Coolum Seafood — Restaurant in Sunshine Coast Regional

On Sunday, my family and I placed a takeaway order from Coolum Seafood through DoorDash, spending over $200.

When my partner and brother-in-law picked up the food, they brought back two bags, but after checking the order against the app, we realised that half of it was missing. I went back to the store and was greeted by a friendly young staff member who noted the missing items and passed the issue to another staff member in the kitchen. That’s when things took a turn. A woman named Jo (not the owner) came out aggressively, insisting that our full order had been prepared. However, after rechecking, she realised the missing items were indeed part of our order. Instead of offering a solution, she dismissively told me, “I have 10 orders in front of you. I’m not making it special for you, you’ll have to wait.”

We had already waited 45 minutes and needed to get back on the road to Brisbane, so waiting even longer wasn’t an option. Jo was argumentative and unhelpful, showing no concern for resolving the issue. When I mentioned disputing the missing food through DoorDash, she said that was fine but insisted we had received our cod, even though all the cod was crumbed when we had ordered a mix of battered and crumbed. (For the record, we did not dispute the cod because we ate it, even though it wasn’t what we ordered.)

Her attitude was rude, combative, and completely unprofessional. She was even yelling at staff in the kitchen. If I were a small business owner, I would want to know that a staff member was damaging my business’s reputation.

On a positive note, the food we did receive was quite good. However, I strongly advise the owner to reconsider having Jo in a customer-facing role, as her behaviour is driving customers away.

In response to Trent’s reply.

Hi Trent,

Thanks for your prompt response. I’ve received a refund for the items we didn’t receive from DoorDash, which is why I didn’t pursue the issue further with your staff member, Jo as I knew DoorDash were excellent when it comes to customer service.

The real concern here is customer service. When a customer returns with a reasonable complaint, the focus should be on making things right, not interrogating them or making them feel embarrassed in front of other customers. Calling out to another staff member in a way that questions the customer’s honesty can be uncomfortable and unnecessary.

I don’t believe in fighting fire with fire, and my intention isn’t to be negative but to provide constructive feedback. Businesses can only improve if they listen to customer experiences. This is only the second Google review I’ve ever left because I believe in helping small businesses grow and improve.

My suggestion would be to take a closer look at the customer service approach and hiring practices to ensure customers feel valued and respected.

I hope this...

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The numbers were called out sporadically and all over the place, 8, 14, 21, 16 etc. The place was run by young minimum age kids who really were polite and trying their hardest and you could clearly see they were stressed (one looked like they were about to cry after that customer told them they should be ashamed of their service) but they appeared to just need an older person to oversee or manage as they couldn’t seem to get organised and cohesive together.

The food itself was average, fish burger was alright but the bun was quite dry. Read some old reviews from 2 months ago and can confirm the oil is still old tasting and leaving the chips gross tasting and not worth eating and chips are still being served missing salt. Wasn’t asked what kind of salt or crumbed vs batter for our order either. Probably will never come here again as the problems seem to have been ongoing for quite some time by reading...