McAlisters Deli
reviews and complaints

This is the 4th time I’ve come through the drive up in the past few weeks that the system hasn’t been working for rewards. I can pull up a code on the app, but they can’t take it. What’s the point of having a reward system that never works? I know it’s not cool and trendy, but a punch card and hole punch always worked to give me credit for my loyalty.

I got several push notifications that there would be extra rewards for placing an order in the app, so I went to try that. It took forever to click through all the screens, you basically have to scroll past every ingredient they have just order a sandwich, and then it told me the next available pick up was in 30 minutes. So it was just a huge waste of time, because I could pull up to the store, order my food, and have it in five minutes. I the app and all these processes need some serious innovation.

I tried this app yesterday and had many issues. First of all it kept giving me a "timed out error" I had to put my order in about 4 times and still nothing. Finally I removed some things and the order went through, only to realize that all of the "timed out" items actually went through and ended up on the order. Luckily the staff saw the error and gave me a refund on the 4 additional items I didn't order. Second problem, you cannot "pre-order" until the restaurant opens. Seems like this defeats the purpose of the option to pre-order in some instances. Third problem, I tried to use the promo code for downloading the app. It only gave me a partial discount rather than the free sandwich and drink that was advertised. Fourth issue, they have eliminated the rewards program like in the old app. You no longer build points for free items. In my opinion this is a big mistake.

Always very frustrated while trying to order online. A lot of ingredients I know they have are not listed. For example the description of the Green Goddess salad states that the salad comes with Green Goddess dressing. However when you try to order it in order to put it in your cart you must choose a dressing. That would be ok but Green Goddess Dressing is not included as a choice. Chose no dressing figuring i can circumvent the problem but then got no dressing! Also with the spuds I could not order the addition of broccoli. Not one of the veggie choices in customizations although the stores have it because it is one of the ingredients in the veggie spud. Very frustrating. Lastly had some coupons from a mailer for money off orders. I tried to enter the promo code but it said the promo code could not be used on this order. No explanation why. Very frustrating

The app works well, but it is limited in use for some simple features that would help a lot. For instance, there is no way to request a water in a cup. The tap water is already filtered. I would willingly pay the cup cost if it were a feature.

Additionally, the redemption process is a little wonky. I was in the rewards center trying to redeem something that was in my cart. It kept telling me to add the item to my cart to redeem the coupon (free tea). When I got to the cart, it gave me the option again and it worked.

Lastly, upon using the customization process I found the user is not able to specify the amount of an entree augmentation. For instance, I added a herb Mayo but I was not able to specify I wanted a little or extra. Same with the veggies. I don’t like a lot of tomato, but wasn’t able to select a light portion of tomato. The items that come on the sandwich have this step in the customization process.

If I order a salad - let’s say a cobb salad - and I don’t want chicken, why does that not reduce the cost of the salad (at Chick Fil A it does)? It’s costing you less to make that salad and you have no problem charging me $2.50 more if I want more chicken. It would also be nice if you could leave comments or special requests - which I could guess why that went away (probably people asking for stuff that costs for free) - but things like light ice on drinks - I don’t want a cup full of ice and two splurts of coke. Especially not for $3. If you don’t want to add a special requests how about more or less options - ie easy ice - extra honey mustard dressing (with applicable fee - like Whataburger). And if you do want to be greedy why not offer all options on all things - ie why can’t I add egg to my chef salad? It just seems like when you had restaurant apps there’s great ideas out there but no one’s got the perfect app.

I'm am very unhappy with this new app. I was finally getting used to the last app. And almost had enough points for a reward. I loaded new app and it doesn't do anything it's frozen so now I've been to the restaurant twice now without receiving any rewards points. No one at the store can help me with this matter. Wasn't life so much easier with last app? Or better yet the punch cards we used to get before the app came out. And my 80 year old father can't take advantage of the reward points any more because he does not have a smart phone. I love Mcallisters, but I feel betrayed. Might find another place to go for now. There are plenty of places to eat in this town. Update. 5/17. I just called the store about the app not working. The manager told me I should try to re download the app. So I remove it. And downloaded it again. Still does not work. Thanks a lot head honcho who ever thought of this. You have lost my business

