Potbelly — Restaurant in Flint Charter Township

I’m just a worthless delivery driver so I know my opinion has no value but this place USED to be one of my favorite restaurants in the whole flint area to pick up from. Nice people and reliably good service, you could tell it WAS a well run restaurant. We don’t get paid to wait for orders so having a reliable restaurant like this that always had the orders ready is a big deal. I ended up making the parking lot there my home base, where I sit in my car and wait to get an order that’s actually worth doing. I would frequently go in to use the restroom, everyone there knew who I was so it was no problem. I’ve been doing DoorDash and other gig work as my full time job for 4 1/2 years and for at least the first 3 years this place was great. One time I actually had a catering order from chipotle that got canceled so I had these two huge boxes of food in my car and nothing to do with them. So what did I do? I took it over to my friends at potbelly and gave it to them! Unfortunately it now appears that there are no employees left who remember the good times we once had.

Finding gig work really changed my life. Don’t get me wrong, the companies are pure evil on an honestly cartoonish level but DD/uber/GH is the first job I’ve ever actually felt good about doing. For the first time I felt like I had a chance to make it in this screwed up world. I was making decent money (in exchange for risking my life every day on these incredibly dangerous roads) and actually had control over my own life (a concept quite foreign in our society). I said I would never go back to a “real” job.

I have watched over the last 4 years as the only job I’ve ever liked has slowly but surely been taken away from me. The pay on DD is basically a negotiation between them and the drivers. Our only tool in this negotiation is the decline button. When an order is isn’t paying enough, we decline it and if enough people do that DD has to raise the pay to get someone to take it. It should be a fair and free market where we, collectively as drivers set the standard for how much we get paid.

For years now things have been going downhill. They’ve hired way too many drivers and that means less orders to go around which has allowed them to pay us less. When I started they were paying $3 per delivery, nowadays they’re getting us to do 2 deliveries for $2. They won the war by over saturating the market. Effectively they have an army of slaves running their cars into the ground and risking their lives for very little money, if any. And yes most people quit soon after but they just hire more. Their business would not exist without exploitation and now I can’t make a living anymore. I’ve been forced to find a new job but haven’t found it yet and things have been an awful struggle out there. Nowadays I sit around for most of the day because if I took the few offers they give me I wouldn’t make any money anyway but this is my only source of income right now.

So I admit I haven’t been in the best mood lately sitting in my spot there outside potbelly. The workers have changed over the years. They definitely aren’t as reliable as they used to be. The other day I started my work day by sitting around for over a half hour before finally getting a mediocre order for $7 at potbelly. When an order isn’t ready I really just like to check with the workers real quick so they know I’m here for it. I have a ton of anxiety with this job and I just want to make sure it’s being worked on. When I came in that day the woman working the counter completely ignored me for several minutes and then just walked away. I understand they were busy but I just want 10 seconds to confirm what’s happening. It’s not too much to ask. Then today they tell me I’m not allowed to use the bathroom because I’m not a “customer”. I do more orders for this place than any customer ever would. But no one cares about drivers. To DD we’re worthless and expendable. To potbelly I’m not even good enough to use the restroom.

TLDR: the new management is inferior to the old one. It’s...

Shame on both of you ladies that were there today ,you two are older and should have respect for the public and if nobody’s giving you an attitude, then lose your damn attitude. Conduct yourself in a more manly professional way than you all did today. I didn’t have no attitude with you but you surely did have an attitude taking my order. Then go get another job both of you. I don’t know if you are owners or managers .But you suck to the public and how you should deduct your behavior because it was not professional at all honeys. And the lady making our sandwich seems like she needs to be put somewhere else because she can’t follow directions on how to make a sandwich. Y’all need to go and get some schooling and how to treat the public and not give the public an attitude, I should say a stink attitude even though you acted like that, I still respected you and knew that I could see you wouldn’t change. If someone told your attitude stinks. Even though you acted like that, I still respected you and knew that I could see you wouldn’t change. If someone told you you attitude. So the two older ladies find other jobs - because you all do not work well with the public at all and you don’t know how to talk to the public and you don’t even have no manners like thank you for coming. I don’t even know how y’all two very old lady’s got a job. And one more thing for the money I paid your food sucks and it was over burnt. My sandwich was it was like the bread was rubbery and I found a black stem in my food. Won’t be...

1st time customer... I'll start w/ the Good: The Mac & Cheese was really good - creamy, piping hot, comforting. Also, after I completed my order online, it said I could pick it up in 20-30 min. I didn't want to wait that long, so I called the restaurant & they said they would have it ready when I got there. I really appreciated that! The (significantly) Bad: Ordered a BLTA. Other than a small 1/4" thick pc of avocado, the fillings didn't even stack up to 1/2 the height of a dime when stood on end & what was there was so unevenly spread out that in some areas there was just bread. The bacon was black peppered bacon, not applewood smoked, so even though there was very little of it, all I could taste was pepper. My entire sandwich was either a bite of bread or a bite of black pepper, but the pepper was so overwhelming that I couldn't finish eating it. I paid $2.33 for a small Diet Coke! I was pretty angry to find that it was equal to about 8 oz, because the cup was filled to the top with ice.

Regarding ordering online - It automatically added a 15% tip without me realizing it. That really annoyed me when I realized it, because I was only across the street when I ordered and just went over to the drive-through to pick it up. I'm still hungry & keep thinking about the kind of meal I could have gotten somewhere else for the $20+...