My complaint:
I AM FED UP with Panera’s website AND lack of understanding by site managers for customers who were screwed out of their precious time because of it. I spent 20 minutes . . . 20 MINUTES !!!!!!! . . . just trying to order my food online because of the pandemic-driven item shortages. It’s bad enough that darn near every time I order, there is some item not available. But here’s what really PISSED ME OFF this time around:
When I tried to replace chicken (it was unavailable) with another protein, the only other protein available online was pulled chicken, but the website tried to charge me an extra $1.49. If there is an item missing, and the customer is being forced into a premium item because of it, the customer should NOT be charged extra because of it. So, I go down to my local Panera to place my order in person to avoid the charge and to also complain to the manager about me losing 20 minutes of my time. She said that I could try to order the item as is and just write in the notes that I wanted the pulled chicken instead, but the website won’t let you order an item with unavailable ingredients. I had to explain this to her.
So, now after the website wasted 20 min. of my time, I had to wait another 15 minutes for my revised order since I had to place it in person (and wait in line to do so). What also pissed me off was that I then asked her for a paper menu because I couldn’t remember all the details of what ingredients I wanted. Of course she didn’t have any so it look me several more minutes to think of what I wanted. After such a frustrating experience, I would expect the manager to at least offer me a free item (a free pastry or something), but nope. Listen, if a customer is so pissed that they drive down to the location to complain about, have the common sense to offer them something to at least acknowledge that the customer was screwed. In this case, I was screwed out of something more precious than anything else . . . MY TIME!!!!
Suggested solution:
A free meal and a promise to fix their website to accommodate customers more effectively when ingredients are unavailable. If an ingredient is unavailable, don't charge them extra for replacing the item. That's total bs.