No other food app has given me as much as a headache as this one. This is the only app that has the worst connection issues which I would chalk up to being me if not for the fact that every other food app has never given me similar issues when used immediately after to compare. Another issue I’ve had repeated multiple times throughout multiple locations is my toppings not being on my order when I receive it. And my final straw has been today when I confirmed a location twice and after scrambling to find my order for half an hour found out it was sent to another location entirely. This is ridiculous for an app to be able to change my location from what I confirmed multiple times and to not even inform me. It’s unprofessional, irritating for users, and overall a waste of my time to have to continue dealing with. If I ever eat here again it will only be in person and without using this app since it has only ever given me headaches since downloading.

I downloaded this app and placed an order on 5/7. Tried three times to get to order to go thru. Since it kept saying to order could not be processed I decided to go to the restaurant and get my food there. I ordered a spud max and a McAlister's club. Total price $16.15, paid with cash. About 4 or 5 days later I find I have 3 transactions on account for $16.15. Then one disappears. I call my bank to see what was going on and to explain what had happened. They suggested I go back to the restaurant and see if they could fix it because that would be much faster for me. I went and was told they had nothing to do with the app and there was nothing they could do for me. I ended up at the bank and I filed a card dispute. I still have my receipt and I'm waiting to see what happens. This app is a fraud. It doesn't work and they still take your money. I refuse to pay $48.45 for a potato and a sandwich, I don't care who's selling it. Don't trust these crooks with you hard earned money.

One. It's a free app. Two. It only works with stores that offer online ordering; it doesn't even list other stores. This app is for ordering, not a location finder or nutritional menu. Three. This shouldn't be a surprise! If your friendly neighborhood McAlisters had online ordering, you would know. They post it all over the store. If it is really going to be a huge hassle for you download and possibly delete a FREE app then check with your store to see if they offer this service first. That being said, this is a great app! I love the customization you can do with all the choices such as no cheese, add jalepenos, and the choose two is set up nicely. The soup is tricky, but when I asked, they said it was because they don't always have every soup available, but it's absolutely no trouble at all to scoop some up when you get there to pick up your order. It's so frustrating to read the bad reviews saying they'll never eat here again all because of this app. That's nonsense and just wrong.

I use to go to Mcalister’s in Odessa Texas and loved their food. My first time at your new location in Granbury Texas and I was so disappointed. I bought one of your Chicken Salad sandwiches and it was like someone took a knife and wiped the chicken salad on like peanut butter. I have had this sandwich in Odessa Texas and it was loaded with chicken Salad. Your staff needs some schooling on making a sandwich. I spent $7.00 for a sandwich with no chicken salad on it. SO DISAPPOINTED!

Well second time to order a Chicken Salad Sandwich and even had the manager of the store in Granbury check to see if there was a good amount on my sandwich. She came back to the window and said, “Oh Yes , you will get a bite of chicken salad in every bite. Well I got home with my sandwich and it was the same as the first one. I will never buy a chicken salad sandwich from your store again, I can’t trust that I pay $7.00 for a sandwich and get a swipe of chicken salad like a condiment. Really a joke. But I’m not laughing.

We thrilled to see we had two free items in the app. Then we got to the restaurant and it was a mess. I opened the app and signed in before entering, but apparently the app only works if you log into the WiFi at the restaurant. What? You actually have to open a browser, check the tiny box, wait for it to go to the McAlister’s site, close the app and reopen it and freaking sign in AGAIN and then we tried to redeem an award for tea, finally got it, but can’t get the free cookie on the same ticket. Or at least the manager couldn’t get it to work, so they just gave us a cookie to avoid us standing there fiddling with it for another 5 minutes. What a horrible app. I hate having to sign into these little apps when my phone uses fingerprints to sign in most apps. Did anyone who created this app even try it as a customer? If they did, then they certainly have a different idea of easy than I do. That bar code scan thing was so much easier than this rigmarole. I really don’t need free stuff if it’s that hard to get.

When I first got this app, I used it every time I went to a McAlister’s. Now, with the removal of basic sandwiches on the menu, which is all I order, it’s useless to me. By “basic sandwich,” I mean I can’t order a pastrami on rye on the app, which is about as basic as you can get. It would be okay if the restaurant just didn’t allow it, but they still do, you just have to call it in, or order at the counter and wait fifteen minutes.

