Way Beyond Bagels — Restaurant in Florida

WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE EVER!

We have been regulars at Way Beyond Bagels for a number of years and I previously had a 5 star review that raved about this bagel shop. The bagels are good here but the service has become unacceptably poor. My decision to change my review comes after an incident at the store that left my wife and I literally shaking we were so upset.

We were there this morning and waited through the lines due to limitations on the number of people allowed in the store.(COVID) When our time came to enter my wife was invited in. We told the gentleman at the door we are together and would wait for another person to leave so we can order together. The man was rude, pushy and aggressive to my wife and told her to enter without me. We asked again to wait to go in as a family. The man become agitated and yelled at us. He then said he would allow the person behind us to enter if one of us would not enter without the other. We again said that we would wait for someone else to exit to order together.

From this point it went downhill. My wife stepped away since he was so aggressive. I waited as best I could under the circumstances and the guy behind me clearly saw the situation and declined to go in front of us. (kudos to him) When the next person left and I entered we ordered and asked to speak the the manager. We were asked 3 times "are you sure you want to do that?". When we learned who the manager is we realized she has seen the whole incident an not stepped in. It was made very clear that they had no interest in changing the situation.

I am a small business owner. I understand the plight of small businesses during these challenging time. The does not change the fact that small businesses need to treat their customers correctly. No business should allow their employee's to separate families. Even more importantly they should not allow the employees to yell at or threaten customers. Most importantly, a small business should resolve such issue when they do happen. (nobody can have perfect employees all the time)

I now understand the other bad reviews for Way Beyond. I hope that the manager/owner will find their way and and find a way to refocus on the customer. In the meantime our family will be getting our bagels somewhere else.

Here is my previous review....

Best bagels around. This is a real New York style bagel shop with excellent bagels as well as a limited deli and pastries. Always top notch food and staff that remembers your name.

Note some poor reviews complain about the wait. You will wait 15 minutes on weekend mornings. It’s with the wait and the wait is because they are the best...

Way beyond bagels is one of the few locations that have very good bagels in the area. It’s been my experience thaT I need to go in the early morning to get the freshest in all variety. In the early morning the assortment is bigger, and fresh. Later in the day some of the less popular, are sold out or several hours old. They make an excellent bagel with cream cheese and Lox (nova if you want).

They has a daily (Week Days) special of a bakers dozen +3 of bagels for 14.99. The man behind the counter may not have understood what this means. A bakers dozen is a count of 13. He told me the offer is equal to 15 bagels. I explained to him how the offer certainly equals a total of 16, Bakers Dozen + 3 = 16. He didn’t argue and gave me the extra. He then said I was the first one to question this since they started the offer. I guess this mans lots of people have been shorted one. This is not a complaint, more you should know this in advance in case your shorted. I ordered a Lox + Cream Cheese but when I got home I discovered it was “Nova”. I just sprinkled a little salt and the sandwich was great. The Nova on a bagel with cream cheese, lettuce, tomato was around 12.00 almost as much as the bagels but was fresh and delicious and the price expected for Lox.

In the mornings they are very busy with sandwich and coffee crowds. The best time to get very fresh bagels is early in the morning. Everything in the deli case is fresh and delicious. A bakers dozen plus three is available weekdays, same price less extras on Saturday and Sunday. There is an area out of doors with tables which are available on a fiat come first we’ve basis. They do not have a wait staff but you carry your meals outside. It’s best to come with someone else that can hold a table while you go and get what ever your having.

Parking: is difficult! This is where they lost a star. It’s outside their control but part of the experience. The spots that come available are small so getting out can be a challenge without hitting the door on someone else’s. It is not unusual not being the only one circling to grab the next spot as this is a very busy shopping center. If you can walk a bit, it’s much better to park further down or even on the side, you might have to walk but it’s less stressful. Unless you still live in the North East, slow down, relax, they won’t run out of it takes a few more minutes getting inside. It’s the people who push, shove, honk, yell get angry who make parking here ALL the worse. Stay home if this is you, nobody wants or cares about people...

I usually end up at this place about once a year and always regret my decision afterwards. First of all, the menu and prices online don't correspond with real life. I don't know if this is just negligence or on purpose, but things always cost a lot more when checking out. It's hard to verify since they don't tend to give detailed receipts, I suspect on purpose. For example the sandwich I ordered is $8.25 online and they charged me $11.95. Ordered a salad which was $9.95 and they charged $11.95.

The ordering system is a mess. You wait in somewhat of a line and eventually, hopefully a staff person will help you. If you have 4 people in your party they will all have to deal with that 1 staff person. After your order is taken you just kinda stand around not knowing whats happening. During my last visit I ordered 2 cold sandwiches and 2 salads. While waiting, we saw the entire line from behind us get their food, check out and leave. The girl we dealt with was working in slow motion and it took over 10 minutes to get our order.

By late afternoon I understand they will be out of some bagels, but they were out of any decent flavors. They were out of mustard! What kind of deli / sandwich shop can run out of mustard? They ran out of straws. It seems like they ran out of everything I wanted.

The dining room is a separate room with a few booths. The room was disgusting. The tables were dirty, the seats were dirty, the floor was dirty. The message I got from the dining room is "we don't care about our customer's experience" The room was also a storage room apparently because it will full of cardboard boxes of cups and to go containers strewn about. The wall lights were falling down, they put notes on the lights asking you not to touch them instead of just fixing or replacing them. The walls were even dirty! The dining room was a mess and no different than a year ago when I last saw it.

Overall the staff were friendly, this time. Sometimes they have more of an attitude. The food was just okay. The prices are high and inconsistent. The service is extremely slow and the place is not overly clean. There are plenty of other choices in the area I will not be back to Way...