Daniel B.
Yelp
DO NOT EAT HERE.
My family and I have been going to John's occasionally for the last couple of years. The pizza has been okay, nothing special but not terrible. This time I decided to give their Sweet Chili Chicken finger sub a try. It was the most disgusting sub I've ever had.
The amount of mayo on it was the most absurd amount of mayo I've ever seen. It was impossible to taste the Sweet Chili Sauce because all I could taste was mayo. I started scraping it off with a spoon and the amount piling up on the plate was grossing out my wife and kids. The sub wouldn't even stay together because the roll was a soggy mess. It was like it was made by a person who had absolutely zero ability to determine anything even remotely close to a normal ratio of ingredients in a sub. I discarded the second half and called to complain.
The manager, Joe, responded with hostility saying that I trashed his employee by complaining about the food she made. He told me she was new, only there 2 days, and she didn't know how to make subs yet.
My question is, What kind of competent manager puts someone on sub duty and then admits angrily to a complaining customer that the employee doesn't know how to make subs?
Joe doesn't even offer a refund at that point. He asks me aggressively, "What do you want me to do about it?" This kind of response baffles me. Customer Service fundamentals, Joe. You, as the manager, say something like, "I'm so sorry you had this experience, sir. We can make you a new sub, or offer you a free sub for your next visit, or a refund. Whatever you'd like. We're just sorry this happened."
Nope, not Joe. He's taking it personal. He tells me that he's having a bad day. So, obviously, Joe is misdirecting these bad day blues at me. Real professional, Joe.
Joe eventually says he'll issue a refund and hangs up on me while I'm telling him this is not how you handle complaints.
So, I leave a Google review, then I call and talk to the Restaurant Manager 2 days later, Jennifer. She's actually nice and professional, for which I thank her sincerely. She agrees to check on the status of the refund ensuring it's been issued and agrees to call me back the following day.
I tell my wife that Jennifer handled it so well, when she calls back to confirm the refund's been issued, I'm going to delete my Google review, since all's well that ends well.
Well, Jennifer calls back the next day, and she's very angry, and she says she saw my Google review and asks if I posted it after speaking with her. I told her no, of course not, and she should be able to tell by the date it was posted that is not the case. She asks if posting reviews like this is something I do often, to which I explain that all she has to do is click on my Google review profile and she could see that actually all I leave is 5 star reviews because I believe in not saying anything if it's not nice. It was Joe's response that pushed me to leave that review. Jennifer tells me that the new girl is in training and Managers aren't able to watch every sub being made. That's so stupid. Your restaurant is called John's Pizza and SUBS. Subs should be made well. Every time. And if not, it's not the customer who's mean and bad for complaining. If the girl is training, then watch her. If she's doing poorly, then don't put her at the sub station unsupervised. That sub is over $14 plus tax. Nobody wants to spend that much money on the gamble that you fools are going to put unsupervised trainees on the sub station when it comes time for their sub to be made, then, give the customer a hard time when they complain. The whole thing is just absurd.
Then Jennifer says she has no order history for our phone number and she thinks this is the only time we ever ate at John's. This just speaks to her gross incompetence because we have eaten there (at that same location) once every couple months for the past 2-3 years. My wife and I searched our online banking and found transactions going back to 2022 for John's, totaling a respectable amount of spending with them. And that doesn't include the times we've paid cash. Jennifer also proceeds to hang up on me.
This behavior is so ridiculous it's hard to believe. This is exactly how to make a problem worse. If Joe handled it well initially, I would've left a 5-star review explaining how well the problem was handled. Instead, here we are. I'm now compelled to share this experience on every review outlet available, plus tell everyone I know. Joe and Jennifer have cost this location a significant loss in potential revenue by taking things incredibly personal and reacting emotionally. Learn how to do business.
My prediction--this location will slowly die if they don't bring in some new management.
There are many other better pizza and sub shops. Don't invite this bullcrap into your life. Spend your money elsewhere.