Dairy Queen Grill & Chill — Restaurant in Bethalto

Last night on Friday, June 27th around 9pm, me and my girlfriend both placed online orders for Dairy Queen in Bethalto, Il. Our order details stated the food would be ready at 9:30 pm sharp and the instructions clearly stated to go inside once we go there, to pick up the order at the front desk. We arrived in the parking lot at 9:26pm, However the door was locked and when I tried to wave down staff for help she just looked at me and ignored me. I ended up going to the drive thru and explained I had an online order but got stuck waiting forever there too. Long story short we tried waiting in the parking lot, after not getting help, we went through the drive thru, after not getting help there we called the Bethalto location phone number and told the person who answered that we were outside, tired of waiting for our order. It's still took them another 5+ plus mins to bring it out and I consider myself a pretty easy going guy, but I literally had to bite my tongue and restrain myself from clocking the staff member, who brought out our food, because it was obvious our food had been done for some time cause the icecream was completely melted, they were just too lazy to bring the food out in a reasonable, timely manner. The sign out front even says park here, your order will be out shortly, but we had to wait like 20+ mins for a simple order that was already completed. Adding further insult to injury, it was a very simple order, placed online, with a 30 minute notice, which should of streamlined the process even more, making it faster, not slower. I opened a loyalty account with DQ last night, took the time and gas money out of my day to do business here and this is how I get treated. I also want to point out that I'm not a Karen, I'm a reasonable person, but they way they were acting last night was not reasonable it professional at all so dq in Bethalto, needs...

The food (ice cream) was identical to every other DQ I've visited. The service here, though, was lousy.

The manager on duty ignored me as she filled a large order for another customer. At least four other employees gathered behind the counter, near the drive-in window, stood around socializing while I waited behind this customer---and mind you, there were just two of us customers at the counter, on an otherwise quiet afternoon. After several minutes, I was finally waited on by a young girl whose name tag was marked "trainee." She took my order; I asked for (and expected to pay for) extra whipped cream on my sundae. I took a seat. Better than 15 minutes later (remember, the place was mostly empty on a slow weekday afternoon), the kid finally shows up with my order and my receipt. Yes, I was charged for extra whipped cream, as expected. Did I get it? No. In fact, they skimped on all the toppings. Not the prices, though.

I know this sounds petty; it is, after all, just ice cream. But that's the point. This is just ice cream, not a 12-course gourmet meal. Can't they just do their rather simple jobs right?

There were several employees readily available, but I had to wait to be served. When I was served, they bungled the order---but not the pricing. I was charged for things I didn't get. And no, I didn't take issue with any of the employees, like many people would've done. I let it go; nobody there would've cared if I had, so why waste effort?

Tell you what I will do, though. I won't go back to this place again. And if you value good service, you...

I'm not gonna lie from a delivery driver perspective picking up here is not usually worth it unless I make a decent tip. The wait is horrible. And the one manager I've seen is not friednly at all. The general manager I believe is who else I saw was super friendly and apologetic for the wait. They announce my arrival so I'm assuming they don't even start it til I get there. They are more worried about their in store/drive thru customers more than their online delivery customers. I mainly say that because one manager saw the order was done and ready to go becasue she put the chicken in the bag but walked away and didn't finish it. Im assuming so the Frontline kid could finish it but he had like 6 peoples orders to take. About the time one of the customers asked to change his order after already paying I dropped the low paying order I already waited 10 minutes for and drove 10 minutes to get and would have still had more time waiting and then delivering. It was one 6 piece chicken strip meal...