Cold Stone Creamery — Restaurant in Vandalia

I ALWAYS have a WONDERFUL experience, dining on FANTABULOUS ice creams that can make your heart swoon ... & CHEERS to the WELCOMING, WISE and WARM staff, including Ms. Brandi, who "hipped" me to the DECADENT Banana Bread ice cream and Ms. Maycee ... THEY are THEE BOMB and THAT FLAVOR is "ARRRRRRRYTHAAAANG"!! 🤩😍💯🥰

*UPDATE I should NOT have referenced my experiences using "ALWAYS" 😲😑💯👏🏾

I have had GREAT visits at this location until this Saturday, 10/28/2022 at 6:20 (est.) pm. Behind the counter were four young workers: 1 Black female, 1 Black female, 1 White female and 1 White male named Mr. Brayden S., who ended up waiting on me. Excluding Mr. Brayden, they just talked among themselves, ignoring me and other customers as the line steadily grew. They remained huddled in the far corner near the register, appearing to drag on their task, whatever that could have been, so the next person would not have to wait on the next customer.

When I asked the young Black server if/when she was going to take my order because she finally came close to where customers are to wait, she rolled her eyes, sighed in exasperation and mumbled an incomprehensible response to me!

An elderly White couple visiting from California (we carried on a conversation as we were on line for an abnormal amount of time for Cold Stone) also inquired about being ignored, to which the workers feigned looking confused.

As Mr. Brayden moved to wait on me, the wife of the West Coast couple expressed that these were "the weirdest group of young people, hired to work but not wanting to serve!" She asked for a manager to which I didn't hear a worker's response but she exclaimed she wished one was there so she could report this incident ... and then the couple promptly left without being served.

Mr. Brayden saved the moment for me because I, a Black woman, was about to leave due to poor service! When I left, a Black woman who had been there with her 3 children and saw the foolishness of being ignored, relayed that these servers treated her and those in line with her in the same manner, talking amongst themselves and being lackadaisical in meeting the needs of potential customers in line and that she too was ready to leave without ordering!

I am sharing this here and with your corporation because a business enterprise or institution is only as good as it was the previous times. This recent visit left a BAD taste, no pun intended, and I definitely will follow-up, as I want this site's manager to know how LACKING this experience was to me and several others, costing potential business!!

PS. I used gender, generation and racial notations simply as means to identify said workers and diversity...

Order my daughter a custom ice cream cake 2 weeks before needing cake for her party, I also paid for it the same day that I ordered. I asked for it to be ready at 12 noon when they opened, I arrived late at 12:45 to pick it up. I go to the counter and ask for my cake only to be asked if it could be under another name. The manager returned once again and told me “unfortunately the employee that took your order quit and she didn’t tell us that we had any cakes she took orders for.” She’s no longer an employee so literally not her responsibility?? Why when she quit dis we not check to see if she had taken any cake orders? Why are we blaming an ex employee and not taking accountability? I’m sorry we failed at our jobs, let me make this right for you. I was offered a refund, which I did not want a refund with no cake. This was for a sweet 16! You only turn 16 once and they damn near ruined it. She finally tells me she can have the cake ready at 3pm but I have to send someone else to pick it up as my daughter’s party was at 6pm. The person who picked the cake up said they were writing on it as he got there and that I wouldn’t be happy with it. The cake looked terrible! It was slanted and the writing was very crooked and sloppy. This was not at all what I had requested. Terrible customer service, the manager offered no empathy for their mistake. No “please let me make this right for you” I was given the option to have my money refunded with no cake in hand, therefore ruining my daughters birthday, told I could come back in 2 hours and HOPEFULLY the cake would be done, or offered to pick a premade cake from the freezer out which would also not rectify the situation appropriately. The cake that I received was literally melting because it should have been made and frozen the day prior. I’m quite upset that it was picked up 3 hours later, so we even gave them an extra hour from what she told me, and it was so sloppily put together. Very disappointed in the overall experience and would never recommend this store. I will go to brown street...

A family member of mine ordered coffee ice cream and my family member said it was freezer burnt or didn’t taste right. We all tried it and it barely tasted like coffee at all, it tasted like just ice and milk. We tried to let the girls know that it didn’t taste right and if we could just get something different. The girls laughed and continued to laugh because we mentioned it tasted like ice milk. Which it isn’t hard to understand ice milk. Ice milk means ice and milk. The girls were very unprofessional and continued to sit and laugh and talk about “Ice milk? Hahahahahaha”. As a customer, the issue should’ve just been fixed and the provider should’ve been understanding… not laugh in our faces. These girls then stated they knew the coffee ice cream wasn’t made right and continued to serve it. This raises a lot of food safety concerns for this business. If you know something wasn’t made right, you immediately fix the issue. Don’t continue to serve it, which it looked like the coffee ice cream had been served many times already. The issue was eventually solved by them grabbing the coffee ice cream that was made RIGHT. Unprofessional and...