Papa Johns Pizza — Restaurant in Sheboygan

I tried calling my local Papa John’s at 10:32 PM this evening and the phone was not answered. I tried calling 4 more times between the initial call and 10:42 PM as I drove to the store. As I pulled up, I watched through the window as the employees ignored the phone.

As I walked into the store at 10:42pm an employee met me, and stated that I was not allowed to do carry out. I asked if I could do delivery and he said yes. I said OK as I tried to call again to get my food delivered. As I sat outside in my vehicle I tried to call repeatedly and watched the two, possibly three, employees choose to not answer the phone. My confusion as to how many employees working is based on a woman not in uniform sitting on the counter and two uniformed males.

Eventually, at 10:54pm one employee came out and stated rudely that they would make my pizza. I went inside and placed my order of a one topping pepperoni pizza with two sides of garlic butter. I was frustrated, so I didn’t immediately realize that he charged me more than he should’ve. I wanted to order the $9.99 carry out special plus one extra garlic butter. I understand there’s additional fees for the additional garlic butter but my total should’ve been around $15 or less. I was charged $21.16.

I told the employee that he didn’t have to lie to me and if he just wanted to get out of work early, he could’ve just said so. I work in service industry. I do understand wanting to get out when you’re not busy. In this case though, I could see that they didn’t have their prep station cleaned up and they were nowhere near getting out.

The woman continued to sit on the counter top as the other male employee switched the music to extremely explicit gangster, rap with the N-word in it. I understand this type of music is popular, however, it seemed as though he decided to do it because of being upset that I was there, ordering my one damn pizza. I found it particularly vulgar as I am of African-American descent. When I initially walked in there was inoffensive electronic house instrumental music playing.

The male employee that allowed to be in the store to order my pizza, began to make it while the other male employee was sweeping. The female hopped down off the counter and got her butt smacked by the sweeping man. It seems they may have been in a relationship, but this too was an inappropriate thing to do in front of customers.

While my pizza was in the oven I spoke to the male employee that made it. I told him that I work service industry and if he didn’t want to serve me, he could’ve just said so instead of lying and not answering the phone. Both employees began to tell me that the system was messed up and that the phones didn’t work. I stood at the counter and proceeded to call the phone on speaker phone and let it ring in front of them.

I stated that being lied to is frustrating.

The employee then proceeded to tell me that his pet peeve is when people come in at the very last minute.

I then stated that I begin calling the restaurant at 10:32 PM and the phone was not answered.

My pizza was cooked and served to me at 11:04 PM. I walked out the door.

Had these employees just answered the phone in the first place my pizza would’ve been done well before 11pm. Even if they had just allowed me to place my order when I walked in initially-my pizza would’ve been done before 11pm.

After receipt of my pizza, I sat outside for a few minutes. The employees proceeded to stand around, not cleaning or doing anything for five more minutes before I left to eat my pizza overlooking the nearby woods/quarry. When I drove past the store again at 11:20pm, it seemed as though they were just starting to clean up the prep area.

I’ve never been spoken to, or treated so poorly in a service setting. The behavior of the employees working tonight was deplorable and unprofessional.

On the bright side, my pizza did...

How long should a pizza handoff take from the time you open the door? About 30 seconds, right? Not with Jerry Scott! First he just stood there and looked at me, confused, even though he's delivered to my house several times over the past year. Then, this (for context, I am a young female):

Jerry: So I'm guessing you're not Ray. Me: Excuse me? Jerry: Well it says "Ray" on the order but I don't think that's you. Or if it is, the surgery went really well! Me: Are you making fun of my name?? Jerry: (looking nervous) Oh no, no. I'm sorry, I made an assumption about you and that was wrong of me to do... (By now we're about 60 seconds in, my pizzas are still in his bag, and now my 4-month-old kitten has come to the open door to investigate.) Jerry: Should I come in so the cat doesn't get out? Me: No. This SHOULDN'T take long. Jerry: Ah, well, let's see what we've got here... (hands me the receipt to sign while giving his usual spiel about the smiley face to "brighten my day" even though my day had been fine up until this point.) (FINALLY he starts to take my pizzas out and hand them to me, but wait! He holds on to one of the boxes and tells me he's going to open it while it's 20 degrees outside!) Me: No, no, that's fine. Jerry: (Still hesitant to surrender the box) Are you sure? Me: Yes. At long last, after at least 2 minutes, I have my pizza boxes in hand and am actively closing the door when he tries to take the handle! Apparently he thought attempting to close my door for me would make up for his horribly offensive "joke" earlier. I firmly told him that "I got it," and he reluctantly left my stoop. And so, once again, I am left promising myself that it will be a long, long, time before I order from here again.

On the upside, at least he used the doorbell this time instead of just banging on the door like he does most of the time because, according to Jerry, "most of the time doorbells don't work so I just don't bother."

I'm sure many older folks love his humor, but he needs to learn his audience and maybe NOT MOCK HIS...

Ordered online for pick up. Time said pick up was 6:20pm. The tracker shows your order status. Mine said it was ready for pick up. I arrived at 6:40pm. It was busy as everyone was working and there were 4 people ahead of me waiting in line for their order. No employees came and asked me or talked with me when I entered to see what I needed. They saw me, but working on the orders were more important than getting or servicing the customer who just arrived. One of the customer waiting said he has been waiting for 30 minutes so far. Looking at the staff making the pizza, they had no gloves, aprons or hair restraints on. Two of the staff were sweating and used their forearms to wipe their sweat and continued working. When a delivery staff came back, he asked us our names abcs looked at the pizza that were made. He told us those pizza were all delivery only and not carry out. His lead or manager yelled at him “Go and place stickers on the boxes. They’re not going to place them on themselves “. He left us and went back to placing labels onto the boxes. You can hear the frustrating the boss is giving everyone and that it was busy. Exactly 40 minutes from when I received a notice that my pizza was ready, was it actually ready for me when they called out my name to get my order. 3 of the people before me were still waiting there when I left.

I gave the service a 1 star because they didn’t greet me or any of the customers that came in after me. No one came to ask any of us anything. No GMP were in place. Their shirts and arms were all powdered. Pizza taste great, but it will be best if they start implementing GMP and have better customer service, even under stressful situations. Would I order from here again? No. Not unless they change and follow better GMP by having aprons, gloves and hair...