Zambrero Lawnton — Restaurant in Greater Brisbane

DO NOT GO HERE! AVOID AT ALL COST!!!

Partner and I ordered 2 different burritos, when we arrived home we opened them to ensure the chicken on was mine (partner is vegetarian). Very disappointed to discover that my ‘chicken’ burrito has a sad excuse of three minuscule flakes of chicken at one end of the burrito and no more chicken throughout. I had ordered double cheese and extra sourcream, there was no cheese to be found and the tiniest smidge of sourcream I’d ever seen. We live very close by (approximately 1km away from this store) and both burritos were barely warm when we unwrapped them even though we had gotten Zambreros and come straight home. Both of us requested NO GUACAMOLE. There was guac on both of ours. Partners burrito had no cheese or sourcream. It had lettuce on his which he had requested not to. After a very long day of hard labour work my partner was unsatisfied with these completely INCORRECT orders and drove back to ask for a refund. The owner/manager came out and said directly to my partner “it’s against store policy” to provide us with a refund. He said he can only offer us 1 small burrito and nothing else. My partner pointed out we are protected under the Australian Consumer Law and he legally has to provide a refund. The owner/manager then replied “okay” then walked straight out the front doors and left leaving the poor younger girl working the front confused and seemed to be shocked by what just happened. My partner asked her if he’s come back. She replied that’s she’s unsure. After waiting 15-20 mins for him to hopefully come back we figured he was not coming back and left. We left the burritos there which had not been eaten at all. I feel robbed. Over $30 wasted with absolute poor ‘customer service’ from the ‘manager’.

Directly from the ACCC website: “If a product or service you buy fails to meet a consumer guarantee, you have the right to ask for a repair, replacement or refund under the Australian Consumer Law. The remedy you're entitled to will depend on whether the issue is major or minor.”

The ACCC also states: “Signs stating ‘No refunds’ or ‘No refunds or exchanges on sale items’ are unlawful, as they imply that it’s not possible to get a refund under any circumstances, including for faulty items. In fact your consumer guarantee rights still apply. Retailers don’t have to give you a refund or exchange if you simply change your mind. Always check the store’s returns policy.”

REPLY TO OWNERS COMMENT No, he did not walk out of the store. You did. I was sitting in the car waiting while he went in. Funnily enough, fate would have it your Ute was parked next to us and I watched you get in and drive away. At the time, I thought you were just another customer until my partner came back to the car after waiting quite a while for you to return to the store (which you never returned) and he told me that the person who drove off next to us was you. Lol. So maybe cut it with...

Wow! So they are aways late, as in we have ordered almost every week for 2 years now. Only once the food was ready when I showed up, and that's because I was late. Generally the food is good, but not today. The food was not even close to what was ordered. Maybe it was the new girl or the fact she was alone. Any way this is not the reason for the bad review. So I order online thinking that the food would be ready near the time the order said. I show up, the order has not even been started. The girl blames the app and gets started. She makes it part way through when another customer comes in. She stops my order and makes the order of the walk in. After 5 minutes of waiting as she make the walkin meal she goes back to mine. I ask when she is done, why. "It's company policy". So to be clear it is company policy to disadvantage the people that have preordered and paid for a meal. Then what is the point to the app order system then... That will be my last meal from Zambrero.

In response to your reply, the girl said she was the only one there. I didn’t see any other staff members while I was in the store for about 15-minutes. So not sure what you mean by “I make your meal every Thursday arvo accurately and on time”, never on time but mostly accurately made. She is also not the only staff member to say the same thing to me. I had a similar situation previously when another staff member was running late. I was told I would need to wait on other staff member to show up as she had to serve the walk-in customers. I thought I had misunderstood her at the time and other girl came in soon after, apparently, I had not misunderstood. Almost 40-minute wait that day and that was after the 20-minutes from time of order to getting to pick up, 1 hour total. The food is generally fine but the understaffing and quite frankly bazar policy of app orders coming after walk-in customers is just too much. We won’t be back...

Unfortunately this location has gone downhill significantly recently. We used to order via the app all the time (until about Feb/March) however kept getting severely disappointed when the order was not even started by the time we arrived to pick up and then would get hard and sad black rice, stale chips andshrinking portions. We have tried again twice since then - most recently last week, waiting 45 mins for an order that wasn't and couldn't be fulfilled. The poor staff were so stressed and overworked - the owner doesn't seem to care and is running this place into the ground. Judging by the way the owner is responding to these reviews so defensively and constantly blaming their staff who I've now come to read are kids on work experience and therefore being the cheapest possible labour he can find i.e. FREE!!! these work experience kids arent getting paid! (im pretty sure the owner has also breached privacy laws in some of these reviews by what he has written about both staff and customers) - this owner is an absolute liability who has no issues cutting corners and throwing others under the bus to save a buck. For a company who donates meals to people in need and claims to be so ethics focused - Zambrero needs to take a serious look at what is going on at this store and understand why this owner is using LITERAL FREE CHILD LABOUR and exploiting our community. I will never visit or order from Zambrero Lawnton again and will ensure everyone I know in the area steers clear to avoid getting sick - either physically from the food (based on some other reviews) or mentally from the disgusting feeling of supporting this person to exploit the young people in our community to run his business, unsupported, for free. I've lodged feedback to corporate and have had a response from the owner where I have been issued a refund - they blamed the staff in this email too. Please don't visit this Zambrero, it's...