Restaurant complaints [Merged]

[usagora]

One of my customers recommended I try our local Chilis where he works. I haven't been to a Chilis in ages, so I thought why not. I always use mobile ordering and curbside pickup for places I eat, so I download the Chilis app, add an entree to an order for 12pm tomorrow, and go to checkout, but the "online payment" option is grayed out--only choice is to pay in the restaurant (sort of defeats the purpose of curbside pickup, does it not?). Thought maybe it's an issue with their mobile app, so tried their website. Nope--still grayed out.

After some experimentation, I discovered that you can only pay online for orders picked up on the same calendar day. Huh? Never encountered this with any other restaurant mobile app. Bizarre. Anyone else have any experience with this? Why on earth would they not allow you to pay online for future orders?

 

[usagora]

I messaged Chilis about this, and here was their response:

For next day orders call the restaurant to place order

So why even allow customers to select a future date if you can't place the order through the app? Yes, I know I can just wait until 12am or later on the day of, but I'm just trying to understand the logic of how they've designed their app and website ordering process. It makes no sense.

 

[Rafterman]

OK, I see your problem.

You ordered from Chilis.

 

[usagora]

OK, I see your problem.

You ordered from Chilis.

You'd probably make the same joke about any other restaurant that DOES get this right 😉

This post was serious, however. Anyone else have this issue with Chilis or another restaurant? Any ideas why on earth a restaurant wouldn't allow you to pay online for a future order? Plenty of them do, so I don't see the issue.

 

[wilberforce]

You'd probably make the same joke about any other restaurant that DOES get this right 😉

This post was serious, however. Anyone else have this issue with Chilis or another restaurant? Any ideas why on earth a restaurant wouldn't allow you to pay online for a future order? Plenty of them do, so I don't see the issue.

Probably because people make an online order for tomorrow when they meant to make an order for today, then come in and complain because their order is not ready.
By preventing online orders for the future, it eliminates this user mistake. Unfortunately it also eliminates those who really do want to order in the future.

 

[usagora]

Probably because people make an online order for tomorrow when they meant to make an order for today, then come in and complain because their order is not ready.
By preventing online orders for the future, it eliminates this user mistake. Unfortunately it also eliminates those who really do want to order in the future.

Then why even let the user select a future date to begin with? Besides, it defaults to today, so you'd deliberately have to select a future date. Not to mention that logic would also apply to future times on the same day ("I thought I selected 9am not 9pm!"). So, no, that can't be it.

 

[Rafterman]

You'd probably make the same joke about any other restaurant that DOES get this right 😉

This post was serious, however. Anyone else have this issue with Chilis or another restaurant? Any ideas why on earth a restaurant wouldn't allow you to pay online for a future order? Plenty of them do, so I don't see the issue.

I liked Chilis when they had those little corn on the cobs. But we don't have those on the menu in my area any more.

 

[compwiz1202]

Moe's app is dumb too. My wife tried for ASAP but it wouldn't work. Said we had to pick future and pick the earliest time. Isn't that what AS SOON AS POSSIBLE means???? Hate when the business is great but the tech is garbage. Same as where we take our cars for service. They are spectacular, but making an appt on the site sucks. Guest is ok, but if you try to make an acct it either logs in the out instantly, or it states wrong PW even though you absolutely know it's correct. And if you do forgot, it takes a half an hour to an hour to get the email.

 

[usagora]

Yes, first world problem acknowledged, so let's not go there. But both the Wendy's and Panera Bread I regularly go to stopped offering curbside pickup, and when I asked why, I get no reason. The Wendy's stopped a good number of months ago, but Panera just recently stopped. At least Panera has a rapid pickup shelf inside the store. The Wendy's doesn't.

When I asked the Wendy's district manager why they stopped offering the curbside pickup option (even though they still have parking spaces marked as for curbside pickup), he said, "As a company we decided not to do at this time". Uh, yeah, obviously you decided not to do it, but why? He never answered. The irony is often the person at the drive-thru window will make you pull forward and wait for someone to bring you out your food anyway, so why can't they just do that to begin with instead of making me wait through their slow drive-thru? 🤦🏼‍♂️

Panera customer service said, "We know our curbside service is critical to guests like you that are on the go, and hope this change helps us give our curbside guests a better experience. We'd love to continue to serve you with Rapid Pick-up or Drive Thru where available." Huh? How does stopping curbside pickup give me a better curbside pickup experience? That makes no sense. Rapid Pick-up and Drive-Thru are not curbside pickup. And the store I go to doesn't offer drive-thru pickup for mobile orders anymore either.

I just don't get it. Why can't they just be forthright about what the reason is? Seems like that's the right thing to do when you suddenly stop offering a useful service without any warning.

If my local Chick-Fil-A stops offering curbside, that would be a disaster, seeing as they're about 10x busier than Panera or Wendy's and the drive-thru line already wraps around the building even with 25 curbside pickup spaces. And the inside is also crowded as heck, so it would not be fun trying to pick up inside. So if they can make it work, why can't others?