Tim Hortons — Restaurant in Thames Centre

Update. Now August 2025, a year has passed. No contact not even an email followup from the regional manger, owner, crickets, even after being assured by customer service on more than one occassion that i would be contacted.

On the upside, it looks like many people, locally at least, have seen through the many "questionable" 5 star reviews of this Tim's and the one at the 401, and no doubt personally experienced one of the many shortcomings .

Our once locally owned and operated franchises, that hired local high school students etc, are a shell of what were once bustling coffee shops. Now, the parking lot at the town location is mostly empty. The lineups for the drive thru that once snaked through the parking lot, out onto Dorchester Road are a distant memory and we all know why. The sub quality food, service, lack of overall cleanliness/hygiene throughout (flies anyone), and the frustrating language barriers, have turned many once loyal customers away.

Now owned my a multi national conglomerate in South America, there's no apparent quality control or supervision of their franchisees or their employees. Franchises are owned by "absent landlords" that reside elsewhere including outside the country. There appears to be zero followup on complaints, except for AI generated responses to negative reviews/complaints and empty promises from customer service. Pride of ownership is obviously a thing of the past and yes, they're more than deserving of the negativity. Finding a "consistently good" Tim's appears to be akin to capturing a unicorn.

We have some great alternatives though. The Cookie Nook with two locations and TC Brewing Co, both offer great products, have great service, employ locals and the big one, they're CLEAN and no language barriers. Even the new McDonalds appears to be a good alternative.

Sorry not sorry if this review hurts feelings but its a fact and a shared commentary about the the decline and fall of Tim's not only here, but across Canada.

The new definition of insanity should be, "going to Tim's over and over and expecting a different result".

Update. Its now been four months. No follow up from the store's owner/manager, no followup from Tims head office. Save yourself headaches and spend your money elsewhere. Lots of deserving locally owned restaurants, coffee shops nearby that will give you excellent service.

Btw, If you look at the names associated with many of the glowing 5 star reviews of this dumpster fire, it's not too hard to figure out that they are more than likely not genuine and just a sad attempt to boost the ratings using friends, family or employees. Here's a novel idea to improve your ratings, just improve your customer service. Your welcome. The order was wrong again. Filled out the online complaint form. I was informed that the local manager would be contacting me. Waited two weeks, but there was no response. Sent another complaint into Tim's, and again, the response was, "we will contact the manager manager again to contact you directly." It's now been 6 weeks.

Just avoid this place and spend your money at any one of the locally owned and operated coffee shops, or even the new McDonald's that is actually owned locally and employs actual residents...

Under the new manager/owner, I have had the worst service ever. Every order has been wrong, iced coffee instead of the ice capp I ordered. Gentleman ahead of me, they gave him the wrong breakfast sandwich. They fixed our orders, but they were so slow. Although, to give credit where credit is due, the service is getting a little better. I still won't go there if I am in a hurry. It may be partly a language barrier (English as second language), that as they better understand my voice and language (English), it is getting better. All the old known staff are gone, and the quality of the food has declined so bad that I very rarely use the Dorchester, ON Tim Hortons, and never when I am in a hurry. Every order has been wrong.

The ice capp I ordered is an ice capp made with chocolate milk. The first three were wrong, and the concentration of ingredients was off. I still get the wrong order three out of five orders. I keep trying, but I am very disappointed with the speed of service and the accuracy of the order. It is a franchise, and standard recipes are given to each owner. I know that they are trying, and with time, they should get better.

Even amongst the new staff, it has been changing under the new manager/owner. Language barrier works both ways, I have a hard time understanding them, and that is my issue. I have a very hard time with heavy accents. As I hear a staff member consistently, it is easier, but I can't rely on seeing that staff member there. It changes that much. I also understand that they have to be trained on all aspects of the job, and rotation of positions is necessary. Their owner has been here for at least two years, so I expect that the staff should be significantly better than they are. The owner needs to step up with their training skills, and I don't blame just the staff about the language barrier, I put that solely on the owners' hiring and training and scheduling process. Congratulations on your ability to be able to get the franchise, which is expensive. Congratulations to the staff for taking on the challenges of working while learning English. I gave them a two year learning curve. However, I will be taking my business elsewhere even if it means going out of Dorchester to get the speed and accuracy of the order I place, especially if I...

On Sunday September 22, 2024 I went into the Tim Hortons location at 2147 Dorchester Road. I usually go through the drive-thru, however that was lined up to the road so I thought going inside might be a bit quicker. Boy was I wrong. I had to wait for my order for well over 30 minutes and all I ordered was a coffee and tea (which both only had milk or cream in them), an iced coffee, and a breakfast sandwich. There were many people that ordered after me that received their orders before me. There was also another gentleman who was waiting there longer than I was for a small iced capp and that was it. When my order was originally taken, I had to repeat the tea order 4 times (large orange pekoe, only 1 bag in, and milk only) and they still put 2 bags in (not usually a big deal, but I had to repeat the order 4 times...).

After waiting 30 minutes for my order, they had to ask me what I was waiting for, so I told them my order but also pointed out the gentleman waiting for his small iced capp had been waiting much longer then me and they needed to make his first. There were multiple food orders that were made incorrectly, including my own (put sausage on my breakfast sandwich when I only asked for bacon, egg and cheese), but nobody wanted to make a big fuss about it since they had already been waiting so long. There was also someone who submitted their order online and they asked multiple times when their order would be ready. When their order was finally ready, they only left the food and drinks on the counter and didn't notify them that it was their order (literally placed the food and drinks on the counter, walked away, and started making other orders).

Some of the workers were clearly upset as I am sure some customers had made their annoyance with the lack of service very apparent. The gentleman that took my order was very nice and smiled a lot, and the lady that made my order appologized many times for how long the wait was, which I do appreciate. It was very disorganized and management should have stepped in and helped, and if management was there, then they need to do better supporting their team.

This was a very disappointing experience. I was a very regular customer to this location before they closed for 4 weeks for renovations and I will not be back...