Bertuca Organization, Tourists, and the McDonalds of Music Valley Nashville TN Opryland

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During an accidental visit to the Music Valley McDonalds of Nashville, TN I got a response from the one and only Meredith Baugh, thus revealing this was a Bertuca Organization McDonalds.

I am sorry for the inconvince that you had at our local McDonalds.I assure you this will be addressed.I would like to send you some coupons if you would reply with your mailing address.

Sincerely,

Meredith Baugh

 

Bertuca Organizations,llc

Director of Operations

Nashville SPENDS a ton of money to attract people and business here. Your Tax Dollars and mine so my response was:

Dear Meredith:

This is indeed disappointing, as it’s location, Music Valley Drive, is one of a few locations that is the heart of tourism in our fair city. Our visitors from other states and countries should get a better impression of music city than what they would receive here. I’m not after anything, coupons or otherwise, my main concern is that a customer left – perhaps a tourist, perhaps someone to our country for the first time, or perhaps a resident – you can see him in line, and then leaving, and then the line after him – and nothing was done, there was no management addressing the issue, there was nothing to speed the line up. Just one lone employee. McDonalds is a national and global brand where no matter what part of the country or world you’re in, you’re to have the same experience, that’s what franchising is all about. I would hope in the future that this is addressed because our Mayor and Governor work hard to create incentives for business to relocate here and tourists to engage here – our tax dollars go to incentive programs for the very customers that you serve. An example is Tennessee’s film program, I helped produce a film here in Tennessee and audited receipts that the state of TN in turn reimbursed the production company for – many of them were the cast and crew having meals at places like McDonalds. TN tax dollars go to bring business to Music City businesses including yours. So we, and tourists…deserve better.
As I told Ted Bertuca personally, it’s not coupons I’m after…it’s change…this is your city, my city, our city.
Best – Ron
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Walmart Super Center 3458 Dickerson Rd, Nashville, TN 37207 Skyline – Catona and Melissa

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Walmart Supercenter

3458 Dickerson Pike
Nashville, TN 37207
Having been a part of East Nashville community for 4 years, one of the hardest part was just having K-Mart. But that changed a few years ago – We got Walmart Super Center at 3458 Dickerson Pike.
I’ve been amazed at the level of service and hospitality offered by the employees, particuarly Melissa and Catona. Though I’m sure they have lives, worlds, problems and bills like the rest of us, they seem to leave those at home and bring a smile to their job.
I have a habit of leaving things at WalMart when I checkout – a bag or two. It costs me gas to turn around and come back. Sometimes I end up with other people’s stuff who did the same – just left it in the spinner that holds the bags. But Melissa is sharp, she makes sure I leave with what I purchased.
I was doing a last minute photo print order at 8:40 and as I was changing my mind due to time, an employee named “Catona” came after me to make sure I didn’t need help. That’s really really out of the ordinary, as many retail employees see customers as interruptions and not people who need help.
Catona and Melissa – together they make WalMart a good experience for me and I wouldn’t shop anywhere else…until they move on to other jobs! They save me gas, time and money!
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Bertuca Organization – Is this a Bertuca McDonalds?

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I had some business in the Music Valley Drive area and stopped by the McDonalds at

201 Rudy’s Circle
Nashville TN 37214
Phone: 615-391-3246

Take a look at the 1 cashier, the long line, and the customer that was in line – abandoning and leaving. It’s ALMOST like the McDonalds at 201 Rudy’s Circle is a Bertuca Organization McDonalds. There is one employee washing trays while the other is swamped with a line. One person didn’t want to wait and you can see him leaving.

It’s ALMOST like this location is a Bertuca Organizaton McDonalds in Nashville, TN. Has all the charactistics.  Were we Bertuca’d at a Non Bertuca Organization Location?

 

Update 5/8/2013 4:27pm – Per an email received from the Bertuca Organization, this is INDEED A Bertuca Organization McDonalds.

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Batteries Plus Warranty Replacement for Cell Phone Battery Problems

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In September of 2012 I took my daughter to Los Angeles where we stayed at a hotel without WiFi. I have my trusty MiFi device but between the two of us we burned out the battery. So the Sunday of our vacation, I treked to the Culver City Batteries Plus location  (Franchise) and got a new MiFi Battery.

