'Manager laughed, offered refund': Man who found lizard in drink at McDonald's
- The man said that McDonald's staff members offered to return the bill amount when they were pressed to take action.
An Ahmedabad man who found a dead lizard in his soft drink at a McDonald’s outlet said that the manager laughed off his complaint and didn’t return after claiming to review security cameras, reported news agency ANI. Bhargav Joshi said that the McDonald's staff members offered to return the bill amount when they were pressed to take action, and continued to take orders from other customers.
“Lizard was found in my soft drink at a McDonald's outlet. The area manager laughed over complaint and told us that he'll check (CCTV) cameras. He didn't return, meanwhile, the order continues. When we pressed them to take action, they offered to return bill amount,” ANI quoted Joshi as saying.
Joshi alleged that instead of taking action, the staff threatened them to call police if they refuse to leave the outlet.
“We then lodged a complaint with the food and drugs department who inspected and sealed the outlet," he further added, as quoted by ANI.
Joshi posted several videos showing the dead lizard in the glass and panning around to show a restaurant seemingly empty of staff.
“There is a lizard in the Coke. We have been waiting for the past 15 minutes. No employee has come and no one has answered us… you can see (panning to show the glass)," he wrote.
In another video, a friend can be heard repeating that the staff had not paid heed to their complaint and only offered to give them a refund of ₹300.
“The store manager simply offered to refund the price of the soft drink - ₹ 300”. A life is worth ₹ 300? I told the store manager to drink the same coke, I will give you ₹ 500", another man from the group said.
Joshi later tweeted a picture showing the restaurant was sealed and wrote 'great work done' by city municipal officials. After the incident, McDonald's issued a statement saying that they value the safety and hygiene of the customers.
"At McDonald's, we are committed to ensuring the safety and hygiene of all our customers. Quality, Service, Cleanliness and Value are at the core of our business operations. Furthermore, as part of our Golden Guarantee programme, we have implemented 42 strict safety and hygiene protocols across all our McDonald's restaurants, which include strict processes for regular kitchen and restaurant cleaning and sanitization, among others. We are looking into this incident that is alleged to have taken place at the Ahmedabad outlet. While we have checked repeatedly and found nothing wrong, we are cooperating with the authorities, being a good corporate citizen," the statement read.
