Bojangles — Restaurant in Columbia

I went inside today to get three takeout orders. Due to the fact that my last trip I was rudely told that I could only place two separate takeout orders in the drive-thru line, even though there was no one behind me until I actually got up to the window. With that less than positive experience, I was really hoping today would be better.

Let me say that it was far worse than before. I went inside and as I entered the line there was a man, that appeared to be less well off than most, at the counter asking (or really attempting to ask the cashier something- potentially about getting a bag for his box of food). She (Angeline- per my receipt) rolled her eyes and shooed the man stating "I have customers." As she started taking the young man's order in front of me, she put her elbow on the display case with her hand covering the man simply asking for a bag. By this time, I was considering taking my three orders elsewhere but for the sake of time, I went ahead and ordered. The man finally walked down to the end of the counter and asked another team member for a bag, which they thankfully gave him. As I was trying to read the sauces for each order, instead of waiting for me to do so, the cashier said I'll just put honey mustard. Please note that there was no one else in line the whole time I was there, so there was no need to rush me through my orders. After receiving my food, I realized that with the rushing I had asked for tenders (not realizing that I needed to say Supremes to get what I always get when ordering). When I asked for her to please switch them to the Supremes (as she is standing lending against the wall.) She rolled her eyes and made a rude face, stating "Well that is what you ordered isn't it?" I said I normally get the Supremes when I order, not the Homestyle- unless I say Homestyle. She huffed and finally got off the wall to look at my two boxes, she yelled "We have another waste." and started taking the strips out of the box and placing them on a rag... I honestly feel that this was some gross way of later putting the strips back into the bin to be served to someone else, there is no other reason I can come up with why she did not simply throw them away as they were "waste".

By this point I asked for the manager because I had had enough. The manager was kind and understanding, when I expressed my concern for how this woman treated me and previously treated that poor man. As I am speaking with the manager the woman says "Well he made me sick." (She had previously made a comment about "alcohol", unsure if she was speaking about the man or what.) In response to her comment I stated, it doesn't matter if he is an alcoholic or homeless, he is still human. She continued to attempt to prove her point, but at the end of the day I think it is terrible that you allow an individual such as her to work for your company. I do not know what your exact values are but I sure do hope they do not include having your employees take away someone's dignity, disrespect customers or any human for that matter and have such a negative attitude.

After all the attitude and terrible customer service I received, I still left with all Homestyle strips instead of Supremes as I had ordered and requested. Today's visit had absolutely zero positives and will be the last.

We will no longer be going to your store after this horrible experience. I hope that what I witnessed today, will never happen again. I also hope that you remove such an employee because she is and will continue to damage your business and the community which you serve.

Do better Bojangles', do...

The power of a review is amazing ...

Living downtown, we make a noble effort to patronize and support downtown businesses. I purchase the super tailgate special around 8 to 10 times a year, for Sunday lunch and poolside meals. The Elmwood Ave. Bojangles quite often gets our order wrong, but we eat the meals and move on.

Tonight on the way to pick up a quick and easy dinner, I made comment as we pulled in that I really hated going to this location because there are always people loitering in the parking lot, some who will literally come up to the car and ask for money or whatever, never food, and the overall area at that corner is just sketchy, especially at night. It is an unnerving experience every time. Tonight we actually bypassed the drive thru driveway to get to the menu board and speaker, to avoid a group of people hanging out IN the middle of the drive thru.

Again, numerous people hanging out in the parking lot walking back and forth on cell phones, arguing, walking around our vehicle... There was trash everywhere on the ground, open food boxes everywhere, even one non-Bojangles box sitting open on top of the bollard at the drive thru window. As usual, we asked for our typical order; Super tailgate special, all dark meat. The order was confirmed in the order read-back, the lady asked again at the window (if we wanted all dark), we said yes, and we got our order and drove home. Again, probably the 4th time this year, the order was wrong, and we actually had more white meat than dark, but also this time the chicken was so dry and over cooked that we threw half of it away. I wasted $32 for the last time at the Elmwood Ave. Bojangles.

There are better Bojangles locations in Columbia, and we are taking our business to those locations from now on. The Elmwood Ave. Bojangles has been our stop after church for 15 or so years, as well as frequently throughout the summers. The general consensus is that they believe we will not know until we get home to find out the order is wrong so, who cares. Well, I do. And I'm tired of that scenario.

We grew up driving from Irmo to Rush's on Broad River Road for years before Harbison was developed. So we can drive to another Bojangles from...

I go here for lunch regularly between 12:00-1:00pm during the business week. The location is convenient in some ways because of its beneficial proximity to a lot of business on main street. They certainly never seem to have a slow day. The wait times to get from entering the parking lot to having your food in hand is anywhere between 15-30 min depending on the day. I believe this is reasonable considering the volume of customers they attract.

The food quality at this Bojangles location does make up for the inconvenience of waiting on your food when you're on a schedule (e.g. work lunch break). I have always received consistent food quality (which should be the same at any location, but we all know that is not always true) at a reasonable price.

The staff is for the most part friendly, but it's not surprising that some employees may exhibit dissatisfaction with their job. I've only had one missing item from an order at the drive thru and after informing them, they immediately apologized and gave me what I ordered.

Considering the aforementioned experiences I had on my Bojangles lunch adventures, I would love to give this store a 5/5. Unfortunately, because of some minor issues that could be improved, I believe this location deserves a score...