Smoothie King — Restaurant in Durham

Hands down this is the worst Smoothie King I’ve ever visited, today was my second time at this particular location. I should of known today’s drive through worker obviously came to work to hang out because upon pulling up to the drive through speaker and not getting a response for about 3 or 4 minutes when she did respond it was with an attitude. “Ok not a big deal”(I thought to myself)… after I placed my order crickets…. No total, no thank you for ordering, no pull around, NOTHING! I pulled around and the young lady with the cow print nails told me my total was $6.77, after I gave her my card she asked if I needed a receipt “normal enough” (thinking to myself again). After I received my receipt she closed the windows and I could see the guy who made my smoothie struggling, he was trying to clean around the lid of the cup that was messy because the cup was over filled when he placed the lid on top. I then looked to the young lady at the window who stood with her back to me and texted on her phone. After his attempt to clean the cup didn’t work he gave up and sat my smoothie behind her, after her extremely important text message she proceeded to place the phone to her ear and have a phone conversation….. my smoothie is still messy and sitting behind her. I could only watch in disbelief, when she finally turned to get my smoothie (still on the phone) she moved it to the counter in front of her where it sat longer (because she was still on the phone), then she opened the window and picked up my smoothie. I stopped her and asked her for a new lid…. She closed the window sat my smoothie down in front her and picked the phone back up, I had enough and blew the horn asked for my smoothie and a new lid… “I can change it myself”, the young lady gave me the smoothie and proceeded to throw the lid at me and say “girl take your lid”. I would like to note the lid didn’t make it inside my truck and she also didn’t give me a straw nor any napkins! She was also pretty quick on closing the window, my first reaction was to give her disrespectful attitude a shower in mixed berry smoothie, leading me to believe she’s had some problems before. I sat for a few moments and cleaned off my cup when the owner came to the window and tried to rectify the situation, it was to late after playing with my time and the disrespect I was subject to, I was done! My daughter did enjoy the smoothie with no lid and no straw but that was our last time visiting The Smoothie King in...

Two visits within a week. Both online orders, both not ready when I arrived after the given time, Both made as requested and were tasty. First visit, I did as a pick-up in store only to find out the doors were locked and all business was through the drive thru. I always do in-store pick-up to avoid idling my car, and having to wait on drive thru customers Smoothies to be made. Once I made it to the window 15 minutes past my pick-up time, my smoothie still wasn't ready but received in less than 5 mins. This was good because it hadn't been sitting there melting. Yesterday, I went ahead and requested drive thru pick-up because of the last visit. Arrived after my pick-up time, got in line at the drive-thru and sat for over 20 mins and we didn't move. Frustrated, I went around the car at the menu board only to see there we no cars in front of them. I pulled to the window in hopes that my smoothie was ready and I could bounce! I was (ignored) as I could see people at the register at the window. After sitting there about 10 mins waiting to be acknowledged, I waved my hand to get the attention of the person standing there. She opened the window and asked me what did I order? I showed her my phone/the app. She asked again what the order was. Then to come back to tell me it wasn't ready. I then asked for a refund as I am almost an hour into a dang smoothie! She apologized and I immediately felt like crap and realized they were the only two there and doing their level best. I told her it was ok and I that I wasn't upset. Another 10 mins passed and another employee came and asked did I get the "doordash" order...I said yes. She apologized again and said give me 3 minutes. I said sure. Got my smoothie with another apology and I tipped her and said no worries, you are doing a hard job and I am grateful you are here. Get these people some support/help! They seem to care and are good employees (rare in the service industry). Update: found a sliver of plastic bag/film in my smoothie today (6-4-25) 11am. Service was quick, tasty and fortified with plastic! I called them to report. Will add a pic if I have the option...

I didn't get the smoothie I paid for through the app because the store didn't have the fruit needed (why accept the order when there is no possible way to fulfill it in a timely manner and how is it possible to be out of all fruit except for raspberries and bananas?)...I didn't get a refund at that time because the team members didn't know what to do and the manager wasn't there (on a grocery run to buy fruit was the explanation provided). Team members were trying to be helpful but they just didn't know. After fifteen minutes of searching they finally found a phone number for Corp office (the number was actually for franchise IT help but they eventually got me to customer service...why is corp phone number nowhere to be found on the app?) Corp customer service rep was very pleasant. Took my contact info and said she would send me a follow-up email (that I never received) and have a member of the Corp staff reach out assuring it would be within 48 hours (it's been 11 days now...so over 264 hours which is definitely more than 48). Having been assured corp would assist going forward, I thanked the site team members and started my 36 minute drive home. After 48 hours expired and nothing from the corp team, I reached out twice through app Contact Us option requesting return call, text or email (nadda)...Finally decided to bypass corp and called store manager Sat Oct 12 at 11:46 am. He could not take care of my refund at that time but assured me he would call at 1:30 (he specified exactly 1:30 pm later that same day)...its almost one week later and nothing. Reached out through app Contact Us option for a THIRD time...As of today a whole lot of assurances but...YOU STILL HAVE MY MONEY AND ARE MAKING ME WORK MUCH TOO HARD TO GET...