Panera Bread — Restaurant in Town of Colonie

Latham, NY- Bad experience #1: About a month ago, I ate a peppercini from my salad that tasted very sour and was extremely soft in texture. Upon further examination of another peppercini, I discovered a huge chunk of mold inside. I brought it up to the pick up window and told the manager. He refunded me and made me a new salad. Mistakes happen, so I gave them another chance while I was in the area tonight. -Bad experience #2: Upon walking in with my son around 6:30 this evening, I noticed the same situation.... tables were not clean, dishes were piled up at the waste stations, and there were no napkins to even wipe down a table. I asked the food runner to wipe down a table for us and he did. I set my stuff down and went right over to the counter to order. Well, right off the bat they were out of the baguettes so they gave me a choice of any slice of bread that I wanted. Fine.... I'll take the "slice". I go to fill up my drink and there were no lids in stock (mind you, I'm filling up a drink for a child and any mom knows that children spill). I had ordered a Fuji apple salad with no red onion and made it known to the counter girl that I had an onion intolerance, not an allergy, but that I needed that noted on the order because I break out in hives. Of course the salad got delivered with red onions. I called over the poor food runner (a very hardworking kid) again to let him know that the order specifically said no onions. They remade it and he brought it back to my table a few minutes later, apologizing because the kitchen staff clearly didn't read the note on the order. **Food allergies/food sensitivites should always be written and verbally communicated with kichen staff to avoid the possibility of having an anaphylactic rxn. Well, I go to take a bite of my chicken and it is stuck in a large clump completely frozen solid! So I personally take it back to the pick up window and show the "cooks". Their response: "our refrigerators are a lot colder than they used to be, but I'll thaw it out IF you want me to".... Yeah, that would be great! Lol. I also explained that my son was almost finished his whole dinner and I hadn't even started eating mine yet. They didn't seem to care. So again I wait a few minutes and some girl (I believe her name was Holly) comes out to bring me my salad and slaps $7 and some change on the table and says, "here's a refund" and simply walks away! No apology, no smile, nothing! So now I'm attempting to entertain my kid who is getting rather antsy while I try a bite of my 3rd salad. Right away I can see that there is clearly something missing.... where are the Gorgonzola cheese crumbles and tomatoes??? Now irriatated, I again bring the salad to the counter and ask to speak with the manager who kept me waiting for a few minutes so that she could wash a pan in the sink! Finally the green-haired manager (yes she had green hair) comes over and I explain that this would now be their 4th attempt at making my salad. In the background I can see the girl who rudely threw the $7 and change (aka the refund that I didn't even ask for) onto my table and she is rolling her eyes talking to a fellow coworker about how rude some customers are, just loud enough for me to hear. I explained the situation to the manager and her response was that they are "very short staffed" and I just need to "be patient". Are you kidding me? My kid was done with his meal and I have been patient for well over 25 minutes and still don't have what I ordered in front of me! Being short staffed is also not an excuse for poor service! I finally just left the salad on the counter and took my soda (no lid) and left. The poor customer service and the fact that the staff just wants to halfa$$ your orders without any regard for food allergies/food sensitivities is very dangerous. I will be contacting the Corperate office to let them know that the rude, incompetent employees that they hired are completely incapable of reading and making a freaking salad! The food runner had better customer service skills than the manager....

hORRible, terrible service! I called the store manager while still in the store and neither of the 2 managers on duty could be bothered to come out and hear our concern over the rude front counter woman on the left side. They sent out a drive thru worker to ask what was the issue was. I told her that I needed to discuss the matter with a mgr. She told me he was not available. I asked if there was another Mgr on duty. That one couldn’t be bothered either. I asked what the names of the managers were that couldn’t be bothered to hear my concern. She was in communication with them via her drive thru headset and reported back to them that I would not discuss it with her. Still no one came out. She was short with me because I would not discuss my issue with one of her fellow workers. She went to the back. I started packing up all our food to leave and she came back out and told me, “I’m giving you one more chance to tell me.” I told her, “No, I was giving it a minute to give your managers the chance to come out here and speak with me.” To which she replied they were busy and that wasn’t going to happen. I replied I would be calling corporate. She then smiles the most sarcastic smile and singsongly said back to, “oh, that’s great, you do that, have a great day” All of this because I had an issue with the app trying to get the free smoothie that I had been notified about via email after we paid for our $40 worth of food. The front lady told me that my issue didn’t concern her and was zero help. That’s why I wanted to speak with a manager. Now I know why the employees were so rude and not helpful. It comes from the top. I am going to...

This store does not honor the advertised discounts in your app. They do not apply the full amount of the discount, and do not have any reasonable explanation for why they are not giving the full reward discount that appeared in my app. When I pointed this out to the manager, I was made to feel like a cheapskate. It wasn't about the money. If something is advertised as a "FREE" bakery item, there shouldn't be a charge. If there are only certain items that are "FREE" then that should be explained. But I was told by the girl at the drive through that the "FREE" offer would apply to any bakery item. I ordered a cookie. My "Free" cookie cost me about $1.50. Only reason I ordered dessert was because I was told I had a "FREE" item for signing up with the MyPanera App. So, if you use the MY Pandera App, be aware that there is a charge for the "FREE"items. You won't know this until you get to the register at the drive thru. When I pointed this out to the girl at the register, she could not explain why I was charged for my "FREE" item. When the manager came to the window, he said: 1. "I don't know why it rang up like that. We just push the buttons. 2. "It's only a small amount." (It was a small amount, but that's not the point........ He also became a bit threatening in his tone. So I left with my "FREE" item that I paid $1.50 for. I'd steer clear of the Latham Panera. However, the food was...