Pick your battles they warned me.

But what if the battle picks you?

If the title of this post reminds you of some diabolically cheesy WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.) ringside promotion-event, then the apple has definitely not fallen far from the tree. In the last three weeks I’ve given and got my share of headlocks, legdrops, breath-sucking chokeholds, and Boston Crabs… metaphorically speaking. I’ve also tasted the canvas during this marathon hijinks on more than one occasion.

If you joined late and can’t quite catch my meaning, here’s what’s been happening –

Today marks the third and final installment in the trilogy of connected posts that commenced back on June 30th with my review of the movie CARS 3. In that initial report (Read it here) I made mention of a bizarre incident that took place upon our arrival in the carpark of Indooroopilly Shopping Centre prior to entering the cinema. Then last week (Read it here)  I went into detail about my and my family’s encounter in the carpark with a young McDonald’s employee I dubbed WILD WEST MEGAN.

This has indeed been the story that just kept on giving. Here now is the wash-up to the whole sorry, stricken McDrama. The short version is that after 19 days of unreturned phone calls, overlooked emails, uncontactable franchise store-owners away on holiday in the Virgin Islands, area supervisors with false promises of Fitzgerald-Inquiry-scale investigations and shopping centre retail managers that decided to either resign or go on leave during the extended fracas, the ceremonial peace-pipe has finally been passed between McDonalds, Indooroopilly Shopping Centre and I. Two words is all I need to describe my current feeling regarding the whole ordeal – over it! (that’s with an added seven exclamation marks (previous record six)).

The conclusion from all combined parties seemed to be that had a certain very young assistant manager at McDonalds had her time over again it would be hoped she would handle a situation (born 100% of her own making) with less flaring of the nostrils and a lot more conciliation.

The correspondence with McDonalds was mostly by phone but with Indooroopilly Shopping Centre management there was a definite paper trail. Here’s the final email from them, followed by my reply –

From: Courtney Dreaver <cdreaver@indooroopillyshopping.com.au>
Sent: Monday, 17 July 2017 20:00
To: Glen Donaldson
Subject: RE: No response or even acknowledgement of complaint

Hi Glen

 Thank you for your initial email and for your  follow-up email. My sincere apologies you have had to follow up this up.

 I have shared your experience with the centre team and we are sorry to hear about your experience within our carpark also a staff member of one of our stores. I can only imagine how this would have impacted your trip to our centre.

To give you some level of comfort, upon receipt of your email on the 28^th, I forwarded this onto the Franchise Owner of our McDonalds, as Megan is a senior staff member in the store, I didn’t feel it was appropriate to share with the store via email. I was then on annual leave from the 30^th of June, so was not aware of your follow-up on the 4^th of July. Upon return from my leave, I have followed up again via phone and email with the owner to no avail.

I would like to give you a level of comfort that this is being addressed from an internal perspective from McDonalds, as well as from the Centre. I will continue to follow this up as I wouldn’t wish this experience on any other customer.

 Due to your experience on your recent visit and my tardiness in responding, we would like to offer you  $20 Indooroopilly Gift Voucher. We can arrange to have this posted to your address or it can be made available for collection at the Centre Management Office or one of our Customer Service outposts, whichever you would prefer, if you could kindly let me know and I can arrange.

 Again, thank you for taking the time to contact us (and following up) on your correspondence. I will continue to follow-up with Franchise Owner to find out his course of action with the staff member you have identified below.

 Have a lovely evening & we hope to see you in the centre again soon.

 Kind regards,

Courtney Dreaver

Retail Manager

 P: (07) 3378 4022

F: (07) 3378 9802

Hi Courtney,

Thankyou for responding in the way that you now have.

Just to have someone take my complaint seriously is the beginning of a much better feeling over this incident for me. The offer of the gift voucher is nice but not one I can accept. My wife and I are not interested in any form of ‘compensation’. 

Rather, we are wishing for Megan to be spoken to and reminded of what an ‘acceptable public face’ should and does look like when an employee is wearing a company uniform. If we can be assured that that has been done or will be done, then we can be satisfied that some good has come of this unpleasant, and to be frank, downright ‘strange’ incident.

No doubt Megan has a long and hopefully successful future ahead of her but deliberately acting ‘scary’ and intimidating as she did on that morning to an innocent family on their way to a children’s movie with their seven-year old daughter when there was no threat from us (but merely the decision to reverse-park into a car space that resulted in her journey being ever so briefly impeded) was definitely not a choice of action that allowed her best self to shine through.

Thankyou for your involvement in procuring a satisfactory outcome in this matter. Here’s also to future days of event-free parking at Indooroopilly Shopping Centre for my family and I!

Regards,

Glen Donaldson

Forest Lake