IHOP — Restaurant in Lower Paxton Township

I’m writing this as I sit at my booth because I’m so taken back at the conversation being had between the employees.

We came in at 8:30ish, the restaurant closes at 10, thought that was a respectable time to come in, but apparently it was not.

Ava was our waitress and she sat us next to the hostess desk. Shortly after we sat down another group walked in and another waitress (maybe manager, she didn’t have a name badge) came out to seat them. She asked them what they wanted to drink before they even sat down, then proceeded to stand at the hostess desk and stare at them with her arms crossed until they were ready to order.

After she took their order she went to the back and another customer came in. Ava greeted them and sat them down. As she did this, the other employee came out from the back and stood, not even a foot from our table with Ava, and said “I’m not staying late, I’m leaving as soon as it’s time” (referring to the customer that had just been sat).

Ava responded with something along the lines of it was only 9 and she sat the customer because of it and the other employee said “I was about to lock the door” and was not quiet about it and audibly irritated with our presence. Ava laughed and said “if one more person orders a milk shake tonight I’m not going to be happy” (we ordered a milkshake by the way, and she’s saying this maybe 6 inches from us) The other employee laughed and said that she tells people the ice cream machine is down and their out of ice cream for shakes.

I manage a store and have been in customer service for years - I would be APPALLED if my employees thought it was okay to talk about customers right next to them like this. I haven’t been to ihop in years and this visit solidified that I will not go back to one. Especially this one.

To the employees tonight —

Ava you did a nice job caring for us but the comment really eliminated all you did. I’d reconsider who you confide in and where you air your grievances..

The other employee - if you are a manager I sincerely hope someone higher up sees this and supplies you with adequate coaching on customer care. In a world where people have to be choosy on where they spend their money, it is not wise to insult the customers that supply revenue for your paychecks… especially when standing right next to them.

I can only image how the other customers felt hearing this conversation and I hope this does not fall on deaf ears. Yes, I know it’s iHop and we aren’t paying for customer service - but I’m also not paying to be...

We placed our order at about 615 and didn't receive our order until between 640 and 645 till we got all parts.

I asked why it's so slow, I was told it's cause they do the orders as they come in no matter if take out or in-house.

There was another group only came in a few mins behind us and still waiting for their food so long.

Issued plastic utensils and then I see they are wrapping the normal metal ones in a booth.

During all of this from order till received food there was only 4 table at most and 1 person that was sitting waiting for their takeout.

One of our orders had fresh fries another and what looked and tasted old/stale. The biscuit is yellow from being soaked in butter on the grill.

Very very poor quality of service.

Order was Strawberry and cream crepe Sausage gravy and biscuit side (was no sausage in gravy) Ham and cheese omelette Southwest burrito with fries (over fried fries) Kids tenders and fries

They came to deliver food, ask if need anything and finally get napkins cause I said something. Then come back again to ask and order milk shakes. As she getting the order another shows up to give bill that don't even have them on it. She then said don't worry about milkshakes she not gonna charge us. They even had to ask again which milkshake was to be a kids size.

It has been over 3 years since I've been here and I can clearly see things haven't changed in overall service.

Milkshakes took over 13 minutes.

Again when i said why so long she says they so busy, but yet it's not very full. Not to mention the attitude that they all seem to be giving off especially if you say something about the speed of service.

Even came up to ask if ready to pay after 2 mins of reciving the milkshakes. 1 is for a 4 y/o so no I'm not...

I was really looking forward to some good food. The menu looks filled with lovely food. We arrived late night and there was absolutely nobody there to greet and seat for about 10-15 minutes. One person's order came out and the fries were inedible, tiny shrunken, hard things that look like they had been fried three times. It's at this point that they told us that the other order had not been able to be filled due to the item being out of stock. So one person is now eating while the other has a very long wait before a replacement order was even taken. The waitress kept disappearing into the kitchen for socialization. Meanwhile, delivery drivers are coming in and getting their orders filled as we were neglected. We were told our food was coming out "soon" several more times, but after another hour had gone by we canceled. We had also placed a take-home order for someone else and when we got home that was completely wrong and the eggs were disgusting. We could hear the waitress and short order cook having a great time back there chatting away while no food was being produced. There was only one other customer sitting down and he also was being neglected. It took about a half an hour for him just to get a drink. Yet the waitress kept telling us how busy the place was. This means that takeout orders were being giving a huge priority and sit down customers were being shafted. Just an absolute and frustrating waste of time. What a way to waste two hours of our lives. I wish I had read the negative reviews here before even going there. I see I am not alone in having a terrible experience at this poorly managed restaurant. I will be calling their corporate...