McFalse alarm

By Leada Gore (Contact) | Clanton Advertiser

Published Thursday, March 12, 2009

In a way I can understand how she felt. Who hasn’t been at their favorite fast food restaurant, only to have their order messed up or, worse yet, be told the restaurant can’t fill the order at all?

In fact, when I read the story of Florida resident Latreasa Goodman, my mind harkened back to a trip to a popular fast food restaurant when I was told they were out of chicken, prompting me to recommend they change their name to just “Kentucky Fried.”

While I can understand the frustration, that doesn’t justify what happened next. It seems Goodman, 27, visited her local McDonald’s restaurant to order her favorite meal, chicken McNuggets. Goodman ordered her 10-piece meal only to be informed that the restaurant was out of chicken (maybe it’s a chicken thing?)

According to reports, Goodman asked for a refund but was told the restaurant wouldn’t return her money. Instead, it offered her a McDouble sandwich, something she didn’t deem as a suitable McReplacement.

What would you do at this point? Accept the restaurant’s offer for a replacement? Ask to speak to the manager? Forget the whole thing and just order a chocolate sundae?

Goodman didn’t choose any of those options. Instead, she opted to call 911, not once but three times.

According to a Florida newspaper, Goodman told the 911 operators, “This is an emergency. If I would have known they didn’t have McNuggets, I wouldn’t have given my money and now she wants to give me a McDouble and I don’t want one.”

The 911 operators and the police were not amused. To them, the lack of fried chicken pieces didn’t qualify as an emergency, not ranking it as high as, say, a car wreck or house fire.

They charged Goodman with misuse of the 911 system.

And here’s where things get really weird.

McDonald’s has offered an apology to Goodman and said she should have been offered a refund.

To make amends, they’ve offered her a gift card for a free meal.

What? If I owned McDonald’s I would send her a letter saying they would appreciate it if she would just go to Burger King or Taco Bell next time she got hungry. Instead, they’ve invited her back.

Let’s hope for all our sakes they have some chicken McNuggets ready the day when she goes to redeem her coupon.

— Leada Gore is the publisher of The Hartselle Enquirer. Her column appears each Thursday.

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