Panera Bread — Restaurant in Aurora

I would like to write this review on a few of the best employees who have served me there, maybe the boss will see this and give them a bonus or something. I pay attention to how casihers treat me, because they are the first pouint of contact for me and it is a pet peeve of mine when they DONT ask for my panera card...it's part of the job, and I do not want to miss out on points. That being said, my cashier Lexi was very good at this, as well as givng me delicious recommendations, and going above and beyond to make sure we had no further questions. She is awesome, and I love shifts when she is at the front counter. When picking up my food, it turns out they were out of an ingredient, the boy Johnny, who ran the soup/serving counter was very kind when helping me choose a replacement alternative. Turns out the sandwich was fantastic anyways! Johnny went out of his way to walk me through alternatives, and answer questions, and he even gave us an extra pastry for the trouble! We had a brief conversation, he has worked there for years while balancing being a kid in high school workign long hours- I certainly will be reaching out to my resources and Panera corporate to see what corporate can do to get this hardworking kid a scholarship or a raise of some sort for college! I admire ambition and work ethic, this kid is probably 16 and he was like a manager, his bosses did well in choosing him. Laslty, one of the boys picking up dishess (Khalil? Calel?), Cal I think, he was very kind and personable, and cleared our table for us and was very sweet and personable! Don't keep this kid in the back, he is very sweet, and your company would make triple profits if you had someone as genuine and kind as him managing the cash registers or serving station. It is very nice to see someone who is happy at work, it inspired me to have a better day myself! So thank you to Cal, Lexy, and Johnny for making my experience a while back, a great one! I will try to reach out to your bosses and get you recognized! :) We arent from this area of town, but we drive the extra long minutes and pass by many Paneras, just to come to this one!...

Horrible service. I placed an order online before I drove there and confirmed what I ordered and they made me pay for the full order online. When I got there only 1 of the 3 items I paid for was there. They got the manager over who didn’t apologize when I told her I drove there specifically for the items their site said was available. Their site listed more than half of their items as sold out but what we ordered showed still available. She told me she was the person who updates what’s still available, asked me what time I placed my order (which was clearly on the receipt she was holding). I told her what time we ordered, she looked at her watch and she just shrugged her shoulders and told me to put in my card. Horrible customer service. They asked for my phone number when I placed my order. Why didn’t they contact me to say they didn’t have them before I drove all the way there, parked, and had to stand in line for 10 minutes before they even helped us. No apology, no offer to get us something else. Just rude and could care less. This location has always been poorly stocked and all of their coffees and coffee drinks weren’t available as their machines are broken. This is the only Panera that I have always had a bad experience at every single time. The 1 item of our order they did give us was only 1/2 of the size it normally would be. If you fill an order, charge someone for it, and then you can’t give to the customer what they paid for, at least apologize and ask if there is something else they would like instead. Don’t just tell the customer to put in their card. I even had to ask her if putting in my card meant she would be refunding me. They refunded me for the 2 items they didn’t give us instead of seeing if we wanted to replace them with...

I wasn't even greated by a lady walking around the store who walked up to the customer behind me and greated him without truly acknowledging my presence. I was the first to walk up to the register and the lady at the counter immediately look away and start filling up the cups like I wasn't even there. I'm glad to see what goes for customer service for you. Cups are more important than a live human being.

Then the woman who seemed to be a manager, who was the only kind soul in that store witnessed the lack of acknowledgement. She procceded to take my order. I ordered a pick two combo, and ordered the most popular soup option. And the lady who didn't take my order stop us and said she'd check on the soup? Like I know its from a bag, is it really that hard to prep?

So I switch to Just the sandwich and the manager lady asked if it is just the half or the whole sandwich. I confirmed on the whole sandwich. I paid in full and tipped yet still got just the Half sandwich. It wasn't even busy and they got the order wrong. I normally would not post a nasty review but that was the lamest thing that has happed to me in a restaurant... no a fast food store. I'll just go to Mod pizza where they treat everyone with the best service there could ever be in a fast...