Fast forward April 2013, I went to charge the battery and just got a red light – which means the battery is NOT charging properly. I looked up Batteries Plus 1 year warranty. I had kept my packaging and receipt handy.

 

I emailed the customer service for Batteries Plus and they directed me to a local store. I thought it would be a longer process and certainly did NOT feel entitled to a new battery, only to see what my warranty would get me.

Within 5 minutes I walked out of the store with a new battery.No problems. No worries. No hassles. Just a new battery.

The location was Batteries Plus at 2126 Gallatin Pike N  Madison, TN 37115
(615) 851-5155 – the service was excellent and the warranty replacement went VERY smoothly. They even tested the old battery to make sure it was defective. That’s handy in case it’s my device – I’d be wasting batteries and not fixing the root problem.

 

The service of the Culver City California location is worth noting, as they held the original battery as I was jumping busses from Marina Del Rey.

 

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Sheraton Hotel Downtown Nashville

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Hotel Reservations: 888-627-8565

Contact: 615-259-2000

623 Union Street · Nashville, TN 37219

On Saturday morning I went on an ‘adventure walk’ downtown. I managed to snag a free spot in front of ‘The Standard’ restaurant. For the non tourist Nashville has plenty to see from 6th Ave on up. One of the great places to stop is the Sheraton Hotel Downtown Nashville at 623 Union Street.

I stopped at the Sheraton Downtown Nashville, the Best Western at 711 Union St, and Homewood Suites at 706 Church St. In each I was able to tour the hotel, interact w/the staff to the degree they reached out, and see the demeanor of the guests.

The Sheraton Downtown Nashville was by far the BEST of the 3 hotels. The staff was VERY friendly to me, even though they were in the midst of a YMCA sponsored Youth and Government event. The front desk staff greeted me even though I looked terribly out of place and definitely not a hotel guest.

As I was going up and down the elevator, the cleaning staff waived to me, and when I was walking the hallway, and I was able to even talk a little to the cleaning staff. I am in the process of making my bedroom into a hotel style room and I’ve used the Sheraton model as a template. I’m short an ice bucket, some art, a headboard, and a TV but I know those things will come in time. So I enjoyed being in the hotel environment and being able to look at a real hotel room and see how close I was coming at home!

The Sheraton Downtown Nashville’s rooms are also amazing! Though a little compact, that are neat, clean, and nicely decorated. At a downtown hotel you’re not really spending much time IN the hotel, so that’s a bit of a tradeoff that doensn’t hurt very much. Union St is a 5 minute walk to most of Nashville’s downtown attractions plus you can jump on a bus and go anywhere else.The amenities on site are cool too, I was able to see the exercise room, a guest room, and the gift shop. In addition  the staff is HIGHLY organized, you’d never know even though there were HUNDREDS of kids wandering around for this convention plus COUNTLESS politicians and their handlers – if I were a normal guest I’d not feel overwhelmed because the Sheraton staff was managing EVERYTHING. No guest seemed more important than another guest.

The hotel is independently owned and operated under license from Starwood but you’d hardly notice a difference in terms of the great service level.  This is an amazing and comfortable hotel.

When I wandered through the Homewood Suites it was a bit challenging, there was a horrible smell, and I believe they are under renovation as a whole. But they have a neat interior, where you can look up and see all the rooms yet it feels ‘outdoors’ . The Best Western was a typical Best Western, outdoor access to all the rooms, and probably the least hospitable of the bunch to me wandering around.

All and all though if you’re looking for the best hotel to stay in when you’re in downtown Nashville, try the Sheraton Downtown Hotel. I know when the Texaco Country Showdown did it’s finals at the Ryman, they put up guests there. It’s an incredible hotel and well worth the visit.

PS – I spoke to Management afterwards – they were INCREDIBLY humble about their property.

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Jeff Stratton of McDonalds Emailed about the Experiences with the Bertuca Organization McDonalds in Nashville

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My recent email to Jeff Stratton of McDonalds – I would emphasize it did not turn out to be fraud but it was a strange practice in general and management had no explanation for it and there was never an apology by management for them taking my credit card and wanting me to pull forward without it.

