McAlister's Deli — Restaurant in Plainfield

We placed a mobile order and as of writing this, it's taken over an hour, 40 minutes of which I have been standing in the store.

They're blaming the wait on the volume of mobile orders, but that's no excuse for how slow they're moving, nor the lack of communication.

The salt in the wound? I had walked past my order multiple times while waiting, but despite it being a to go order, it was held behind the counter and not placed with the rest of the to go orders. This is something that could have been easily cleared up by anyone who had the impetus to inquire as to why I had been standing there for 40 minutes with no resolution, as if I just enjoyed standing there in my spare time.

Listen, I've worked retail, I've worked F&B, I've worked hospitality. Here's the thing, when things get chaotic, instead of resigning to defeat or burying your head in the sand, it's much better, for both parties, to lock in and execute everything in a timely manner - it's when you neglect and ignore issues that things spiral. Between the slow, lackadaisical staff in the kitchen who couldn't be bothered to the manager who couldn't hold herself together to the others doing the menial work and therefore felt absolved of responsibility, it was a terrible experience and why I will continue to drive past McAlister's Deli in the future and never give it a second thought. The disorganized chaos needs to...

We haven’t had any issues until recently. We placed a curbside order, my wife called the store when she arrived, and they told her they would bring it out shortly. She called again after about 20 minutes to check on the order. She called again after 30 more minutes (nearly an hour total), and they quickly brought something out. The kid’s grilled cheese was cold, and the order had obviously been left out and forgotten about. She asked for a remake, then changed her mind and just requested a refund. The manager told her she could keep the food, and said he processed the refund and gave her about $0.30 in change ($15+ order) which we thought was strange. We assumed the rest would go back to the card we used online. After about 4 business days, we realized the refund never processed in our account. She called the customer service line and they admitted that a refund was never processed by the store that day. They said they would contact the store, request a refund (this could take 2-3 business days), and the refund would be issued after an additional 4-5 business days (nearly two weeks, on top of the week we had already waited). On top of all this, the remake they insisted we take home that night wasn’t even the correct order. Overall, it was a horribly frustrating experience that we are still trying to get resolved, and we will not be back...

I placed a mobile order and, once again, my order was incomplete — I did not receive my pickle spear or the extra cup of ranch for my salad. When I contacted the store to address the issue, the manager immediately interrupted me and insisted I hadn’t paid for the ranch, even though it is clearly listed on my receipt. Regardless of payment, the fact remains that my order was incorrect and incomplete.

Rather than listening and taking accountability, the manager tried to dismiss the issue by offering a free dessert. I respectfully declined and explained that I wasn’t calling to get something for free — I simply wanted to bring the issue to her attention, especially since it’s not the first time this has happened. Unfortunately, the conversation left me feeling unheard and dismissed.

Due to the repeated problems and the poor way I was treated, I will no longer be returning to that location. The service has noticeably declined, and I no longer feel like a valued customer.

I hope this feedback is taken seriously and helps improve the customer experience for others...