This blog site is not a reflection of any corporate or business entity's opinion. All views expressed in this post are of the author and not with the intention of libel or misrepresenting anyone. Many reviews of this McDonalds in Carrollton, Georgia are on Yelp, Google, Travel Advisor, and other sites.
Obviously from the blog title, you see that I harbor few positive feelings toward the McDonalds on Maple St. You may ask why I went to the trouble to express this negativity online and create a blogsite rather than resort to posting on Yelp. I have posted reviews on other sites, but the following is a detailed response to years if not decades of lackluster customer service.
The Maple St McDonalds is the oldest Micky D's in town. Before we had four different locations, there were Maple St and Bankhead Hwy (which is now a dentist's office). As a child, my mother took me to the Bankhead location despite that she worked at the Maple St location in the eighties while attending West Georgia College. The service of all Carrollton locations remains pretty lackluster, but back then we chose the lesser of two evils. This was before we had two Burger Kings, two Taco Bells, two Chick Fil As, and Subway hadn't opened yet. In the nineties, Carrollton didn't have the thriving scene on the square it does now, and the fanciest place to eat was probably the Trailblazer Steakhouse where Walgreens is now located.
Maple St's location gets by because it's located within walking distance to the University of West Georgia. The bus stops nearby, so even students who live across campus can easily access the one remaining fast food place on Maple. Arbys, Krystal, Taco Bell, and other restaurants never had the success on this street that McDonalds continues to achieve.
Obviously, McDonalds employs a lot of local kids and college students. Management appears to be apathetic towards actual customer service. It's not uncommon to get an attitude from whoever works the drive-thru. Whenever they're "out" of a product, I get a quick "SIR WE DO NOT HAVE ANY CHICKEN" or "...we're out of Coke Zero..." without an apology or replacement offer. If you ask anyone who has ever worked at a McDonalds, their ice cream machine is usually not broken and if they "run out" of food or soda, they merely don't want to make more. At the Ingles location, I was point blank told by the manager that they wouldn't sell me a salad because they didn't want to make more salads (this was before McDonalds phased out salads in 2020).
Each Carrollton location has a bad habit of making you pull into a parking spot to get your food. This might be the result of under-staffing, but it's usually because they want to move the backed up drive-thru line faster. Once you're in a parking spot, you're at their mercy. I have spent up to half-an-hour waiting for food at a FAST FOOD FRANCHISE. Not just any fast food franchise: the most iconic American fast food franchise. The Maple St location has totally ignored app orders and they refuse to refund your money or actually make your food. I actually spoke to a manager, showed him my app with the order, and my bank account. He told me to dispute it with my bank because they WOULD NOT make my food. So, surely Door Dash orders are okay, right? Door Dash in Carrollton only works with the Maple St location, and they almost always forget an item or get something wrong. This morning, I actually received my breakfast combos without the hashbrowns and no sausage on my McGriddle. That's right: They gave me two pancake patties and no meat.
How can I attack these kids and underpaid managers who probably don't get in trouble if they mess up an order? How can I be so callus toward them? I understand their plight as I worked in food service years ago and customers can be tyrants who treat you like trash. I cannot excuse someone being rude who's just trying to buy food, but it's often a reflection of management. Management is usually just mirroring the energy of the franchise.
That brings us to Deck Foods.
Deck Foods' official address is PO Box 429 Jacksonville Alabama 36265. Their company profile reveals their physical address is 312 Pelham Rd N Jacksonville, AL, which is a McDonalds in small rural Jacksonville. You can find them on Linkedin, and their listed address is a residential house.
Deck operates in the shadows from Alabama. Granted, Carrollton isn't far from Alabama, but Carrollton and Jacksonville are an hour apart. These Carrollton McDonalds locations owned by Deck Foods are pretty much immune to corporate rules and regulations. Therefore, if you have a complaint with a specific location, getting on Yelp or Twitter won't do you any good. Trying to speak to an actual person? Forget it. Bad reviews don't affect the Maple St location.
College students from UWG are the lifeblood of this McDonalds location. Carrollton's population is below 30k and Atlanta is an hour away. Most UWG students are not locals. UWG requires freshmen live on campus unless they can prove residence within a certain distance of the campus. To compound this issue, UWG requires freshmen residents to park their vehicles at the stadium, which has a gray route shuttle take students to their cars. This bus doesn't run 24 hours, though. I have walked from the coliseum to the stadium before, and it's brutal. UWG wants students to be stuck on campus because they're generally regarded as a suitcase school where students return home on weekends, and they've been battling that image for years. They think if they make students pay for room, meal plans, and offer on campus events, students will want to stick around. Unfortunately, this has backfired and most students move off-campus after their first year. Even more drop out or transfer.
UWG's seemingly isolated location leads students who are hungry late at night or strapped for cash (and tired of campus food) to go to McDonalds. They could walk a little further to the Maple St Diner, Waffle House, or the Border (which sucks for different reasons). None of these restaurants provide cheap comfort like McDonalds food.
I highly doubt the Maple St McDonalds will suffer as a result of this blog post. The other Carrollton locations are only marginally better. However, I may periodically update this, and I hope when disgruntled customers decide to Google this restaurant, they stumble on this site.
