Anyway, about ten or twelve years ago, the McDonalds in Skokie, IL
> (which is known not only as the second or third McDonalds in
> existence, having been started orginally as a 'company location' when
> it started in 1958) is one of the most ill-managed in the chain, wound
> up being the defendant in a class action suit based on their poorly
> programmed cash registers. (Walmart has the same situation; a cash
> register used today in Illinois may be used next week [following its
> repair, etc in Kansas or Oklahoma]; proper sales tax rate is of no
> concern to those folks.) Plaintiff's class action lawyers said they
> were frequently overcharged on taxes, and it is true that if you as a
> shopkeeper make a claim that 'X amount of money is for taxes' when in
> fact the tax is either (1) incorrectly stated or (2) does not exist
> at all, a crime has been committed. The class action lawsuit went on
> a couple years, the attornies raked in piles of money; it was finally
> settled by McDonalds putting a newspaper ad in several Chicago-area
> publications with a coupon to clip out, offering a free small size
> drink to the holder of the coupon, to cure the problem of being
> charged a couple pennies too much on tax. PAT]
They're still billing incorrectly though, or they were as of last July when I visited their location.
I didn't look at the tax, just the rest of the meal.
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If you are referring to the McDonalds at 5000 or 5100 West Dempster (Niles Center Road and Dempster, about a block east of the Skokie Swift station) that does not surprise me at all. They got the notion once to lock down the inside eating area at 9 PM but keep the drive up window open until 11 PM, so at 9:10 PM I came walking along on foot past the drive in window to get an order. The woman refused to sell to me since I was 'not in a car'. We exchanged a few words; I wound up getting an empty bag out of the trash can nearby and calling the McDonalds customer service number. The woman just about flipped out when she got a call from customer service a couple minutes later asking her what was going on. Her excuse was a 'man on a bike a couple weeks earlier had robbed her and she was not going to take any more chances with pedestrians when the main dining area had been closed for the night. Another time I was told they considered it 'more effecient' to be 'blackmailed' out of drinks rather than change their way of doing business. By comparison, the McDonalds here in Independence is so pleasant, even for a Mcdonalds place. I am watching to see if walmart gets sued the same way, for using incorrectly (tax) programmed cash registers here. PAT]