Zen Leaf Elizabeth — Attraction in Elizabeth

What terrible retail management. In addition, whoever receives and manages the Zen Leaf NJ customer service contact email is possibly the worst, industry-wide. There may not actually be anyone handling this role - any communication over their years of operation has more or less gone unanswered. They haven't even been all bad, just mainly providing edits to their menu as they regularly update with incorrect information. I know this because of my industry position, brand, plant and product knowledge.

I provided the following review to the corporate customer service team with a neautral message requesting attention and communication in return. I clearly stated that I did not wish to post this review and that my communication was an attempt to avoid doing so. This was 12:09pm, August 27, 2024. I received no reply.

"I'm sitting in the parking lot of Zen Leaf, shocked at how I was just belittled by the Manager (Nate possibly? He refused to provide his name).

I was given 3 incorrect prerolls. The product was not shown to me at any point during the transaction. I examined the product before leaving the parking lot to find it was clearly marked as a different variety (strain) than what I requested.

During the transaction I spoke with the Budtender who confirmed the variety I requested by the variety's full name, so I was very disappointed. I already knew they would not be able to accept the incorrect product back without it's disposal, but my quality of life matters as much as anyone or any plant, so I proceeded to request the correct product that I had already paid for. I had the incorrect product in hand upon speaking with management - yet he stated he'd only be able to offer a discounted price on REPURCHASING the product I should have received initially.

The Manager as well as the Budtender accepted responsibility numerous times throughout the conversation, which they followed with excuses such as confusing label abbreviations, confusion regarding the flow of customers (there were like 3 people in an open, 6,000 sq foot space), and it being "wrong" to destroy good medicine. Sorry guys, the labels along with the industry’s retail process management is clear to me and many of your customers. Despite the industry, you're still retail service workers and managing customer flow and satisfaction are just basic principles of these types of roles.

I'm in the industry, an experienced cultivator for numerous companies Zen Leaf currently offers to it's customers. I'm also a professional with over a decade of retail management experience, another 10+ years of corporate account management roles and the like.To tell a customer purchasing medicine that although they were given incorrect medicine, the destruction of the medicine they were incorrectly given is a greater loss than he/she was experiencing...wow...such poor taste.

Upper management, please address this individual. His handling of his team's mistake has completely sucked the life from my efforts today. Speaking about the plant in a good light doesn't make the world a better place - doing some version of "the right thing" does.

On my way out I approached by the few customers present that overheard my communication with manager. The each shared a story regarding Zen Leaf poor service and management. One drove an hour to pickup a pre-order that he was told was not in inventory upon arrival. One customer stated that the Budtender refused to honor a menu price because it was a "system error" and needed to be changed. I've also experienced these exact situations in the past with Zen Leaf, so they must be common."

Lastly, I've received a damaged Verano live resin cartridge from Rise, as well as a mislabeled Tyson flower product from Apothecarium. Each was replaced without hesitation by the management team at those dispensaries. Looking back though, it wasn't even their fault - it was Verano's packaging team, and Verano operates.....ZEN LEAF. These were the only issues I've ever complained about after a decade working within and as a customer of the NJ...

I had previously given this place a 5 star review. I'm unfortunately downgrading to a 3 based on a recent experience.

Let me say that the products are of good quality and the people working cashier are kind, helpful, and knowledgeable. My gripe is now with the company and their promotion policy.

Last week I went in with a friend for their Valentines Day special: I refer a friend, they get 20% off, I get $50 credit. We went at the end of the promotion on the 18th. Once there, they had applied the promotion. Before completing the order, the cashier asked if he was a teacher. He was, so she asked for ID and applied it to the account. When she did, it overrode the 20% discount for the promo with the 10% discount for being a teacher, and now the order was more expensive. She couldn't get back the 20% promo. First star lost...

My $50 still wasn't being applied to my account. The cashier said it could take up to 24 hours to apply, but that I have 10 days to redeem it. I went home, and before the next day I was notified of the credit, so I decided to wait until the next weekend to go back. When I went back 6 days later, I was told at the cashier that the promo only lasted during that time and my $50 refer a friend credit was downgraded to the normal $25 credit. Another star lost...

Zen Leaf Corporate needs to fix their tech. My guess is that their Point of Sale software is not properly connected with their phone app and not everything is in sync. 3 stars until they get it together and the promos match...

Such a great place with a great selection and great people! I have had horrible insomnia for almost 9 years and nothing has worked for me after the medicine I was on for 5 years randomly caused bad side effects. I found RSO oil and it’s been a life changer. The issue is that RSO oil can be harder to find and usually there isn’t a big stock of it at any NJ dispensary and I just don’t have the time and patience to make it at home. Anyway, I was looking at every dispensary I was able to get to in about an hour and I was, at the time, not far at all from Zen Leaf, so I checked out their website and they had a great selection of not just the RSO products, but of everything. It was actually too many pages for me to go through quickly with selecting only two of the categories you can look through (pre rolls/extract and then extract/edibles) because there was just THAT much in stock. I ended up going with RSO capsules and a 1g syringe of RSO oil. I tried the syringe and it was really really good quality! The last dispensary I went to hardly ever has RSO anything and the last time they did, it was only one thing- a half g of a syringe of RSO and it did the opposite of help me sleep. For me, Zen Leaf is definitely out of the way and a good 40 minutes from my house, but I’d rather make the 40 min ride than the 5 min ride to the one closer to me (there are also 2 OTHER ones closer to me too, and I’d still come here just for how much of a selection you get and the quality AND...