Tropical Smoothie Cafe — Restaurant in Fountain Valley

Response to "the owner" Thank you for taking the time to reply, however with all due respect I call BS. Looking back at the reviews, this same issue has been reported MANY times starting over a week ago. Each reply states say the same thing. Sorry, how you strive for highest quality cust service and want to make it right and directing each to fill out a canned corp form. If you really wanted to make it right you would have corrected the issue at the location the first day it was reported. To add I used that form last time along with this time, and received ZERO response. Actually this time I did the following: Facebook messaged Corp. They did reply asking for my email/phone but since then no reply. Completed the form you directed, no reply. Answered a "survey" sent to my email asking for feedback on the ordering process, order fulfillment and food quality. Upon completion I got an offer for "$1.99 smoothie when buy a flatbread". This was just for completing the survey, NOT fixing the issue.

Original review posted*

The food here is good, the negative review is for how this location handles "promo offers". I was happy to have a partnership offer with Tmobile/Tropical Smoothie for a free "Smoothie Bowl". I ordered my bowl without issue on the app as directed, however when I arrive to pickup, I was told a variety of excuses why they would NOT honor the confirmed order. Was told, "The offer has a glitch and we can't scan the barcode". Since I placed my order via the app, there was no need to scan a barcode. The system worked just fine. I had an order confirmation, and they had the order, but would not fill it. Was told, "This location isn't participating" and they referred to a sign at the window. The offer did NOT exclude locations, and actually encouraged app ordering. Nothing prevented me from ordering from this location. Was told, "You can use at another location". No I can't. Since the order was successfully placed, the offer is gone. Was told, "You will get you money credited back in 24 hours". As this was a "free bowl" there was no money used. They then clarified, the credit would be if I paid for any extra. That does nothing to solve the issue. Was told, "We can't fill all these free bowl offers". If so, the offer should NOT have been given.

So I spent over an hour driving (including gas) to the location, waiting for my order, listening to excuses and left with nothing but frustration. This is not the first time I had issue filling a promo offer. Last time they had a Tmobile/Tropical Smoothie offer they couldn't fill as well.

I will add that while the staff did nothing to "solve" the problem, they were kind and empathized with the situation. Didn't result in a successful resolution, but glad...

Terrible customer service, if you’re like me and you attempt to use the loyalty system/app or fill out the survey on their receipt they refuse to honor it. TSC used to be my go-to spot for smoothies as they had a pretty good loyalty program but not anymore, guess I’ll be getting my smoothies elsewhere now. A lot of the TSC spots in south Orange County have closed down and now I can see why. I even bought one of their reusable cups for smoothies as they used to give you a discount for saving them money on a cup but apparently they don’t honor that anymore either. The last time I’d come in with a coupon code they didn’t know what to do with it, and the store owner/manager came out and said that I needed a picture of the code on my phone as well as on the receipt (which I didn’t have). Came in prepared with both this time and the server, rather than just be honest with me and tell me that he couldn’t give me the discount or didn’t know how to do it, he instead pretended to give me the discount and hoped that I wouldn’t notice. When questioned he tried to get his coworkers to help but they just told me that they “aren’t doing that anymore.” Disappointing. Guess there isn’t any sense in wasting my time filling out their surveys if they aren’t even going to honor their own deal. Unlike what it may say on the receipt, TSC most definitely...

Update July 10th I appreciate that they have infact stopped the whole force tip on a stick thing, if my review has anything to do with it I do not know but I'll gladly tip every time I come in when I can.

Update May 7th 2024 So Ive been coming here for years, and I always tip at least 4-5 bucks on a single smoothie order, but this new little game they play where they put out the card reader on a stick with pick a tip button already showing to force you into tipping is about as tacky as it gets. As long as I continue doing this I'll never tip again.

Wow. I'm sitting in the drive thru going on more than a half hour with only 2 cars in front of me. Employees have come put a sign out that says be patient only 2 people working, I'm not mad at them but the owner here needs to hire some more help , absolutely no excuse for this. I'm at work and expected a 10 min wait at absolute most. Almost an hour. And once You're in the drive thru your stuck. You can't just turn around or back out ...... Lost almost an hours worth of work and my life waiting for a 10 dollar smoothie that wasn't even made correctly. Used to love this place. Shut it down. Last 4 times I've come the smoothies don't even taste right...