Panera Bread
reviews and complaints

Hi,

-Date: 11/30/17

I recently ordered lunch from Panera and was extremely disappointed with the product I received. I haven't ordered from Panera in years because I felt it was overpriced for the amount of food you get, and now that thought has only solidified itself.

I ordered a "You Pick Two" of the new Ancient Grain Salad and French Onion Soup. The attached picture is what I received for a salad. Now, I understand this is a half portion, but when I've ordered half portions in-house before, they are much, much better potions than what I received today. The bottom of the container isn't even covered! Also, the dressing was missing from the salad. When I returned home, I was thoroughly disappointed with the product I received knowing I paid over $10 for it...

I want to start out by saying that I really love Panera and am a very loyal customer. I have never had any complaints and have recommended Panera to many. My husband and I have his family in town and they have never had Panera, so naturally I recommended this for dinner. We received our Panera order tonight (11/29/17, order number: [protected]), I took one bite of my broccoli cheddar soup (it was great as usual), started picking up a second spoonful and noticed this big, dead, black beetle in it (pictures attached below). This is really unfortunate because the broccoli cheddar soup is my absolute favorite:( After I found this bug, no one else, including myself, had an appetite for their meals, and quite frankly were a little nervous to eat anything else. We had to throw away pretty much everything. I called Panera right after this happened, the manager said she was sorry and offered to give me one free "you-pick-two". I stated the not only would I not come back to that specific location again, but we are moving to Germany due to change of military station so would not be able to use something like that. She said she could refund my soups if I took the receipt back in tomorrow. I do feel that due to the fact that we really did not eat anything else, we should get a full refund of the order. I will make sure to take this up with this location, however I just wanted to make sure you were aware of this issue as well.

Panera white bridge rd, Nashville, tn. New $25 gift doesn't work. Employee tried at least 6 times to slide the card. I tried also. She tried entering it manually. I ended up using my debit card because I was embarrassed to be holding up the line so long. She was the only one at the register during lunch rush. What good is a gift card if you can't use it?

I went to Panera Cafe 2374 in Mission KS yesterday and today. I go through the drive thru on my way to work. Both times I ordered the fresh fruit cup. Both yesterday and today about half of the pieces of fruit were rotten and brown. This is definitely not OK for paying $2.79 for rotten fruit two times in a row. Why is no one checking this or paying attention to product quality? It's gross and unfortunately, I won't be going back for a long time.

Hello,
I've never done this before but I thought this needed to be shared.
So I met my adult daughter to have her birthday dinner.
So my first complaint was the size of the water glass. Now I get the idea that having the clear cup for water but I was given a cup smaller than the sippy cups used by my grandchildren. How many times do you think a person needs to get up to refill the glass to finish dinner? Please make the clear cups the same size as the soda cups for adults ordering...never seen anything like it!
Next complaint was my sandwich. I ordered the turkey cranberry flatbread. When I picked up my sandwich I had to open it up right away to see if there was turkey on it? So after I picked up a big handful of spinach I saw 5 little half dollar sized peices of turkey and about 6 or 7 cranberries...what is this? My daughter started laughing. The HALF sandwich I ordered cost $6.19 and all I could see were spinach and flatbread. Now, I don't know about you...but when I order a sandwich that has turkey listed as the first ingredient I expect to see and taste the turkey and the condiment of cranberry in this case, neither happened. I'm not a very large person (hence the half sandwich) but I love a great sandwich!
This was terrible...I just paid to have a bread sandwich? I thought about complaining right there but I don't like to make a scene and again, I have complained next to never! I've never seen anything like it?!?
I'm not sure if this is how the sandwich is expected to be made at all locations or if the kitchen had poorly trained staff?
I hadn't been to Panera for a while as I don't live near one and was excited. Wow...such a disappointment. $6.19 for a half sandwich and I couldn't taste it and it was all I ordered so I left hungry.

My daughter enjoyed her sandwich, but she said the size seems to be getting smaller and smaller yet more expensive. You should never leave hungry when paying for a meal.

Hoping this gets shared and changes are made.

I'll be back to try again...we love the bread and bagels.

Thanks,
Robin

I ordered online from your Germantown, WI location 11am the order came incorrectly. Thw delivery person left my job going back to supposedly get the correct order I was told by a manager that it woukd take awhile for the delivery driver to come back with tyw correct order. I waited until about 230pm still no delivery or call as ro the whereabouts of my order. I finally called the store at 3pm and asked that the order be cancelled and my order refunded. This was tue absolute worse experience I've ever had with panera and me and my co-workers order almost daily. I was just upset with the treatment and the nonchalant attitude of the manager the delivery driver as if it were my fault that the driver got the order incorrect. Needless to say I will not be patronizing this establishment anymore.

