All we're looking for is some cheap and salty fast food, not a mortifying experience that will haunt us for the rest of our lives? These people had no idea what they were about to experience when they entered their local fast food chain store on the fateful day. But they quickly realized how awkward and disturbing their afternoon was about to become. Content has been edited for clarity.
Mom Goes Ballistic
“I was 16. My mom was looking into buying my sister and me a terrible prepaid phone for emergencies (she conveniently kept forgetting to pick us up from school, forcing us to walk three miles on the side of a highway to our isolated neighborhood on the outskirts of town). This was her solution. I traveled with her and my dad to the nearest Target store in the more metropolitan town closest to us. We pick the cheapest phone, a gaudy brick looking device, buy what I thought was a phone card to add minutes, and ran more errands my mom required while in that town. I was marveling over my new shared possession, reading up on it. That’s when I realized something. We were on our way to finally eat lunch at McDonald’s when I say to my mom, ‘Mom, I think I got the wrong card. This says data reload card, I think I need a minute reload card.’
My mom goes ballistic. She goes into a tirade, berating my stupidity, ineptitude, incapacity to do anything right. Every name in the book, every insult that crossed her mind. At 14, I was diagnosed with severe depression, and since then I had three prescriptions that allowed me to somehow function in daily life, but something like this obviously shattered me. I felt completely broken. I thought we would simply go make a return and exchange for the right phone card, as we hadn’t left the town. I didn’t understand what the big deal was. I didn’t have experience with cellphones and phone cards, it was an honest mistake.
I’m blubbering away in the backseat, we pull into the parking lot, and I’m forced out of the car because I have to order for my parents. They didn’t want to mispronounce something in English and feel foolish so it was my duty. There I am, tears still streaming down my face, I can’t get a hold of myself at this time, ordering Big Mac meals and drinks. The most uncomfortable cashier gave up making eye contact, as it was too painful for both of us. Transaction processed. We sit down to eat. No, I’m not allowed to eat in the car. So the whole restaurant is just gawking at me and my parents, trying to figure out the dynamic and whether they should ask if I need help, I imagine. On top of the verbal abuse in the car, my emotionally unstable butt now has to endure this public humiliation, people pitying me, feeling alarmed at my distress, which only heightens my stress levels.
My dad mumbles something about why can’t I get a grip already. My mom is visibly annoyed but ignores me because she believes it’s my ploy for attention. I’m choking between gulps of air and rolling the same bite of my burger over and over until it breaks down and I swallow between gasps.
That was my most humiliating experience at McDonald’s. The abusive behavior carried on at our return to Target, but I guess that’s another story. Be nice to your kids folks, we never forget.”
She’ll Never Live This One Down
“Some years ago after my last divorce, I had a boyfriend for a while. He liked fast food, wearing baseball caps, long-sleeved shirts, and baggy denim jeans. He was also athletic, tall, and had a rather stiff, brooding posture, but easy to hug and usually cuddly. In our neighborhood and usual haunts, he stuck out like a sore thumb, in a good way. This was a general combination that appealed to me at the time.
So one weekend, we went off doing whatever, and stopped at a McDonald’s to get some lunch. It was a walk-in, somewhat crowded as they usually are on a weekend afternoon. We waited in line together, decided on our order, and finally got up to the cashier. After ordering, it took a few minutes to wait with no table in sight, and I decided to go to the restroom while my boyfriend waited for our order to pick up.
A few minutes later, I came out of the bathroom, seeing my tall, baseball-capped, denim-clad boyfriend still waiting with everyone else, his back to the bathroom. I snuck up behind him and threw my arm around his waist and cuddled him, as I said something like, ‘Boy, this wait is long, isn’t it?’ and heard nothing from my boyfriend.
In an instant, I realized the others in the waiting area had turned to stare at us, as I was still cuddling with my atypically unresponsive boyfriend.
When I looked up at him for his response, it was an unfamiliar, tall man staring at me wide-eyed in horrified shock. He awkwardly strained away from me and my unwelcomed arms around his waist. I then released the poor man, simultaneously leaped backwards from him, and squeaked an embarrassed apology.
And glanced rapidly left, right, and all around looking for my now missing boyfriend, while trying to move away from this poor man I had unintentionally groped. Seconds later, I saw my similarly dressed boyfriend some distance away at a table, by a far wall, sitting with our platter of food. I raced to him as quickly as I could.”
Friendship Forever Ruined
“I had a friend in high school for a few years, let’s call her Pamela. She had this passion for sick practical jokes or would do things thinking they were funny that could hurt others or herself. One example: calling up a random woman and stating, ‘I am having an affair with your husband.’