See how the story began with my suspicions of credit card fraud at the Bertuca Organization’s Mcdonalds.

Fortunately there was no fraud but the behavior of taking one’s credit card and asking the customer to pull forward WITHOUT their card is in my eyes suspicious. They said they would bring it back out to me. Odd.
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Bertuca Organization: The Untold Story of McDonalds in Nashville Brick Church Pike

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I am only expressing the truth of what happened. But in the wake of reports of McDonald’s Franchisees Not Pleased About Improving Customer Service this all seems to make sense to me. Chicago Business reported on how a smile’s the last straw for some McDonalds owners which is also consistent with all of my treatment at the Bertuca Organization’s McDonalds restaurant locations. And so the original yarn unfolds…

I’ve realized the original story was never told of the VERY first set of encounters with the Bertuca Organization. It was Summer of 2012. I reported this to Meredith McBough and later John Beckett of the Bertuca Organization. From not taking orders to my suspicions of credit card fraud, it was only the beginning….

2311 Brick Church Pike
Nashville, TN
August 17, 2012 12:00am
I pulled up to the Drive Through and was asked to wait at the order board. I waited so long I had to turn on my 4 ways. When the girl returned to take orders there was NO apology at all. When I pulled up to pay I had to wait yet AGAIN, and then when I pulled up for my order I was given my drink and told to wait yet again – this time pulling up past the window.
There was NO APOLOGY from ANYONE so when my food came out the employee didn’t say ONE WORD to me at ALL. I asked to speak to the manager who came out and I explained to them all the waiting, lack of apologies and guess what, SHE DIDN’T APOLOGIZE EITHER. It was like she she didn’t care.  I highly recommend retraining all employees in common courtesies OR hiring people who want to serve customers, I don’t actually care which. Because it was clear to me that I was a disturbance and an inconvenience to whatever goes on in that restaurant at night. All that waiting, maybe there was a party, who knows, but I sure wasn’t invited! Worst service on a rainy night.
August 18 2012
Yet another incident at the McDonalds Bertuca Organization Location on Brick Church Pike:
Just had more mediocre service from this location, was “told” to pull forward to wait for order, not asked, so I said I wasn’t going to since I wasn’t asked, I was “ordered”. Order came WITHOUT an item, they then gave me the WRONG missing item, then asked me what it was and I advised them to check my order and they finally corrected it.Why do they ask for my order at the order board if they aren’t going to fulfill it AND aren’t going to bother to check their own order screen? I might as well have gotten paid to fulfill my own order.This is getting ridiculous and I dare say I should just go behind the counter and get the orders myself since I can read a screen, which clearly they cannot do and rely on asking the customer to do themselves.
And then September 26, 2012 – was this employees taking people’s credit card #’s at McDonalds?  or Pocketing cash? I reported it to John Beckett at the Bertuca Organization
Another incident last night around midnight, I placed an order at the drive through and pulled up, they took my credit card, gave me my food but would not give me my credit card back. They asked me to pull forward to wait for my credit card even though I had my food. I refused because that opens it up to fraud. I didn’t know if he needed time to do an imprint or copy down the numbers with me out of view. He stated that he didn’t place my order and that he needed to place the order of the person BEHIND me first so I needed to pull forward. The manager was standing outside chit chatting with someone, probably on break, I suggested getting the manager involved and then they suddenly changed their tune and rang the card through and returned it to me. I spoke to the manager who really didn’t have much to say about it.

