I placed a curbside delivery/pickup order yesterday at the Apex, NC store.
After 10-12 minutes of waiting in the completely empty parking lot, I called inside to check the status of my order since it appeared that the store was not busy, which made me wonder why was there such a delay in receiving my simple beverage order.
An employee answered the phone and I asked to speak to the manager.
She wanted to know why I needed the manager.
I explained that this is the 2nd time within the past week that the parking lot was clear and the lobby was empty, yet I've waited quite a while for a simple smoothie order.
I explained that I couldn't understand why I could get my to-go steak dinner from longhorn or make it through a super long chick fil a line quicker than I could pick up a simple smoothie from this location.
And in comparison, at a neighboring location, I'd receive it in 3 minutes or less once ordered.
After this explanation, she told me the manager wasn't available.
I proceeded to walk inside the store, which is something I initially tried to avoid and was why I placed my curbside delivery order.
When I walked inside to request the manager, there was only 1 patron sitting in a corner working on her laptop.
My smoothie was sitting on the counter in the food prep area.
Not 1 employee was in the lobby. Not 1.
I began to say "hello? Hello??? Hello???" multiple times, hoping that someone would hear me and appear from wherever they were in the rear of the building.
Finally 4 young people came from the back area where they had been congregating having a good time at work, oblivious to the need to be busy tending to their duties or monitoring the lobby.
They had been fooling around as young co-workers, irresponsible and unconcerned.
The manager came out as well. I told him my concern and asked him why would my smoothie be sitting there behind the counter with zero urgency to deliver it to my vehicle to fulfill my curbside delivery order.
I advised him that this same thing happened last week as well while he was on duty and I'd spoken to him on that occasion also.
This in fact, has happened on several occasions for my curbside order. It's as though this location has a problem with wanting to leave the comforts of the building to want to bring the drinks outside. So they don't prioritize doing so.
He stated that they all had a question for them and that's why everyone was with him in the back waiting for him to get off the phone. I believe this was a lie. If they all had a question, one asking the question would have sufficed while the others could have continued to man their posts in the lobby and provide service to visitors upon their arrival.
He advised me that my smoothie had just gotten finished being made.
One of the workers brought my smoothie to the cash register and sat it there next to the cash drawer.
It remained there for a while as we continued our conversation.
I asked why would she decide to place my smoothie next to the cash drawer where filthy money is exchanged and handled, rather than giving it to me, since it had been paid for already via the app.
I asked them to remake the smoothie, as this was unsanitary.
The manager debated that the smoothie was perfectly fine.
He eventually commanded an employee to remake the smoothie.
She did so reluctantly and with an attitude.
As she made the smoothie, I realized that my time spent on receiving this thing/spent at this location has now reached the 20-25 minute mark, which was ridiculous and a waste of my time.
I asked the manager if he expected me to pay in full for this terrible service or would he be issuing some sort of discount to compensate for my less than stellar experience, seeing as this has occurred twice now in the past week.
He said there would be no discount.
I told him that if this is how he intended on treating me as a customer, then I wanted a refund.
He said he wouldn't issue a refund because they just made a smoothie for me. After a prolonged debate, I left without my smoothie and without my refund. I'm pissed. read more