Madison man served half-eaten McDonald's muffin

Don Richardson ordered a sausage biscuit Oct. 4 at the McDonald's at 1806 Spillway Road at the Reservoir in Rankin County on his way to see Mississippi State play Texas A&M.

What he received was an English muffin, buttered and covered in jelly — and several bites taken out of it.

"I was driving, hurrying to get to an 11 (a.m.) game and nearly bit into it before I looked down and saw it," said Richardson, a Madison resident who is a former clerk of the Mississippi House and a longtime coach and school administrator in the Jackson area. "Marie (his wife) wanted me to take it back then, but we were already several miles down the road by then and didn't want to miss kickoff."

After several phone calls and one trip to that same McDonald's, Richardson said "I still haven't gotten as much as a 'We're sorry this happened' or 'We'll check the videotape and see how this happened.' They act like they don't care that I received an order that somebody else — I'm assuming one of their employees — had been eating."

McDonald's, the monstrous fast food chain, reported Tuesday its profits dropped a whopping 30 percent over the last quarter from a year ago, from $1.52 billion to $1.07 billion.

After Richardson's experience, McDonald's has lost at least one more customer.

A female who answered the phone at My Joy Inc. of Ridgeland confirmed Tuesday to The Clarion-Ledger that the McDonald's on Spillway is one of its stores. She referred further questions to Richard Myers, the company's customer service representative.

"I'm familiar with this customer," Myers said. "But because you have identified yourself as a person from the media, I cannot speak with you about this incident."

Richardson said he is upset about the situation for a couple of reasons.

"First of all, with all the health concerns going on about us these days, people need to be aware of what they're getting when they order food," he said. "The person who ate part of the muffin I was served ... how do I know that he or she isn't carrying a disease of some sort? Plus, it's just not sanitary.

"Second, I wanted them to know so they could prevent it from happening again. But they don't seem concerned with that whatsoever."

Richardson returned to the McDonald's Oct. 10.

"I talked with a very nice young lady at the register, but the manager was no help whatsoever," he said. "She told me she couldn't replace my order because they were 'now on the lunch menu.' I told her I didn't want it replaced, I wanted an explanation. She then told me if I didn't get out of her line they would call 911. There wasn't even a line to get out of. She was rude and never even offered an 'I'm sorry.' I was astounded."

Richardson wrote down the phone number posted for customers to call with any questions. He left two messages and never received a return call.

He posted a picture of his half-eaten order Oct. 15 on Facebook. Someone posted in the comments section a number for My Joy Inc.

"I got a real nice woman on the phone, who referred me to their customer service person," Richardson said. "When I called him, he did listen to me and told me that 'possibly one of our employees failed.' But then he added, 'If what you say is true,' which totally ticked me off. I wouldn't be spending this much time on a sausage biscuit that cost $1.08 if it wasn't true.

"I'm not out to get McDonald's, I'm not out to sue them. But I would like an apology. And I would like for them to care enough to go back and look at the videotape and try to find out how it happened so that it doesn't happen to somebody else. And then call me and tell me what happened. They have my number."

Contact Billy Watkins at bwatkins@jackson.gannett.com or (769) 257-3079. Follow @BillyWatkins11 on Twitter