ComplaintsforDairy Queen Grill and Chill

• Initial Complaint

  02/20/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  09/08/23 $130.94 DQ Grill and Chill, 4501 Pine ave, Erie pa 16504 Order # ***************** The burger I ate had a weird taste and the onion rings were burnt to an absolute crisp and were inedible. Issue was blown way out of proportion by the associate who answered the phone, and she lied to her manager. This associate told me to call back and talk to the manager in the morning. So that associate told the manager her side of the story and over exaggerated by a longshot. This manager was automatically ignorant and judgemental. This store has a reputation in the area, many of the same issues when it comes to customer service. The store itself refused to do anything let alone admit they were wrong. This manager had the audacity to tell me my there's no way my onion rings could have been overcooked as they watched the tapes. As a consumer I do not understand how watching a tape could determine that. I was willing to bring all the food to the restaurant to prove it. It sat on my table all night. I did reach out to cooperate many times. They were helpful and tried to offer me 25 dollar gift card. I had asked many times to talk to the owner of that store as I want that store owner to know how the manager is treating customers. I wanted my opportunity to speak with them to see their opinion, and to give them my side of the story. Not some over exaggerated version they may have been told. They had the pictures i posted taken off their Google reviews along with any that showed them in a negative perspective. They have/had signs in the drive thru window about their complaints and invite the customers to do better. They intimidate you into not wanting to speak up about any kind of issue. I haven't returned since the incident but I wouldn't doubt if they removed the sign. I do have copies off all emails with cooperate and the email receipt. I waited long enough for the store to contact me to resolve this issue.

  Business response

  02/25/2024

  Hello,
  We would like to start off by stating we are saddened by the experience the customer felt she had.  The customer placed a very large order at the end of the night, her burgers that she ordered were very intricate, several different sauces were ordered on each burger, so the manager took it upon herself to make the order to ensure that it was completed properly.  The food had been picked up and the customer had called shortly after stating her food tasted like “a**”.  She stated this several times to the manager who was trying to understand what was wrong with her order to see if she could somehow offer to fix it for the customer, but the customer kept repeating how they tasted in explicit language.  The customer stated she wanted a refund but the manger on duty explained that due to the total of the order, the manager explained to the customer she would have to call back in the morning to speak to a supervisor as she was unable to authorize a refund that high.  When the customer called back in the morning it was offered to her to have her entire order remade if she would like to bring her food back, the customer at this time refused and kept demanding the owners name and phone number.  The managers do not give out personal information, so the customer was told to call back on Monday morning to speak to the owner as he would be in then.  The owner was aware of the situation, and as stated by the customer, cameras were reviewed to ensure everything was made properly and up to standard.   To our knowledge the customer never called the store back on Monday, instead she took her grievances to corporate who offered her a gift certificate.  We truly are sorry the customer feels she was mistreated at our store we offered to remake her entire order and she had refused; we are at a loss at what else we could do to make this right. 
  The customer stated she placed pictures on google review that were removed by us, our store does not have the ability to remove anything from this site, as this is not affiliated with our store, we do not know who or how anything was removed that the customer placed online.
  The signs that are posted in the store are not in the least bit intimidating, we absolutely love our staff, they are hardworking, and fantastic at their job, unfortunately some customers feel that they have the right to treat our staff poorly at times, so our signs simply state that we love our staff and to please not treat them poorly, we also let the customers know that if they feel they can do their job any better we would love for them to apply.
  This situation was completely unfortunate and as stated before we are saddened at the experience the customer had at our store, we offered to remake their order to their liking and when that was refused, we allowed corporate to handle the grievance by offering a gift card that they can feel free to use at any Dairy Queen of their liking.  We hope this customer will allow us to serve them again in the future, in the meantime we apologize for their experience.

