Panera Bread — Restaurant in Virginia

I am a huge fan of Panera as a company, but this store just made Panera lose my business. Which is a total shame, as I have been a huge Panera cheerleader for years.

I had a reward available for a free daily bagel for the entire month. The site allowed me to redeem an award on one day and pick it up on a future day, since redeeming happens at the time of checkout. To avoid multiple trips to Panera in a day, I also ordered my free daily bagel for today this morning. I successfully did this earlier in the week, and I was able to pick up multiple bagels. When I went to pick them up this morning, I was told that I was using the reward improperly, and my Panera rewards card would be cancelled. They "let it slide" last time, but now, instead of just telling me I did it improperly, they said my account would be cancelled. They went straight for the nuclear option. I would have been happy to redeem it in only the appropriate way, if I had only known that I was not doing it in an acceptable manner. I called corporate, and they said that stores cannot cancel reward accounts, just corporate customer service. I called the store manager to let her know that their employee was rude and threatened/lied to me.

So, I was lied to, and I was threatened with rewards card cancellation because of...

1. something that their online system allowed to happen multiple times.
2. something that the same store already "let slide" once before.

I will not be going to Panera again, at least not this location. They have lost my frequent business over something as silly as a bagel. This is the only way to ensure that they will not try to impose their wrath upon me again for something so small...

I will no longer give this location my business, and neither should you.

Many times now I've had parts of an order forgotten or completely wrong. I'd gotten mac and cheese that was so liquidy it may as well have been a cheese soup with noodles, as well as really watered down smoothies with barely any taste to be had. This was not every time, but the inconsistency with the quality of product I was getting is honestly unacceptable. When I choose to spend my money it should not be a coin toss of whether the product will be worth it or not, let alone whether I'll even receive it.

Last night I ordered a bagel at the drive through among other things, and received no bagel. I did not realize this until I got home, and I called 5 times only to be disconnected after waiting on the line for a good few minutes. Today I called 5 more times only for the same thing to happen again, so I had to physically drive to the location to even get the problem solved. Oh and that part on every receipt that says if your order's not correct they'll fix it and give you something extra for your trouble? Well that's a lie, at least when it comes to this location. I realize a bagel is at the end of the day not that expensive, but I don't want to give this place any more money than it deserves because at this point it deserves none.

This lackluster customer service and product quality is frankly shameful. I went to this location for convenience, not to have half a meal and the extra hassle of having to chase down a refund. It's very upsetting.

I'm not sure if it's a problem with the employees, the way online ordering works, the drive-through, or an understaffing issue and at this point I don't...

Horrible! I am a local to Mechanicsville and last nights experience was horrible! It started with the person taking our order. She absolutely needs to be told to go home and adjust her attitude or do not come back. We could not understand a word she was saying - Panera why would you have someone like this on your front line? Next came the wait for food. My husband ordered a grilled cheese. His came out in 20 minutes (thats even we had sat a while and actually started timing). I waited another 10 minutes for my salad. They said they were still making it. Even though 11 pretty complex sandwiches came out after I asked about my "salad" - umm lettuce and tomatoes took longer then sandwiches. The trash cans were over flowing. The bathrooms were a mess. And you might be thinking, oh they were short staffed?? Absolutely not, we counted at least 8 people working. The problem is, 2 were working and 6 were checking their phones, sneaking a puff on their e-cigs in the dining area or really just not caring. And lastly, we all know the cost of dining has gone up. We purchased a salad, a pick 2 and 2 cookies - 40 bucks. We could of added 10.00 more and went across the street for a steak brought to our table. I seldom write reviews but this experience was.....did I say horrible. Thankfully the night wasn't a total disaster. We went to Lowes, where an amazing young lady helped us - Panera employees could learn from her outstanding customer...