FREE Coffee at Mcdonald's! Aug 6-12, 2012

[P31nutt]

Woohoo! Free Small Coffee at Mcdonald's Starts next week - Runs August 6th -12th, 2012!

[ericaraina]

Mcdonalds coffee is THE BEST!!!!!! So psyched for this, although in all honesty, my obsession with the 1$ ice coffees may take precedence over the free warm coffee... does that make me a stupid canuck? Sad that summer is almost ending and that the prices will rise again!

[lavenderplum]

YAY!...free caffeine here I come

[KathyN]

thanks for posting!

[daynabas]

As a McDonald's employee of 9 years, let me just say that we (the employees who have to actually suffer through these "brilliant" ideas the big guys have) HATE the free coffee promos!!! Yup, hate is a very strong word, and that's why I needed to put it in bold, underlined, and enlarged, because the word just isn't strong enough to describe how we feel about this promotion!!

If you do plan on going to get yourself a free coffee, please let me offer you a little bit of advice on how NOT to further annoy the person who is serving you:

1) Treat us like a HUMAN BEING (this rule applies outside of the promotion as well!!)
2) Don't ask "Are you still giving away free coffee?" YES, we are still giving away free coffee! The promotion is from Aug6-Aug12. On Aug13 we will no longer be serving free coffee, and we will thoroughly enjoy informing you of such when you come in to try and receive said free coffee!!
3) The promotion is for a SMALL coffee, on it's own, not in a meal, not as part of the coffee/muffin special, not a medium or a large, just a small coffee all by itself. If you ask real nicely, we might even add cream/milk or sugar/splenda in it for you!!
4) Although there is no limit to how many free small coffees you may order at once, please be reasonable. Not so much for the sake of McDonald's, but for the sake of the employees who are already making 500+ coffees an hour during these promotions. Do you REALLY need 17 coffees?
5) You have to ORDER the coffee. Yes, during this promotion you actually have to order the coffee. It will not just be handed to you, perfectly prepared to your liking, unless you order it. Despite popular belief, our psychic abilities really aren't all that great.
6) Know HOW to order a coffee. Tell us exactly what you want in it! Each person will interpret "lots of milk and sugar" differently, so if you don't want 5 milk and 8 sugars (which is how I do it, because I'm just evil like that) then make sure you tell us the quantities that you DO want in it.
7) Finally, please be patient. Everyone and their dog is coming for free coffee, and some McDonald's (such as mine) don't feel they need to schedule extra staff to keep up with the demand. We are trying our best, but remember that there is only so much we can do. And sometimes (a lot of the time) the reason you aren't moving along within the 90 second time standard, is because of another customer. Whether it be changing their order, adding on to their order, wanting to see all the toys we have (SUPER annoying, by the way) or, my personal favourite, refusing to pull around out of the drive-thru and park because their special order (like no yolk in their Egg McMuffin) is going to take a few extra minutes. We will BRING the food to your car, and it will be in the exact same time frame as if you were sitting at the window with 25+ annoyed people behind you.


I'm not sure if this ended up being a rant more than it did advice, but I definitely feel better knowing that maybe, just maybe, a select few of you will actually listen.

[teegansmom]

As a current McDonalds employee Ditto to the above. Our store limits it to 1 per person. BUT you always get that 1 who orders 5 through drive thru just to get to window and have 4 taken off their order because they couldnt get as many as they wanted for free. Then i have all sorts of wasted coffee and spend extra time brewing more for the person behind them. Really think this should be limited to walk-in only.

[daynabas]

I wish we had limits at our store!! We even go as far as discounting the medium and large because, apparently, a FREE small coffee just isn't good enough!!

[cath007]

or get a refill and act normal not crazy and abusing free stuff people!!! lol

[swallow_046]

thank you, love mcd's coffee

[teegansmom]

I wish we had limits at our store!! We even go as far as discounting the medium and large because, apparently, a FREE small coffee just isn't good enough!!

We do that too 20 cent medium and like 50 cent larges. We can't keep up with the orders, and then they have the nerve to complain about us taking too long with the line of 30+ people at 6:30 in the morning all wanting free coffee!

[Aimz]

Wow, I sympathize with those of you who have to work through the free coffee madness. I will say that promos such as this one by McDonalds, which occurs regularly, really is brilliant. They pad McDonald's bottom line (regardless of how padded it already is) - as you said, people love to come to McD's to take advantage of this promo, and many of them, say even 50%, do usually end up buying something else.

