KFC — Restaurant in Litchfield Park

Story time kids. As my fellow reviewers have stated. This location is absolutely terrible. Cant tell you how many times I've ordered or attempted to order from this location, and they are out of chicken before 7pm. I stopped by today thinking let me give them another shot. Worst idea I've had in ages. Downloaded the KFC app while in the parking lot and placed my order. 16 piece extra crispy family meal 12 piece chicken strips some fries and a couple drinks. $85.70 order. 4:32pm App says "Hang tight ! Bigger orders take a but longer to prepare. No worries. I text my husband and told him I'd be home in about a half hour with KFC. He jokes and says "OMG they actually had chicken ?!" (He was a previous KFC employee when he was a teen. Always comments how this location runs out of chicken at dinner time and he couldn't understand why they don't make more ?) So, the app says our food will be ready at 5pm. I sat in my car until about 5 min til. On my way in the door I open the app and it says my food is ready. I tell the guy at the front counter I'm there for a pick up order. He asks my name and said they are working on it and it'd be ready soon. (But the app said it was ready already? But okay whatever) I sat in the lobby and watched them fill approx 20 orders....the management was working drive thru and there were 2 other employees filling orders and clearing out the lobby. One guy finally notices that...there is am still sitting there....oh it's 5:25 now by the way....25 min after my phone told me my food was ready. Asks his coworkers what I'm waiting on....manager lady asks the guy about why my order hasn't been made yet...apparently i was waiting on chicken....and starts heading back, I assume to make the food. She asks if it was crispy or original recipe. He told her incorrectly that it was O.R. That's when I stood up and asked is that my order you were asking about cause it's Extra Crispy...and they all ask if I'm okay with O.R. No....no I'm not. So let me get this straight....my order didn't get made because they were waiting on crispy chicken to cook...and it all got sold to all the customers that got served while i was sitting in the lobby waiting for it.....cool. I was frustrated to say the least, yes....but then when the manager proceeds to tell me that the app messes up and doesn't display the orders on the screen. That clearly wasn't the case today. Because he very much knew my name and that my order was waiting on chicken. So....what else do ya got ? Because coming at me with attitude and treating me like I'm a Karen isn't exactly the route I'd take if I knew I had supremely messed up. It happens !! I get that. I've put in my time working fast food too.....bur whatever. I just need a refund at this point so I can move along....I can't give you a refund if you ordered through the app. Okay where do I go on the app ? I don't know we don't have anything to do with the app. . . . Uhhhhh.....come again ? So she gives me the 1-800 number to call. I then get transferred to their customer support rep where i had to repeat all my information to 2 different people and then I got an email confirmation of my refund. 14 minute phone call. No sorry. No is there anything we can do to make this situation better ? Nothing. Just a bunch of reasoning why it wasn't the managers/employees mistake or oversight or anything....just blame the app. Cool. That was my last effort for this absolute dumpster fire of a "restaurant" I wished I'd have just kept driving....next time I will. The owner of this store should be absolutely embarrassed and ashamed....and honestly KFC should take away their franchise because they are absolutely destroying the reputation. Oh! Oh! Oh ! While I was speaking to miss manager (nice eyebrows btw) when I said "Omgggg every time I come here it's a shit show...." Her response again, instead of let me fix this..... "I've never seen you in here..." Seriously?!?!? Well take a good long look now cause this is definitely the last time I make this...

I only rate 1 Star as there are no zero star or negative star ratings possible. Let me start by stating I LOVE KFC chicken. Fresh, hot, original recipe with mashed potatoes just hits the spot at times. Why I come to this location must be out of some sort of morbid fascination at how poorly a business can be run. It is by far closer to our home than the Watson Road or Van Buren locations, but I regret attempting a purchase here each time I’m lured in by driving 10 less miles for KFC. Tonight experience is standard: First, I meet the incoming employee and hold the door for them, and say “hi” with a smile. Nothing is returned - employee walks in and straight behind counter and disappears into the bowels of the “kitchen” (as a “kitchen actually makes food - more on this later) without as much as a nod or hello. Next the typical scene for this location unfolds: an empty dining room and between 0 and 4 exasperated potential customers at the counter, somewhere on the continuum of waiting 10 minutes for an acknowledgement to arguing with the staff about how bad the experience is on that given date. Today’s number was 2 - who were muttering as they walked out of the store about how “customer service sucks”. This left me alone at the counter - and I do mean alone for no employee could be seen. Some were heard, I think, discussing how the “kitchen” was out of original recipe chicken. How is a KFC out of their number 1 product at 7 PM on a weekend night? Anyway it was clearly a crisis as there were no other customers in the lobby or in the drive through but me, and a full 8 minutes passed and no one had yet to greet me at the counter. At this point I re-surveyed the parking lot to make sure there wasn’t a camera crew from “boiling point”, and had in the interim managed to scan my iTunes card and decided a nice further distraction would be to discard my now used card. This is normally a simple affair, but not at the IS/Dysart KFC for ALL THE GARBAGE CANS WERE MISSING. Oops - there was one pulled out of the wooden box within which it normally rests, but it was without a liner. At this point, unable to execute a reply or any further human contact whatsoever nor discard my refuse, and sure I wasn’t leaving my 15 minutes of fame behind on some reality TV show, I made my way to El Pollo Loco instead. They don’t have original recipe chicken, but they do offer a competent business. As I finish this review, I have 16 pieces of steaming hot chicken and sides in my hands and am headed home to feast.

This KFC must have a singular mission to destroy the franchise. And...

I could say to avoid this location like the plague, but at this point, the plague would be preferable.

I placed an order for a 16 piece meal. The young gentleman, after conferring with his manager over his headset, informed me that the chicken would take about 20-30 minutes. Yes, you read that right......they were having delays with making CHICKEN at Kentucky Fried CHICKEN. Oh well, I wasn't in a huge rush so I still placed the order.

I discovered later from the manager that they were having equipment issues, which could be forgiven. The part that leads to my issue with this location is as follows.

30 minutes passed, and I walked up to the counter to inquire about the status. I asked a young lady about the status. She walked towards the back, talked with two other staff. After this conversation was over, she walked back to the front, then made a hard right to go to the drive-thru window.......didn't give me an answer, didn't acknowledge me, just a dead-eyed stare.

After I stood at the counter for a few more minutes, another young lady asked if I was inquiring about the 16 piece order. I confirmed, at which point she said it would be another 10+ minutes. I told her that I was told 20-30 minutes over 30 minutes previously. She didn't say a word, no empathy, no contrition.....she just turned her back and walked away.

At this point, I asked for a complete refund and cancellation of my order. This is when the manager apologized and talked about the mechanical issues. I informed him that technical issues are understandable, but my reason for leaving was the complete lack of customer service, dead-eyed responses, and overall apathy about the customer's experience.

I know staff have no control over these issues, and they can seem just as powerless, but there are some basic tenets of customer service that all of the staff here were just not trained on. I place more of the blame on KFC, and anybody in this store's management chain, as staff should be given the tools to handle such situations, and the staff here were just...