Man orders McDonald's meal, gets screw in fries

Mihir Bijur a 32yearold marketing professional from Kandivli and his wife Sulbha ordered a meal for two from a Kandivli outlet of McDonaldrsquos the USbased fast food giant Bijur was polishing off the fries in his meal when he found a metallic screw shiny at the head and rusted at the bottom sitting innocently amid other fries in the bag Bijur clicked this picture and mailed it along with his complaint to the customer service at McDonaldrsquos but was not satisfied with their response ldquoWe had called for home delivery from the Growelrsquos 101 Mall branch of McDonaldrsquos on the night of December 12rdquo said Bijur ldquoBut a halfrusted screw is the last thing I expected from this meal Fries are a food item that we do not have the habit of pouring out in a tray and eating We munch them directly from the packet I was so shocked that I did not know what to do Then I logged in on social networking sites and talked freely about what had happenedrdquo Mihir Bijur and his wife Sulbha Arora had ordered a meal from a Kandivli outlet of McDonaldrsquos on the night of December 12 Online a lot of other people shared similar experiences they had had with the food chain Bijur said but it was his first and he was furious ldquoThe incident had the potential to injurehospitalise me or in an extreme case cost me my liferdquo as he would later tell McDonaldrsquos The bosses at the food giant must have picked up on his complaints on online public forums for six days later he got an email from one Gauri Karnik from McDonaldrsquos India West and South But Bijur could not find an apology in the polite jargon that McDonaldrsquos sent him as their response What was there was a stock reply ndash acknowledging nothing and saying even less ndash which Bijur felt might as well have been prepared by a machine going by the way it read It said ldquoWe regret to learn that your recent experience with our home delivery system was not up to your expectations The quality of our food is very important and we are committed to serving the highest quality We have discussed your feedback with the concerned restaurant manager department for the necessary action We will make sure that apt measures are taken to ensure that the high level of service standards for which McDonaldrsquos is renowned the world over are consistently maintainedrdquo Bijur did not like this ldquogrievance templaterdquo response On December 23 he hit back in an email telling them how he did not ldquoappreciate the fact that yoursquore underplaying what has happened and the intensity of itrdquo how he was not okay with simply lsquosharing feedbackrsquordquo and how if this were the US or the UK ldquoheads would roll by now Why are Indian lives being treated as less deservingrdquo He then demanded an apology from the management and not ldquoa Sr PR execrdquo The firm had also tried to pacify him by placing him a phone call ldquoBut even when they called me up their words did not convince me at all Instead of simply being human they chose to go by the rulebook What I believe is you obviously cannot take responsibility for everything that happens to the food from the time itrsquos grown on the farm till itrsquos served to the customer But being a big and popular brand they should have at least accepted what had happened instead of negating it If such a thing can slip through anything else can Had I eaten it I do not know where I would have landedrdquo When MiD DAY contacted Gauri Karnik who had sent the email to Bijur she said she was not authorised to talk to us She did however acknowledge the email we had sent her last Monday and added that it had been forwarded to the department concerned which would get back to us We have not yet received any correspondence or clarification from McDonaldrsquos nor has Bijur received an apology Law book says Advocate Sanjay Shukla who has handled many consumer complaints said ldquoThe couple should go and register an FIR and then a complaint with the consumer forum If there had been any damage to them after eating the food they would have been able to ask for compensation But in this case there was no damage so they cannot ask for compensation They can only ask the company for an apologyrdquo In bad taste Bloody bandaid An upstate New York man found a bloody bandaid baked into the crust of his Pizza Hut pizza in June of 2011 He sued after the company failed to address his concerns Fly in yogurt A Chinese woman found a fly in her yogurt in July 2011 When she asked for compensation the manufacturer asked her to prove that the fly had died before she opened the container by getting the insect autopsied Razor blade in WalMart ice cream An East Texas woman found a razor blade in a carton of Walmart ice cream in February 2011 Walmart customer service was contacted and she was told ldquoIrsquom sorry I hope your day gets betterrdquo Paperclips in muffins At the height of the Beijing Olympics reporters pounced on the Chinese food industry after athletes found paperclips in muffins served to them at an official function Syringe in Burger King burger In June of 2001 22yearold Angelina Cruz bit into a burger from Burger King and got pricked in the tongue by a syringe Citing HIV fears she sued the chain for 9 million Glass in sandwich In May 2013 a gospel singer from Brooklyn New York sued McDonaldrsquos claiming her voice was ruined after she bit into a piece of glass while eating a chicken sandwich from the fast food chain Bone in burger In July 2010 a woman in Chicago sued McDonald39s alleging that she was served a doublecheeseburger with bone She claimed that after biting down onto a bone in her burger she needed extensive dental surgery to repair her teeth Plastic in cookie In September 2012 Oklahoma native Katherine Ashowo claims she bit into a razorsharp piece of plastic baked into a McDonald39s chocolate chip cookie The plastic cut her tongue and drew blood before she could spit it out Nose ring in burrito In November 2012 Frances Rosario found a nose ring in her daughterrsquos breakfast burrito at an Atlanta area McDonaldrsquos Rosario said she was rebuffed by McDonaldrsquos staff and received no response from McDonaldrsquos corporate office Dead frog in spinach greens Londoner Sarah Moss was disturbed to find a dead frog in her bag of spinach greens that she39d purchased from grocery chain Tesco Tesco at first refused to compensate Moss but ended up forking over a pound10 gift voucher Worms in KFC sandwich A family found live worms in a KFC fried chicken sandwich at an outpost in Kerala in early October 2012 prompting a huge investigations of the KFCs throughout the region