Update: App is officially useless. When trying to order, I get to a point where I’m unable to actually select anything. Sandwich selection doesn’t populate. Clicking on “mushroom soup” in the What’s New section is the closest I can get to an actual order. I’m asked to choose the size, with no options for size. I doubt anyone is actually still minding this app. Stay away. Call or order at the counter, and hope the person tending to you knows what they’re doing. In my experience, they won’t. I’ve stopped going to McAlister’s because the experience is so awful, from the app to in person.

this app is truly awful. it’s laggy and slow. half the time, it doesn’t even do what i want it to do. most times i’ll press inside pickup and it’ll do curbside. however, the worst encounter i’ve had with this app happened today. i chose a location near me and chose inside pickup for my coworker to go pickup. however, my coworker showed up and much to her disappointment, found out that the order had been made in a town 15 minutes away! i distinctly remembered choosing the correct location, but i guess the app had other plans!

the honest truth is that this app could be good if the company prioritized the customer experience! a good app should have a simple ui and should ALWAYS be dependable! the employees are not to be punished- they have been super helpful through this awful experience. i have used many competing apps and wish mcalister’s could live up to it! newks and chick fil a do it better than mcalister’s! i wish i could give no stars and save other customers this horrible experience! the points AREN’T worth this- just order in person!

I placed an order two days ago to pick up ASAP. After I paid, the app set the pickup time for the next morning at 10:31 AM for some reason.

I called the store and asked to move the order to that night and they told me they can’t adjust orders for different days and I needed to call back in the morning to cancel.

I called yesterday and requested to cancel the order. The employee asked for my name and when gave it said “ok I’ll let them know” and hung up.

I never got a confirmation and the charge has been posted on my credit card... received no food. The app is broken and obviously it doesn’t interface with the stores properly.

The app also charges you a fee for each order. This is insane. Customers using the app saves on labor costs so the company is essentially charging twice for an app that doesn’t work. The fee also more than cancels out any rewards you earn. Any time someone mentions this in the reviews the company responds with a copy and pasted nonsense explanation, so I’m sure this review won’t do any good. I’ll just go to Panera instead from now on.

If you were blind, you need to write a review about this app, telling this company very clearly and no one certain terms, but this app really need some work for voiceover users. You can login just fine, but when it comes to doing anything with in the app itself, such as ordering, you just can't fly don't do anything. Your phone just sits there in the screen does not change. This company really should get it together and redo this app and design it better for people who use voiceover. I am very disappointed, since this company has excellent food, and I would like to use their app very much to order my food, but yet since I am blind, and use voiceover to read what's on my screen, I just flat out cannot do it. This app is getting a one star rating until this company will actually get off their butts go into the app, and redo it and fix it for voiceover users, why don't you go to the Apple Accessibility website and read about VoiceOver before you actually make this app? They practically hold your hand and guide you and how to make VoiceOver accessibility possible within your apps.

I have been successfully using this app for some months now since the covid pandemic started. Suddenly now, the app no longer is showing me certain sandwiches when I try to order. Specifically, it won’t let me order a Smokey Pepperjack Turkey or a Harvest Chicken Salad sandwich, which we often ordered before. Oddly, I can find those sandwiches as an option if I’m trying to order a Choose Two but I cannot for the life of me just order a whole sandwich because the sandwich menu won’t show them as an option! I deleted the app and reinstalled it thinking that might help resolve the issue, but no such luck. The same sandwiches are still missing! Perhaps some others as well because it just looks like some are missing. I just don’t know which ones specifically. Until this is fixed, this app, and the associated Rewards points are useless to me. It isn’t because the restaurant was out of those sandwiches because I was able to go to them and order them in person. But I didn’t get and Reward Points credit for that since I wasn’t using the app. Until those sandwich choices return to the app, I won’t be patronizing McAlister’s again.

