Chipotle Mexican Grill — Restaurant in Auburn

Update: went yesterday (12/20/21) and the doors were locked with closed signs on them. A few nights ago last week I placed an online order for the drive thru. Got there and there was a line of about 8 cars ahead of me. I sat in line for about 30 minutes. 3 cars were served in that time, that’s it. I ended up giving up and parked to go inside to get my order. There was a group of customers waiting by the register for their orders. Apparently they weren’t even supposed to be open in the online ordering. There were 6 employees in the drive thru window making orders. 6! And they couldn’t even move them through. The manager was busy talking and taking food temps which was slowing down the employees. You can tell none of the employees know what they’re doing at all. They are not being managed whatsoever and they are either overwhelmed or don’t care. I finally spoke to someone after waiting in that group of people for 15 minutes, no one was even coming over to this group to find out what they’re order was. They said we didn’t get your order as it’s not working (but the money was taken out of my account once I placed the order). I ended up saying can I just get in line then to place my order now. Did that and it took about 10 minutes as there was a few people ahead of me. Got my order and left (ran for my life). Once I got to the back where my car was I told a few people who were waiting in the cars that they were better off to go inside since the online ordering wasn’t working. I would typically assume their lack of functioning is due to lack of employees but they had at least 15 employees working that night, plenty of cooks, way too many people in the drive thru getting in each other’s way and only one person on the line to pack orders. Makes absolutely no sense. I don’t think they will make it much longer. I miss chipotle food and am bummed that they can’t get real management in there. Corporate needs to clearly get involved.

Update: food and accuracy has gotten better. Not sure about how the store looks physically yet. Ordered through the pick up lane on the app and it went fine. They messed up my husbands order but not so badly that he couldn’t eat it. Hoping they have improved. No one cleans the store. I went a couple different days and the same hairs are on the top of the glass case over the food. Not one thing was wiped down. Windows or doors. This should be done multiple times a day especially right now. Sad because I...

I have always really enjoyed Chipotle in the past, and was really looking forward to trying the new Chicken Al Pastor, but I had a bad experience today that I wanted to share. It was just past noon on Saturday. I stopped in for lunch, and waited for a bit over 10 minutes at the counter for someone to wait on me (with another customer waiting behind me), when the lady at the drive up window popped her head around the corner and told me that they were only open for online orders at that time. According to the business hours on the door, they were open. She wouldn't even take my order. She said that I would have to place an online order, even though she was standing right in front of me, and could have taken it right then & there, but no. As you can imagine, I was more than a little irritated with the person's attitude. I said "Nope, thanks." and put my drink back in the cooler & walked out. The lady waiting behind me made an exasperated sound and also left. Perhaps I will go to another Chipotle location & try the Al Pastor. I'm not sure yet. Maybe I'll just skip it. I feel like business (profits) would definitely improve for this location if management took the bad google reviews seriously, and cleared out some of the employees that are creating a bad work environment / bad customer experience.

Update

As they suggested in their response, I contacted customer service, and sent them a message containing the above review. They said that being open only for online orders, and not taking an order from a customer at the counter, was not Chipotle policy. They assured me that they would reach out to their training team to correct the situation.

I stopped in today (8 days after my review above) , same time of day, and they were fully open & took my order no problem.

The Al Pastor is very good. I had it in a bowl with white rice, Fajita veggies, and fresh salsa. All that with a black tea came out to 485 calories, and was delicious. The only thing I would do differently next time is squeeze lime juice over it, or perhaps do a bed of greens instead of rice. Hmmm.

I wish I could leave a separate review (and star rating) solely for the quality of the food, but I don't see a way to do that. I've changed my initial star rating from 1 to 2, to give credit for the improvement.

If the situation above does not repeat, then after a fashion I will consider deleting this review and posting a more positive one which concentrates...

Two (2) Chipotle trends that are frustrating and just poor customer service......so sad and frustrating from such a historically great great chain.

1 - I'm in the store, hungry, and excited to build! Right from the start, I can't have cilantro lime rice? I can only have brown rice because I didn't create an online order?! Staff admits they have cilantro lime rice ready (stated, "it's out-back") but wont offer it under any circumstance unless you order online. Full 100% refusal. Teach your staff a better way to respond to this situation or offer a better solution for staff and customers. Consider an upcharge if you need to. Staff was stone cold - NO.

2 - No Peppers / Onions / Guac

I'm sick of seeing/hearing "we don't have any peppers and onions" and staff state it like I'm a moron. They 100% don't care, I get the stone-cold response, "we just don't have enough staff to make them". No other national chain opens their doors for FULL service, but just don't care they don't have a key or core item to a key dish, without apologizing, and without "making it right". Give me a voucher, or a discount next time. This has happened at least 4 times in 2024 - clearly a piss poor trend that screws the customer w/no care in the world. Staffing "issues" are YOUR business issues, fix it. Trending suggests you're just dumping your staffing issues on your loyal customers. Don't open if you can't make your products. I've walked out twice, been duped twice (dish 1/2 built, so I felt bad and paid, I shouldn't have). News flash, a hefty percentage of customers likely want peppers and onions (not all, but a lot). I'd love to know what operations said to staff re the Pepper/Onion trend. It's just part of the new normal - poor service, with higher prices and you better not complain because "we're doing the best we can" - Total BS!

Auburn, ME location - Saturday 8/31/2024 Gross inside, no care staff, no peppers/onions, only brown rice situation. Give it up - you don't care and you show it. I'll never go back.

Apparently, the new normal walking into Chipotle has to be "do you have rice, do you have...