Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Just Visiting

If you read my previous post, you know just how jazzed I am about the Monopoly game at McDonald's.

Among the game pieces my wife and I enthusiastically peeled from our healthy dinner items last night was a free breakfast sandwich. I intended to use that coupon this morning.

At 5:00am, I pulled into the McDonald's drive-thru.

""Welcome to McDonald's. Can I help you?"

"Yes, I have a coupon for a free breakfast sandwich I'd like to redeem. I'll have an Egg McMuffin and--"

"We don't accept coupons."

"No, it's a Monopoly game piece."

"Sir, we no longer accept any coupons. Can I take your order?"

"But I got this here yesterday!"

"We no longer accept any coupons."

"Since when?"

"Since today."

"Why?"

"New rules."

"What!?"

"Can I take your order?"

Irked and bemused, I ordered an Egg McMuffin, hash brown, and a large coffee and pulled up to the window. The drive-thru attendant asked for some amount of money. I wasn't paying attention to the sum and handed the young man my credit card. After some time, he returned my card with my breakfast. I pulled forward and checked my order before I hit the road. There was no Egg McMuffin in my bag or on my receipt.

I put my car in park and walked into the restaurant.

"Can I help you?"

"Yes, I was just in the drive-thru. I ordered an Egg McMuffin and never received it."

"No you didn't."

"Yes, I did. I wanted to redeem my free breakfast sandwich coupon."

"We don't accept coupons."

"Yes, we've had this conversation already."

"I'd like an Egg McMuffin."

"But you didn't order one."

"OK. I'm ordering it now."

"We don't accept coupons."

"I know." Pause. Deep breath. "I would now like to place an order and pay for an Egg McMuffin."

The McD's employee stood in place, confused. The manager stepped in and completed my order. After a five-minute wait, she handed me an Egg McMuffin. I extended my credit card.

"No, sir. This one's on the house."

Free breakfast sandwich. And I still have my (now apparently worthless) free breakfast sandwich game piece.

2 comments:

deedma said...

Good things come to those who wait...and get lucky.

Anonymous said...

I'll add on Russ' comment:
Good things come to those who wait, and to those who walk into a restaurant where the waiter or cashier is dumb. I've gotten so much free stuff in the past from this.
TIP: You know what confuses the heck out of them? Lets say your total is $9.02 and you pay $10.00, so the cashier is just about to punch in $10.00 to give you back $0.98 cents, but then you hand him/her $0.02 with the $10.00 to get a full dollar back. They suddenly get this deer-in-the -headlights look on their faces which to me looks like its saying,"I shoulda stayed in skool and get me a good edukashon instead of working here for 10 bucks an hour"