Ronald's redemption

Oh, I sent the letter alright.

You better believe I sent the letter.

After posting it here Monday night, I called the head office at McDonald’s Canada on Wednesday after trying unsuccessfully to get any kind of an e-mail address.

Turns out you can’t complain to McDonald’s via e-mail (at least in Canada) because only three people work in the customer service department and they would be overwhelmed if it were actually convenient for people to communicate with them.

Does that sound snippy? I meant it to. Also snippy? When I said I completely understood that a small business like McDonald’s couldn’t possibly afford to hire more than three customer service representatives.

Anyhoo…I did get a fax number and I faxed the letter out over on my lunch hour. I included the address for this site and explained that in the day and a half since it was posted it had received several hundred views and dozens of angry comments. I included my full name and address and advised them I expected an immediate response.

When I returned home about 5:30 p.m. there were two messages on my answering machine. One was from a woman at McDonald’s head office who apologized profusely and said she would be contacting the owner of that restaurant and advising her to contact me immediately. The second was from said owner who was also very apologetic and expressed a desire to speak with me directly. I figured I would call her today on my lunch.

My husband called me at work this morning. Call these McDonald’s people back, he said, They keep calling!

I called the owner, a woman named Lori, right away.

Lori said she was devastated by how we were treated. She said she’s worked in and around McDonald’s since she was a young girl and her father owned that restaurant before her. She said she has a five-year-old and hasn’t been able to sleep since she read my letter and watched the security tapes because she’s so upset and embarrassed.

Lori said she is dealing with a new management team and that she already had an emergency meeting with them to discuss the situation. She said the manger was woken from a sound sleep by the worker’s call and didn’t fully grasp the situation or the severity of the storm. She said the woman had offered up her job, so guilty did she feel about giving the worker such terrible instructions.

Lori said she had a long talk with her staff at that meeting about using common sense and trying to apply the values, of family and community, that McDonald’s espouses, in everyday situations.

Lori said she was very, very sorry.

And you what? I believe her.

Also, I forgive her and the manager and the silly girl who delivered the manager’s orders. I think they get it. I don’t think it will happen again and Graham and I are home and safe. All I really wanted was a sincere apology and I got it.

Lori also said she was sending something to me and Graham as a token of good will and that’s all very nice and I’ll be sure to let you know when it arrives, but that’s not why I feel so good today.

I feel good today because I feel I have proven, in some small way, that there is power in words: real power. I feel like maybe one day Graham will read this and feel reassured that when people speak up, they can and will be heard.

Thank you all, my friends, for adding your voices – if you are ever in Don Mills I’ll treat you to a Big Mac.