Tropical Smoothie Cafe — Restaurant in Apex

This location has historically been my favorite Tropical Smoothie. When I lived in North Raleigh, I would go out of my way to find a reason to drive through Apex in the morning so I could get a smoothie from this location rather than the one five minutes from my house. They have always been incredibly kind, prompt, and had far and away the best version of my favorite smoothie (Peanut Butter Cup with pea protein) in the area; however, the last two times I have been there to order my drink, it has come back far below the standard. Last week, the smoothie was hardly blended, resulting in massive chunks of banana and powder encased in a thick, icy muck. I legitimately had to eat it with a spoon. It was incredibly busy that morning though, so I chalked it up to the new(er) person on blenders feeling overwhelmed with running the register and making the five or six smoothies on the order board. Today, I did my usual online order and walked in to an empty restaurant—a good sign for me if the hectic environment during my previous visit truly was the issue. Unfortunately, the quality was the same. I watched as the employee struggled for nearly a full minute to get any of the smoothie to come out of the blender. I remember saying to myself, “look like that needs a bit more water“, but she continued to hit the side of the blender and bang it on the counter in an attempt to dislodge what should have been a liquid. She eventually gave up, put a cap on my cup, and handed it to me--with nearly 2 inches of space between the smoothie and the lid. I can assume that the rest of my smoothie is still stuck to the bottom of the blender now sitting in the sink. As you can imagine, this version of my drink has come out just as thick (though better blended) as my last purchase. I feel like I am eating a Dairy Queen Blizzard rather than drinking a smoothie (and yes, I did turn it upside down to see if it would move. Not an inch.). I have been really disappointed with what has always been the best location in the area. My hope is that perhaps this employee can run through another training shift with the owner, so that I feel happy to spend my money at this...

Very bad experience at this location. Ordered a smoothie with strawberries and it was bad. No problem went back in and was told that the strawberries were weird and one employee asked another if they had normal strawberries and was told no normal strawberries. I have no idea what that means so I asked for a refund. I was told a manager would need to call me the next day to give me a refund. So I ask do we really need to go through all of that for an $8 refund and they said yes and offered to instead remake the smoothie. I asked will it be better than the first and employee said maybe, a little. So I just want the refund but I realize that right before I ordered a kid from Dominos was in ordering a very large order…. Based on some comments made between the dominos kid and the tropical smoothie employee I could tell that they were making a trade. I really don’t care that they do that but I am bothered by the fact that the tropical smoothie employees are able to ring through a nearly $50 order and somehow can zero it out for a food trade with dominos but do not have the ability to provide a customer with an $8 refund. So anyways, I was promised that Sean the manager would call me the next day. No call, so I finally call and was told that Sean was gone for the day. What a surprise! Anyways I was told that James Bullock is the franchise owner. James if I were you I would tighten that ship or maybe it’s such a goldmine that you don’t care and if so good for you but I wouldn’t return mainly for poor customer service. Anyways I’ll call back again tomorrow and maybe Sean will be there either way I’ll get the transaction voided out on my credit card. All this could have been avoided if I would have just gotten a...

Today is July 16, 2024 and it’s 7:20pm and I just quietly walked out of the 1264 west Williams store due to the disrespect and rudeness of the 2 boys working there. I walked in after driving 30mins from Sanford as this is my favorite store because of Rui; and I stood there for 4 mins and these boys didn’t greet me or say hold on we’re busy or anything. They just ignored me like no one walked in. I’ve never had such awful customer service. I smiled and left and I’m driving to another TS and hope to get good service. This has shocked me and I’m just so upset. Someone please talk to the workers and teach them customer service. You need to greet people and acknowledge them when they step in or have been standing for over 4 mins by the register. They can’t say they didn’t see me because the one by the fruits looked up and away. I hate to think it’s the color of my skin because that will really upset me, I’ll assume it’s immaturity and not knowing their job. I don’t think I’ll be back, it’s sad because I’ve been coming here for a year now. But I don’t want to be...