I order McAllister’s frequently. I take food to customers several times a week. I only order through the app because I absolutely hate the phone service, it’s hard to get a person and I have to listen to way too much automated messaging about my last order. Anyways, there are several things I hate about the app. Not everything is customizable. I order a Reuben a lot however I don’t like as much meat as they put on it so I like to request less meat so I’m not just throwing it away and there’s no way to do that. You also can’t customize certain vegetables I like extra sauerkraut there’s no way to do that.

But what bothers me the most about the app is when you do create an order and you were sent to the payment section if you do not put your payment in fast enough it tells you that the delivery time is unavailable so you have to go back to the previous screen change your delivery time to allow a few minutes just to put in credit card information which is absolutely stupid. Because then you have to go back and re-put all the information in. Which I had to do three times because I did not do it fast enough the second time again.

I have been a McA frequenter for over ten years and will continue to be because I love our local store. Over the years the reward systems went from great, to okay, to nearly non-existent. I loved the old punch card system, “Buy 10 teas and get the next free.” There were similar punch cards for meals, and gallons of tea as well. I utilized these frequently. The first app that rolled out to replace the punch card system was okay but significantly reduced the number of rewards. I understand they probably couldn’t sustain as many free meals as they were giving out so I can understand the change. However, this new app update (that took a very long time to roll out by the way) has hardly any rewards at all. There is no way to track any kind of point accumulation so I never know when a reward might show up and when they do it is often something that is not relevant to me. Please provide a way to track points and maybe even let us choose how we want to redeem our points with options.
I have purchased three sizable meals and used my short code each time over the last three weeks and I still don’t have any rewards offered and I have no idea when any will even show up.

8/30/1:00pm MST I tried to order as usual. App nor on line would let me in. So I tried numerous time to reset password. It continued to not accept when I tried to sign-in. The app does not recognize me--took points away. I tried to sign up as a new customer, but it wont take that either, because my phone number and email are already being used. I would appreciate my account being reinstated.

They delayed making my order by 35 minutes. My driver was waiting for a long time. Supposed to be delivered by 1210

Now it's 1240pm. This is not Doordarshan fault. I received very cold soup and pretzel bites not was not warm. I called store the manager was rude and hung up on me. This is not Acceptable! My order did not have the potatoe salad or pickle. I have proof.

Each time I have updated the app I lose rewards. Today I had 1850 in reward points and tried to order using those points. The app wouldn’t work unless I installed the update. So I did and now I only have 750 points. Nice. I lost 1100 points. This is not the first time this has happened. I also think they should be able to do a better job of making sure the app offers all the menu items at your local store. Hate that sometimes I have to go into the store to place an order to get certain soups and other items that are not in the app.

I would like to try more soups, but you can’t get soup without green onions in the app. Why is that? It’s mainly for looks anyway. It’s not the hard to place this in the option when order soup. You can order a sandwich without onions. If people don’t like onions in the sandwich, why would they like them in their soup.

Then when you give out rewards, why only give out the tea? How about a soda or lemonade. Not everyone likes flavored dirt O’Niel water. At least give people the option to get a drink of their liking. Do better please.

I really like using the app but it’s lacking some pretty critical features that would increase the score a lot. You cannot currently redeem McAlister’s Gift Cards in the app, which is honestly really dumb. I order almost exclusively thru the app and this is a major feature that’s missing. They know that this feature is missing to the point that they have an FAQ about it so this is a known issue with a very simple fix. The score will be updated to much higher once this feature is added because there is no reason it should still be missing

I have the newest version of the app, but every time I try to order from my phone I can’t seem to select a location. When I click the “i” icon, I see an option to click “select” but when I do, all I get is the pickup location description, which is what I see when I try to click on the store name/location as well. There’s to way to bypass this feature and get to the menu. Every time I try to do anything with the app it wants me to choose a store, but my store is already favorited. I hope this gets fixed because I’ve had this problem for awhile.

I’m not sure what happened. I’ve been able to use the app wonderfully and would have given 5 stars last week, but suddenly today, I’m getting some problems. I tried to order my usual, but once I got to the check out screen, an error box keeps coming up that says I need to “provide a make for my order.” What does that even mean? I thought I was leaving some kind of option off, but I kept looking and I don’t know what else to do. I’ve used this app many times and accumulated numerous points, but this is frustrating. I couldn’t order my lunch today.

