While on a tight schedule, eating at a McDonald’s restaurant is one of the best ways to ensure that you do not get held up by rush hour service during lunch.
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While the idea of eating ‘fast’ at a fast-food restaurant is not alien to us, some customers do visit McDonald’s to relax and eat their food in peace. But turns out, there is an official limit to just how slowly you can finish a McDonald’s meal.
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As reported by Cambridgeshire Live, a McDonald’s customer, Shapour Meftah was slapped a fine of £100 for parking violations owing to taking too long to finish his McDonald’s meal.
McDonald’s parking stipulation
As pre the report, Mr. Meftah parked his car outside the McDonald's on Newmarket Road, Cambridge on two occasions, and went in for food inside.
Once he was done with his meal, he left the restaurant thinking nothing of the trips. But a couple of days after his second visit in the first week of January, he received some stunning notices in the mail from a private parking company.
Turns out, he had overstayed the maximum 90 minutes of time allocated for McDonald's customers at the car parking. Not just that, the company is now holding him liable to pay £100 as fixed penalty for two visits on the evening of January 4 and January 6, 2023, respectively. Worse, if Mr. Meftah doesn't pay these within a week then they'll go up to £100 each.
Most expensive McDonald’s meal for the customer
Mr. Meftah is predictably shocked and upset about the penalties. The report quoted him as saying,
It was parking from hell - the most expensive McDonald's I've ever had
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The customer further states,
There's no sign inside McDonald's that says you have 90 minutes to sit down, eat and go. You don't want to rush your meal and we ordered quite a bit of food.
UK Parking Control responded to the situation stressing how they provide ‘ample signage’ to indicate the different regulations around time allocations that drivers need to honour across various fast-food parking lots. A spokesperson provided a statement saying,
We have parking restrictions in place at a number of our restaurants, with a time limit to ensure there is adequate parking for all of our customers
Sources used:
Cambridgeshire Live: ‘Resident's 'parking hell' as fines make McDonald's 'most expensive meal ever'’
