Dairy Queen Grill & Chill — Restaurant in Carleton Place

I rarely eat out, but I decided to treat myself after a long day, and ordered the chicken strip basket in the drive through because I was travelling with a sleeping baby, and needed to get home quickly for his next feeding. I do not live in Carleton place and I rarely drive through it.

When I opened my meal 10-15 minutes later, I discovered that the chicken strips were dried out, and must have been deep fried several times throughout the day. The colour was dark brown instead of the golden brown they usually are. They were also tiny compared to the strips I’ve received in the past when I have ordered this meal.

I’m not super picky when it comes to fast food quality, but this chicken was inedible. I tried a bite of each strip hoping that some of it would be edible, since I was extremely hungry, but everything was nearly impossible to chew through let alone eat.

I called the Dairy Queen about a week and a half later (sort of busy with a baby) to let them know what happened and ask for a refund. I figured an employee was too lazy to make fresh chicken that day, and that a manager would be happy to know that they had employees serving bad quality food occasionally, so they could remedy that behaviour.

Boy was I wrong. I got no apology, and no refund. I was told that they don’t do refunds at all, and that I should have returned to exchange the food.

I told them that I ordered it in the drive thru and was long gone before I realized how bad the food was. Plus having a sleeping baby in the car who was due for a feed soon meant that turning around was not an option.

They did not care at all, and did not offer anything to try to make up for my bad experience. They basically said it was my fault because I should have come back to get new food if I didn’t like the food I received.

Pictures included for proof. I did eat the fries because I was starving, hence the lack of fries...

At the speaker, when ordering through the DT, I requested that 2 of our 4 treats come with lids. (The people receiving these were at home, so it made sense to not have them spill all over the car.)

When we got to the window, these were the first two things ready. We asked if we could get lids put on them, and the young girl working (16-18, long wavy hair, glasses) rolled her eyes, ripped the spoons out of the sundaes (along with half the toppings) and threw them into a nearby garbage. She then handed them out to us.

We waited about 5 more minutes for our 2 blizzards to be ready. (All the while, the two sundaes are melting in the non-air conditioned car)

When they were handed out, the first one was absolutely COVERED in sauce on the side of the cup. Before I handed it to the passenger, I reached into my centre console for some napkins (I always have extra, thank goodness) to wipe the cup off a bit. (And myself, since I was covered in sauce and peanut butter). While the young, unpleasant woman who already rolled her eyes at us can see me doing this, she doesn't offer me another napkin, or grab a cloth and wipe off the other blizzard that she is hanging onto. Instead, she shouts "HERE!" as she tries to hand out the second. I finish getting most of the sauce and peanut butter off of my hands, the cup, and my clothing, only to be fortunate enough to have gotten another cup that was absolutely doused in sauce on the outside, as well. I tried to ask the young lady for some napkins, but before I could do so, she simply walked away. No "thank you" no "here's a napkin" no "have a good night". Hands down the worst service I have received in...

I ordered a burger combo meal, with onion rings instead of fries, and a crispy chicken burger combo with a large drink. I had to repeat my order several times and finally someone else came and took it. When I got the order there was a grilled chicken burger instead of crispy but I ate it anyway, and it was very good, but not what I ordered. The onion rings were soft and had a fishy taste. After we left I wondered if I got short changed as it came out to over $33. I decided to check and figured I may as well mention the mix up with the chicken burger and fishy tasting rings. I received a reply from their corporate office apologizing and said they would forward my review to the Carleton Place branch for comment. I heard nothing, so after a month I wrote again. I got the same message and after another 2 weeks wrote them and said never mind, I'm done with Carleton Place and asked them to verify what the price should have been. They wrote back saying the price was correct and although they encourage their franchisees to respond, they can't force them to. Since Carleton Place chose to ignore me rather than just answer my question and give a simple apology, I thought it best to let people know not to expect much, if any, response from the Carleton...