McDonald’s in the UK has been forced to apologise to a 63-year-old coeliac woman who was told to “fuck off and die” by a restaurant employee after she requested an allergen information guide.
The incident occurred when coeliac customer All Bernie Bowles visited her local McDonald’s restaurant in Hampshire in the south of England and enquired to staff if the Galaxy Caramel McFlurry dessert contained any gluten.
Bowles was handed a leaflet with a guide to allergies to keep for “future reference”, but only noticed the offensive message scrawled across the leaflet when she returned home.
McDonald’s head office has since confirmed the highly offensive message was penned by one of its employees and has said “appropriate action was undertaken”. However, what that actually is remains unclear.
The distraught customer contacted McDonald’s complaint line over the offensive missive and was later promised a £15 ($A26) voucher as compensation.
Bowles, a retired bank clerk, claims to have never seen the promised voucher and later told local Hampshire media that she felt McDonald’s “don’t want” customers with allergies and sees them “as an inconvenience”.
She later told local media: “When I asked if the McFlurry was gluten-free, the staff member wasn’t sure so she walked off and then handed me that allergen leaflet.
“I saw there was writing on it. There were figures on the back and some writing on the front, but I hadn’t actually read the cover because I’d just opened it.
“I didn’t want to buy one and risk having a reaction, so I went to hand the leaflet back. The worker said I can keep it for future reference, she had no clue what was written on it.’
“When I came home, I could believe what was written on it. I thought that, quite honestly, it’s very inappropriate and it’s quite offensive.
“It adds insult to injury because I didn’t know if I could eat the McFlurry and then I saw that.”
Bowles conceded that the incident may have simply been a prank between staff gone wrong.
“Yes, I do have a sense of humour and it may be banter between members of staff but they should be very aware of what they’re writing comments on,” she said.
A spokesperson for McDonald’s added: “We take allergens extremely seriously at McDonald’s. This incident is completely unacceptable and is in no way in keeping with our company values or what we expect from our employees.
“As soon as we were made aware of what happened, an investigation was conducted as a matter of urgency.
“The employee was identified and the appropriate action was undertaken. We’d like to apologise to the customer, who is now in contact with our customer services team, for their experience and how it was handled.”
