I'm going to leave a last comment on this situation, in the hopes the owner of this place sees it.
I've had some bad customer service before, but this circumstance has been the worst. I have to say ironically the worst behaved employees here were the manager and the driver, whom I won't name.
On Monday, I placed an online delivery order first thing in the morning (to try to avoid a long wait). More than two hours passed, and I didn't hear anything. I called, said my order had been more than two hours, and I was wondering what was going on. (I didn't even know if it had gone through). The young woman who answered said defensively, "you have to give us two hours. We're really slammed." Her defensive tone threw me, so I asked, "well, IS it going to be delivered?" Because it sounded like they were too busy. She responded, in a "how dare you" tone, "I can't believe you'd ask that. We've NEVER not delivered an order," then said "you can come to pick up though if you like," in a passive-aggressive tone. I said, "no, I don't want to pick it up, I just want to know if it's being delivered." She said "I don't like the way this conversation is going." I assume this was because I sounded grumpy or skeptical (considering how late my order was, and how defensive and hostile she began the conversation, that would make sense). I was taken aback by this entire encounter; telling me she'd checked on my order, saying sorry it was late, and it would be out soon, would have been fine.
Her "I don't like the way this conversation was going" is what prompted me, in my review, to say how rude she had been and it had seemed like she needed a safe space (which may be unkind, but she was quite rude to me first). I was *not* angry when I called, just tired, and there was zero reason for her to behave defensively in the first place (I assume she was having a bad day, but so was I, and my order being late--which I'd tried to avoid by placing it as soon as the store opened--wasn't helping). I was calling to find out if it had even gone through, since I hadn't received a text. I waited a whole two+ hours because I was trying *not* to bother them.
I received a text saying the driver was on his way moments after this phone call, and the driver arrived immediately, since I was the first order. I had *just* had that phone call with his coworker, and was still shaken up by being treated that way, so I mentioned it to him and asked what he'd do in my situation. I was perfectly pleasant, he told me an anecdote about a time he left a bad review, we both laughed, he smiled and said he knew who it was and didn't want to throw her under the bus, I said I'd leave up the review but wasn't trying to get her in trouble, but didn't like being treated that way; we said goodbye. I think it's low of him to say I "made him uncomfortable" by having a perfectly pleasant conversation with him right after being treated so badly by his place of employment, and that he wouldn't deliver to me because I had this conversation with him (and honestly, pretty weird, so I feel like there's more to the story there, because who feels uncomfortable due to a conversation like that?) It's not as low as his boss implying I might be *dangerous* to him because of this conversation, however (one of the main reasons I found talking to her so upsetting).
On Friday I placed an order and waited 2.5 hours just to call and find out it was canceled and they wouldn't deliver to me. Dawn Gardner got on the phone to tell me why, already hostile and adversarial; I was therefore puzzled why she aggressively insisted on staying on the call to ask my side. She implied I could be a danger to her driver (which is unbelievable, and beyond insulting, as a woman who has actually experienced violence; what a disgusting thing for her to say). She began the conversation by admonishing me that I had been inappropriate and that the delivery driver has nothing to do with what goes on at the store, which makes NO sense. Of course I'd say something to the driver if I've minutes ago been yelled at by someone in his store. I wasn't *mean* to the driver in any way; in fact, before I even said a word to him, he said he was sorry he was late, and he'd been ready a while before; I told him "it's not your fault," then told him I'd called because I wasn't sure if the order had gone through, and I'd left an angry review because his colleague had really upset me, and asked him if he thought I should remove it, or what he would do (which is a friendly conversation). Dawn's admonishing me as if this were a terrible thing to do and then IMPLYING I MIGHT ENDANGER HER DRIVER is inexplicable, to be quite honest.
The rude employee having a bad day was actually the BEST behaved in this scenario, in the end. I realize after talking to Dawn that this is less of a generational thing and more of a case of bad management and an unhealthy workplace culture, with a bad manager setting a toxic example for her employees. read more