Now that I think about it, I realize that one of the small changes that have happened since I joined the corporate world is the way I eat while at work. When I was in the industry, I would either buy from the canteen at Congress or Malacanang, or buy lunch depending on where coverage brought us.
Now that I work in an office, I would either cook, go to the canteen, or call a fast food chain and ask for food to be delivered. Of these, I would have to admit that ordering food for delivery could be torture as a customer. First, it takes forever for an agent or operator to answer a call. Second, it takes an even longer time to verify information before I could even place my order. After all, it is indeed difficult to spell “Guthrie-Jensen” on the phone. But I still am puzzled that agents still are not able to get it after you’ve spelled the company’s name one letter at a time. The same with our building, ACE Building:
“What’s that Sir, “IS Building,” an agent would ask.
“No, it’s ACE Building, A-C-E,” I would calmy reply.
“Can you say that again please?”
“ACE — as in alas sa baraha”.
“Oh, ACE!”
The stress!
But recently, one of the fast food chains came up with a solution to that — mcdelivery.com.ph, which allows any McDonald’s customer to order online instead of having to wait on the telephone. Some officemates and I tried it last Saturday to order breakfast. The result: we were very disappointed.
We were excited at first. Aesthetically, the site looked very promising and fun. All one needed to do was drag the desired order to a “tray”, fill up some forms and click to order. And then, a representative gives you a call.
It was only 10 a.m. and we decided to order breakfast. The breakfast menu ends at 10:30 a.m., and we were confident that we’d still be able to order. True enough, the McDo representative called ten minutes later, at around 10:10. She took and verified our order, which was for us a confirmation, that breakfast was still being served. We were told to wait for 30 to 45 minutes, which is actually more than the usual delivery time. The reason I am saying this is because it would only take 30 minutes when you call via phone.
We thought things were going well as planned, until 30 minutes later — take note, 30 minutes — McDonald’s calls and says they don’t have breakfast anymore. Goodness! The representative casually told us to order from the regular menu instead.
So we canceled our order (as if, we really had a choice anyway). We ended up buying from a nearby convenience store instead.
So now we know. The McDonald’s delivery is good on aesthetics, but fails to deliver just the same. To begin with, if things proceeded according to the way they were supposed to, delivery would still take longer. While I also do understand the need for a telephone verification from the customer after an order is made online, the verification defeats the purpose of ordering online. One might as well just call the delivery hotline — or call another chain that could do a better job.