The tuna fish (and the chicken salad) sandwiches that Panera Bread makes are nothing less than skimpy. There is a thin ribbon of tuna between the thick bread slices, so thin that you can barely even taste it. The lettuce and tomato are more plentiful. When I called the local café to complain, the assistant manager apologized (and privately agreed with me) but told me that they were bound by the portion policy of the corporate headquarters. They are only allowed to put on 5/8 of an ounce. 5/8 of an ounce? Are you kidding me? There are 5 ounces in a can of tuna fish! They are not even putting 1 ounce of tuna fish on your sandwich. Talk about not getting your money's worth. It's better to go to a local deli shop and at least get what you pay for. Shame on you, Panera!

You guys have to be one of the stupidest people I have ever heard of your company is suppose to be so great but u have general managers that work in Northern Kentucky that is awful and the sad part is the people over district managers and everything are helping to make the company worse than what it is you guys are just doing it on purpose I know ams and regular cashiers that work for your company and I know some bad secrets I'm telling u this first off stop being homophobic and allowing this to happen I swear I will pay for 10 [censor] lawyers I dont care you have hostile work environment which is against the law and you are trying to fire people for doing there job I will help these people and take you to court if this proceeds I know confetti or whatever it's called the German company owns it and I'm telling you that you better look into your management especially the ones over district managers and some general managers you are warned to have a law suit and j have family that works for the state dept I will go by the law and make sure you guys pay for all the harassment and discriminatory and the sad thing is you guys don't have a spot for managers or anyone to go to other than district managers I know someone who met your guys CEO who had walked in with flip flops and everything get your [censor] together

The food I received was stale. Stale bread, stale sweet. Just stale. I specifically asked for a brownie from the case and the lady taking my order waved me to one in a box by the register.
Service was horrible. I watched 6 employees gather around the food window and simply chat. There was a line out the door and there was no one helping the customers. Even the manager was chatting.

Went to my local panera bread on western in Jacksonville Nc for breakfast this morning and the cashier was extremely rude to not only me but her co workers. She would tell her co-workers how to do there job then got irate with them when they wouldn't take my order because she did not want to stop what she was doing. Then when she took my order she had a sarcastic and rude attitude. The name on her name tag said Allison. Personally I visit panera quite frequently and would hate to have to stop spending my money there because of a rude cashier but you can believe I will be tellin my fitness about this experience as well.

I went to the panera bread Ansley mall this morning and the cashier (I didn't catch her name nor get greeted at all) was rude. She acted like she didn't want to fullfill my request. I asked for a sliced an toasted bagel with lettuce and a piece of bacon. I was telling her that it has been done for me before she looked at me crazy as if she couldn't do that. She walked to the line and asked if they have made that before. But if they have or didn't t don't think it should matter. She walked away from me I walked out. It was a manager there but he didn't intervene nor say anything. There customer service is bad and so are their attitudes!

I sent my husband to the Panera bread in Parsippany NJ and not all my items were in the bag. I was missing the Cesar salad with chicken and the bag of chips. When he got home the only things in there were the 2 BLT turkey avocado sandwiches and 2 bags of chips. I am thinking there was a second bag that was not given to him.

I was quite annoyed when I got home late and there was no dinner for me.

So the next time I went up there I brought my receipt and told the man at the drive thru on Friday November 17th and I felt he just blew me off. He just said well everything is there today I just packed and closed the window.

I go there quite often and have never complained before now. I feel the gentleman was rude for closing the window on me as well as not correcting my complaint. My husband paid for the food but never received it.

I have attached a copy of my original receipt. I see on top of the receipt it says "WE'LL FIX YOUR ORDER RIGHT AWAY", which didn't happen, I wish to receive some kind of reimbursement for my salad. Please contact me asap thank you

I OFTEN eat at Panera.. I'm a huge fan.. So imagine how disappointing it is that the worst Panera I've ever eaten at is the one closest to where I now live. Accuracy of order is sort of a 50/50 proposition... and the store is usually filthy, but just so you know I'm not just a whiny entitled customer (sure you have a bunch of those), I'll illustrate my complaint with a simple fact...
On two of my last three visits this location (Harbison, Columbia, SC) was out of bread.. PLUS out of silverware... Then last week at peak lunch time no silver... SO three consecutive visits this store can't offer me a fork..NO more will I pay $15 for a soup and salad and have a restaurant use plastic forks and knives.. Once is okay, but a pattern with this store has emerged... Just pathetic..

Good morning,

I am contacting you because I placed an order online and when I went to pick it up your store was closed for Thanksgiving. Could I please get my money refunded? I can be reached at the email below or by call [protected]. I placed this order with a debit card. Could I have it put back on that card?

