Chipotle Mexican Grill — Restaurant in Maryland

Hoping the owner will see this because manager certainly does not care:

Went there yesterday and remembered why I stopped going to this location. Had a similar experience a year ago and we came here yesterday because the location was convenient. This time it was even worse.

Ordered online with “promised time” of 6:10 PM. Showed up at 6 PM. At 6:15, I spoke to somebody else who had a promise to time of 550 and was still waiting. So, I decided to just stand in line as a walk-in order, based on my previous experience. (Previous review from our last visit a year ago at the bottom of this review.)

Around 6:30 PM, I asked the person behind me to save my place in line and also I had my son save our place in line. I spoke with some of the other customers who ordered online and there were people waiting 45 to 50 minutes.

I asked the cashier if we could find out how long it will be for our order so that we can decide if we want to leave, and she said there’s no way to tell. I informed her that the customers they are currently serving had been waiting over 45 minutes, and that they should inform everyone else that is waiting. She refused and said she just works here.

Then, another customer got upset, and she found his receipt, and she gave it to the other group of employees who are making food for the walk in customers - so that his could be made earlier.

I thought this was quite unfair, which I told her, and so she then gave my receipt to the same people. However, she saw me go back to my place in line, and she apparently thought I was cutting in line, so she removed my receipt from the pile and told them not to make my food. Nice.

I asked to speak with a manager, simply requesting that they inform customers about how long they should expect to wait. She refused to do so, and just kept saying “ you can cancel your order through the app”. (however, another customer was trying to cancel his online order and was asking her how to do this, and she just repeatedly said “ I don’t know, you can do it on the app”. )

When I asked a final time for her to inform the other customers about the nearly one hour wait time, she said she “already did”, but people behind me said they had no idea.

On my way out, the first employee criticized me for cutting in line and admitted that’s why she delayed my order further (which I didn’t even do) Amazing.

Apparently, they are more interested in stealing everyone’s money in one night rather than keeping long-term customers. I guess I’ll take another year break from this location.

For the owner, here are my recommendations:

Fix the online order promise time. For example, it should be accurate, and it should be given before you complete your order. For example, Jimmy Johns gives you a conservative and accurate estimate before you order of what time you can expect your food. It is not rocket science.

Inform people about the wait time once they arrive, and have clear instructions about how they can cancel their orders.

Don’t let your employees be vigilante, disciplinarians, especially when they don’t even have their facts right.

Get a new manager, that actually cares about customers, and has the ability to communicate with them and doesn’t just keep saying they can cancel their orders.

——-

Here is my review from the last time I came a year ago, similar experience:

So sad. Ordered online 20 min in advance. Arrived at scheduled pick up time but had to wait another 25 minutes. Meanwhile, people that had not ordered in advance and walked in got their food faster. In addition, manager said no guacamole but would not give a refund; need to go online to get refund. She suggested complain to corporate.

Oh and veggie burritos too often have...

My fiance and I have been to this location 3 times now, each time progressively getting worse. This 3rd time was this last Sunday, 29th of January, we got there around 7:30p. The line was fairly long (which has its been that way every time we've gone) so we didn't think much of it, but the line was moving a bit slower than usual. Once we finally get up to start our order, we were basically paused so they could work on an online order, what the young man working didn't notice is the family ahead of us were all helped except for one of the sons. So he had to stand there and wait until the young man working finished. The young man seemed to take his time like there wasn't a long line. Then when we finally got to order our salsa, corn, sour cream, etc. And no one was there to help us for a good minute or so and then the young lady who finally helped us didn't seem to know how to do that job because when we asked if there was any more cheese instead of asking she just said no, and then shortly was corrected by other worker that was there. It seemed as though the staff didn't care too much about having quick and thorough service. It didn't look as though there was manager on duty and if there was, they didn't seem to be doing a very good job at managing their workers. Once we got home, both our rice (brown and white) were undercooked. Its really unfortunate that this store isn't better because it's right down the street from where we live so we were very excited to have a closer chipotle, with all these past problems we are more than willing to drive into Columbia just to get better service and fully cooked food. I really hope the staff take these reviews seriously and get it together because they are losing a lot of business and they have been open for maybe a month or a...

I love Chipotle but can’t stand this location... Unfortunately it’s the closest one to my house so occasionally I stop by. This ends today. To highlight a few of the negatives. The staff looks unhappy, the place is dirty, the wait times are some of the worst. To shed light on the wait times and the frustration I have endured with this particular location I one time waited over 25 minutes to get to the front of the line to find out that they were out of 1/3 of their Ingrediants. No announcement/zero notice before waiting 25 minutes. I told the staff member what had happened and that they should make an announcement to the line. Upon her telling the line half the people walked out. The straw that broke the camels back as they say was today when I walked over to fill up my drink. I couln’t help but notice how unclean the area was. Specifically the lid holder area and the overflowing trash bin. While being so distracted by the grime and dirt I didn’t even notice the cupboard underneath was wide open. After filling up my drink I turned to walk out of the store and ran right into it. Someone could have seriously gotten hurt. Call me a spoiled brat but when a place is rude, dirty, slow, and now dangerous, I think it’s time to go to another restaurant. I called after I left the restaurant and told the manager about my experience and all she could say is we are working on it. Barely any apology... Are the employees at this Chipotle being paid less than other Chipotles. This is Ellicott City, charge an extra dollar per person if that’s what it takes to get a better staff. If this was my business I would close for a few months and start fresh. I’m not the only one in the area that...