The Dipping Sauce Dilemma at McDonald’s
Nov 2nd, 2006 by Peter
OK… finally a place to vent about this…
How many times have you ordered chicken nuggets and only got one stinking little packet of dipping sauce?
I mean, if you order a 6 piece, you should at least get 2!!!
And on top of that, let’s say you ask for another one… you normally get this:
“NORMALLY we charge .25 cents for extra dipping sauce…. ”
1) I don’t give a hoot about .25 cents and quite frankly, I can’t think of anyone else who does either… if I want extra sauce I am willing to pay for it
2) Do I really NEED to be notified? Do I look like I don’t have a quarter to spare?
3) Here’s an idea… how about charging .25 cents more for the nuggets and the ones who don’t want sauce will more than make up for your “overwhelming 25 cent loss” due to this bizarre dipping sauce shortage.
You hit the nail on the head. I totally agree. Heaven forbid I pull a quarter out of my pocket and add to the 6 bucks I just spent…at McDonald’s.
“Whats that???”
“Extra dipping sauce??”
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!”
They automatically think that every customer will NOT pay the extra .25.
It’s really not just McDonald’s of course, but ever restaurant that charges you those little “extras” that get under my skin. The freshmex grills are so popular around here, and when a new one opens they are always liberal with anything you want to add. After their doors are open a bit, Scrooge tactics are in force as they drive the bottom line. You want sour cream, 50 cents. Guacamole? 50 cents. Flavor added? 2 bucks.
I recently had an experience at MCDONALDS actually. We ordered some food, the lady was completely nonchelaunt(sp) about everything, hardly paying attention to us. We let her keep some change, she huffs and puffs at every question we ask, acts like it’s the end of the world when we ask for no onions on our double cheese burgers. And then finally at the end when we ask for some sauce “no, that will be 15 cents” “oh wait nevermind you gave me some change, that will be 9 cents” AHHHHHHH I wanted to strangle her.
lol Mabeysup that is hilarious! WOW only 15 cents huh? Wonder if it would be worth my commute to go to your McDonald’s lol
Hilarious.
Try getting a 20 piece McNugget and only getting 3 sauces, and when you ask for 7 sauces, they look at you like YOU’RE the one that’s crazy. It may SOUND like a lot, but come on. You should get 2 with a 6 piece, 3 with a 9 (or now it’s 10) piece. So, do the fricken math.
It’s kinda weird, I eat nuggets at least once a week, but wherever I go, they give me 3-4 sauces. I always have to ask them to just give me one. They never asked me for extra money. FYI I’m from Maryland. Maybe it’s different between states.
Bo – maybe you have achieved some kind of VIP status at your local outfit because of your frequency in eating there ;) Gotta love them nuggets.
Romell – McNugget math, I love it!
Ahhh that could be it lol that’s even funnier :)
I have three kids, and they all get the 6 piece nuggets and I always get them 3 sauces each and they don’t charge me..
I just order and then when I get my food, I tell them I need 9 sauces..
Holy mackeral… sounds like I need to move to a different area! BTW went to McDonald’s today and ordered a 10 piece for my wife. Asked for Honey Mustard sauce and the kid gave me “Hot Mustard” sauce. I said “Oh… could I get Honey Mustard? It appears you gave me Hot Mustard…” The kid said sure and my brother in law behind me (who was also ordering a 10 piece) said “Cool! I’ll take the hot mustard once we get to the table if you don’t mind.” I said no problem.
We get back to the table and the kid must have done a “quick swap” with the Hot Mustard instead of just leaving it on my tray!!! I couldn’t believe it. I immediately thought of this rant blog of course…
I have decided to quit whining and create a tool for fast food workers and get this issue resolved:
Dipping Sauce Calculator
Peter
Bwhahaha…good one. Love that calculator!
I know what will solve all of your problems….STOP GOING TO McD’s. Wendy’s is so much better, with FREE upgrades on dipping sauce. I mean, there are priorities, and if you don’t feel your sauce is a priority then by all means McD’s is the place for you! Gimme those Wendy’s nuggets and sweet & sour sauce, No, make that 6 Sauces!!!!!! :D
I don’t often admit this, but I was a manager at McDonald’s for close to 10 years. Of course that was back in the day when people cared about customer service, and yes, the customer was always right, no matter how difficult that sometimes was. We would never have attempted to charge for extra nugget sauce. Now, I here that all the time. The last time I ordered a 6 pc nugget at McD’s, I asked for 1 sauce and they tried charging me the 25¢. I can actually admit that I got a little rude with the employee, but I didn’t have to pay for my one and only sauce.
Lezhai – I have to admit I don’t like Wendy’s as much as McD’s. Love the comment!
Linda – That certainly wasn’t very nice charging for the one and only dipping sauce. Maybe they were experimenting during the “would you like an apple pie with that?” time frame and went overboard. “Would you like a dipping sauce with that?”
Today my wife and I went to McD’s real quick and she ordered a 10 piece and they gave her 2 sauces. Incredible. According to my calculator, she should have received 5!!!
When we pulled up to the window, they actually had a sign on the drive thru sliding window that said “We DO charge .11 cents for each additional dipping sauce.”
Immediately my wife and I broke into laughter, and at the same time I wish I would have brought my digital camera with me.
I may make a trip tomorrow and snag a photo for everyone here… I think that would be awesome!
Peter
I personally am offended by all of the up charges however as a single person with a busy schedule I will not stop eating at fast food restaurants. The funny thing is I do not believe this “Sauce Money” is being rung up anywhere. I experience the same as everyone else and was hit with the extra charge while picking up some nuggets on the way to work. I believe that $3.16 is outrageous for 6 little chicken nuggets without the extra sauce charge. I did not have loose change since I had already paid with a credit card so I said to the girl, “here is a $5, just give me 45 Hot Mustards” figuring I would through them in my desk for when I had a sauce shortage. She freaked out and said that I could not do that because she had no way to enter it in the system. I experimented at two other McDonalds and was faced with the same flabbergasted response. One cashier actually remarked “We do not sell the sauces.” Well obviously they do because they have now put a price on them. Where are all of these 11 cents going when people just by one or two? There is no extra sauce button for a saucing emergency? Is there some special account where the sauce money goes that can only be rung up with a nugget purchase? I cannot believe there are no auctions for this stuff on Ebay!
Oh…. and I am going to get out of my car and smack the drive thru window person if they ask me again “how many Ketchups do you need”. Is there truly a quantitative amount of Ketchup packets that can be determined? Is there a mathematical equation to determine this number? Do they teach a class at Fry U as to how much Ketchup is really needed per pound of grease covered potato product.
I answered “25″ the other day when I ordered a small fry. The guy said I could not have that many. I remarked “you asked me how many I needed not how many I needed within the determined allotment calculated by McDonald’s. He got his manager who told me that they had “quotas to meet when it came to condiment distribution”. Ketchup quotas? Condiment distribution? Seriously are we really coming to this? I am curious how much it cost to have the executives at McDonalds determine what the ketchup quotas actually were. Were scientists involved? Did they have test groups to determine how much the consumer “needed” to properly enjoy their fries? I am sure if all the money it took to determine the finite amount of ketchup needed was actually used to purchase ketchup packets we would all be able to have as many as we would like for years to come.
I told him to give me the maximum I was allowed to receive for a small fry so that they can still meet their quota….I had two in my bag!