She then heard the wife turn to her husband and go berserk in the background, immediately hung up, and started laughing.
One night we went to McDonald’s for dinner, and there was a chapter of a biker gang in there, also eating dinner at a table over from us. They didn’t scare me in the least. I don’t bother them, they don’t bother me. I’ve never been scared or bothered by biker gangs. Next thing I know, Pamela grabs one of the McDonald’s baby high chairs (they are on wheels), puts her foot on it, and rams it FULL speed into one of the backs of one of the biker’s chairs, thinking this is so funny.
I was poised for the worst, I thought, ‘You truly are a moron.’
I was scared and embarrassed. Thankfully the biker just shoved it away and moved on. Perhaps he didn’t realize that Pamela had pushed it into him and thought it was an accident? Needless to say, we moved to different schools after this and lost contact. Years later I did see her as an adult. She was as stupid as she was back in high school, so I didn’t keep in touch.”
Who Would Do Such A Thing?
“Back in the mid 2000s when I was around 10, my mom and I had gone down to Florida to visit the theme parks for my birthday. We spent about a week down there, and during the last day there we stopped by McDonald’s to get some food before driving back to Virginia. Because it’s Florida, a lot of the McDonald’s I had seen when we were driving had a giant fun area. And I do mean giant, they looked like something from Chuck E. Cheese with how big the area was compared to the usual fun areas they had. This one in particular had two levels and even a few arcade games! Anyways while I’m waiting for my mom to order she tells me to go play in the fun area, so off I go. I’m climbing through the tunnels and everything, and then it happens.
I stepped in poop. Actual human poop. And because this was a shoes-off area, it got on my feet and I had to climb down the whole, giant play set with one foot up with poop on it. I make it down right as my mom is coming over to get me, and she helps me to the bathroom to clean my foot off. After that she tells an employee that a kid managed to poop in one of the tunnels. I see this lanky teenager with cleaning supplies go over to close the area off so it can be cleaned. I felt bad for him. I felt embarrassed and grossed out, and I never went back into a play area like that again. Still don’t know why a kid would do that.”
Not Even His Food Was Safe
“I ordered my meal and took it to a table near the entrance. I was about to open the bag when a member of the staff came along and said he needed to do something to it. This guy mumbled something about checking that it’s right or something like that, so I let him walk off with it, but he didn’t take it behind the counter. He simply walked out the door with it.
Then I realized that he wasn’t staff. He was just a guy stealing my order! I shouted ‘HEY!’ at the top of my voice and pursued him outside. I cornered him, but he managed to get away just in the nick of time. He must have been rather pleased with himself at having got away with it. I went back inside the McDonald’s to tell them what had happened, and they thankfully gave me a free replacement meal.
The sickening thing was that I saw the guy out in the street later on, so I gave him a hard time with some verbal abuse, but he denied being the thief. I knew perfectly well that he was. He was clearly a homeless guy. I could forgive him for stealing food had he needed it, but this particular McDonald’s was directly opposite a food shelter specifically designed for the homeless population, so he could have eaten there for free no problem! But no, he still decided to steal my meal instead! What a creep!”
“I Turned Beet Red And Ran”
“I worked for a McDonald’s for some time. This happened within my first year working there, and I was 15 going on 16 and still fairly innocent and naive. I was working in the first drive-thru window where you would pay for your food. I came up to the front to help on the fry station. A guy calls for me to get my attention.
Guy: ‘Hey! Hey, you!’
Me: ‘Can I help you?’
Guy: ‘What, you don’t recognize me?’
Me: ‘Well, um, no…’
Guy: ‘Oh, well that must be because I have my pants on!’
He said this in front of a lobby full of people, and I knew exactly what he was implying I turned beet read and ran to the back of the store. Luckily my manager overheard this and asked me over the headset what that was all about. I told her I had never seen that man before in my life, and that I refused to go back to the front of the store. She tried to get his name, but he refused and left. She got his license plate number and called the police, so they came and asked questions and pulled up a picture of him for me to confirm it was him. Turns out dude was a convicted assaulter! I’m not sure what came of it, as I don’t remember his name. I did however find out that he was dating this lady whose son went to the same high school as me. It was one of the most embarrassing days of my life.”
Revenge Against The Creep
“Eight years ago, I was in town shopping with my sister and my baby boy. My son had decided he desperately needed his milk, right then and there. He screamed and cried, so we entered the nearest food outlet so I could warm his milk up and also so we could eat too. This happened to be McDonald’s.
