Fast-food restaurant, McDonald’s, has confirmed that an incident on 14 June at its Toa Payoh outlet did indeed occur.
The Online Citizen (TOC) reported earlier on Wednesday that staff at the outlet had derided an old lady who had asked another patron to buy her a meal.
The patron, Ms Si Ti, then took to social media to express her shock at how the elderly woman was treated.
Her post then went viral with many, including some who posted on the restaurant’s Facebook page, demanding an explanation from MacDonald’s.
See our report here: “McDonald’s staff allegedly mocked elderly lady for having no money“.
“Based on Si Ti’s feedback, we have looked into this matter with our restaurant team,” Carolyn Khiu
Director, Corporate Communications, eCommerce & Customer Relations of McDonald’s, told TOC.
“Firstly, let us be the first to acknowledge that our crew could have managed this better. Their actions were contrary to our customer service policy. The crew members involved have been counselled and disciplinary action has been taken. In our discussion with them, the crew have also realised that under no circumstances should they raise their voices at a customer – and they have expressed remorse over the incident.”
Ms Khiu also provided some context to the situation which led to the incident.
“The elderly lady mentioned is a frequent visitor to our restaurant,” Ms Khiu explained. “There, she typically asks customers to buy her meals, moving from one person to another repeatedly asking customers until she gets a meal. We have spoken to her, politely, about this on several occasions.
“Moving ahead, our restaurant team has since been reminded to offer her a seat and hot drinks when she next visits.”
Ms Khiu said the restaurant will share the learning points from the incident with its other stores “in order to avoid such incidents from being repeated.”
She also said that McDonald’s has reached out to Ms Si Ti via Facebook to request her contact details.
“We will be apologising to her personally for this service experience.”
