@mcdonaldsuk Lousy Drive Thru Service&Poor Complaint resolution via Franchisees

I recently won two items on the monopoly stickers via Mcdonald's Monopoly promotion.One donut and one sundae.

I went to a London drive thru,paid for a double cheeseburger and medium fries for £2.58 and also ordered my free donut and sundae at the same time. The guy at the second window quite abruptly asked me for the two free monopoly tickets which I gave to him. I then collected my order at the third window and later on found that the donut was missing..

Now I can hear you saying,'Big deal so you lost out on one free donut, there are kids dying of starvation abroad get over yourself.' Well maybe I could let it go if this was the first time I had trouble at a Mcdonald's drive thru but it's not the first time I've had an incorrect order at this drive thru and aside from that I am a paying customer and I have spent a small fortune at this particular branch over many years so I decided to contact mcdonalds UK to hear their view.

The response from Mcdonald's Uk was to refer me to the franchisee who they mentioned by name,I then got a response from a personal email address from a lady who I can only assume works on his behalf:

This is a typical response you get from a blue chip company in the UK it is just lipservice,although the tone is nice and professional there is no effort to resolve the issue,the missing donut and inconvenience caused.I brought this up and got this:

So basically I got thanked for providing free of charge mystery shopper services and was offered 'a couple of monopoly stickers' I don't know exactly how many or whether there are any winners in this 'couple' but it's just a lazy response.At the very very least i would expect the offer of a donut and really there should be an offer of something for the inconvenience caused and for providing them with valuable feedback. Basically this has got to a stage where I've wasted a load of time on this and got nothing but empty lipservice.Well McDonald's can stick their stickers,their donuts and everything else they sell and I will take my custom elsewhere,at least KFC offer a 20percent discount on your next order with a survey completion referencing your last receipt.

Poor showing from one of the biggest names in the business world,it also highlights the fact that you are essentially dealing with a small business,each branch has a franchisee and customer service varies.

@SP_EnergyPeople Charging for Parking with no Warning @britishgas

Having used the lacklustre British Gas for years I have experience of the boiler care market. Despite British Gas's constant spamming and sales calls, dismissive customer service team & constant pressure to buy a new boiler they at least got one thing right,they never ever even thought of asking for parking charges when visiting the property.The same cannot be said of Scottish Power who in the very first visit quite inexplicably requested for parking money which has shocked me particularly seeing as they already have my bank details signed up to a £18 per month boiler care package which should see a nice profit for them long term because the boiler is in perfect working order.

I still haven't got this sorted with them but rest assured if they do not waive this parking issue I will be forced to look elsewhere. How can they expect to compete with British Gas? The parking charges levied on every single visit would exceed the policy! Typically these boiler engineers pop in for 10-20 minutes ,check a correctly functioning boiler then leave. Are they struggling so much financially as a firm that they need a couple of quid for parking?

Whether you think the parking charges are justified or not,they are not charged by competitors and are not mentioned in the application process which I went through with a fine toothcomb.

Also strange was the use of a subcontractor which smacks of a company that has poor coverage service wise.

So far I have one call basically the jist being they charge for parking 'so deal with it' and a response from the executive team that basically ignored the whole complaint and directed me to reschedule the initial appointment which never actually took place due to the parking issue.

Let's see if Scottish Power customer service can deal with this matter accordingly, I'm not holding my breathe judging by the experience so far.

@williamhill Beaurocracy , Frustrating Service but OK in the end

I placed a bet on NYI to win and Tavares to score.The bet was placed many hours before the start of the game:

It then came to my attention HOURS BEFORE THE GAME STARTED that John Tavares was out for the season with injury so I contacted Hills via Live Chat immediately.The guy on the other end was polite and well meaning but slow and had to run everything by his Supervisor. The operative asked me to send a link with proof of the injury ,I told him to Google it. After we both agreed Tavares was indeed injured, I waited about in hope that my stake would be rightfully returned (I shouldn't have to hope it's a straight forward case but you never know with Bookmakers these days). After he told me to wait again for 5-10 minutes he came back saying the bet would be voided and sent a link with Terms and Conditions which is a bookmakers' way of saying we're not bothered that you have a common sense issue that we can help you with as a valued customer but what we will do instead is point to some obscure Ts and Cs that allow us to mug you off and add your stake to our revenue figures for this month.

There are 3 major issues here which I have contacted CEO Phillip Bowcock with:

1) The lack of common sense and flexibility at local level.

2) The total disregard for a customers' experience in the face of profit and legalese.

3) The slowness of response and the onus on the customer to take the matter further to achieve justice.

I turned to Twitter to shed light on the situation and after some naming and shaming Hills did indeed return the the stake for this bet but it was a long,frustrating experience.

Hills gain credit for getting it right in the end and they deserve a back handed compliment,they are far from the worse bookmaker out there but the lesson is be weary with bookies and ensure that you get justice when you have a completely reasonable case.