Ben & Jerry’s — Restaurant in Greensboro

So, reading all the many glowing reviews of this place, let me say from the get-go that I have no complaint about the service, the store hours, the staff's demeanor/behavior OR the taste/quality of the ice cream. I was at this shop with two friends yesterday (Sunday afternoon). It was a beautiful day and the shop was busy and crowded. My group was relatively easy – 3 separate small cups of ice cream. When I got up to the cashier, he rang up my order – again, 3 small cups – and told me the price was $26 and some change.

In the moment, I was sure that total had to be a mistake, but since it was busy and I was treating my friends to the B&J, I didn't say anything to the checkout person. We sat outside in the great weather and everyone enjoyed the ice cream. The next day (Monday), I was re-thinking all of this and I was totally convinced that the cashier had made a mistake and had overcharged me. Right? I mean, even in our current inflationary-prices-go-up-but-never-come-down economy, $8.00 for a small cup of (maybe) two scoops of ice cream seems more than a little excessive. I had just recently gone into Harris Teeter (a mere 100 yards from this B&J shop in Friendly Center) and paid their full retail price of $6.99 for a pint of one of the B&J flavors. That's for a whole pint – which would have more than filled the 3 small cups that we ordered at the franchise shop.

In any case, today (Monday) I called the shop at Friendly and spoke with a young lady for a few minutes, really, just to confirm that I had indeed been charged the "correct" price of $8.00 per small cup. No toppings, nothing extra added. She assured me that the $8.00 price was absolutely their correct price for that order.

While in the shop on Sunday I had glanced around while we were in line, to see if they had the prices posted for the various orders like cups, cones, sundaes, etc. If there were any posted prices, I didn't see them. If you go to their website, specific pricing for various offerings is conspicuously not mentioned. Now I know why.

My conclusion to all this is that I will most likely never be a customer again at this shop. And if this pricing policy is consistently (more or less) applied at all B&J franchises, I won't be a customer at any of their other shops. There is, after all, a price point at which customers can smell price-gouging, not a pleasant aroma, IMHO. Most people, including me, enjoy ice cream, but most people don't enjoy getting metaphorically screwed when they take their kids, family and friends out for a treat. And perhaps I'm an outlier here and maybe people have just become inured to being over-charged by companies who do so simply because they can. I've always considered myself reasonably, comfortably able to afford an occasional ice cream outing, but perhaps I was living above my means on Sunday and can now only afford Ben & Jerry's when it's a BOGO special at my local grocery store. And I'm guessing there are probably others who have experienced the same sticker shock that I feel, but perhaps haven't posted an online review. I rarely do so, and usually only when my experience has...

I arrived to pick up a cake on my daughter's 18th birthday at 5:30 pm. The cake was ordered to be ready by 5:00 pm on her birthday. The people in the shop said it wasn't frozen. I asked to see it and they said I couldn't. They said I could pick it up the next day. Unfortunately, we were leaving to go out of town the next day and I didn't need a birthday ice cream cake for the day after a birthday. The employees offered a single other cake as an option. It looked like it was leftover from Hanukkah with blue and white frosting and some sort of double chocolate inside. Regardless, it was not suitable and not what I ordered. They offered no other solution other than pints of ice cream as substitute for a cake.

I asked for a refund as I quickly tried to locate another cake place on the phone. I had dinner getting cold in the car and a family at home waiting for a my daughter's favorite food and her cake. While I was on the phone, a staff member told me he was unable to give me a refund and I would need to call the manager the next day. I ended up stopping at the grocery store to get a generic Carvel cake which was almost as disappointing as the cold dinner I brought home.

Still, I did as I was told and left a message for the manager to call me back after they open. I then left two other messages over the following days. Like most adults, I work 9-5 and taking time to call an ice cream shop in the middle of the workday isn't always easy.  Still, I needed to adjust to their schedule to finally reach someone. I called when they open at 12:00 pm and they again told me they could not refund my money because it was an online order. The guy sounded like the same guy. He took my number and said someone would call me. As of this posting, a week later, I've received no phone call.

I don't have time to chase down a $30.00 purchase and I'm giving up. I can't decide if I'm more frustrated that this store screwed up my daughter's 18th birthday or that the staff who couldn't be bothered to do their job and the management team who couldn't be bothered to try and make it right never even apologized.

I love Ben and Jerry's. I love their ice cream, their contributions to society, and their love and support of all human beings. I won't stop eating their goodness or supporting their business. I will never again shop the store at 3332 W. Friendly Avenue, The Shops at Friendly Center, Greensboro, NC,USA ,2741. That shop is run and staffed by people who don't care and who I don't think represent Ben, Jerry, or...

The ice cream was good. The service was really a bummer. It appeared that only one employee was working and she seemed very frustrated to have to take our order. Did not acknowledge we came in, ask what we wanted, or look up for the first 10 minutes we were there. No one else was in line. She finally started one cone, and never asked if we wanted anything else. Another person that we thought was a patron got up from a table with others that she was visiting, asked what else we wanted, made it, handed it to us, pointed at the iPad in front of her for our payment... All while she spoke only to the other female employee that had stopped helping us (they were discussing their after work plans). We received no bye, thank you, or anything else. Would not return.... I can buy the same ice cream at the grocer for less and receive...