Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen — Restaurant in Palmdale

Pulled into the Popeyes in Palmdale around 10:15 p.m., stomach growling, dreams of spicy chicken dancing in my head. I pull up to the order box, and boom, the robot voice hits me with, “This location is now closed.” No hello, no warning, just full shutdown. So I start to drive off, thinking, “Well, I guess it’s sleep for dinner.”

But plot twist. I spot a car still sitting at the window. Suspicious. Another driver waves me down and says, “No, they’re not closed. He just took my order.” Oh, so we’re doing ghost hours now?

I throw my car in reverse like I’m in a Fast & Furious deleted scene and pull back around. The first car vanishes into the night, I pull to the window, and then I get treated like I'm invisible. Five full minutes of straight-up avoidance. No eye contact. Just pure ignore-mode.

Finally, someone strolls over and asks if I’m there for a pickup. I explain, “No, your AI just told me y’all were closed. Can I place an order here?” He responds with, “We’re not responsible for the AI.” Oh, cool. So now HAL 9000 runs the drive-thru and everyone’s acting like that’s totally normal.

I ask if he can just take my order since, you know, their robot is the one who told me to leave. He says no. Just no. No sorry, no workaround, just vibes. Apparently, customer service is no longer part of the training video.

I asked for the manager’s name. He said it’s Antonio. Then I drove off, hungry, frustrated, and questioning how we got here as a society.

If you're going for food, maybe you’ll get lucky. But if you’re expecting anything close to kindness, basic logic, or common decency, bring snacks and low expectations. At this point, you might have a better shot getting service from the AI that told...

Can somebody tell me why the drive-thru wait was almost 45 minutes?!?!?! No, really. I was stuck in a line for almost an hour for food that was so gross that I wound up throwing it away (except for the the pies). My Mom wanted the new chicken nuggets meal. I knew that it would not taste good, but she wanted to try it anyway. Took my kid with me for company because I knew that it would be a wait (I'm thinking 20 min. tops). We're in line, I'm thinking, I should just go to Arby's cause their nuggets are bomb! But nope sat forever and a day at Popeyes. Finally, after 30 min. I get to the intercom to order and the sign says "We're out of biscuits" WHAAAAT?! Last time they were out of chicken (no lie). Ordered 2 nuggets meals, one with mashed potatoes w/ no gravy. The person taking my order had me give him my order 3 times because he couldn't get it right. Bro, I want 2 nuggets orders. He still didn't get so I had to order 1 nugget order at a time. Added a chicken sandwich. He asked what flavor, I replied 'whatever you have that's fresh and hot". He says "all of our chicken is fresh and hot". No, it's not. I added a Tuesday special and 3 pies. Another 10 minutes (?!?!?) to pay and get my food. I KNEW to check my food before I got home but I had my kid do it. It was all there, but it was COLD. SMH... The nuggets were not chicken but the breading, the mashed potatoes were full of gravy, the chicken (where's the chicken?!) on the sandwich was a chicken tender (I'm not lying) and it was soggy! No crunch at all. The 2 piece was deformed. The chicken leg was broken. Just garbage and a waste of money. The pies were BOMB though. I hate this...

Look I know that the fast food businesses is not the most flattering of jobs. However, managing staff is just the same as managing anything else. It doesn't make sense to three registers and only two open, especially during rush hour. Not to mention that food should be ready. By the third week you should already know your high volume and low volume of customers. It doesn't make sense to take a person's order and have them wait almost an hour without any confirmation of empathy. (I'm sorry sir/mam we are doing the best we can to get you your order. And I apologise for the long wait.) There is one place that I will not mention the name. Who has a unique customer service system. The orders are taken simultaneously in a way that everyone is happy. There is a section for the drive thru, for the online, for the walk in and even for curbside. and it works. This place started piling up about five o'clock pm, I placed my order around four seventeen, because I wanted fresh chicken, I had to wait 12 minutes. I was asked to step out side to keep from crowding, which is understandable and makes sense. At five seventeen I requested a refund, which was meet with hesitation of your order will be ready in 4 minutes. No! It should have been ready in the time frame it was given. Not to mention that other people orders were being given to other people. I hope that this was a one time bad experience, because if this is the way things are done... And finally, when it comes to the fast food chicken industry, standard time for food under the heating lamp is at least 30 minutes, after that take that lukewarm chicken off the rack because it's really not...