My sister ordered our food and got the boiled water to warm up my baby’s bottle. By this point, my son wasn’t crying, and I was busy distracting him whilst we waited. I caught a man watching me. He stared and stared, making me feel like I had something on my face or in my hair. My sister came back with our food, and I began feeding baby. I told my sister about this man staring, she looked over and he was still staring, but this time at my sister. We carried on ignoring him. And carried on ignoring him. My sister began to get agitated by this man.
Without warning, she shoved a huge handful of fries in her mouth, wailing ‘Mmmmm’ (imagine a pig eating full force) and laughing. ‘Thought I’d give you something to stare at!’ she then shouted to the man.
I was embarrassed, fire engine red. I could feel my cheeks on fire. I also was laughing though, laughing so hard my tummy hurt! The man was no longer staring, my sister cleaned herself up, and she said, ‘That will teach him!’
And then we carried on like nothing had happened.”
Just As Strict As The 70s
“In the late 1970s I was working in Downtown Los Angeles at an office building, and I went to McDonald to buy lunch. When I was there, there was an older homeless lady in the restaurant, who was asking anybody who would listen to please buy her something to eat. I was purchasing what I wanted for myself and also tried to buy the lady a meal. The restaurant refused to sell me anything to give to her, and when I asked them to please simply let me buy her lunch, the terribly disgusting staff told me they were now also refusing to sell me any food for just myself, and that I should get out. I was dressed in a suit and tie, and there was no reason to refuse to sell me my lunch. I was just trying to do a good deed, and I got punished for it by McDonald’s employees.
I called McDonald’s headquarters back then, and whomever I spoke to told me they were proud of this policy of refusing service, and from what I know, they haven’t budged on this at all.”
No Wonder It Was Free!
“So I was in town with my daughter for some special daddy-daughter time. At this time, she was eleven years old, and she had some money that she was dying to spend immediately. She wanted to go to McDonald’s and buy something herself and do supposedly grown up things. Anyway, I wasn’t hungry myself, and had even offered to buy her something, but she wanted the thrill of doing it herself. The store itself was a bit crowded and young kids tend to get ignored, so I stood with her. She orders her chicken nugget meal, and then I decided I’d have a coffee while waiting on her to eat her lunch.
So anyway, I had one of McDonald’s coffee cards full, so I received a free coffee (yay me). As my daughter finished paying for her meal, I ordered my Americano, and handed in the card. The clueless cashier looks at my daughter, looks at me, and said it was on the house, and keep my card! I was a bit surprised, until I slowly realized he thought that I couldn’t afford to pay for my daughter’s meal. He must have thought that I was hard up, and that’s why he gave me a free coffee. I thought it was sweet, but a bit embarrassing.”
Influencer Disaster
“So, I’m serving people as per usual, five minutes until my shift ends, and McDonald’s was pretty empty for the time being. In the corner of my eye, I see some girl walk in with lots of makeup and clothes that seemed to purposely not fit. Of course, she arrived with her equally ‘fancy’ friends. She sits on the counter and her friends start taking photos. I go to fix one of the self server kiosks, when I just manage to see her stand up. Suddenly, there’s an enormously loud crash, and the girl is running out the front door. As she stood up on the counter, she managed to smash one of the enormous glass balls around our lights. Two managers and I raced out the door after her, but we couldn’t find her outside the store. Every customer had their phone up and was recording the events after the smash. We got the license plate of the vehicle and pictures of everyone’s faces. And obviously security footage. So now these people are on everyone’s phones, on social media for people to laugh at, and being actively looked for by police. Moral of the story: don’t stand on the counter.”
“Humiliated Beyond Belief”
“When I was 18, I was waiting in line at a McDonald’s with my arm around my boyfriend of around six to eight months. He had his arm slung around my shoulder and we were being all huggy-kissy with each other. We were obviously a couple. All of a sudden, I hear this high-pitched ‘OMG’ kind of an exclamation, so my boyfriend and I both turned around to see what all the commotion was about.
This girl came barreling through the line and literally jumped into my boyfriend’s arms, wrapping her arms and legs completely around him and full-on kissing him like they were in bed or something. He returned the enthusiasm ten-fold, twirling her around in circles while they continued to suck face. Everybody was stunned and we all just stood there staring, most of all me! I mean, this was my boyfriend that I was in love with and had a great relationship with. I was just dumbfounded, and I said, ‘Well who do we have here?’
