Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen — Restaurant in Sanford

Bad first experience at this location. I doubt we will be back. We just moved to the Heathrow area and this is the closest Popeye's to us. Unfortunately we'll have to go without or drive farther in the future for these New Orleanians to get their taste of home.

I pulled into the drive thru around 5:10pm on Friday 7/6. There was no line, which is great. There were however a few sketchy types loitering around the parking lot, which makes me a bit nervous, especially with young children in the car.

I was greeted over the microphone and when I said I wanted to order the 12 piece family meal, the employee responded "Look, I'm going to be honest with you. We don't have that. It's going to be too long for you to wait. You should just go." I was a little surprised and asked about how long it would be. She responded that it would be at least nine minutes. I probably would have waited that long, I don't believe nine minutes is an amount of time to be turning away customers. However, I first asked how many pieces she did have available, thinking I could possibly reduce my order size.

After a long pause she came back and said "nevermind, we're going to figure it out for you. Which 2 sides would you like?" I was a little flabbergasted and somewhat concerned, wondering where this chicken was going to magically appear from if they didn't have it a moment before. However, I continued along, selected my two sides, and added an extra regular size side of red beans and rice.

When I pulled around, the cashier was relatively friendly. I waited about 3 minutes and she came back with my bag and said "Here." And then closed the window. It was a very hot/cold encounter all around and I nervously drove away, wondering what sort of weird chicken I was going to find at home or if it was all normal then why did she first try to send me away.

So I got home and brought in my big bag, hoping for the best. I was so relieved to find twelve pieces of what appears to be mild chicken. Cue the consternation about the whole situation. I then began to take inventory of my other items. Six biscuits, large fry, large mashed potatoes. All there. Ok. It was weird but it's looking good. Oh wait, what about my regular size red beans? Nope. No red beans. Emptied the bag, checked underneath the chicken in the box etc. No red beans. Checked my receipt and there is the $2.29 charge for them.

So annoying. I'm certainly not packing the kids back into the car and driving in the Friday rush hour rain to go back there to deal with the creepy parking lot guys and the questionable employee to demand my red beans while the rest of the food gets cold at home. Enjoy my $2.29 donation Popeyes, as we certainly won't be back to this location. And judging by the lack of customers on what should be a busy time of week for a fast food place, they're not going to make it much longer anyway.

Oh one other weird thing...my receipt shows a time of 4:44pm. I definitely handed over my card to her at the window at 5:15pm and drive away 5:18pm. Does this affect me in anyway? No. Is it one more strange thing about this experience that leaves me feeling creeped...

Worst customer service ever! Today I went with my family just for pieces of chicken, my wife never tried before. So, I told her that the taste is worthy. However, as soon as get there on the drive thru, the lady over the speaker was selling something that we don’t wanted, I explained to her, I just need 10 pieces, but she insisted to have combo, is cheaper. I understand that, they to promote their menu. But I told her again, just the pieces please. She said at the end that she didn’t saw that menu, it’s $18 and change. Once we paid, she told me to move to the front door and she is going to give us the order, and after waiting almost 10 minutes, I came back to the window asking the status of my order, the First lady was doing something else and another employee told that this is going to take 10 minutes. At that moment I thought, this a fast food, order, pay and got your order. I told her that is not ok, and she asked me if we want tenders instead because they just threw the pieces. Seriously? At that moment, there wasn’t any car behind us, any customer in the restaurant, just us The lack of customer service made me make the decision to speak with the manager on duty, and claim for my refund. He was in front of us all the time without moving a muscle, not taking any responsibility of anything, not even apologizing for the delay. I asked to speak with him, and he replied with attitude,”how can I help you?”. I just wanted the refund please, the order is taking more than the usual time, and he didn’t say anything, like he was dealing with something else. Again, I asked again this directly to him, “are you the manager?” He replied raising a little his voice, “how can I help you?”. Ok, now I realized that something it’s going on. I asked again, “are you the manager and what is his name?” He replied raising more his voice, “Miguel, how can I help you?”. I told him, Miguel, I just need my refund, and he replied, 7 to 10 business days!. I was shocked, really? Just for a simple transaction?, and he replied, you can all your bank. Seriously? And before we leave, I told him that I’m going to make a review. He just closed the window and we just left. If someone on the higher level or corporate can read this, this is very concerning. After that, we went to the competitors and was way different story. Back home, I told my daughter, and told me, dad, something similar happened to...

So I normally I can deal with the stuff that happens to me at restaurants but today’s experience just takes me over the top. So last night my wife and I ordered and she wanted the $6 2 piece white chicken meal. It’s supposed to come with breast, wing, 2 sides and a biscuit. I order the $6 3 piece chicken strip. Mine was fine but my wife gets a Breast that didn’t look fresh and a leg so mixed 2 piece when she wanted all white meat. Then they didn’t give her a biscuit. Today I’m like let’s give them another try cause that’s honestly a good special. So I go to the location. I go to the counter. I’m ignored standing there due to the fact the expect their customers to order on the kiosk and they don’t seem to want to provide customer service. So I flag the manager down in the back. She comes and I explain what happened last night I provide pictures and she’s like well you did get a breast the leg is the only thing wrong. I’m like well they also didn’t give us the biscuit. She’s like I’ll remake it for you. I was grateful. And if it would have left on this I’d be giving 5 stars. But it didn’t. I then place on my phone my order and my son’s order. When we get all 3 meals I ask for Sweet Heat and Bbq sauce. He gives me one of each (2 sauces) I ask can I have another sweet heat we have 3 meals. He tells me oh no I can’t do that I’d have to charge you. I ask for the manager again. She says the same thing. And proceeds to telling me if I’m not ordering strips I don’t get a sauce for my 2 piece meal and that strips only get 1 sauce. I had already paid but she makes me pull my debit card out for 1 more sauce and charges me 29¢ like dude yall messed up my order last night I had to drive back over here to have you fix it cause yall didn’t answer the phone last night and you can’t come up off a 29¢ sauce for customer satisfaction. My strips today was very thin but still good so I won’t complain about them other than pointing out they were thin. My wife’s 2 piece was ok just just the...