Old El Paso Tamales — Restaurant in Mesa

So sad... this has been my "go to" place for years. Although the staff has never been overly friendly, the owner used to be very customer oriented and their tamales were the best. This year, after hyping them up to my office staff I placed a special order for 7.5 dozen various types of tamales several days in advance. When I arrived to pick them up I was informed the spinach tamales I ordered were not available (they were for a gift). I was not given any explanation as to why they weren't available from the staff. I was the only client in the store with the exception of one table that the owner was chatting with. When I was rung up for my order the cost was $4 higher per dozen than what is posted on the company website. When I asked if there was a mistake the cashier just ignored me and ran my card. Since I have talked with the owner before, I thought I should give him the opportunity to explain, dismissing the lack of details from the staff on a potential language barrier. However, after waiting several minutes for him to acknowledge me, he finally walked over. I inquired as to why the Spinach tamales were excluded from the order and he simply stated that they were not cooked yet. He didn't offer an alternative or even a later pick up time. I then asked about the prices and was told that the website was old and he had no control over it. Having an IT background, I do know these things can be complicated when outsourced. However, there should be some type of notice posted I internally and/or other proactive actions taken to reduce the sticker shock if the prices posted are not honored. I know things go wrong, but how it was handled left me disappointed. No real apology or alternate options offered. To make things worse, when I opened the tamales at the office to share, the green chili chicken ones (all 3 dozen) were 90 percent masa with thin strings of chicken that was almost undiscoverable. They were so dry, we literally choked them down hoping to salvage the purchase. The next day my daughter called me at work to tell me she bit into a bone in her red tamale! I've never experienced any of this here before, but fear that the growth and high demand over the holidays has had a definite negative impact. $130 later, I am grieving the loss of what used to be the best tamales in town and the warmth of an owner committed to quality and customer...

I have never experienced the worst customer service in a Mexican orientated restaurant I was charge $75 for three dozen of tamales that were about 4 inches long and maybe an 1 inch wide they had no meat no flavor completely ripped off called more than three times spoke to somebody with the name of Carla she always denies the owner or the manager and says that they can’t do anything about how extremely little these tamales were given to us on this last purchase we made with old El Paso tamales in Mesa Arizona. These tamales used to be about three sizes bigger their size and with the amount being charge it is a complete rip off and I was very disgusted with the poor follow-through that the owner or supervisor has done nothing. I live more than one hour away so being said that two hours just to go get these tamales and when I said if they can please do some thing because we were completely ripped off with such non-flavored tamales with such small size and as I’m complaining and keep calling they’re asking for me to drive back and bring the Tomales three days later how the heck...

Well for some reason who ever eats there tamales seem to think they are the best in the valley. Well they are not, they make so many they lose their taste I guess people that eat so many do not realize some of their tamales lose their flavor. You take a tamale to some real tamale makers and they will tell you they are lacking flavor. The masa needs salt the meat is tasteless but I will tell you this they do make good menudo. They do not answer their phone and make you drive all the to them just to find out they do not have the tamales you want to buy and you have no choice but to buy the ones they have in reality, I tell you the truth the best tasting tamales they make are the ones with the chilli and cheese now they really pay attention to those and they make them really delicious now that tamale is the best one they make I do give them credit for that 1 and the only other reason I go buy that tamale is the delicious menudo I just wish service was a...