  Customer response

  04/01/2024

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
  
  Hello ********!  Thank you for taking the time to hear my case and my experience.  I am writing back to you in regards to the response I received from the store. I have to say I am not surprised about the response I received based off the previous interactions and lack of accountability I expected nothing less.   I have multiple witnesses that heard this conversation on both accounts.  I am truthfully appalled that they are choosing to lie and to exacerbate the situation.   They absolutely refused to re make the food because I wanted the onion rings remade and i was told there was nothing that she could do.  I even directly asked for them to be remade.  The manager argued with me that they weren't over cooked because she watched the tapes and it was all made correctly.   I argued that she couldnt tell me via the tapes if my food was over cooked, because literally that is impossible.  There isn't one person who would say they agree that by a video you could tell if something was overcooked.   The original employee who answered the phone didn't ask questions and I didn't continue to use explicit language.  There are minimum of three people that heard the conversation to verify I did not continue to swear.  I said it tasted like "s**t" one time, which I even apologized for.  I truly had to laugh at the fact they implied I said it tasted like "a**."   For the simple fact that is one phrase I personally do not use and never have due to what it could imply.  I even asked her if I came off as rude because I was trying to inform them that something tasted weird with the burger not the sauce but the meat itself and that the food was over cooked. I expressed that in part of my reason for calling is I worked in fast food and management.   I asked that employee if what i said made sense and expressed that i was honestly looking forward to the onion rings more than anything, and thats why I was upset they were inedible.  Maybe the fryer time or temp was off if it was burning food in the regular amount of time it take too cook them OR they were busy and my order was big and they left them in the fryer too long.  It could have been an accident but immediately the customer is in the wrong.   I had physical proof to show them and Angie had absolutely no interest in the food coming back to the store.    That employee did absolutely nothing to attempt to make the situation better.  Only defend herself and explain how that couldn't be possible she made it exactly like it said.  There was a bunch of reasons she gave me as to why my food would have tasted that way.  I order the same things when I go and haven't ever had a complaint about dairy queen.  Which is why I wanted to call and inform them of my experience because something was off.  There was never a sorry or even a recognition that anything i said could be true, each person i talked to only defended their actions and responded in a child like manner.(Arrogant, yet another reason why the sign is rude if you are not approachable in regards to any kind of complaint then I think any person who is honest could do a better job because they could admit there could have been a mistake) She asked no questions, I tried to explain to this employee that the burgers the meat itself tasted like something changed because it was disgusting.   The artificial smoke flavor in the burger was overpowering.  Yes I wanted a refund at the time since I was clearly not getting to eat the food that I ordered.   I have to assume she believes i wanted a refund for the entire order apparently, but she never asked.  That employee told me to call back in the morning.  I did.  The manager was IMMEDIATELY rude and arrogant.   The signs are absolutely intimidating because of how the employees act and treat customers like they are above making a mistake.  So it's okay to passively aggressively invite your customers to do the job better, great employees can make mistakes too.  No one is perfect.   I have already addressed all of the things they have already said, between my review on Google and my complaint to BBB.  This company talks in circles and the employees are blatantly lying about the encounter I had.  They are absolutely not sorry.  I requested multiple times to be contacted by the owner of the store. My contact information has been clear on multitudes of places and yet that individual never reached out.   If they say that they have made every attempt to make this right why didn't they simply admit the food was over cooked and have the owner contact me in regards to the first initial employee lying about the interaction I had with her, secondly the absolutely arrogant manager Angie that I spoke to, and finally taking accountability for their actions.   None of the things they said were offered with their store were offered henceforth the multiple updates to cooperate, and Google.   Integrity is what this store and its employees is lacking and it is blatantly clear in their misguided attempt at lying to the BBB about the interactions that took place on that day.  I would also like to mention I have a copy of the order that was placed.  It truly was not that complicated one sandwich added an extra sauce which didnt change the flavor of the meat.  The rest of the items were nothing more than adding or removing the main ingredients ketchup, mustard, pickle, lettuce, tomatoe, and bacon.  The first employee on the phone tried to tell me it was the sauce on the burger.. I expressed that i had eaten this sandwich multiple times and it was fine.   I had issues with other food in this order but i never brought it up due to the fact that they couldnt admit they could have accidentally over cooked some onion rings.  I have eaten at dairy queen for over 20 years it was always my favorite restaurant.  I will not let someone tell me what I am talking about or try to tell me its something different.  (Again this is another example of why the sign is a immediate put off to the customer people will become upset when someone is not listening to them and trying to tell them how they feel or what their interpretation is of how they felt) The order was placed at 7:28 pm online. The inside of the restaurant closes at 8. I left the instructions that we would be going thru the drive thru which closed at 9 pm. I got the notification that my order was ready at 7:42pm. Which still implies that I would have had plenty of time to get it in the store if need be.  For such a large order it took them no less time than it usually does to prepare an order as the drive thru takes that long for less sometimes.  Instead, because it was large I chose the drive thru since it was available until 9pm.  Regardless of the size or complexity of the order  if the restaurant is still open then there shouldn't be an issue, considering the drive thru was open for another hour and a half still.  No one human being is perfect but the inability to admit something so miniscule on their part was absolutely befuddling to me.  I chose to continue to escalate this based on the fact of integrity and the things they are accusing me of as the customer are not even in my character.  Also, the fact that never in over 20 years of patronizing establishments have I ever encountered this type of attitude or response to something that could have been handled so easily.  As a veteran of the United States military integrity is a core value, selfless service, honesty and loyalty are values that my life is built on.. I will not stand by and be silenced and allow a business to treat someone that way. If they are going to treat me like that over something simple, then how can anyone be sure how they would be treated over something possibly larger.  It comes down to the principle of the fact.  This managers actions require attention.  The employee who lied requires attention.. The entire store needs to be retrained on customer service. Five months ago there is another complaint regards to overcooked food, and even the second time back was a less then pleasant experience.  Another instance 8 months ago with the same experiences.  Every single complaint has the same generic response.  No offer of reaching out to the customer to make it right or talk to them just a "We hope you give us another chance and visit us again."  3 months ago more issues with the food and coming back and being disappointed.  7 months ago a woman explains her issues with a mangers response to her complaints.  A year ago another complaint of burnt food.  7 months ago a woman complained of a long wait and food forgetten, plus another extended wait for the food the store initially forgot.  7 months ago a woman ordered a simple fudge sundea that was made with a lack luster attitude.  A year ago a woman complained of terrible customer service.  A year ago someone complains of a long wait and terrible food and of course the irony of the sign in the window.  The only response you see from DQ is the same across the board.  Clearly my complaints are valid.  There is more evidence on Google reviews that speaks volumes.  Similar complaints for years ignored and brushed off.  6 years ago,  5 years ago the same exact issue, 4 years ago...  3 years ago 1 year ago ....It does not take much to see a pattern here in how this store is run and the ethics they choose to stand by.  It went from the owner of the store responding to the complaints and reviews on google to the DQ fan relations team... so clearly I made a wave and some one thought it was necessary to have them intervene.   To be clear I asked for a name and a phone number for the store owner where I could reach them.  I was not even given a name.   For them to make the assumption I was asking for a personal number is outrageous.  Most businesses have extentions or voicemails for people in higher positions.   

  
  Regards,
  
  Lindsay Quashnock

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