And they both completely ignored me. She jumps down, grabs his arm, and they go skipping out the door together. They got into a car and sped away, leaving me standing there in a daze. Once he spied her running toward him, he never even looked at me again. I mean he practically floated out of the place and got into her car without ever looking at or saying a single word to me at all. Worst of all, he left with the girl, leaving me stranded there with my things locked up inside his locked car.
I was horrified, embarrassed and humiliated beyond belief. I couldn’t believe what had just happened. So I gathered what little pride I had left and managed to hold my composure until I reached the door, then I burst into tears. I didn’t know what to do. This was in the early 80’s, long before the days of cell phones. So I went to his car and peered through the window at my purse and other various things, still bawling and wondering what on earth to do. While I was propped against the side of his car (he had a beautiful bright orange souped up Chevy Nova), these two guys I recognized from school (more humiliation) asked if that was my EX-boyfriend’s car? When I nodded, they said, ‘Okay, hang on.’
To my utter amazement, one of them walked over to his car, came back with a tire iron, and before I could even register what I was seeing, he raised it and crashed the tire iron through the window. I was standing there in shock, then I started to laugh. I couldn’t stop, so he started laughing, then people that I hadn’t even noticed were standing around watching the show all began to laugh. After that, things didn’t seem so horrible anymore. So, I got my things out of the car and he offered me a ride home, which I accepted. We actually went out a time or two after that but decided we were much better as friends. So we’ve been friends ever since. We even worked together for around 10 years.
I never saw or heard from my EX-boyfriend again after that day. I heard later that the girl was his long-lost first love that had moved away with her family a couple years earlier, and he was still carrying a torch for. So that chance encounter was their big moment. So it’s no wonder he forgot I existed. But it was a very humiliating day at McDonald’s for me.”
“Get The Heck Out!”
“A while back, I was asked to give my boyfriend’s best friend’s new lady friend a ride with me in my boyfriends’ vehicle since I said I was running to McDonald’s. I had only met her a few times with little conversation, but generally thought she seemed decent. She was about 15–20 years older than me.
We get to McDonald’s, and I said something like, ‘I forgot to ask my boyfriend what he wanted, so I have to make a quick call. Why don’t you go ahead inside, and get what you want because I know you’re starving.”
My call was less than five minutes but since so one was in line, she had already come out to the vehicle with her fries and large strawberry shake in hand. She instantly had a rude and agitated attitude when she saw me getting my purse and preparing to go in.
She opened the door and sat down in the passenger seat. She then proceeds to start screaming at me, saying I’m ‘so selfish and stupid for inviting her to come with if I wasn’t even going to be respectful of her. How dare I think my time is more important than hers?’
Uh excuse me? I kept my cool and tried to pacify her and said sorry again.
As I grabbed the keys to get out, she dumps her entire milkshake on me. It went everywhere in the inside of vehicle, including the $1500 sound system and electronics. I was in total shock. I had been nothing but kind and told her what I was doing from the get go. And the fact that she had asked to come with me!
I screamed ‘Get the heck out now or I will make you!’ while she continued to puff her chest up and get in my face.
I was out of the car now and dripping head to toe in shake, and shaking from the incident. She ended up taking off on foot pretty quick back home, so I went into the McDonald’s and realized they had those locked doors you must ask for the code to unlock. The first person I asked, happened to be their general manager.
I was polite and said, ‘Someone just threw a shake on me in the car parked outside, may I please go clean up?’
I was very polite, and always am with customer service since I worked jobs like that many years.
This lady had the audacity to glare at me and say, ‘We don’t let people like you use our bathrooms. And by people like you I mean those obviously substance users.’
I was silent because of my shock and confusion. I was a prior user many years before, and certainly did not look like someone under the influence,soI took particular offense to her words. I was even dressed in nice business clothes and milkshake also! I told the manager that she was obviously mistaken and had no right at all to pass judgements about strangers, especially those who just bought food at their establishment.
She looked at me and said, ‘If you don’t leave right now I will call the police.’
We went back and forth for a few more minutes and I realized it was out of my control.
I walked out and drove myself, sticky and covered head to foot in the equally messy vehicle. I ended up threatening to filing charges for damages and filed an incident report through the police department later that day since she caused so much damage. I also filed a complaint through the main McDonald’s headquarters customer service/support about how I was treated. They apologized, but said they were not able to do anything about it because they were privately owned and not affiliated with them. I make sure to tell everyone to avoid that McDonald’s, and place as many reviews as I can on different forums. I hope the nasty woman got a different job far far away from customer interaction!”