Dunkin' — Restaurant in Carbondale

The food and coffee are usually pretty consistent which is a net positive. You know what to expect.

That said, I used to stop at Dunkin regularly on my way to work. After their reward program changed and the prices raised so much, it’s become more of a special occasion than a regular stop for me.

What I can tell you from being a previous regular customer is that their service is nothing like it used to be. It doesn’t matter what you order or how many cars are (or aren’t!) in line — you need to expect a wait. I’m not sure what takes so long, honestly. I’ve ordered an egg and cheese bagel and an iced coffee before with only one car in front of me — they only received one drink so it was very apparent they didn’t have a large order. It still took 20 minutes to get through the drive thru. I could understand if this was a one-off situation — maybe they had a large order inside. However, this is every single time and at any time of day. If I see more than two cars in line anymore, I automatically go elsewhere because I know it will take forever.

Their espresso machine also seems to go down often or doesn’t get fixed in a timely manner — not sure which. All I know is that as infrequently as I go, it’s always a 50/50 gamble. Yesterday, I placed a mobile order for a medium latte. I arrived and was told their machine was down. I was offered an iced coffee instead since they couldn’t refund the order and I couldn’t cancel it in the app. An iced coffee costs half as much. I shouldn’t have to pay $7+ for a medium iced coffee. The store should be able to either cancel or refund your order. I used the virtual assistant to request a refund and was offered 250 points to use in the app instead (for perspective — and I double checked this — a latte is 900 points). So, I requested either the equivalent amount of points for whenever their machine does work again or a full refund. The virtual assistant “opened a case” for me, so we’ll see what comes of that.

I’ve never been to a restaurant or coffee shop before that didn’t have the ability to refund or offer store credit when they are unable to fulfill an order. Either there’s been miscommunication from management to employees or corporate has really limited what their individual locations can handle...

I interviewed for the Store Manager Position of this store yesterday. My interview lasted all of 8 minutes. I could tell the person that interviewed me was exhausted and unprepared. I originally applied for the Mount Vernon, IL store but I received a call and was asked to interview for this store instead. I drove 1 hour and 15 minutes for this interview. The 7 questions: Tell me about yourself(The interview was in the front lobby in front of the crew members I didn't mind but the person interviewing me was not focus the crew members were being "silly" behind me while I was talking. This was the only time I saw the interviewer smile the entire time of the interview so I didn't make a big deal.) Do you have restaurant experience? (This was answered in my tell me about yourself but again I went over this) How would you handle a worker underperforming? Have you done truck orders/inventory counts before? (After looking at the reviews for this store I can tell this was a major problem as most reviews reported the store almost always being out of stock of something if not everything) What is your leadership style? How would you handle it if half of your evening staff called in? How would you handle it if all of your morning staff called in? After I finished answering this question the person interviewing me immediately threw her hand up to shake my hand and said she has 2 more interviews and she would reach out after that. I had my own questions about Dunkin but I decided not to take anymore of her time and wished her a better day than what she already had. I know that who you are as a person is who you are when you show up to work. This store needs a 360 turn around or they will continue to lose customers. I would suggest the person interviewing be trained on how to hire and set this store up for success... Wishing this...

I am not going back to this Dunkin Donuts for a while. There was a girl at the drive-thru with dark hair in a ponytail, glasses and tattoos up her arms that could not have been more rude for absolutely no reason at all. Even when I told her to have a good day after she couldn't even say thank you to us she literally rolled her eyes at us when she misunderstood our drive thru order on a rainy day. She did not reply back to me telling her to have a good day. She did not say thank you- nothing at all. I'm sorry if another customer was rude to her that day but I went out of my way to be nice to her and she still snubbed us. I did not deserve her cruddy attitude. I have no idea what her big attitude was for but Dunkin Donuts can say thank you to her because they just lost a group of customers due to her. I'm not paying them for the employee to be rude to the customers. To top it off our iced coffee tastes like really watered-down coffee. These are the worst drinks I've ever ordered at Dunkin Donuts. Such a shame because this is the only Dunkin in our area.

UPDATE: After 6 years, I've started going back to Dunkin. Besides running out of donuts in the afternoon (such a shame for later in the day donut cravings... not everyone eats donuts in the am,) I've been quite pleased with this location from coffee to donuts and everything in between. The staff are super friendly and very helpful when trying to choose and get specialty drinks just right. I have gone back several times recently, so keep up what you are doing, Dunkin! On a side note, the restaurant is very...