I wondered if he was  just giving out food hoping to pocket “cash” then got stuck with an un-rung order and a credit card, or if some other serious issue was going on. Either way, this is the third or fourth really bizarre incident at this McDonalds and if ANY fraudulent charges come up on my card I will let Wells Fargo know to investigate your restaurant and credit card practices… if your restaurant is nothing but a front to get people’s credit card #’s, it needs investigated and I may reach out to the Tennessee State Attorney General on this matter.
>>>Fortunately no fraudulent charges came up. But this was suspicious to me. No other merchant in my decades of credit card use has ever behaved this way.  Only at the Bertuca Organizaion McDonalds in Nashville.
The dialogue I had with Meredith McBough and John Beckett over all of these 3 incidents was the last I heard. Future incidents were really not addressed by them, they went to an area supervisor including denial of service at the Bertuca Organization’s McDonalds in Nashville on Hillsboro Pike. Is this the Bertuca way of doing business?
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Review: Star Trek: The Motion Picture Directors Edition

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I’ve been watching Robert Wise’s re-edit of Star Trek: The Motion Picture on DVD. I watched all the documentaries on Disc 2 and then proceeded with the movie. This is DEFINITELY an improvement over the theatrical release as well as the ABC TV 12 Minute “Special Longer Version” – while the pacing will never be what the subsequent films were, the effects and the scenes they did edit makes for a faster moving film.

There are different backgrounds, sound effects, some music has been re-scored and some scenes are just plain tighter.

I wish William Shatner had gotten a chance to do the same thing to Star Trek V. This was definitely as much needed as say, Richard Donner’s Superman II cut. Watching the documentaries first definitely lent some insight into the thinking of this re-edited film. Much stronger, much better.

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Franchisee’s Speak Out – Not the Bertuca Organization McDonalds Nashville but Others…

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This is kind of interesting. Through out the last year we’ve blogged about the Bertuca Organization McDonalds Nashville organization and the lack of customer service, denial of service, and all around terrible experineces at restaraunts we didn’t even REALIZE were Bertuca Organization McDonalds Nashville Locations.

The Consumerist Website has done a series of reports on the falling profits at McDonalds and Franchisee’s have now spoken back:

http://consumerist.com/2013/04/17/mcdonalds-franchisees-not-pleased-about-improving-customer-service-while-selling-more-discount-food/

“We have more complicated items, with more elements coming from the (distribution center), more equipment coming from suppliers so everyone else is making more money sending us more ‘stuff’ and we are expected to deliver a product that takes 55 seconds on the best day in less than that, do it consistently and with a smile on our face,” one franchisee vents. “There’s little to smile about.”

Last week, it was revealed that McDonald’s corporate is demanding a higher quality of service from its employees, with customers complaining about “chaotic” restaurants and “unprofessional” workers.”

Though this quote is not attributed to the Bertuca Organization, it is quite disheartening. Especially since the initial incidents were over a cup of water that takes less than 55 seconds to deliver – and was refused.

Fortunately the McDonalds we now go to is the BEST in Nashville, at  3300 Dickerson Pike
Nashville – An INCREDIBLE example of what a McDonalds SHOULD be under fine leadership and a GREAT atmosphere – and incidentally not a Bertuca Organization Location. .

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Falling McDonalds Profits – the Bertuca Organization Reporting Presented

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The Wall Street Journal published an article on falling McDonalds profits and corporate’s desire to improve customer service:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324010704578414901710175648.html?mod=e2tw

I have been blogging about it over the last year:

I have emailed Jeff Stratton from McDonalds regarding the Bertuca Organization as a case study of things gone wrong at McDonalds. Lest he be Bertuca’d.

—–

You may wish to review my blog series on Bertuca Organization, a McDonalds Franchisee. I have included the links here. They are generally the most non responsive uncustomer friendly operation I’ve ever seen and my bad experiences always turn out to be a Bertruca restaurant McDonalds. Read from the bottom up and you go from being refused service to a meal card being sent without any apology from the Franchisee. Yes, denial of service at a McDonalds. Your franchisees flush your profits down the drain. I understand the real estate model but the bottom line is if a restaurant is not successful, the real estate model goes down the drain.  You are only as strong as your weakest link.

I know customer complaints are handled through a different channel but if McDonald wants insight into why profits are down and wants to improve operations, my blog may be of good insight, lest you be Bertuca’d.
On the other hand, if you want to see a McDonalds that is AWESOME and customer friendly, interview this McDonalds:http://www.viewsnewsandreviews.com/category/mcdonalds-3300-dickerson-rd-pk-nashville-tn/ they ALWAYS handle things well and have a good sense of community with the community. The manager regularly engages customers which builds customer loyalty.
Best,
Ron
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