CHICAGO (CN) — Menu items at two McDonald's franchises at O'Hare Airport cost more than are advertised, in some cases nearly 30 percent more, a class claims in court.
A Kansas woman named Farah Gohari is the lead plaintiff in the complaint filed Monday in Cook County Circuit Court. The complaint is the Top Download for Courthouse News today.
Gohari says was at O'Hare last month on a layover when she ordered breakfast at the McDonald's at Terminal 1 Concourse C.
The price came to more than what McDonald's posted on its electronic menu, however, at which point the cashier said the board prices were incorrect, according to the complaint.
Gohari says she chose new items but again found a price discrepancy. The cashier allegedly tried to shame her into paying the overcharge.
Ultimately, the cashier conceded "that the advertised prices had been wrong for some time, and that neither she nor a McDonald's manager would alter or lower the price of the order to adhere to the price advertised," according to the complaint.
Gohari says she finally ordered a steak and egg McMuffin meal, which was advertised at $4.80 on the board but for which she was charged $6.20.
She filed a complaint, only to receive a "nondescript response" about McDonald's pledge to investigate her concerns, with neither an apology nor a refund, the complaint states.
Gohari's attorney, Kenneth Goldstein of Krislov & Associates, said in the complaint that he investigated the prices at both McDonald's locations at O'Hare Airport and found similar overcharges.
Reprogramming the electronic McDonald's menu should be easy enough, according to the complaint. "McDonald's IT department, as one of the largest restaurant businesses in the world, could also, on information and belief, adjust and synchronize pricing issues on its own computerized cash registers and menus in a minimal amount of time," the lawsuit states.
This isn't the first time McDonald's has been accused of overcharging, but many of the cases involve employee theft or error.
In 2014, the company admitted to overcharging 100,000 purchases of discounted menu items in Japan.
That same year, employees at a McDonald's in Louisiana State University were accused to overcharging students and pocketing the extra cash.
Two McDonald's locations in Newton, Mass., were accused in 2009 of rounding up when charging sales tax to customers, from 6.25 percent to 7 percent.
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