Zipps Sports Grill — Restaurant in Phoenix

Visited on Sat afternoon (football season). Seated promptly. Asked server about happy hour specials. We were told domestic draft large beers were on special for $3.25. I personally, am not a big beer drinker....but it was a hot day and with such a great deal, why not? We ordered up some wings and additional meals. Our group of 4 was in our late 40s....a little older than the rest of the crowd. We were visiting from Texas for the weekend and in great spirits. Tried to engage our waitress in friendly banter and joking around....despite not being overly busy at the time, she wasn't too interested in small talk or jokes. We stayed a couple of hours and had about 3-4 rounds. The place got a lot busier and our waitress had a large section so we were seeing less and less of her as time went on. We had a problem ordering our last couple of rounds of drinks and getting our tab. When the tab finally came, all of our beers were rung up at $5.25. We called our waitress over and she looked the tab over and said "yeah, i know i told you it was happy hour but the computer has a mind of it's own, i can't change it." We were a little puzzled by her response and display of indifference. When pressing her a bit she said "I told you I can't change it....do you want me to send a manager over?" We said, "yes, please."

A relatively young manager shows up and in an already somewhat confrontational tone asks us "what is the problem?" We explained the happy hour situation and he told us that the waitress had given us bad information, there was no happy hour and that we were charged the appropriate prices." We calmly explained that we would likely not have ordered some of those drinks had we not been told about the happy hour and that we felt he should honor happy hour prices she had quoted us." He became somewhat agitated and after stating his position (which didn't waver) in snippety little fit of frustration, he offered us a $5 worth of Zippo bucks to come use ON ANOTHER VISIT. We explained we were from out of town and would not have an occasion to return before heading back to Texas. He still continued to argue with us versus just doing the right thing and giving the benefit of the doubt.....come on people, we're talking about an $8 issue here....we'd spent well over $100. Our group was comprised of well-educated, successful professionals, hardly intending or needing to scam Zipp's out of $8. But he was so hell bent on being right, that he couldn't see the forest for the trees. In an act of finality, he said, "I'll split the difference with you and take $3.00 off of your bill." At this point, we were frustrated just laughed and told him, "no thanks, it's not about the money, it's about the principle." He said "fine, then just pay your bill and leave."

Hmmmm. IMO, not handled well from the start. Waitress, didn't handle it well at all. Manager (supposedly someone with training in the art of positive customer relations and building of goodwill) handled it even more poorly. Having a confrontation with well-intended, paying customers....REALLY?

I've never been in an establishment when I was so surprised and annoyed that I felt compelled to take the time to write a negative review....but here ya go. Again, it's not about the money, it's about the principle. If I keep a single person from going and spending $8 at Zipp's I'll feel my time was well served.

And to the owners (or powers that be) at Zipp's, please take some time look into your staff and their customer-retention skills at this location. I believe you have the makings of great product....great location and decor and the food was pretty good too. But our experience will definitely keep us from...

Got there at 5:30PM. The start of our night was decent but quickly turned disgusting. Half of our party waited 2 hours to even recieve their food. Multiple times we were delivered food that we had already had received. We watched multiple tables and large parties sit after us receive food of similar types to ours (sandwiches, wings, fries, chips) before we could even get our entire order.

To the servers and other staff, thank you for doing the best you can in a crappy situation. We are not upset with you trying to get through the night and we know you did your best.

Whoever was the manager or "in charge" (quotes because she clearly has no customer service or leadership abilities) tonight on 12/23/24 should be reevaluated for her position. Her attitude was extremely disrespectful towards us; saying that our issues were "solved" because we did eventually get all of our order - post the 2 hour wait. On top of that she was arguing with us as if we didn't wait as long as we did or if how she was acting was appropriate. What was even better was that the food that arrived late was either incorrect in some degree or lukewarm, at best. She reported some disconnect between the kitchen and servers but it is very clear by how she handles herself and situations that the disconnect fell on her own inability to lead. As compensation for how awful this experience was, we were offered the removal of JUST the drinks off our order (this didn't include the 2 teas that were ordered) or "Zipbucks" for our next visit. Seriously ask yourself, after as many complaints you received from a party what makes you think that we'll be coming back?

Hands down the worst dining experience I've ever had by a longshot. Seriously unbelievable that a restaurant allows this kind of behavior and treatment from their management towards customer. Ridiculous is too light of a word to describe...

8 people in our group, they wouldn't seat us until 6 of the 8 people were there. At that time they sat us at a table built for 6. They were asked if they had a larger table, at this point we were told NO. When we were seated we on our own pulled another table to our table so we could all fit together. When ordering our food the waitress seemed annoyed when asking her information about menu items. Her answer everytime time was it's what it says on the menu, that's how it's made. When my husband ordered his hamburger just a well done burger with onion she said stated the food comes as its listed and the sandwich includes lettuce, tomato and onion, he told her once again onion only. Same happened to each person who needed to check how things were prepared. When it comes to this they need to be more accepting of people's needs and concerns for the food, many of us have food allergies and dietary restrictions. We placed our order all together only for half the table to be served food, we started to eat our food so it wouldn't get cold. More then 15 minutes later the people who were served food were just about done eating while the other 4 people still waited. When the other food came we were done eating. It would have been nice to share a meal together, the other food shouldn't have been made or came out until everyone's food was close to being ready. Their excuse, well a set of wings and full pizza take longer. That's fine we were in no rush but make those 1st then the other food. Speaking of food it was just OK. Nothing special about any of the dishes, the pizza is dry and tasteless. The cheese in the pizza was nasty and cheap. The hot wings were too hot for anyone to actually be able to eat them. They fries with the burger were cold the minute we got them. We definitely won't be returning to Zipps again, this was our 1st experience...