Panera Bread — Restaurant in Lady Lake

Terrible Service - Rude Employees! Today I ordered through "Rapid Pickup". A Ham, Egg & Cheese Breakfast Power Sandwich $ 4.29, and a Gluten Conscious Triple Chocolate Cookie with Walnuts. My meal was due to be ready at 8:27am At about 8:29am I checked the rapid pick up shelf and it was not there. I waited 5 minutes and checked again, still not there. I waited another 5 or 6 minutes and still not there. Finally I decided not to wait any longer and I left for about 20 minutes. I came back around 9:00 am and my food was still NOT on the rapid pick up shelf. I was so hungry, I decided to go somewhere else to get my breakfast rather than try and argue with one of the employees about it, so I left to Burger King, got my food in about 2 minutes, and then went home. I called up Panera Bread and spoke with a young male manager who I believe was named Bill. I told him my name and explained what happened. He then told me "I am looking at your food and it is right here GUY." ......"GUY"? …Excuse me? This lack of respect infuriated me and I reminded him what my name was, and he said "excuse me I mean sir". After that he kept repeating that my food had been ready. I did not care to know why I could not find my food on the rapid pick up shelf for over half an hour, so I asked for a refund. He put me on hold for 5 minutes and told me a refund was being processed. The reason why I started ordering my food through rapid pick up was to avoid interacting with the rude, staff at Panera Bread. In the past whenever I have asked an employee a simple question, like where something was, I would be greeted in a loud, hostile manner, as if I was rudely interrupting them, and they would dramatically thrust their arm out in the direction I needed to go, with a look of impatience and disgust. I remember the teachers in kindergarten used to point like that. Do the employees at Panera Bread in Lady Lake Florida consider their customers to be like kindergarten children? Once I made the mistake of laying down my electronic pager down on the table where customers pick up their food, apparently it was in the wrong spot, and one of the young cooks there looked at me with contempt and commanded me to “put it in the basket!”, once again thrusting out her arm stiffly and pointing to her right. Gulp! Excuse me! I have had Innumerable problems with Panera bread’s card readers while ordering, and instead of admitting that they need new ones, the cashiers insist that there is something wrong with YOUR card, or that YOU are swiping the card wrong, all the while trying not to laugh and smirk as you flounder and fumble. There is no accountability for Panera Bread employees, THEY BELIEVE ANY PROBLEM WITH A TRANSACTION IS ALWAYS THE CUSTOMERS FAULT. Panera Bread workers also seem to resent it whenever I use my Panera Bread Member Card, I use it to get discounts. But, because it is an extra step that slows down the transaction, the cashiers don’t want to deal with it. I suggest either Panera Bread stop accepting member cards, or train their workers to properly handle them. The staff always seems overwhelmed with the volume of business they receive at their restaurant. They try as hard as they can to rush customers through their orders, never giving them enough time to read the menu. Instead, they pressure you to order as quickly as possible and then get out of their way. Meanwhile, the cashiers give you artificial smiles and lifeless enthusiasm. I HONESTLY BELIEVE THAT MANY, IF NOT ALL PANERA BREAD EMPLOYEES, DEEPLY RESENT WORKING, AND THEY THINK THAT THEIR JOB IS BENEATH THEM. Sadly, the food at Panera Bread is delicious, but the experience is ruined because the employees don’t know how to treat the customers, and demand that you respect them rather than give respect to you, the one who pays their for their wages. Even when you try to order through rapid pick up to avoid all this, they sabotage you by preparing your meal only after you have left out of...

Tonight my husband. And I visited Panera on Main St in The villages. Another couple entered with us they went to the bakery side we went to the food side. Not having been there before we stood to look at the menu board. We waited and waited and waited to place our order we noticed again the couple that went in just before us got their bakery items and drinks and sat down. This location was not busy at all. We waited and waited again. I at one end of the food counter and my husband at the other end hoping that one of three people behind the counter would waIt on us. One gal had a hat that said trainee, another gal was scraping maybe a potato salad or something like that from one container to another. A guy walked out from behind the counter got some ice I believe then walked back behind the counter to filled up his cup with maybe some tea from the under counter refrigerator. He walked right passed us and did not ask if we needed help or someone will be right with you. Nothing. We seen a couple bowls of soup and salad bowl that really looked delicious sitting at a couple tables but we may never know. We waited 8 mins at the order counter and no one acknowledged we were there so we left and went to Chicken Salad Chick and spent $35.00. Not sure we will ever stop in this location again. When we are in Sumter Landing we may try that location but not for awhile as we left with a bad taste in our mouth..... well no taste as we never got served or even acknowledged...

Very bad experience at this location. I was ordering a warm bowl and cashier said the discount I had was for soup. I didn’t want soup so I proceeded with order a Mac and cheese bowl. She then said my discount would work for mac and cheese bowl. Another associate said no it’s for the original bowl she wanted. So I said ok I want Baja chicken warm bowl and mac and cheese bowl. She asked if I wanted large for mac and cheese bowl I said yes please. Once food was ready they had only made a large Mac and cheese, no bowl. I questioned it and the cook got very rude and said if you want the bowl I have to take back half the mac and cheese. I said I’m sorry I don’t understand. She said only half the amount of mac and cheese goes in a bowl. She said I can go purchase a bread bowl on the side or she can take back half the Mac and cheese and give me a bowl. I said we just want to try the bowl. She continued to argue with me. I then said can I trade my chips for piece of bread at least. I then sat down to eat and my warm rice bowl was disgusting. There were two huge chunks of hard rice. Like as in half the rice was hard and stuck together like a brick. I went in to speak to a manger and long behold the manager was the rude cook. She said do you want it re made or a refund. I proceeded to eat the bowl well at least what was edible of it. Won’t go back to this location. The whole staff...