Papa Johns Pizza — Restaurant in Columbus

First, let me preface this review with, “I’m no Karen.” I’ve had Papa John’s in numerous states in the country while traveling for business, and am usually really satisfied. They’re the McDonald’s of pizza. Where I continue to be annoyed, is that this location is the worst I ever came across and it just happens to be the one that delivers to my home.

I’ve occasionally made it my personal mission to provide relevant and fair feedback through Google reviews, corporate surveys, and even calling the store because I want them to improve, not go out of business. I genuinely like their product, when it’s good. There was some improvement, but the last 4-5 times we’ve ordered, it’s clear that they’re back to their old games.

The delivery drivers are outstanding in my experience. Why that can’t translate to the food preparation is beyond me. This was ordered as a medium pizza, regular crust, half pepperoni/half sausage, and an extra garlic cup (spicy). Note the order time and time the pizza was out for delivery. Almost two hours after they accepted my payment, a pizza finally arrived at my door.

As you can see in the photos, the crust is flat and more like a cracker than bread. The pizza was not hot, and the toppings were sparse, particularly the cheese that I added as “extra.” Very disappointing after a two hour wait, when you spent all week out of town, and your day traveling, and just want to eat pizza and vegetate on your couch. The pizza in the photos is representative of our last 4-5 orders, and will be our last for a long time.

I don’t believe in rewarding bad service and/or products. It’s my belief that if every person that has a bad experience refuses to order again for 6-months, they would eventually lose enough customers to force them to improve.

If you’re reading this and have had a negative experience I hope you’ll join me, and leave a 1-star review. Don’t be swayed to change the rating if offered free food, etc. That doesn’t fix the problem. We deserve a better Papa John’s experience in this market, and there is a franchise owner willing to do it if this one refuses to take note of the numerous bad reviews.

Remember, there is no incentive to improve if customers continue to come back for a bad product and service. You have to hit the owner in their wallet.

EDIT I filled out a corporate survey as well, and requested a phone call to discuss my experience. I received a follow up e-mail from Papa John’s corporate asking me if I was satisfied with my resolution and contact from the store. I never received any contact, and again asked for a call. To date, I have not received a call or any contact from the store which is a good indicator that they mislead corporate and told them they contacted me to resolve the complaint. This lends more validity to my theory that this is a bad franchise owner situation, rather than a Papa John’s corporate issue. Disappointing. I suspect most people don’t want the phone call. I do, because I believe the discomfort of a phone call may prompt them to do better, but only if they actually...

Received a “Ready for Pickup” notification on the app. Show up, “Sorry, pizza is in the oven.” Stand around for 20 minutes, ask what is going on with my pizza? Gentleman says, let me check. Stand around for another 10 minutes, no answer. Ask the guy again, he then asks everyone else working. Another employee walks up and states he tried calling me about my order, yet, no missed calls on my phone. I show my phone to the employee, and yet, he continues to lie to my face about calling me. They mark my order on the app as picked up. I don’t have any food in my hand. They say they’re short on supplies so they didn’t make my order. I ask why would you tell me it is ready? No answer. I ask why they wouldn’t say something to me when I walked in? They have no answer. This location has been the worst I’ve ever dealt with. This isn’t the first time they’ve screwed up an order for me. Isn’t the first time it wasn’t ready when I was notified it was. Everyone in here thinks it is funny when something goes wrong. When you ask for help, people just walk away and start doing something else. I know it’s a stressful job that probably doesn’t pay all that well; but dang, maybe try a little bit? I’ve never seen so many people just not give a crap about what they are doing. I wouldn’t recommend this location to anyone, unless you’re just used to the worst...

I walked in to pick up my order and there were three people working. One kid was on the phone. The other two in the kitchen. All three saw I walked in and didn't acknowledge me at all. I waited patiently at the front desk and the one guy was still on the phone for about 5 min. In the 5 minutes I waited the other two walked up to the front and placed some tags on boxes and still did not acknowledge I was standing there or say hello. A delivery guy walked in, fiddled around with a few boxes and the computers up front, all the while not acknowledging me. Another white guy walked in and every one said hello to him in unison. Then one of the kids proceeded to jump on his cell phone, text a few times and continued making pizza without washing his hands. Finally the first kid on the phone, got off and went straight to the pizza station to start making a pizza. He looked back and asked if I had been helped already. He came over and charged me for my pizzas and handed me the two large boxes. I asked for parm cheese and peppers and he gave me 2 packets each.

My family owns a PapaJohns and so I can sympathize a little if you at understaffed. But they were not. This place is a joke! This was my first and...