McDonald's Gets Checked Over An Overcharge

I'm from Chicago, so I literally grew up on McDonald's.

There's a McDonald's down the street from me on Western that I go to every now and again. Here's my problem:

A few months ago, the cashier double charged me. She's a teen-ager, as I was when I worked the fast food circuit. I saw the error on my card statement, called the McDonald's and spoke to the Manager. While he had to acknowledge that they charged me twice for the one dinner I bought, he didn't know how to resolve the problem. He said he'd talk to the owner about it. OK, so I give him a week to look into it and return the money to my card. A week later - nothing! So, I have to go up to the store and get it straightened out - already, I'm spending too much time on a $5 overcharge.

So I get there, the manager barely remembers the incident (I get a lot of complaints in a week, he says), and needless to say, he hasn't taken care of the situation. So, I have him call the owner, who is at another location and based on the response, isn't there on a daily basis anyway. The woman I get on the phone is less than enthusiastic about returning the money. She says she doesn't see how that could have happened, she's never heard of it before. I copied the card statement just in case it got raggedy, so I leave a copy for her and let her know that I'm going to call the corporate office about it also. Her response is extremely blase. She thinks the bank made the mistake.

Chase is pretty clear that they don't add extra charges to card bills - they wouldn't be in business long if they did. If you saw extra charges that you didn't make, would you keep that card? Thought not! Anyway, the Service Manager at Chase three ways us to McDonald's Corporate office.

Corporate gets it immediately and returns the money the next day. They're going to talk to the franchise owner, they say. She tells us the franchise owner made a mistake that might cause them to get fined, which is what happens if a store charges more than the posted rate for an item in Chicago. Interesting!

The franchise owner sends me a letter to apologize a few weeks later. She had no idea of the implications, and asks me to come back. The problem was solved, but I must admit, it took me a while to get back to that location.