They. LOCKED. THE. DOOR.
We ordered and paid online via their user-unfriendly website.
Arrived on time to pick up the order and saw from my car only 2 tables of customers and no other activity, so I wondered if they were closed or if I had the wrong location. I watched another patron go to the door and be unable to open it. What looked like a customer went to speak with that person through the door but didn't let her in. I then went to the door only to find it LOCKED! Both doors! Locked! This was 3 hours before their closing time. Two employees watched me from the prep area as I shook the door trying to open it to get in. A table crammed full of about 6 people in black shirts watched me as they ate their pizza. I walked to the windows indicating (to all of them watching me) the time and mouthing that I was picking up a pizza. They all watched me and then looked away. A customer from the only other occupied table came to push open the locked door for me. A customer!
He said the last person couldn't get in either. A girl returned to his table after saying goodbye to her friends at what I now realize is a table of employees in uniform relaxing, eating there, watching me outside trying to get in. I asked why the door was locked and the girl said "The employees are trying to eat. They need time to eat. They just need some time to eat. They have got to eat!" She was exasperated and spoke as if this was a regular practice of locking out customers who arrive to pick up the food they already paid for online or those coming in to order.
The 2-3 people behind the line refused to acknowledge or apologize for having locked the door. A man only said when I pressed him about it that he had no idea about the door and that it must have locked by accident. He couldn't look me in the eyes. Still, nobody went to unlock the mysteriously-locked door for me. My cooked pizzas were sitting there on wax paper and I waited for the woman to box up the two pizzas and to figure out the beverages that I ordered online. They voluntarily said nothing about the door or having watched me trying to enter the restaurant through a locked door. When the table full of employees was finished eating their group meal and started to clean up their table, one girl walked to the door and easily unlocked it. That took her literally one second and she knew exactly how to do it. No effort at all.
The door was intentionally locked to keep customers out while the employees took a group dinner break. To sit there or stand behind the line and watch a woman trying to get in while it was pouring rain on her was beyond outrageous. It was completely unacceptable. I had already paid online for the pizza! Did I say it was pouring rain outside? I did mention this was 3 hours before their closing time, right? I think I mentioned it was a group of about 6 uniformed employees watching me from their dining table and 2 behind the line, did I not?
I really have never experienced anything as bad and kind of embarrassing at any other pizzeria or restaurant. Or at any other business for that matter. I forgot to mention the pain in my shoulder from pulling quickly on a large door that was shockingly locked.
For NOT ONE of those people to have come to the door and to have just sat there or to have stood behind the line watching me repeatedly tug at the door assured me how intentional the act of locking me out really was.
I won't comment on the pizza, because no matter how good or bad it may have been, I will never return to Blaze pizza. With supervision/management/policies like theirs, this location will not survive. It shouldn't. read more