KFC — Restaurant in Ventura

As you know, I very rarely post a negative review for any business. But I've never experienced anything like this before (and hope to never experience it again).

Sunday, August 14, 2022 While visiting our family and friends in California, we didn't feel like cooking and wanted something easy and nearby. We chose KFC outlet (#1478) located at 3553 Telegraph Road, Ventura CA.

I went through the drive-thru and ordered a original recipe 12-piece chicken meal. As often happens, it was somewhat difficult to hear the employee who was taking my order (the tiny speaker near the outside menu wasn't loud enough to compete with the noise of the nearby traffic). However, I did manage to hear her say that they "could not fill the entire order with the original recipe because they had none." When I asked how long it would take before more of the original recipe would be ready, she replied "20 minutes." I didn't feel like waiting that long so I said she could fill the rest of the order with the "extra crispy recipe."

I pulled forward and when the employee came to the window I gave her my credit card. When she handed it back to me, I looked at the receipt and was surprised to see it was $40.72. I couldn't ever remember paying that much for KFC chicken before and I asked the young lady if that was correct. Without any explanation or help, she tersely replied, "it was."

A "manager" then appeared and I explained that I didn't know the 12-piece meal was that expensive, and therefore would she please void the transaction. I was surprised when she immediately said, “I can’t refund your order." I asked her why not, and she said (and I'm not kidding here): "You knew what you ordered and what it cost when you ordered and you'll have to pay for it." She refused to void or refund my payment of $40.72 and finally shut the window in my face. Still in the drive-thru lane, I now had paid for the order I didn’t want which was now sitting inside on their counter. When I finally realized the manager was not going to refund my order I drove back home.

August 14 Next, I called KFC Customer Service and relayed the incident to "Jasmine." She said I should not have had this problem and she would "have either a district manager or the franchise owner contact me immediately." Apparently this was not a company owned KFC, but rather, it was owned and operated by a franchisee.

Monday August 15 Nothing from KFC so I went online and filed a written email complaint.

Tuesday, August 16 Nothing from KFC.

Wednesday August 17 Still nothing from KFC, but I did receive a “automated reply” to my email, saying I “would be contacted.”

August 18 I got tired of waiting for anyone at KFC to contact me so I finally called the store and spoke to "Maria," the alleged "manager" that originally refused to void the sale or refund the charge to my credit card. I explained all I wanted was a void or refund and I'd never set foot near or in her store again. She agreed to refund my credit card, but insisted I'd have to come to the store to do it in person (just another hassle, of course, and with gas prices hovering at $6.00 a gallon, not a very efficient solution for me). At the location “Maria” took my card for a refund. There was no apology, and nothing that would indicate she was sorry for treating me so poorly.

August 20 My credit card statement eventually reflected the refund. NOTE: As of this writing I still have NOT been contacted by phone or email by anyone at KFC. If I hadn’t directly initiated direct contact the “Maria,” the KFC Store “manager,” I doubt that I would have gotten my money back. I would then have had to contact my credit card company and dispute the charge. This generally takes 4-6 weeks to resolve, and much longer if the merchant doesn’t respond, and given KFC’s complete lack of customer urgency, my dispute would have taken months to resolve. Who has time for that? Not me.

My advice to others: AVOID THE ENTIRE CHAIN. There are so many other great chicken options that offer better food, better value, and exceptional...

BE FOREWARNED!! We all love KFC and if you want to go there, order your meal and eat it there or drive home, go for it! But I would think twice if you want to pre-order for a future event because when you show up to pick it up there is a chance you will be out of luck when no one knows anything about the order. My husband and I went into the Ventura KFC to see if we could pre-order chicken (no sides) for a large Easter dinner at our home a few days later. A very helpful KFC employee Damien said that we could get the best deal by pre-ordering off the catering (I think that was the term she used) menu rather than the regular walk in menu. The price was just under $50 for 25 pieces of chicken. She wrote all the info down on what appeared to be an order including price, date and pickup time (presumably) to give to the person who would be in charge at the time of pickup. She said she would not be in until later that day. Unfortunately, I did not get a copy. What she gave me was a number to call if I wanted to change or cancel the order. She also suggested that we call prior to pickup to let them know we were on our way. I tried to do that multiple times and either I got a busy signal or the phone rang without being answered so my husband decided to just go over there and pick up the chicken as our guests were soon to arrive. Well surprise, surprise, when he arrived the order had not been prepared and in fact no one knew anything about the order so my husband had to wait for it to be cooked and of course he was charged the walk in price which was over $70 and he paid it. I was sure that when my husband went back on another day when Damien was there we would be refunded the difference. Not only did they not give him a refund (not their policy) they were mostly focused on a note that I had written on the bottom of the piece of paper given to me by Damien (in a different color ink in MY handwriting) stating 25 pieces for $50 so my husband would know what he was picking up, not that we were trying to claim that Damien had written it (even though it was the quote she...

The food was mostly as expected, but the service was non-existent. The register was closed, with a sign saying to use the kiosk, which I can understand if maybe they were understaffed. But the staff completely ignored all of the guests in the restaurant, including us. The only exception to this was when they were handing us our food. At one point there were 3 of us (guests) standing patiently at the counter because we needed help. We had all already ordered using the kiosk. I had never received the drinks for my order, sauces, or the plasticware to eat our food. There were 3 separate employees that looked over at the counter more than once, so they definitely saw us waiting patiently. Every time they looked over they proceeded to turn their backs on us without saying a word. After several minutes of this I finally spoke up and called someone over, so I finally got what I needed. When the employee was done helping me they didn't even check with the other 2 guests which obviously needed help as well. So I spoke up again and told the employee that these people were also waiting to be helped. I'm not sure if they just have a poor training program or if the restaurant is just poorly managed, but I will not be back. I should also mention that half of the tables were dirty, the trash was overflowing, and there was no ice in the soda fountain...