one mentioned to me that there was a 45 minute restriction before my order was taken? They naturally assume that everyone reads and takes notice of the signs. This is simply not a reality. Someone should have asked “have you parked in our car park?”.
When my son had finished eating his Happy Meal™ he asked to do some colouring because the kids on the table next to us were doing it, so I ordered myself a large coffee as I new it would take a while to colour the picture. Why did a member of staff not inform me that I would be close to going over the time if I stayed much longer? after all they must have known I had already been in there a while (there were only a total of 10 customers in there).
Why would I ask a manager for more time when I never even…
a) Realised there was a restriction in the first place.
b) Read the two lines at the bottom of the little poster near the toilets.
I have NEVER gone into a McDonald’s and thought to myself “I had better ask the manager if my car will be OK, and can I have some time to eat my food please?.”
I was only with one child, if I had more children with me then there would be no way that the visit would have taken less than 90 minutes or more. Which leads me conclude that there is a fundamental problem with the way McDonald’s addresses this problem. One of the groups I spoke to in the carpark were 3 adults and 2 kids, I was sad for them. I hope they enjoyed their rushed meal. The man couldn’t thank me enough for pointing out the time permitted, he said he “naturally assumed it was a couple of hours”.
What I can say is that if I owned a business where my customers faced the possibility of a £75 parking fine I would do EVERYTHING IN MY POWER to make sure they were out of the door before they faced a penalty, and McDonalds simply do not do this. No, they cause and compound the problem by providing distractions to children and therefore (to a degree) should accept the responsibility for genuine customer complaints.
So there you have it. McDonald’s have screwed me over by not making it clear about the parking time permitted, making me over stay my welcome by providing colouring pads within the store and lied about helping me with my dispute. All pretty damn irresponsible if you ask me.
So my complaint is still in dispute, it has been 4 months since I went for my meal (28 Feb, 2007). McDonald’s has done nothing to help resolve this matter.
Further information: (just to get the facts straight)
The car park signs
Approaching the store
The invisible sign
