Swiss Chalet — Restaurant in New Tecumseth

Dine in has usually been fine (although last time we had a server who literally didn't even stop when passing out table and basically threw our food at us). However, my issue is more with delivery, things have been getting worse and worse but last night was the last straw. My partner has terminal cancer and had been unable to eat much, but wanted swiss chalet last night! So first calling to order....it felt like we were transferred to a call center somewhere halfway across the world, the person on the other line "Annie" (suuure) sounded like they were unfamiliar with swiss chalet entirely, could barely use a phone (muffled, wierd pauses, spuratic questions in no type of order, repeating things over and over, random static on the line that made it impossible to hear, not listening to us or explaining anything, etc.) after a PAINFULLY long time, we got things ordered, even though to get the deal we wanted we had to order 2 pops (when we asked for 7up or sprite they had they only had pepsi...so pepsi it is then, why ask?) after over 45 min a driver came, he was the most pleasant part of the entire interaction! Once he took off, I checked in on my partner and went to get our dinners, to discover, I had only been given a large paper bag with 2 pepsi's inside. NO FOOD. No the story doesnt even end here! We called back, they didn't apoligize, but said they'd send 2 more "right out"...after ANOTHER 40 min we called back again "yeah, the driver is just leaving with them now" ??? AGAIN no apology, so what was happening for that 40 minutes? they certainly weren't cooking our chicken, because when it finally came another half hour after THAT (we live less than 10 min away) it was cold, there were hardly any fries and things were thrown in, upside down, etc. I was STUNNED that no one apologized or offered to comp our meal! Stuff like this has happened before, but this was definitely the worst experience, I've also noticed that ANY other place that has forgotten an item or taken waaaaaay too long, has offered us a free meal or at the very least a cupon or *something as an apology...as well as a VERBAL apology. I guess next time, my partner should just shake off chemo and drive over there! Disgusting. You don't KNOW who your customers are, you don't know if they're sick and this is the first meal they've been able to eat in months, you don't know if it's a single mother who has saved up all her money to have a special dinner w her kids, you don't know if they have a disability, etc. so MAYBE you should provide competent, polite service EVERY TIME, just in case. And no people do not want to "engage further" by filling out a survey but an automated msg. they want you...

This will be long so I'll start with a summary: After 45 minutes of trying to order online and via phone I gave up and we took the 4 kids to eat in. After that ordeal we honestly wouldn't have gone if it wasn't my daughters bday choice. Once there, food was great (ribs, chicken, fries, sweet potato fries, pie, ribs and more) and our server Melissa was awesome. No complaints at all. So now for more details:

This started off really rough, twice I tried to order food for 6 through the webpage and both times it failed to process my order. When I tried calling the "local" number it put to corporate and I spent 20 minutes trying to sort through if the order went through or not. After confirming it all failed they processed the online via phone. Except the call dropped (their end) before it finished. Called back a second time and again the call was dropped. At this point we gave up and went to dine in with the 4 kids.

From the get go the sit down was entirely better. Our sever Melissa was new, but super friendly and understanding. When I complained about the online experience they were very understanding and apologetic. It turns out they've been having significant issues with the online systems. Unfortunately there was one last problem; they couldn't process our gift cards which we finally remembered to use. Turns out their internal system wasn't working either...but instead of more apologies they did us one better and covered the cost of the meal. We tried to insist on paying but they wouldn't hear of it. Great way to run a business as there were no plans to return again after tonight. Now we'll make it a regular visit! See...

No need to hear from Swiss Chalet to fill out a form because I won't be purchasing again. Ordering through their call centre was a nightmare. I had to repeat, repeat, repeat all of my order because it wasn't understood. Over and over. This was a birthday dinner for a friend, who rapid-tested to visit us safely and we were beyond embarrassed. I specifically told both the call centre and the store that my oven had broken down so we couldn't reheat if order was cold. Ordered extra BBQ sauce for ribs ... which we paid for and once again, SPECIFICALLY because order taker couldn't get order right. Ended up with 7 containers of dipping sauce with NO BBQ sauce for 2 racks of ribs. 7 CONTAINERS and NOT 1 container of BBQ sauce which I paid for. Beans were soggy and stone cold, french fries were burnt and chicken was dry. Chicken is Swiss Chalet specialty and it was overcooked. Total bust. If service is poor but food is good, you can put up with it, AS STATED BY A PREVIOUS REVIEWER but everything was awful. Sorry to be so critical but it's the truth. Also, we ordered at 2:30 on a Sunday to avoid the busy time. The only saving grace was dealing with Kira (sp?) at your Alliston, Ont. location. She was a pleasure to deal with and actually looked out for our order to try her best to make sure that it was correct. Your server's gratuities, which they rely on, will suffer due to poor quality of food. All restaurants are suffering due to another covid restriction to in- house dining; you would think that Swiss Chalet would appreciate the business and try to get it right. Just utter carelessness....