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To Whom It May Concern:
I will try to keep this as short as possible. My name is Dave Patrick, I’m Canadian and I have been in Taiwan over 8 ½ years teaching and have since obtained my Taiwan Residency. I have a complaint to file with McDonalds.
I was teaching a 10 year old girl each morning for 3 months to prepare her for school in Hong Kong where her family was moving to. They had taken her out of Chinese school to drill her with English. I taught her each morning Monday-Friday and also Thursday afternoons, from early May to just last week when they left for H.K. I taught the girl at one of your franchises where we bought our breakfast and more each time we went for a class. My complaint is what I witnessed in those 3 months I was there.
I will start with what I saw the most. Well, it seemed like a game with the little girl, Angeles, who I taught. She would always look around the floor and count how many people were there sprawled out on the tables sleeping!! It was unreal, and usually the people had nothing in front of them that they had previously eaten. And then people who bought your breakfasts would walk in and look around and look frustrated and have to go to another floor, where I guess there were more people sleeping also. The next thing we would see the most made my head just shake. The amount of people who would just walk in a sit buying nothing or bringing food in right off the street. Especially the morning breakfast favorites Danbing or Chinese-like hamburgers you buy in the mornings off the street. Sometimes 1 or 2 people would have your McDonalds breakfast at a table and 1 or 2 would have their Chinese breakfast, along with the hot soy milk drink also. Sometimes they had your breakfast and they shared some Chinese breakfast. Or a whole table or couple would just walk in and sit down and eat the street food. Unreal!!!
And now what we saw less frequently than the sleeping/eating but what I was
more appalled by!!! One day, I saw a lady light up a cigarette while sitting
with 3 other ladies sitting at her table. They didn’t seem to care and
it seemed like she did it all the time and didn’t care about anyone else!
Angeles, the little girl I taught, even spotted her and couldn’t believe
it! I stared at the lady but she didn’t care. It was right at the end
of our class and we left and I thought about telling your management but after
seeing so many other things that made my head shake at this franchise, I just
didn’t bother. I figure the lady was done her smoke anyways by the time
I got downstairs or put it out as soon as we went down. Angeles did tell her
mother as soon as we got home and she was very angry since this McDonalds is
right beside their home and they frequent it a lot. I continued to see the lady
there but she always seemed to sit away from me or went to another floor so
I am sure she smokes quite frequently in this franchise. And to make it worse
she and her friends would always have their street food with them or sharing
fruit from the street.
I never seemed to see them eating McDonalds food.
(PG. 2)
And my last complaint is what we saw likely 2-4 times “per week minimum”. It was just incredible to see people sitting at the tables, and have their shoes off and propping up their dirty feet on the chair beside them!! One time Angeles nodded at me to look to my right and when I did, I turned and this lady’s dirty feet were like 2 feet from my face!!
There was no age thing here in everything I have informed you of. We witnessed all ages of people doing these things throughout the 3 months we went. I got to a point wondering as I walked in each day what I was going to witness next in this place. Again, I was amazed and appalled at what I seen here almost each and everyday. It shouldn’t have taken place.
So, I just felt since seeing this I had to do something. I don’t know whose fault this is and don’t want to get anyone in trouble but, after seeing this I felt I had to do something. My roommates would ask when I got home each day what I had seen, how many people were sleeping, smoking, eating Chinese food/drinks or people airing their feet out!! It wasn’t really funny when we foreigners here usually think of the McDonald’s image and standards. I just felt I had to report this to you. I had wanted to report this to your head office in America but thought I would start here first. I did an internet search for an email address as to who to send this to here in Taiwan but could only come up with one physical address on Tun Hwa Road but it was returned to me as undeliverable. I would appreciate a response before possibly sending this onto your head offices in America. A response would be much appreciated before I forward this onto one or more of the 3 local English papers here. My friends have urged me to do this. Thank you for your time and I await your response.
Dave Patrick
Possible information on the McDonald’s franchise I can provide:
City: Taipei City, Taiwan R.O.C.
District: Wen Hua
Address: corner of Chungwa Road Section 2 / Nan Hai Road (just off the corner)
Address: Just one block East of the “Youth Park”
From a store receipt: Phone (?) 2337-0977
From a store receipt: Store # (?) 89406995 or 89406996 (?)
My information:
Dave Patrick
Guei Yang Street, Sec. 2, Alley 29, #9, 4F
Wen Hua District, Taipei City, 108
09-3200-9170 (outside Taiwan: +886-9-3200-9170)
patrickdave @ hotmail.com