Krispy Kreme — Restaurant in Concord

My experience today was an absolute 3 STRIKES!!!! Let me start off by saying today was my and my family's LAST DAY patronizing this Krispy Kreme ("KK") location. The time of this experience was sometime 2:15 PM.

I placed my order for 1/2 dozen green glazed and 1/2 dozen regular glazed. The young man that took my order said, "ok," quoted me the price and told me to come to the second window.

When we approached the window, I told the young girl, with massively long pink nails/tips, that I have a free dozen glazed donuts. She scanned my app and said I still owed $2.50. I asked her why did I owe anything because my order should be 1/2 dozen regular glazed and 1/2 green glazed. She said yes, but we were being charged because of the new donuts that I ordered. My thought was it shouldn't cost anymore for the green glazed donuts, but I said okay. My husband paid her and we drove away.

As we're driving around the bend, I opened the box and to my vexing surprise, I was given 1/2 dozen assorted St. Patrick's donuts. At this point, I was livid; livid may be an understatement to be honest. Anyway, I go inside the establishment to inform the staff of the error in my order, and Nate, comes to the rescue.

I provided Nate with my original order and reminded of my order. He then informed me that KK did not have any original glazed. I replied, "well, then you should have told me this information at the drive-thru so I could have ordered something else." He didn't reply, which makes me think he may have been the one to make the decision for me on the assortment. However, I digress.

Afterward, he asked me for the receipt and I told him the young girl at the window did not give us a receipt. Side note: I always ask for my receipts for this reason and when I went inside, I was expecting to get a copy of the receipt, but unfortunately, that did not happen!

So, Nate makes his way to drive-thru to obtain the receipt so he can see what was ordered, but, he returns and says his co-worker cannot get the receipt. So now I'm con fuddled and ask him, is there no way for her to pull up the receipt or re-scan my app so you can see what I ordered? His response, "no." UGH!!!!

At first I asked for a full refund, but, I changed my response and told him to just give me a dozen green glazed. (My family really wanted the donuts, so I gave in.). Now, while he is trying to resolve this issue, I witness the manager, young black guy and another worker in the back just cackling it up and talking as though everything was peachy on the frontline! Unbelievable; it truly never ceases to amaze me!

Anywhats, Nate said he would give me additional donuts for the trouble essentially. While he's grabbing the rest of the donuts, the manager walks over to him after his 10 minute comedy show in the back and asks Nate what was going in with my order. Nate provides him a response and he starts walking towards the counter in a way, but makes a b-line to the donut trays. UNBELIEVABLE!

Afterward, I took my donuts and left the establishment. This is unfortunately not our first experience with this KK location. It honestly has been on a decline with customer service for a while now. Aside from the experience which I provided above, here are my top priority issues:

(1) the increase in price for a dozen donuts is $16 and change! This is INSANE!!! A dozen KK donuts used to be about $11. In addition, the donuts have decreased in width, they are skinner now. Are you kidding? Yes, the reality is prices in general have increased for almost everything within the past 2 years. However, these increases are GOUGINGLY PREDATORY; and

(2) customer service. Need I say more? It is shameful how customer service and it appears training nowadays, is at an ALL TIME low! I do not understand in 3 recent visits, we've had the worst service possible. Also, it is imperative to communicate any vital detail to customers so the customer can make an informed decision as it concerns the money we are spending!!!

I think I am done for now. I hope this review is...

Krispy Kreme is one of those places that you either love or hate. I've grown up on Krispy Kreme and I'm one of the diehards that will turn my nose up if you bring me a pink and orange box. When I read that Krispy Kreme was going to open a Concord location, I didn't give it much thought. That was until I read more about what this new location had to offer. It wasn't what I expected, actually it caught me off guard. A new design and for the first time in my life, more than just doughnut options. Okay, my interest was peaked.

Open day was a bit overwhelming, so my wife and I decided to let the hype die down a bit. 2 weeks later, it's still kind of packed, but we were tired of waiting and needed our fix. Overall, we waited about 30-35 minutes to get our order. I did notice a lot of people using the mobile app for pickup orders and they stated that took around 10 minutes. So if you only want doughnuts, go that route.

Once it was time to place our order, we decided early on that we wanted to try as many new items that we could handle. We went with a Double Chocolate Milkshake, Vanilla Fruity Crunch (scope sandwich), Strawberry Lemonade Chiller, and we made sure we got some doughnuts as well.

The Milkshake was good, but I'm not sure I'd get it again. Not because it was bad, but I wasn't really into the richness of the chocolate. It reminded me of Starbucks hot chocolate, which some people might prefer. If anything, I'd just get a different flavor next time.

The Strawberry Lemonade chiller was really good, but very sweet. I think on its own, it would be better. Mixing it with the other flavors from doughnuts to the shake didn't go over too well. But, that's a lesson learned.

The Vanilla Fruity Crunch... let me pause for a second... okay... this thing right here! Again, this thing right here! Is where it's at! Normally when I get Fruity Pebbles on ice cream or cupcakes, it just isn't crunchy enough. This ice cream sandwich perfection that Krispy Kreme concocted is something that is a blessing and a curse. A blessing because it exist and a curse because now, no other ice cream sandwich is comparable. Who knew throwing some ice cream in between a doughnut and dipping it in some cereal would be this amazing.

If you are just looking for some doughnuts, then expect what you always get from Krispy Kreme. They do have custom options as well, but I'd stick to the app for those. However, do yourself a flavor and get one of those ice cream sandwiches....

I’ll start by saying I don’t normally write reviews and let my visit last month slide but after another issue today, I had to give my two cents. So my issue last month was with the young lady that rang me up didn’t understand that I was using my free dozen reward to get 12 doughnuts in two 6 pack/small boxes. Wasn’t the first time I’ve done that and when I asked as I went to select the doughnuts the guy said it was no problem. She was trying to charge me $20+ for a free dozen? I’m not the type of person to be rude, get loud or make a scene so I simply asked, “how and why?” I’m not paying for a free dozen and she was trying to explain that it being two 6 packs that I had to pay and mentioned a free dozen glaze. I didn’t have a dozen of glaze or 2 dozen at all.? I had to still ask a few more times, said 6+6=12 so why would I pay anything if i have a free dozen!? She had a bit of an attitude, did something on the register then slid the doughnuts to me.. no apology for any miscommunication or anything. Today to avoid the same issue, I went to the drive thru. I asked before ordering to confirm using my reward (not a birthday or one that specifically says one dozen glaze… I’ve been a LONG time rewards member and know how it works) but after attempting to ask 3 times, was told to go to the first window. Told him same thing, he took my order, took my phone number to approve the reward and sent me to the second window. I was handed a ripped receipt that didn’t have all transaction info which I thought was weird. The young man left the window cracked, said something to someone behind the wall then nodded his head towards me.. the same young lady I had the issue with looked around the corner. I waved a few times and said “HI!!” as they stood there looking and talking. He handed me my doughnuts and did tell me to have a good night. Like I said before, I’m not “that person” to make a scene but was NOT HAPPY!! Customer service is huge and can make or break a business. I feel the way she handled the first situation was wrong and then this young man’s actions today are too. Why would you talk about a customer and/or situation in front of them or even bring her into it? Covid has been an excuse for far too long and changed the way of the world. This is lack of training and/or young employees just simply not understanding the importance of service. They don’t care. It’s sad. I won’t continue to spend my money with companies that allow things like...