G
George Macdonald
I guess the question here would be, was it an arbitary number fixed by
MacD, or they have some reasonable reasons for doing this. I think
somebody did mentioned that MacD's assumption was most of the take
away coffee would be drunk some time later when the customer arrives
at whatever place it was they were taking away to. So I would think it
wasn't an unreasonable temperature.
Hmm, how about two kinds of coffee: dangerous stuff for take-away and
consumption later... and drinkable stuff??
hehehe, personally I usually just order cold drinks if I want
something fast. Maybe I'm used to the fact hot drinks will always be
too hot to drink immediately. Otherwise, we'll call them warm drinks
no?
Yep - cold drinks is the only way but.... I do like a cup of moderately hot
coffee. Seems a shame that it's impossible to satisfy my needs. Am I
really in a minority on this?
Given this, I think MacD should had just settled out of compassion and
give her the money to cover her medical, it's a paltry sum to MacD.
Plus their marketing department can always put a wonderful spin on how
MacD didn't need to but made a goodwill payment etc etc.
Did she sue MacD first or did she ask them nicely to compensate for
the bills caused by the drinks and they refused?
There was a URL earlier which pointed to the sequence of events but I don't
recall if she actually went directly to court. In the usual scheme of
things I can't imagine she'd have gotten a satisfactory response from a
simple "nice" request anyway.
Though, personally being the klutz I am, I've always kept in mind to
open things applying force in a direction away from myself, hot drinks
or canned soda which have an annoying tendency to gush forth.
Considering my own klutziness, I don't think MacD is technically at
fault here for cups toppling?
No - not the cup toppling - the fault is only in the overheating. Err,
it's supposed to be a drink, not a dangerous booby-trap.
Since teens, I've spilled countless of drinks trying to place the tray
down on the table at fast food places like MacD & KFC. It took a while
(ok so I'm slooooow ) before I figured out that I should hold the
drink down with one hand before I attempt the maneuver. or lower
myself parallel to the ground. How the heck do you guys do it without
tripping the cup anyway? There's no way I could figure out how with
two hands still on the tray since the hands inevitably causes the tray
to tilt at an angle.
Accidents happen to everyone, no matter how careful.<shrug> Here's one of
my recent ones: sitting with a lovely pint of best English bitter on the
pub table in front of me; no coasters on the table which slopes off just
slightly towards the edge and the glass is sitting in a little spilt beer
with an air bubble apparently trapped under it. Conversation is a little
animated and the table must have been rocking just a tad from time to time.
I think you'll see the problem - what a waste of beer! + slight
embarrassment since it looked like I'd had a different kind of umm,
accident.
If going by the "did the customer ask for it" argument, I could very
well sue MacD had any harm come to me, by asking "did I ask for such a
tall cup with a high center of gravity thus greater instability? Why
didn't MacD provide a large base bowl instead for their drinks?" It's
not reasonable, everybody knows that it's a common practise that
bigger drinks come in taller cups and taller cups are more prone to
falling.
Except they seem to be under some (mis)impression that everybody wants
their coffee at scalding temps?? If there is a conduit for my request, I
vote for coffee at a drinkable temp at time of purchase. Let the err,
hot-mouths use the office microwave to tweak it back up as required.
Also, I think MacD does have the word HOT on these things no? So
they've warned the customer, it's not their fault if any of us don't
read it no? Though I still hope they do help out the old lady with her
medical bills.
I still think there is an expectation that a beverage should be drinkable
as served - that's still "HOT" to the skin. If it had been (drinkable),
the poor woman might have gotten a coupla mild blisters, instead of 3rd
degree burns requiring debridement [oo-oo-ooh] of the err, perineal/genital
area<cringe>.
Secondary effect here: I'm sure people have even died for the sake of
decorum and modesty.
Rgds, George Macdonald
"Just because they're paranoid doesn't mean you're not psychotic" - Who, me??