Fatburger & Buffalo's Express — Restaurant in Allen

2nd Time Visiting EVER - 2nd Bad Experience -Same Week

Multiple items missing without apologies or any attempts at customer service recovery. If I wouldn't have mentioned the previous order's missing items and asked for a double check, a $12 shake, vegan cheese, and other items would not have been acknowledged as missing by the staff. I asked the young lady behind the register to verify that the items were all accounted for, especially the non-dairy cheese. She asked the chef/mgr. I saw him shake his head "no" and hand her my bag. When I asked where these items were. "We are out." So, let customers walk out the door after paying for these items without money back or anything? Insane. If I wouldn't had said anything, once again we would have drove 15 miles away without getting what we paid for. Why am I being handed a bag with an incomplete order? When I told the young lady that this was the 2nd time I paid for something and didn't get an alert that it wasn't included with my order, she apologized. I told her I wanted to speak with the mgr.  I saw him, the same guy,  say I would need to wait a bit...AGAIN. i waited for the order to be made, waited in line when I arrived, and now wait for him to decide to come to speak with me. I walked over to the area where pcikups were handed to customers, which was near the cook's window. Once he came out, the mgr stated he was the mgr on duty.  When I told him the issue and that this was the 2nd time this week that oders I paid for were incomplete, he told me the delivery hadn't come yet and he'd refund me.  He returned with a $1.28, $1.29 receipt for a cheese credit!!  What???  For an issue that has been repeated more than once in the same week...AND the fact that they weren't going to tell me, just handed me the bag for the incorrect order,  that was ridiculous. I then asked where my nondairy shake was so I could leave!  He told me they were out of the non-dairy shakes!!!  A $11+ shake, no sorry,  no offer for a refund before I said, "well, where's my money," no explanation beyond "the truck hasn't come yet."

After noticing multiple missing items, I was so frustrated that I told the mgr to get me a full refund and keep the over priced food because this was absolutely ridiculous service. This food is ultra expensive for a hamburger as it is. To be handed an incomplete order TWICE IN THE SAME WEEK without the mgr even offering something to compensate for the constant errors is insane to someone who trains executives and coaches teams on leadership effectiveness. He went back and issued a full refund. I told him that most companies would compensate in some way or give free items for such errors and his response was, "I gave you a refund. I can't give you this order because it cost too much to do that." YES, IT COSTS WAY TOO MUCH TO EXPECT ANYTHING LESS THAN GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE RECOVERY EFFORTS, which this store is lacking severely. When I told him that was ridiculous and I wanted the GM's contact info, I was told there wasn't a phone number. I asked for an email address since corporate doesn't respond o customer complaints. I was told he didn't have an email address. When I told him I'd been in leadership in healthcare for 30+ years and again asked him, I received an email fatbufff@gmail.com, which seemed strange, and that address is in no way valid. I told him we live 15 miles away, no one answers the phones to validate orders prior to pickup. This wasn't my 1st incident with that store! I needed to call ahead. Sadly, no answer again. If I wouldn't have protested, I was going to be allowed to leave once again without a complete order as I paid for it and should have received it. It's not cheap!

Strangely enough, the young mgr threw the "too expensive to give away" items in the trash as I turned to walk away. Apparently, they're too expensive to use for customer service recovery efforts, but cheap enough to throw away on a customer's presence!

I wrote corporate twice in one week given this has been back-to-back horrific experences, yet no response...

I was so excited about this restaurant when it first opened. Then, when I came here, it was the worst experience I’ve had at a burger restaurant. Besides waiting more than 45 minutes to get a meal when they stated it would take 25 minutes, the burger came out cold. Meaning the bread was cold and the meat was cold. The cheese wasn’t melted and the lettuce and tomatoes were barely thawed from the freezer. I will be telling all my friends, family, and anyone I meat about this terrible experience.

Furthermore, I’m not sure why people behind me got their food before I did, but that was entirely not fair. I spoke to manager about this and he couldn’t explain himself.

Warning to all you out there, it’s simply not worth it to go there.

Additional Comments: In response to the comment below by the owner, though the owner/GM comped the meal, we didn’t finish our food since it was obviously served very cold and likely on purpose. It was obvious to me that the owner wasn’t sincere about the company policy of trying to make things right. To the owner, I mentioned to two of your employees that my burger was uncooked and cold. Not one of them tried to do anything about it and simply dismissed me.

The Fatburger team didn’t seem to care about mine or other people’s feelings. I assure you there were a lot of people complaining about the food and experience. In the owner’s comments, he speak as if I was the only one complaining, which was entirely untrue. There were many many people disappointed in the food, quality, and experience that day and most were voicing it out loud.

All I know is that time will be the true indicator. Let’s see how many complaints this restaurant receives going forward. I truly hope you guys get your act together, but judging by your inability to truly accept responsibility and your response excuse that we’re not true, I don’t have much confidence.

No worries, you won’t ever see me, my family, or friends ever at your establishment. There are too many good restaurants out there that value the customer’s time and strives to provide good food and service.

By the way, this is the first time I ever wrote...

We had heard more negative than positive things about this place but decided we should give it a shot and form our own opinion. We went at 2pm on a Thursday. Upon arrival, there were three tables of people who were all seated and already eating. There was one gentleman ordering when we walked in and then the young girl immediately took our order.

The bill was ridiculous for 2 burgers, sweet potato fries, and onion rings. RIDICULOUS! That was our first impression. Second impression... Why does it take 17 minutes to cook 2 burger patties?? I mean, really. Cooked fresh, ok great. But when you are a burger joint... And that's what you do... Burgers all day long... There shouldnt be a surprise when you're told you need to make a burger! It doesn't take 17 minutes to cook a burger! We could see 3 cooks in the kitchen, so, again, not sure what the hold up was.

Third impression, the food had little to no flavor. The sweet potato fries had ZERO flavor. Tasted like I was just eating mush. Which was shocking because sweet potatoes have plenty of flavor by themselves and these visibly had quite a bit of, what appeared to be, seasonings. But, no taste. Couldn't even taste "the sweet potato" part of the fry. As for the burgers... The buns are served cold and stiff, no flavor, no sesame seeds, don't taste fresh, and zero flavor. I paid extra for cheese and had to peel my burger apart to find the miniscule amount of cheese that was put on the bottom of my burger. Cheese wasnt melted because burger was served luke warm, at best. With that being said, the onion rings were tasty...but only after we asked for ranch. The ranch made them edible!

Just another overrated California burger joint invading Texas. My vote... Send them back to Cali with all the dems who have fled Cali to...