While some fast food restaurants are liberal with their sauce policies, others seem to have gotten more stingy over the years.
This is a common complaint amongst McDonald’s customers. Although many current McDonald’s-goers have memories of free sauces from their youth, a sizable number of contemporary McDonald’s locations have opted to charge their customers for sauces. For context, McDonald’s locations are not required to charge for sauces, but they are allowed to if they’d like.
If a location does charge for sauces, it would be normal to expect that the policy be applied consistently at all times and across all customers. However, as one TikTok user recently noted, this isn’t always the case.
In a video with over 48,000 views, TikTok user Totsionna (@wesickandtired) shows herself in a McDonald’s drive-thru. When she gets to the window, she asks for a packet of ranch dressing—at which point she is charged 25 cents.
“Is it that serious?” she asks the employee in the video. Totsionna then digs around for a quarter and reluctantly hands it over to the worker.
In the overlay text, she adds, “McDonald’s charge for sauce whenever they feel like it.”
@wesickandtired “YUH!!” Yall shouldve seen his goofy face lmaoooo #fyp ♬ original sound – T🎥TSI💋NNA
In the comments section of the video, many users complained about the seemingly arbitrary nature of sauce charges and enforcement of those charges.
“I be charging based off ppl demeanors,” wrote a user.
“I did a mobile order and the sauces free on there,” claimed another. “When i pulled up to the window she said she ain’t gonna give me the sauces cuz they didn’t charge.”
“…Last time I bought the family meal of McDonald’s and they were trying to charge me for all the sauces that already supposed to come w/ orde[r],” claimed an additional TikToker.
That said, for those who find themselves in Totsionna’s same situation, a few users offered advice on how to avoid these sauce charges.
“If you try to pay that 25 cents on a card they’ll give it for free,” explained a commenter.
“And that’s why I started asking for a refund for the whole order; they always give it to me for free,” stated a second.
The Daily Dot reached out to Totsianna via email.