Best,
Kendra
kendra.[protected]@gmail.com

On 11/20/2017 I attempted to place a rapid order online (a dozen and half for a holiday breakfast at work) for pick up at the Electric Road, Roanoke, VA location. Sadly, I received a message that said this order could not be processed. Therefore, I got up early on 11/21 to ensure enough time to get to the restaurant, place my order, and get to work timely. I arrived at the store approximately 7:00am. My order was placed at 7:07am. I was told that I could pick my order up at the window in back. I expected a little time for the order to be complete as I ordered 18 bagels, sliced and toasted. I patiently waited while several customer came in ordered, picked up their order, and left. I noticed several employees cleaning, walking back and forth and I still didn't have my order. I looked at my watch and 20 minutes had passed. I went back up to the front to inquire, and found that my order had not been sent to the back, so no one was working on it. The manager then informed the back of the house of my order and said it would only take a couple of minutes. Another 10 minutes went by. One of the employees saw me stand up with a look of agitation and went to the manager. I started walking to front to ask for a refund since it was well past the time I was scheduled to be at work. As I was walking to the front, the manager meet me around the corner with my order. The manager apologized, but I expected more than an apology either, the order to be refunded or a complementary meal, discount or something to compensate for my extended wait and late arrival to work.

To whom it may concern,

Today I went to Panera at 7:30pm in Lawrence, NY looking forward to having a good meal (as expected from Panera's good standards, but was taken aback by a few things that occurred.
1. When me and my fiancé first entered the store, we tried to use the kiosks to order our food but were surprised that it wasn't working properly as it kept on telling us that all the sides were out of stock (which obviously wasn't true).
2. We then went to the cashier instead and ordered our food. Unfortunately she did not get our order correct by mixing up the salads (costing us 10 more minutes of waiting for them to change it to the correct order).
3. Then the most surprising fact of all was Panera Bread was out of stock on Bread! Any type of bread! How does a brand that prides itself on its bread run out of its most valuable food product! It definetly was not enjoyable eating our food that was ordered already without bread.
4. Then as we get our food, I see they forgot to put cheese in my soup and forgot to give us dressing for the salad (which it is supposed to come with!) My fiancé's salad also had chicken added into it, although she clearly did not say she wanted any. She is a vegetarian. At this point we had no more energy to complain about anything else, so she picked out the chicken piece by piece.

Overall it was very saddening to have such an experience as me and my fiancé come to Panera bread a lot. I usually do not like to complain but I felt I had to share this experience to make sure people don't have so many setbacks and lackadaisical service.

- Michael

I placed an order online for pick-up at the 4225 W Memorial Rd in Oklahoma City. A bowl of Vegetarian Autum Squash soup on a bread bowl. I was sick so my husband picked up for me. He went into the store and stood in line to pick it up, when it was finally his turn they told him first that they ran out of the soup and then straight up told him they forgot about my order. Then when they finally put the order together and he walked out with it I get a CUP (not bowl) of tomato soup, Thank goodness I like their tomato soup but it is definitely not what I ordered, the ticket on the bag had the correct order though, so... I like Panera a lot and I will continue to be a customer but they make too many mistakes, this is not the first time.

My friend and I went to Panera Bread, Rockaway Townsquare Mall, 11/21/17 at about 7:30 pm. There was a line and only one person at register. We waited in line and observed another employee get a step ladder and a pair of tongs and take down an advertisement for soup. No one came to assist at the line. The manager was busy preparing food. The place was dirty, tables not wiped down and papers, etc. on the floor. The young girl who assisted us seemed confused, and was hard to understand. I know we could have used the kiosk, but prefer not to. We love looking forward to Panera Bread, the food is delicious. The manager of this store was not paying attention to customer service. Thank you.

About a week ago I had Panera delivery me some food. That is the store in portage Michigan on south westnedge. When I realized the order was wrong I tried to contact the store. Apparently the phone lines were down. I contacted customer service who also couldn't get through to the store. They assured me that they would contact the store and they would get back to me in 2 business days. Still I have heard nothing. $40 for delivery and just can't seem to get it right. I don't plan on dinning at any Panera in the future. Very poor customer service. So I guess I will just pass my experience along with anyone who asks me about Panera. Thanks again for not really helping me at all. Bang up job.

I ordered a chicken sandwich with avocado and lettuce with signature sauce. What I got was TURKEY which i hate, a very small amount of avocado even though I paid for extra! And MELTED CHEESE which I didn't request AND I'm lactose intolerant. The same Panera (in sparta NJ) messed up my sandwich order last week (they gave me cheese seprratly wrapped up in paper...)
I spent $18/change that time and $14/change this time. I refuse to spend my money at Panera bread after having TWO horrible expierences. Shane on Sparta NJ Panera, I've gone so many times and NEVER had any complaints until this! I want a refund for both purchases!