Swiss Chalet — Restaurant in Burlington

how do i put this in an internet-friendly-child-accessible manner? this location's only saving grace was that the food was still passable even after sitting unattended at the pick-up counter for over an hour.

i'll start the actual review with a disclaimer: the day we had our little mishap with swiss chalet on brant was the last one we had to spend with our family dog of 13yrs before it was time to say goodbye. swiss chalet had always been his favourite treat; he loved their chicken.

now, let me paint you a picture.

september 7th, 2023. the sun was shining, the wind was blowing, and swiss chalet was on our minds. my dad always ordered on the app; it was the easiest way for him to plan out what to get. otherwise he'd get frustrated having to ask the cashiers to repeat themselves (he refuses to wear his hearing aids), et cetera. no problems, the order went through, and it was going to be ready in 20ish minutes. it said, on the order confirmation he was sent via email, that he was to wait in his car at the restaurant for a message regarding the delivery of his curbside pickup. pretty standard, right? we'd done this many times before at the one on fairview with no issues whatsoever.

so imagine our displeasured surprise when an hour goes by before my dad receives an update on the order: at some point, without pinging his phone, the delivery method was switched to the takeout counter. according to one of the employees, they'd been having issues with their messaging tablet they use to communicate with queuing customers. now, i'm not blaming the store for technical issues, everyone has them.

what i am upset about is that they made absolutely no effort to see if he was in the designated curbside spot once he didn't come inside after--need i stress again--an hour.

my dad had figured they were just really busy, so he had afforded them the benefit of the doubt. which he, after the fact, regretted.

the food wasn't even warm by the time we got it.

i recognize that not everything is going to run smoothly in a fast-paced work environment, particularly in the food industry (and around the dinner-rush). i can speak from my own time as a fast-food worker. the idea is to get things out as quickly as possible. unfortunately, that tends to sacrifice quality as a result.

sadly in the case of this swiss chalet, they lacked heavily in the latter two.

however, i believe that reviews should pass along more than just criticism, but also offer suggestions from a consumer's point-of-view on how to improve a patron's overall experience.

if the employees managing online/call-in orders could work on improving their lines of communication to ensure the efficacy of the department, i do believe that may entice the general public to continue bringing their service to that location. whether it be through the passage of information in the franchisee's chain of command, or even just reaching out to the customer through the method of contact provided in the order if something changes in the order itself.

coming full-circle in this blurb, ozzy passed peacefully by euthanization in my mom's arms the next day. and even if we weren't satisfied with our order or service that evening; he enjoyed the...

I took advantage of a $5 discount special offer which entailed downloading and ordering through a Swiss Chalet App. I ordered 3 meals with appetizers & 90 min. later no food. Upon calling back I was told I didn't enter my postal code (although it was CLEARLY Visible on my screen) WHY NOBODY CALLED US or why it would even matter is UNKNOWN I then gave the order verbally over the phone. 60 min later....still NO FOOD. 2nd call....their system went down, so they shut down delivery as per company proceedure. WHY NOBODY CALLED US again is UNKNOWN Because it had now been 2&1/2 hours they made a exception. Took our order AGAIN verbally and promised to rush our meals 40 min. Later food arrived. Wings had NO SAUCE (I ordered meduim) Ribs had NO SAUCE (I Ordered BBQ) Roast Beef & Ribs had no side dishes (we ordered fries and baked potato with extra sour cream) Also no condiments or cutlery which I requested. 3rd call (I asked to speak to a manager and was placed on hold for 12 min. *Cell phone has a call timer) I explained the entire ordeal AGAIN & The Manager was quite rude explaining to me that they did us a favour as there isn't supposed to be ANY delivery when system goes down, instead of apologizing & offering to fix the problem. She offered me a $5 credit towards my next order (LIKE THERE EVER WOULD BE A NEXT ORDER!!!!!) AT THIS POINT I DEMANDED THE MEALS TO BE FIXED, We were quite hungry at this point and just wanted our food. The manager said she would send out the correct meals, but to have the incorrect meals ready to give the driver upon delivery of the Correct meals/sides. So we had food we were not permitted to eat, that had to be returned which I assume gets thrown out anyway. So.... 40 min later our correct meals arrive, I gave our previous delivery to the driver who seemed to waiting for a tip. Not his fault I know...but a tip was NOT happening. The final order WAS CORRECT over 4 hours later. Here is the 🍒 cherry on top ..... At 3am we awoke to a received text message. My girlfriend asked who is texting you at this hour??? IT WAS A AUTOMATED MESSAGE FROM SWISS CHALET CONFIRMING MY ORIGINAL ORDER....WTH??? You COULDN'T Make up a...

This is not a review against the food, but rather the way in which things are being run at least for online orders, customer service is unfortunately extremely horrid and the store manager was fed up with them too. I had a 15 dollar credit on my account because some drivers were intentionally skipping the scene points menu to speed up the transaction, so the manager gave me a credit.

To use this credit however, I had to first reach out to the call center who would then call the store to get it applied to an order, easy enough right? Nope far from it, 20 calls and 3 days later this was done for me, I have never ever been an irate caller, but that horrid call center managed to make me one, the agent wasn't able to reach the manager or restaurant by phone, however when i called them, I was able to instantaneously, when i told them this they said they weren't able to and to get a hold of them the next day, tried the next day, same thing, i was able to reach the manager but they weren't, 3rd day SAME THING, so I lost it, I'm like I'm able to reach them why can't you guys? the agent tells me "can you please initiate a conference call between the restaurant and us" I was like seriously?? Even then i told the agent I tried doing that but it didn't work, at the end of the call I just told the agent I need to speak to her supervisor, she obviously didn't like that and started telling me "I've already told you I cant get through and I'm not lying" I told her I didn't care and just wanted to speak to the supervisor, finally got a hold of the supervisor who literally tells me "you do know the restaurant can email us right"? I told her "you do realize I'm the customer right? you shouldn't be telling me this, I'm literally doing your jobs for you'll and not even getting paid".

That's their level of professionalism and I've recorded every single call with them as proof, when the customer has to be the middle man between the restaurant and the call center, that's when you know it's a place to avoid. Well last time I order from here, quality of food is definitely not worth this sort of hassle. Food: 3.75/5 Customer...