Kneaders Bakery & Cafe — Restaurant in Colorado Springs

I must say that it looks very nice from the outside, but what happens inside is a little more like a SNL skit from the 90's. First, I must confess that I don't typically write reviews; I had to write this one. This was my first visit. I ordered a sandwich, with no onion and no tomato. I even mentioned that I was allergic, to the young lady who took my order. I didn't wait long before a syrupy, sweet, nice young man came by to drop off my order. Of course, it had both onions and tomatoes on it. I pointed out the problem, and with many apologies, he took it back. It could not have been more than five minutes later that he returned with the same sandwich, but the tomatoes and the onions had been removed...almost, because of their carelessness, there were onions left on the plate from a poor attempt to remove them. This time I had to hunt the young man down to point out the deliberate attempt to play this off as a new sandwich. Again, he apologized, and took it back. When the next sandwich came, it was freshly made, and smelled great, and had no tomato, but had plenty of onions. This time it was delivered by the young lady who took my order. She must have forgotten that she took my order only thirty minutes ago, because when I pointed out that onions were on it, she said that she was told only no tomatoes. I reminded her that she took my order the first time I gave it and in response, I guess she wasn't happy with my great memory of our recent history together, and requested that I pick the onions off. Now, I am trying not to lose it as this is the third, really second sandwich that they have brought me with things that I am allergic to. My husband was finished with his meal, and I was almost finished with my salad, so I told her that I no longer wanted the sandwich and I would be going up to the registrar to get a refund once I finished my salad. I don't know what it is with some teens these days, but she actually huffed at me, rolled her eyes, and walked away. Amazing. After finishing my salad and purging the disciplinary thoughts I had of how to teach her a lesson, I waited in line until I was once again face to face with the young man I dealt with earlier. I unloaded on him the adventures I had, those that included him and the new parts that did not, and he began apologizing, again, and called over a manager. I guess her customer service training only consist of how to open a registrar and give the money back, because it came with no apology....

Ordered through the website to be delivered (by DoorDash). We ordered three sandwiches and three desserts. DoorDash came on time, dropped off the food, we tipped the driver, and then immediately realized upon opening the bag that two sandwiches and one dessert was missing from the order. Called the New Center Point location in Colorado Springs and the girl on the phone was nice. She tried to call the driver but his number was not current. She said they would remake the order but then said she saw that the rest of our order was still sitting there. “Too short staffed to have it delivered” but said we could come pick it up. 20 minute drive. My parents visiting from out of town went to the restaurant. They gave us a free loaf of sweet bread. Not really what we wanted, But the punk child they called the “manager” refused to refund any part of the order or the door dash delivery fee, for having to waste gas and 45 more minutes of driving/arguing to get the rest of the order. Which was wilted and soggy by the time we could eat it. The manager said “that’s on Door Dash, not our problem”. When I talked to DoorDash, there is no record of the order because the order was made through the Kneaders website. DoorDash cannot refund the order delivery fee if they can’t view the order on Kneaders’ site. The manager rudely tells my father that he will refund the order but that he had to leave the food. While my dad (70 yrs old) explained that he shouldn’t have had to drive back up there after paying for a delivery fee (and tip), without being reimbursed for some part of the order, the manager raises his voice and talks over him to not allow my father to speak. My dad had to tell him to shut up and let him speak for a second. Maybe not the best choice of words, but the manager was rude and loud and had no sense of self awareness , and wouldn’t know good customer service if it hit him in the face. He kicked my parents out of the store after my dad told him to shut up and let him speak. The food tasted terrible and we could not eat it. I used to really love this place. I told my parents the food was really good which is why we ordered from there. But the management at this location sucks and that punk needs some retraining. Or to be fired. You don’t treat customers that way. Never eating there again. Reading the other bad reviews I see...

DO NOT give this location your business!! I am an event planner for a veteran non profit and the 2 times I ordered a large group order from them they completely failed! First time I ordered from them online I specifically put the time that I needed the box lunches to be done as I had to be in Cañon City at an event that the veterans were to meet me. I got to this location and the employee said that the other employee didn’t show up so she was stuck making the food. I appreciated her hard work but at the same time, this shouldn’t have been my problem to deal with. By the time she got done with the order, it was 35 minutes past the time I needed the lunches. She didn’t even put the boxes together and just put everything into 2 large boxes as I had to try and sort them out once I got to the event. I was also 15 minutes late for the event that I was hosting.

2nd incident: This past Monday (Dec 23) I purchased a large order totaling over $1,200 and 85 box lunches for another event. I also put a specific time that I needed the lunches done. The morning of the event, this location called and said that the chef got in a car accident and was not coming in so the order could not be fulfilled. I explain to this employee that this is twice that this is happened, she showed absolutely no concern for this issue. I then asked her if he was the only one who could make the sandwiches and she said yes. So then I asked if she can call the North location to see if they can fulfill the order. She said she would call and then hung up on me without any type of “bye”. She then called back a few minutes later and said the North location could not fulfill it. I told her that this has completely ruin the event that I’m trying to put on and she said I should call some other place to see if they can make anything for me.

I understand that life happens and sometimes employees called in sick or whatever. But this is happened twice with no initiative to correct this experience! I will no longer use this location and I hope the management can get this customer service under control. But probably not because I haven’t heard a word from the manager in both incidents, so obviously there’s a disconnect in what customer service...