I'm sure most retail workers have that feeling of dread when it comes to busy seasons, such as the holiday season. The difference being that the holiday season comes once a year, while this McD promo approx. twice a year.

Finally, I agree with most points - people should definitely treat all employees as human beings, they should order their coffee specifically how they want it, they should be respectful of limits, and they should drop the entitlement. However, I'm sure some people just ask if you are still giving away free coffee because they're not too sure of the dates (posters are not always that visible at my local McDs) - or you could give them the benefit of the doubt and say that they just asked as a pre-emptive hint that they are there for the free coffee.

Also, all McDonalds discount medium and large coffees by subtracting the value of a small coffee from the price - it's not about McDonalds being extra nice - it's about customers being smart enough to realize that if a small is free, they should be able to get a larger size by paying the difference.

I really don't mean to undermine anyone's opinion - just expressing my thoughts in response to yours.

To get back on topic from my tangent, YAY free McDonalds coffee! I will be ordering large and paying the difference (even in this heat). McDonald's coffee beats Timmies by an infinite margin.

[daynabas]

However, I'm sure some people just ask if you are still giving away free coffee because they're not too sure of the dates (posters are not always that visible at my local McDs) - or you could give them the benefit of the doubt and say that they just asked as a pre-emptive hint that they are there for the free coffee.

I totally understand this point, and I'm sorry if I seem bitter, it's just that being asked the same question over and over and over (and over and over) again really starts to wear ya down. It even happens with the $1 drinks (there are ads for that everywhere AND a catchy little song.... "Only a dollar, ALL summer!! Badababada!" but still, I'll be happy when next week is over. I did not think we were doing any more free coffee promos because of the launch of McCafe, but I guess "premium roast coffee" and "McCafe" go hand-in-hand!

As for the discounting the medium and large coffees.... that was after the disaster of the first free coffee promo. Yup, worst thing EVER! I don't think I have ever been yelled and screamed at more in a period of 2-weeks than I did that year. I must say though, I am very glad that I have worked at McDonald's. Some people don't even realize how badly they treat "retail/food service" employees, others however, definitely realize how badly they treat us!

And yes, YAY FOR FREE COFFEE!!! lmao

[daynabas]

We do that too 20 cent medium and like 50 cent larges. We can't keep up with the orders, and then they have the nerve to complain about us taking too long with the line of 30+ people at 6:30 in the morning all wanting free coffee!

We've started brewing pots early in the morning, the over-night person starts massive brewing around 4:00-4:30. Between the two machines on DT and the one on window, we have at least 20 pots by the time 6:00 hits (yup, totally against coffee timer procedure there..... lol) But, even with that head start, and constant brewing thereafter, by 8:00 we're standing around, cups all lined-up and ready to go, waiting for the coffee to brew ever-so-slowly.

[Aimz]

I totally understand this point, and I'm sorry if I seem bitter, it's just that being asked the same question over and over and over (and over and over) again really starts to wear ya down. It even happens with the $1 drinks (there are ads for that everywhere AND a catchy little song.... "Only a dollar, ALL summer!! Badababada!" but still, I'll be happy when next week is over. I did not think we were doing any more free coffee promos because of the launch of McCafe, but I guess "premium roast coffee" and "McCafe" go hand-in-hand!

As for the discounting the medium and large coffees.... that was after the disaster of the first free coffee promo. Yup, worst thing EVER! I don't think I have ever been yelled and screamed at more in a period of 2-weeks than I did that year. I must say though, I am very glad that I have worked at McDonald's. Some people don't even realize how badly they treat "retail/food service" employees, others however, definitely realize how badly they treat us!

And yes, YAY FOR FREE COFFEE!!! lmao

I definitely understand how it can start grating on your nerves after repeatedly being asked the same thing - we're all human. I think it's disgusting to see people speak down to servers/retail workers/waitresses, etc - I honestly think you can learn everything about the kind of person someone is by observing how they treat the above. And it is never, ever okay to yell and scream at anyone in public - much less a perfect stranger who is simply doing their job.

Thanks for doing what you do - and good luck to you this coming week!

[Deallover82]

Can always use free coffee. Too bad they weren't giving away free bags of beans!