Dairy Queen Grill & Chill — Restaurant in Auburn

Dear South Auburn Dairy Queen: I ordered in the drive thru, a deluxe single cheeseburger and a small turtle pecan cluster blizzard. They told me they would have my total at the window. I pulled around to the window where they told me $12.65 and I paid them with a $20 bill. There was a young male making the blizzard and a young female at the window. I watched the male bring the blizzard cup over to the stirring machine, which is in clear sight of the drive-thru window. The machine was covered in splatter and the stirring wand was also covered. There was no one in the drive-thru when I arrived and I didn't notice anyone inside the restaurant dining either. I just cringed as I watched the young man insert the filthy machine into the blizzard cup. He then brought it to the window, turned it upside down, and handed it to me, letting me know my food would be out shortly. As I waited in the drive-thru for my single deluxe cheeseburger, I couldn't help but stare at that stirring machine and, I decided to try to take a picture. That picture is attached here. The young man started wiping the counter near the blizzard machine while engaged in conversation with the young lady who took my money. I felt a twinge of relief, thinking perhaps I was mistaken about the machine being so filthy and wondering if perhaps there had been another customer just before I'd arrived and the kids didn't have time to clean it yet, but then I saw the towel he was using to wipe the counters and I about turned green! Oh no! I rarely eat fast food these days, but when I do, it's typically Dairy Queen. I was particularly starving tonight and really looking forward to this rare treat so you can probably imagine my chagrin at this dilemma. Anyway, I prayed to God Almighty that the grill and prep areas didn't look as bad as the small picture of the drive-thru area I could see from the "outside looking in" disadvantage, but I knew I was being foolish. Regardless, I open the single deluxe cheeseburger after I drove away and, guess what? It was NOT a single deluxe cheeseburger at all! I am pretty sure it was the plain cheeseburger but with extra sauce and extra pickles. So, these days, I don't try to deal with people over negative situations or human errors. Especially not today's youth. I do, however, reach out through the proper channels to try to let someone know who may he detrimentally impacted by a situation. You are a part of that today. I don't want anything from you out of this situation. I want you to know that your store is suffering, it's gross, it's a potential health hazard, and your employees are either not trained or they don't care if your store makes it, nor that your customers can see the messes, nor that they are making orders incorrectly. Perhaps it's a combination of poor training, no supervision, and hiring youngsters. I'm not sure. But, what I do know, is that I hope it ONLY cost me $12.65 to find out I will never visit your Dairy Queen again. I hope that for you and I hope that for me. I will be sharing my experience with the general public, to build awareness in the community, in hopes that someone's life will be spared from what I see as an inevitable consequence if you don't change what you're doing asap. At the very least, maybe my experience will save someone else the net loss of an hours wage. Please do better!

Sincerely,

Somebody that you...

UPDATE I called to see if I can get an update on how I can get my refund and Samantha answer (she was the manager the first lady told me to speak with). I explained that I was calling in for an update on how I was to receive my refund and she immediately became incredibly rude, she did not like that I told her that her phone was breaking up (it sounded like she was away from the phone so she was cutting in and out) then she hung up on my face. I called corporate who told me there is nothing they can do since they are a franchise, the store manager has not called to help me with my refund. This is by far the worst customer service I have EVER seen in my life!!!!

I went in on Saturday 10/26 to pick up an ice cream cake for my son's 9th birthday party. I ordered a 10 inch Oreo Cake. However, once I got in there the lady behind the counter asked me if I was there to pick up a cake, I said yes and she THEN informed me that they do not have the cake available. I asked her why they didn't give me a call and she lied and said she didn't have my information (I filled it out online). The only solution she came up with was to offer me either a peanut butter cup cake (my niece is deathly allergic to peanut butter) or refund me (my son's party started in less than an hour so I had zero time to go anywhere else). I ended up finding out an 8 inch cake that was Oreo and told them I would just take this one but I need a refund for the difference since I already purchased a 10 inch. She said the only way she can give me a refund was to refund me the entire amount then me paying out of pocket again for the 8 inch. I did not have the extra money to send another almost $50 for a cake. I explained I wanted to speak to a manager and she said she was the manager but she had upper managers that will come in the following day 10/27 and they will contact me. It is now Tuesday 10/29 and no one has called me, no one has issues me a refund for the difference. This ENTIRE experience has been HORRIBLE and I would NOT recommend going here not only for horrible customer service from ALL managers do not follow through when their customers have an issue. They still owe me money for the difference of the cake. HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE IF I COULD GIVE A ZERO...

They don't even deserve a 1-Star, but that's as low as I can rate it. Our visit was on 1/16/21 around 5:30pm. First of all, I chose DQ over the McDonald's literally right next to it, because DQ is known for all their food being "made to order". There was a female with short hair, who was incapable of even reading back our order and should never been working the window. We finally get our food after waiting quite some time, considering there were no cars in front of us or behind us, so I assume that like normal, the food would be made to order and fresh. We picked the drive-thru and made our way back to the hotel, which is less than a mile away from the DQ. We eagerly opened the food expecting the amazing, fresh and delicious food I'm used to getting from DQ. Instead we got two burgers that were CLEARLY old, dried-out and luke-warm at best, obviously they weren't fresh, let alone cooked to order, the cheese wasn't even melted and the lettuce was soggy and brown. The fries were SO undercooked, that they tasted like cold, soggy raw potato, they were inedible and went in the trash. We sat there staring at the food in dismay, but decided to eat it anyway because afterall it WAS $31, admittedly a rip off for "fast food", especially given THIS meal. Both of us, within about 90-120 minutes started feeling bloated and sick. We each ended up getting diarrhea... Multiple times throughout the rest of the night. I'm writing this review the next morning, and we both still feel sick and our body's ache and that was all we had to eat yesterday. The owner or someone in management needs to square this place away and get it up the standards, not only for good, fresh food, but also for health and safety OR they need to shut down, which technically, when 2 or more people get sick from the same food on the same visit, they're supposed to. I would NEVER go back to this location, a refund for my money, my time and my health is the only thing I would even consider.

UPDATE: The supposed owner of this location, instead of accepting any sort of responsibility, just offers a link to get in contact with DQ corporate, which then says they'll forward it on to the owner, which creats a loop where the customer is just left out and...