Harold's Chicken Shack #36 (Wicker Park) — Restaurant in West Chicago Township

Thursday April 18th

Neither the site nor the app have proven user friendly. On the site, I had to redo my order twice. It does not allow you to adjust or make any changes. Should you do so, your order will be wiped out completely. After placing my order, I never received an eta of my food’s arrival. I downloaded the app hoping a tracking feature with give me an idea of when I could expect my meal...

The ‘track the order’ function doesn’t work— go f’ing figure. If it wasn’t the delivery option for a reputable place/“Chicago Institution,” I’d think I was scammed.

Especially considering the app doesn’t have a single HELP or CONTACT feature. We all know if you have an issue with other food ordering service, there’s an immediate customer option. Not here. Not with their app. Not with this service. I do not recommend downloading or using their app. It has too many bugs making ordering impossible, you can’t track your food, and there’s no customer service. If I were one of the customers listed, I’d break contract as you’re losing money via poor customer service affiliation... or maybe it’s “birds of a feather.”

In regards to customer service, you can only use the chat on the website for whatever food place you’ve chosen. The help is generally offline. And it says “typically replies under 40 mins.”

Hopefully my food is coming. Will Update.

Update Monday, 29 April 2019

It's been over a week since I erroneously ordered Harold's Chicken online. An order that resulted in:

•being unable to track the order using the "smartphone food ordering map"

•waiting almost two hours (1hr, 50something min) to receive my order

•walking a block to retrieve my food from the driver due to glitches in the app that did not provide him with adequate directions

•missing more than half of my order

Despite these issues, I was genuinely impressed by the customer service Mr. Williams (app owner) gave after they were reported. I was very open to giving it another try in the future.

Mr. Williams expressed, what felt like sincere remorse and empathy towards my plight. He assured me he knew the owner of Harold’s personally and amends would be made—I would receive a refund. He said he would contact me the next day as for some reason, he needed to speak with the owner to resolve my issue.

That lie placed me in the position of following up ergo he did not contact me as promised forcing me to reach out myself.

On April 19th, Mr. Williams essentially responded to my text inquiry/update request stating the owner would be available the next day and we could proceed then. While I began having serious reservations here— I still had high hopes for resolve.

Due to this 2nd lie, I contacted customer service on the website and began a “help chat” April 27th. I received an automated message that someone would contact me via email as all servers were offline.

NO ONE representing either company (Harold’s Chicken Shack/Smart Phone Food Ordering) whether by email, text, or call since April 18th has made the initiative to reach out to me. It is now April 29th!

Yet again, I'm having to reach out in an attempt to receive my refund and close the door on this "Lemony Snickets" or series of unfortunate events.

The lack of communication and follow thru is baffling to me. As a consumer, in regards to bad service, I have never had to haggle, be in the dark, wait this long, or work to receive what I'm owed. In terms of ordering online, if poor service occurred— using the help aspect of the app directed me to a customer service respondent that issued my refund or credit before the chat ended. If they needed to follow up the next day, they did. A refund was issued within 2-6 business days. I know this from personal history and others of my acquaintance. Whether using Grubhub, Postmates, DoorDash, Uber Eats, etc.

This is just bad business all around.. I 100% wish I’d ordered from Grubhub. I may have still had a horrible first time experience with Harold’s, but at LEAST my coins would’ve been returned to me for...

Terrible! The customer service is non existing! Starr must be the owners relative because her attitude is of not wanting to be there and she works as if she can’t be replaced. I didn’t see the sign that advertised a special deal, because it is at the far end of the counter (opposite side of cash register). I ordered two 6 piece wings with lemon pepper fried hard and fries a grape and orange soda, but was not aware that I could get 20 pieces of wings and fries for about $3 more. In less than 3 minutes I noticed the sign as I was waiting for my food. I asked to change the order (they didn’t have to refund me any money and/or I could pay the $3 more). I think it was actually cheaper because as I recall the special is for 24.99. Starr went to ask the cook (the one with the earbuds in his ears). I tried to explain to him, but he said he couldn’t hear me. Starr made one quick failed attempt to cancel my order then said she didn’t know how so I had to wait until the three customers that walked in after me had placed their order. So, I nicely stepped aside. I came back up to the register afterwards. Then, she rudely told me they were too busy for my request. For the sake of argument I let it be. The problem is that Starr doesn’t understand customer service of which other customers agreed that Starr should point customers to the deal when their order is similar. After about 45 minutes and not the 20 minutes posted I finally received my food. She gave me two orange sodas instead of what I paid for. I didn’t say anything and just took them because her attitude was so outrageous that I didn’t want to argue with her. When I finally arrived home MILES away I realized she neglected to do the simple task of adding the lemon pepper on the chicken. Privacy did it on purpose. It was as if she was mad at me because she didn’t know how to do her job and clearly couldn’t count the difference in the money. Oh and beware they charge a service charge of 5% to use a debit or credit card. Starr neglects to tell customers about the charge. It isn’t posted by the register and I personally thought it was illegal to charge an additional fee to use a debit card. I’m looking into the legal side of that and will report any store IF I find that it is illegal. All of the customers were irritated about the extremely long wait, the workers not answering the phone and NOT being told about the deal. I predict that Starr’s attitude has single handedly made several customers never come back. The guy that seemed to be in charge needs to actually take charge. Lastly, on a Saturday it would make sense to constantly be cooking the chicken. I mean KFC keeps their chicken under a heat lamp. The precooked chicken could be a little cheaper and the cooked to order the current price or keep the price the same for both; but give customers a choice. I personally would have ordered precooked instead of having my mom and dog waiting in a hot car for nearly an hour. Going forward I plan to go to the Bronzeville location where they know how to treat customers. I’ll be back in wicker park to eat and shop at the other restaurants but never at that Harold’s ever again. It was embarrassing to tell my mom how good the chicken was in Bronzeville and then what we received was an epic fail in taste and...

I'm from out of town and visited Harilds on 5/2/21 with my neice. We places 2 orders and was told to come back in 35 minutes. Our receipt was stamped at 7:37pm, I returned at 8:20pm for our order. The cashier (female of Hispanic ethnicity) never asked can I help you our stated that I she will be with you shortly. When she returned to the counter I showed her my receipt she went over to one of cooks said something and proceeded to prepare and bag other orders, which I thought was mine, but it turns out it wasn't. She took care of 2 other patrons before saying anything to me, so I asked her how long would it be before my order would be ready. She went over to the cook and said something but never gave me an incline of when my order would be ready. After not getting a response I asked politely again if she knew how long it would be. She abruptly yelled at me and said " You dont have to yell at me, I'm not your child". I said mam I'm not yelling at you I'll have a mask on and asked for the second time how long 5, 10 minutes, that's all I want to know. She once again, In a very unfriendly tone said I can make it faster than that. One of the patrons responded in my defense to her and said she wasn't yelling at you she just asked you a question and you dont have get nasty with her like that. She went over to cook again said something and very hastily bagged my 2 orders, and in a very aggressive tone said have a niece! I responded an said you too and sorry you're having a bad day. Once I got outside the door the young gentlemen that responded in my defense apologized and said he was sorry that I had to experience that, but she was just rude. Long story short my orders were mixed up, she wrote the wrong things on the bags and was missing my condiments that were requested at time of order. The food was good, but I will not visit that location again (Milwaukee Ave.). I'm a Christian woman and I must say that I've never in all my life had such a negative experience at any such establishment. Hopefully this incident will be used as a training tool for your business on Proper Customer Etiquette, as there is always room for improvement and in this...