Tropical Smoothie Cafe — Restaurant in Florence

NEWEST COMPLAINT ON THIS LOCATION 12/31/2023 …

Went to the tropical smoothie in Florence, SC. I requested extra ice in my smoothie. I offered to pay extra, just as I would if I wanted any other extra ingredients. PERU refused to accommodate me because “it won’t blend” which makes so sense because isn’t that the purpose of a blender? I called back inside and asked for the manager. The same employee, PERU stated that the manager was not there and asked why did I want to speak with the manager. When I explained the reason, she said that they are not providing any extra ice because it’s hard to pour in a cup (ever heard of a spoon?) and I can go back to the location that does accommodate me because she’s not doing it. To the owner of this location, if this is the kind of service you offer your PAYING customers, you just need to close down before your employees get assaulted. At this point, they need to be assaulted!

OLDER COMPLAINT …

This is the ONLY Tropical Cafe I have issues with! If I’m paying for something, I should be able to get it HOW I WANT IT! I get the same thing EVERY SINGLE TIME I go to a Tropical Cafe (extra ice in my smoothies) and THIS location is the only one that wants to argue with you about YOUR preference. I was told today that I can’t get extra ice because it will not “blend”. The last time I checked, that’s what blenders were made more! No??? Every other Tropical Cafe always run my smoothie through the blender twice so it blends smooth. Today, PATUL blended my smoothie a few seconds tried to slide it to me like I didn’t notice! I don’t know if PATUL was trying to prove a point or what, but you could still see the strawberries and I was LITERALLY crunching on the sugar as it came up the straw. When I asked PATUL to blend it more, she said I had already tasted it and she wasn’t doing it. If I didn’t taste it, how else would I have known if it was made correct or not??? Now, I’ve had this problem before and it was always an easy fix. They either threw it back in the blender for me or just made me another one, no attitude, no questions asked! But PATUL wanted to go the extra mile and make a mountain out of an anthill! Since me asking for extra ice was such an issue and since they couldn’t fulfill my order properly, I asked for my money back, but again, PATUL told me “you don’t get your money back” and walked off. Now it was SEVERAL other employees standing around looking lost and none of them tried to fix the situation. I ended up leaving the smoothie on the counter! I left without my money back nor a replacement, but most importantly, I left without an ASSAULT charge because PATUL was about to be wearing that chopped smoothie she threw in that cup! I’m sure her days are numbered before she goes home painted in a smoothie! Furthermore, from looking at the comments, I see several other people had this SAME ISSUE with this SAME LOCATION! It’s obvious that management doesn’t care about their customers because if they did, they would’ve corrected this situation THE FIRST TIME THEY GOT A...

I would like to bring to your attention a very disturbing experience that occurred on last week. On July 27, 2018 I came in for my first day of work at Tropical Smoothie Cafe of Florence, SC. The manager that hired me was also responsible for training me. I came in a few minutes after 10AM/EST. After waiting 10-15 minutes the manager came to me, looked down at my skirt and said you can't wear that. I told her I did not wear pants. She asked why, was it because of my religion? I told her yes. She then told me the manager does not like it and he doesn't allow it. She went in the back to call the owner regarding the "skirt/religion" concern. She came back without any clarity on the matter and said I'd hate to fire you over this. She then told me I wish you would have told me you wore dresses at the interview before coming to work. She said fill out this w-4 in the meantime. I complied. The remainder of the day was entirely complex. The manager asked me later on in the day without reason are you one of those people that are in church every Sunday? At the end of the shift she told me to return for training on Monday 07/30/2018 from 11AM to 3PM. I came in at 10:30AM to wait for my training manager (Daniella) who appeared not to be there. The staff was very rude and asked me what I was doing there. I told them I had been told to come in today for training. The staff talked amongst themselves. The manager on duty( who never spoke/greeted or introduced himself) simply said you are not supposed to be here. You’re lying. Daniella told me she was trying to call you multiple times and you never answered. She left you a voicemail and told you to come in Tuesday 11-3. And if you didn’t talk to her on the phone how did you know to come in today? I told him I had been there for training on Friday and those were her instructions to me. He again called me a liar and said I talked to Daniella on Friday and she told you that you’ll hear back from her in a few days. At this point, I caught him in a lie. At first he said I was to resume on Tuesday. At this point I realized that he was becoming argumentative. I kindly said “thank you so much...have a nice day” and walked out. On 7/31/18 I called in at 9:29 AM and spoke to Daniella, I let her know what happened on Monday, and that I needed to speak with the owner. All she said is that was the owner that you were dealing with yesterday and refused to let me speak with him. I told her that I had been told by the owner that I was not to return until further contact. She said ok, I'm sorry about that. I responded by letting her know that...

So I pull up to this spot thinking I’m about to bless my body with some nutrients. What I got instead? A disrespectful cup of crushed ice with a whisper of ginger. I’m talkin’ silent film ginger. I could’ve blended this mess at home with three ice cubes and a prayer.

I told the guy, “Hey, this tastes like disappointment and winter.” He says, “We have to make you the exact same one again.” Sir… if I say the smoothie’s trash, why would I want the sequel? You think standing in front of me while you blend it’s gonna add flavor? What is this, Hogwarts?

And don’t even get me started on the manager—that ghost has more power off-site than the staff has on the clock. “We can’t refund you without the manager.” Really? Y’all can charge my card without the manager but can’t undo it without permission from Casper the Cancelled?

At that point I said, “Cool. I’ll dispute the charge and drop a lil’ review so the people know.” Suddenly, logic entered the chat in the form of a girl with sense, who finally let me get a different smoothie. Still tasted like sadness and crushed ambition, but I took it just to be done.

Long story short: Too much ice. No flavor. No leadership. No accountability. If I wanted cold air in a cup, I would’ve breathed in...