Duck Donuts — Restaurant in Manheim Township

The main reason I take the time to review businesses I have frequented is to share true and factual experiences in the hope of benefiting others -- and yes, I admit that I am a stickler for customer service.

To the owner of DD - I saw your response to my review and I would like to point out that: (1) If by ruthless you mean that I showed no pity for overly sensitive and untrained staff, then yes that is true. It is not my job as a customer to coddle an employee who has not been trained properly to act professionally when faced with unpleasant conditions. (2) Accusing me of bullying simply for leaving a negative review could easily be perceived by the courts as defamation. Customer reviews are a valuable tool, and we shouldn't be afraid to share honest opinions about our experiences — good or bad. (3) No, I did not make your employee cry. She did that all on her own. She had no idea how to find my order and instantly went into waterworks mode. In fact, I told you she was crying because you weren't there. I was concerned for her because I thought she was having personal issues and surely not that upset over my order. (4) Accusing me of threatening anyone is definitely stepping over the line and has no basis. Anyone can look at video and see I barely interacted with the staff on duty. Instead I was given a phone (btw which was not wiped down or sterilized in anyway before handing it to me) to talk to you because there was no one on site to deal with managerial duties. Most importantly here is the admission that you wasted my time by refusing to fulfill an order that I had already paid for and had not received yet. And to make matters worse, you accused me of trying to rip you off. It wasn't until later that night that you called and said you figured out what happened and was refunding my money. (5) I won't be back. It is unfathomable that an owner would go on a public forum and instead of trying to make good on a mistake that was 100% the store’s fault, you demand an apology from me and try to tarnish my reputation. I stand firm that I did absolutely nothing wrong. Attempting to lower an individual’s reputation in the estimation of right-thinking members of society generally is not acceptable behaviour for any business.

6/5/20: HUGE LET DOWN. Can I give a negative 10 now? I ordered donuts online. Despite using the store's own website (presumably to make it faster and easier to pick up), not only could they not find my order, but insisted it was not possible to place the order like I had and accused me of already picking them up. After about an hour back and forth with the owner on a telephone because no one at the store was knowledgeable of the store's processes, I left with no donuts and very disappointed despite the fact that I had already paid for them and shaken by the accusations that I was trying to rip them off.

Eventually later that evening, the owner called and said they figured out what had happened but still instead of an apology he just went round and round about why I shouldn't have been able to order that way and trying to defend an emotional employee. He said he was refunding my money like he was doing me a favor. Not my fault that they aren't well versed with their own product. Further, this business would be smart to invest in additional training on their customer care attitude and emotional intelligence. I'm sure the donuts are still good, but I won't be going back to this location anytime soon - if ever.

This review is no longer accurate for the Lititz Pike location - sad, very sad because I really enjoyed the donuts. I had previously said, "Can I give this place 10 stars!!! The donuts are INCREDIBLE. This will definitely be a regular stop for me...

Duck Donuts is clearly a popular and well liked establishment, but it is not the pinnacle of perfection that many reviews would indicate. My cynisisms however are few. Let's begin with the bad, the customer experience. Duck's has 2 considerable, though easily fixable, flaws in how they are organized which create an uncomfortable environment for customers. Firstly, and most importantly, Duck's sells made-to-order custom gourmet donuts with over 400 possible combinations of coatings, toppings, and drizzled and there is only one place in the store which list these base chooses, a placemat at the register. Is your mind blown too? Mine was. While they have a traditional mock chalk board style menu, it only lists the prices of donuts by quantity and fails to advertise what it is you can actually order (as far as donuts are concerned). I'll quickly mention the second flaw before I summarize. This is a common issue I've seen in very many locations from gas stations to fast food chains to other donut/breakfast vendors and that is the layout of the self concession stand(cream,sugar,straws,etc). After you've received your order number and drink you are directed to a small stand with only one centralized bin with cream and sugar. This is, I admit, a minor gripe but it plays a part in the bigger picture. So, here it all is in perspective. You enter the store and are confronted with the end of the line. You have no way to form your choice respectfully from the side if you aren't ready or even while waiting in line so you just have to follow the flow until BAM! It's your turn. You've got the staring eyes of everyone waiting behind you, the pressure of the cashier, fingers at the ready, just waiting to punch in your order, and here you are just now presented with the 400+ choice conundrum. After finally finishing your order you are ushered to a concession stand which only comfortable accommodates 1 person at a time so you wait for your predecessor to finish and think, "this was much more troublesome than it needed to be. With a better layout there probably wouldn't have even been a line in the first place". Solution, separate concession bins into 2 smaller cream/sugar bins on either end of the stand with quick items (straws,stirrers) in the center and make a display of the donut customization options visable to the whole of the lobby. Simple, done. My overall review score was going to be 3/5 due to these customer experience issues, not entirely that they were super terrible, but also because they were super avoidable. But why then 4/5 you ask?(if you've actually suffered through my fastidious rambling to this point) Easy, the DONUTS!!!(insert Homer Simpson meme here) Duck Donuts simply sells the most delicious donuts I've ever had. They deserve a bonus Star as consuming their feature product was a pleasure that I can't even be sure stayed within the confines of "food related"... Each custom coating, topping, and drizzle was of itself fresh and high quality. The bacon topped maple glazed was my favorite of our sample sized order with the caramel drizzled shredded coconut topped vanilla coated coming in a close second and there are again over 400 varieties wich we didn't try. Overall, I would absolutely recommend Duck Donuts to anyone interest in a great donut and with any luck by next month when we have business again in Lancaster they may have taken credence to these observations and I can update this review to reflect the absolute excellence I'm certain they...

A textbook example of what corporations dont understand: they dont know what they dont know! Whoever dreamed this up simply got it wrong: a GREAT donut does not wilt with heat and the weight of sugary slather: it sits to blow off steam and form a shell BEFORE it gets coated! But some "production" genius thought he knew better than centuries of making them has taught us. So it's bad enough you get a limp steamed pile of sopping sugar to contend with but can i at least get a decent drink? If u are going to sell donuts at night you need drink choices without caffeine or bubbles or high fructose corn syrup laden with glyphosphate and dye!! They offered ZERO decaf coffee! My wife settled for a little plastic kiddie jug of milk. Stopped in 600 on a Saturday evening to try this out. While staff was friendly and prompt, what they delivered was designed by an accountant who clearly does not understand the physical properties of food much less understand coffee is appreciated for its flavor bu the effects of caffeine are not conducive to its consumption during their chosen business. In a woeful era of franchised food where upping the average ticket is more important than quality, at least the inclusion of an instant brew decaf machine like you find in a pilot or sheetz or royal farms could move that ticket price upward and at least leave someone with a reason to come back.... Too many holes in the theory of operations here, so we just left with sopping wet limp donuts that never had a chance to lose their steam before being dipped in flavors that simply melted in to sog. We gave you a chance. Poor food process design resulting in glop and the lack of coffee for all coffee drinkers no matter the hour helped us to decide to duck out and...