Panera Bread — Restaurant in Whitehall

I represent a large educational organization and I was running a special event for 50 guests. I ordered 2 catering orders for the same day at different delivery times. My first order was for box lunches for 50 people. The order was to arrive at 11:00. At 11:05. I called to ask about the order. It had not left yet, apparently somebody was sick that day sick. My order arrived at 12:00 and the driver had no idea where to go, though I had sent a map with parking and delivery directions. The sandwiches were good, but our soup was cold at that point. The 25 people that did get food, were happy. Because of this, my 25 other guests didn’t get lunch. My second order was on time, but the driver didn’t know where to go. The person delivering was from Grub Hub and not Panera. They didn’t get my parking and delivery directions. The driver called me, the Grub Hub manager called me and these calls were hard to manage while I’m running an event. I called to speak with a manager at Panera 2 days later. She said that somebody had a panic attack and had to leave via ambulance the day of my order. I wish that person well. With no harsh words or attitude, I said that they could have called me to let me know so I could have cancelled or altered the order, so my guests would have been provided their food. The manager agreed and offered me a 25% discount on a future order. Although I appreciated the gesture, I explained that I wouldn’t order from them again because of the impact that this had on my event. The manager accused me of being unprofessional and then hung up the phone. Wow! I didn’t call back. I would not recommend catering from Panera Whitehall if you are...

912021 2:40 pm Hope this is anecdotal. Everybody messes up once in a while, but why should the customer pay for it? I go in at 2:30 PM to get a smoothie. Nothing complicated. Staff is limited due to Covid, I understand that. Staff takes my order and then proceeds to take three other orders. Multitasking is good. I understand that. When presenting the product with a golf ball sized piece of ice in it which is 20%, I excepted it because it would melt later. When poured into the cup, staff decides to even off the product as opposed to removing the ice. Is that even in the rational solution set of remedies? If you were paying a premium price, you expect a premium product. Let’s just say managements response was less than stellar. Managements not knowing the corporate telephone number was indicative of the times in which we live. Customer service may never return. Hopefully when AI takes over, and robots replace the staff, customer service will return and then be improved 1000 fold. The customer can tolerate waiting 10 minutes, the customer can tolerate a 20% deficit in product, but the customer will not tolerate a 30% deficit. Suggestion for remedy: use a larger cup, and give the customer a full measure. Removing product is not an option. That should not have to be explained. This is basic economics. Money is exchanged for a product. You cannot expect to demand money for an inferior product. It cannot be expressed more simply. This unit needs remedial training. Hopefully there is a district and/or regional manager that...

Today I went to Panera at 2669 MacArthur Road, Whitehall, PA on my lunch break from work. I ordered the Strawberry Poppyseed & Chicken Salad and explicitly expressed my allergy to nuts when I asked that the salad be made with no nuts. I didn’t think that this was a difficult request considering Panera is a restaurant and lots of people have allergies and ask for things to be left off of their food. However when I got back to work and opened my salad I found pecans. Luckily, I didn’t ingest them and go into anaphylactic shock at work but I did have to ask my boss to extend my break so I could go back to Panera which inconvenienced my co-workers and our own customers.

When I came back, I asked for a manager and met Sarah. Sarah was tremendously unconcerned about what had happened when she was the manager on duty. In light of what occurred at the Panera in Natick, MA and the accusations of negligence for serving a child with a peanut allergy- peanut butter.. I would think that the manager would have shown more empathy and been more apologetic. Instead, I was given a $6 voucher for the next time I come back. Come back? Are you serious?! So be warned, it’s clear a lawsuit and bad publicity less than 30 days ago hasn’t done anything to change the culture of the company as they continue to remain negligent to their customers with...