Steak 'n Shake — Restaurant in Buford

An absolute frustrating inconvenience, slow, the workers were under-trained, and it became a chore just to be in the restaurant.

We were seated promptly, which is about the only thing good that came from the night. I forget the name of the young girl with blonde hair who was serving us, but she was quite friendly and was always quick to offer us refills. The restaurant at the time looked pretty slow, only two other tables with about 4-5 people in them were there.

After we ordered we ended up waiting for 30 minutes, my friend says let's give it some more time, that 30 minutes ended up being about an hour after we ordered. We so old got tired of waiting and went to the register to pay for our drinks and leave, the lady once she saw us said our food is ready and we can take it to go, so we decided too, but it still wasn't ready.

We ended up waiting at the register for another 10 minutes so they could make another burger they ended up not making or something. Finally we got our food and each one of us began paying, my brother was with me and I was paying for him and me. My brother accidentally told then that we got 2 of the Frisco melts, and she charged it on my card, and then she asked me to ring up the crunch burger cause that's what I ordered, I swiped the card then my brother told me I already paid, I told her if she could read our order back to us,

We ended up paying for 3 sandwiches when we only ordered 2, and they didn't print me a receipt for any of them except for one burger so that further complicated this whole mess. The young lady left to get a shift manager who came to help. I explained to him the situation, and he looked in the system and said he couldn't find my order and he doesn't know what to do or how to fix it.

What, Are you serious?? This guy is the shift manager...

I asked if he can just give me a 5$ Gift Card and he said I'd have to pay for it, he asked me could make another burger, but I was not willing to wait another 30 minutes in this restaurant. At that point I honestly just wanted to leave, so he just wrote down and signed note on a receipt that said I get a free meal or something but I doubt I'll ever use it.

Afterwards I'm frustrated and I don't want to be there anymore so I just take the note, my food and leave.

I get I'm the car and open my meal, and start with my fries, there cold, and stale. Of course.

The the jalapeno crunch burger. Its wet, cold, and soggy. And they didn't put the sauce I asked for on it. They didn't even put the sauce that comes with the burger on it.

Nearly 2 hours and 17 dollars wasted.

I know this is a long review, and I know it won't do anything. But the problem I see with my experience that night is a problem I've seen everytime I've been in there.

The workers and completely exhausted and worked out, they are under staffed, they are severely under trained, to the point where they have no idea how to do a simple refund for an overcharged item. They don't really know how to be quick and expedient in a fast food-ish burger chain, and it's so frustrating, that it has made my mind up and I simply won't come back to any steak and shake because I can't stand this place, everytime if it's not one thing it's another.

So I don't blame the workers, I blame management. If they happen to read this, please re-evaluate your training and management methods, because it's not working, and it's turning people...

Ever since Covid, this location has been tanking.

During my most recent visit: •The only cash machine was broken, and there was no one up front to accept cash. •I ordered two combos and waited over 20 minutes for my food. I have never waited that long for SNS food, even when they had table service. •This location has implemented a QR code scanner to dispense soft drinks. When you order a drink, a qr code is printed with your recipt, which much be scanned to allow drinks to dispense. You are allowed two scans, one for your first drink and one refill. This is never explained to you when you order, and I had to explain the system to at least 3 other parties while waiting for my meal. •Good news though, the qr system doesn't work as intended! If you don't want to pay for a drink, just wait for someone else to scan their code and then fill behind them. I paid for two drinks, but only scanned one code one time. I was able to get two refills on my drink for free this way. •The ambience of this location is terrible. When you walk in, you are bombarded with bright, white LEDs. The wall opposite the door, behind the drink station, is pure white with no decor - not the most welcoming sight.

At the very least, we got what we ordered and it was warm when we got it, no complaints there.

Its important to note that the employees I interacted with were polite and on top of their jobs while I was there. However, the managerial team of this location should be ashamed of their decisions regarding ambience, cash machine maintenance, and general ambience.

Alongside this review, I will be telling everyone I know not to visit this location. I can't speak for the location near Northside Hospital yet, as I haven't been there in some time, but I highly recommend it for now.

I also highly recommend the Warner Robbins location, as they still use table service and have very low wait times for food, even when extremely busy.

I know Covid was a rough time for businesses, but this is absurd. Do better managerial team, and if my complaints are rooted on decisions made by people above this managerial team, do better those guys. This location is a sad sight to see.

(Edited...

I ordered something simple. The computer screen said the combo had fries and a drink. I ordered a small, very small chili, 2.49. I was told that the 2.49 was for the premium side of Chilli. I was told that if I wanted fries, order them. I eat at other Steak and Shake places often. I have NEVER been treated this rude. I spent 18.79 for a meal and Shake. This employee wanted to man up in front of his buddies working. Really. This isn't over. I have asked 2 other locations and the manager said they see why the confusion but with that big of an order, they should have just added the fries. Cussing at me and laughing with the staff was wrong. I didn't get my Shake either. I had to ask twice. I was so afraid to eat it, I threw it away. They could have spit in it or added some items, other than Snickers. I will keep trying to find some good corporate person at S and S and fix this problem. This is totally unexcusable. This employee needs to go and the store needs a refresher on customer service. I can only imagine how they would treat an elderly couple. It would scare them. This store had friends of the staff just hanging out and using bad language. For full disclosure, I used bad language after I was told, " order some damn fries and pay for them if you want fries." I was just trying to get a small fry like the computer screen said. I don't want money or free food. I want the employee gone and the manager to be fixing his staff and abiding by the rules. Having young people, smoking weed in the parking lot, hanging out in the store says about everything. Then a regular paying customer gets treated like this. FIX IT. There isn't a negative for customer service but this really sucked. Luckily the Patty Melt was its usual great tasting self. I don't know about the Shake. I threw it out because it was in the back with the staff after they had laughed and insulted me. Tampering with food is an assault charge, since I don't think that the weed smoking public wants the cops at this...