Ordering online was not great. It said I earned 200 points for signing up and then said 0 in my account. It showed a free tea reward in the checkout process but I got an error when I tried to add it so I’m 0 for 2 at this point. I got through the ordering process only to find out I couldn’t check out with a gift card so ended up having to cancel my order and call over the phone. 0 for 3. I tried calling over the phone and they couldn’t even accept my gift card over the phone! I literally had to be there in person with the gift card to use it so they could scan it.

Updated the app as the FAQ indicated. Tried signing in. It said “oops an error try later”. Tried changing the password. Two different times. Both times it said it was changed successfully. Tried signing in again. App said same error “oops an error try later”. Tried again later, about 6 different times over the next 4 hours, just kept getting the same error. Tried setting up a new account using a different email address. Wouldn’t let me because the phone number is “already in use”. Obviously you just don’t want me to order online or earn any rewards. Very frustrating!

Seems to generic and the rewards are only set up in 3 categories by tiers. Descriptions also seem vague and classified by drinks sides and the main meal choices.

Unless I’m not seeing something right, it appears I can’t pull up the menu to look at first. I select menu and it asks for type order and location. Most every competitor app I use is the opposite. You see the menu items right away and only then when you click on an item does it prompt you to start your order by type and location.

If I decide on what to eat it looks like ordering from the website is the better option. If on the go and mobile this isn’t the case.

Often, the app informs us we can’t order ahead or that we cannot place a pick up order. Then I call to discover the location wasn’t aware the app was restricting use. Today, 1pm, I tried to place a pick up through the app. App said online ordering wasn’t available. I called location and they didn’t know what was happening with the app.
I order chili for my son at every visit. Sometimes the app claims chili isn’t available or it’s completely missing from options. Again, I’ll call the location and it’s always available. They never know the app is restricting anything.

I’m not sure why it’s happening, but hope the app can get updated to fix the bug.

The app used to be ok, it wasn’t the best ordering app I’ve used but at least I could customize anything. With this newest version I can no longer customize anything on the kids menu. What about my gluten sensitive nine year old? I’m not going to pay almost $8 for the “adult” grilled cheese just so she can have gluten free bread. Yeah, I could call my order in but the whole point of the app is so I don’t have to call. It’s not even user friendly. It doesn’t even fill my whole screen, I don’t have the biggest phone anyway and it cuts off the top and bottom of the screen making difficult to tell what you’re looking at. The rewards are nice but not worth dealing with a lousy app.

If you order online or through the app, you are now being charged an additional 35 cent technology fee. SERIOUSLY. It now says taxes and fees in the checkout section, and there is a clickable question mark that explains the extra fee. Did the execs who came up with this not so brilliant idea think the amount was small enough customers wouldn’t care? Online/app ordering is supposed to enhance the customer experience by making it easier and more convenient for customers to give you their business. That’s why most businesses now have an app/ website. Saying “ Oh by way, we’re charging you extra to use it” is an incredibly stupid business decision. Get ready to piss off and potentially lose a lot of your customers.

I knew there was a reason I deleted this app years ago & that exact reason STILL hasn't been resolved! I love their food, don't get me wrong, but having to delete the app, re-install it over & over again JUST to use the app properly, in this day & time is a poor excuse for anything.. ESP when we're talking about a restaurant app!

I will be permanently deleting this app until I know for a fact that I won't be dealing with these kinds of issues bc quite honestly, I don't have the time nor energy to deal with that.. My days are busy enough handling ridiculously, much less do I want to have to deal with a stupid technology issue just to order food.

Crossing my fingers they'll get this figured out bc like I said, they've got good food! :)

This app has pretty much been trash for a very long time now. It worked fine about a year ago and then one day, just stopped working. Could never place an order. Gave up after awhile. Was eating there 3-4 times a week while at work. Haven’t in almost a year now. Figured they would have fixed the app by now. Was glad to see it now has the Sign In with Apple option. Only it doesn’t work. I choose to Sign In with Apple, my phone uses Face ID to verify, then a screen pops up that says, Hold On A Minute! Turns out Facebook doesn’t know everything. I’m not signing in with Facebook nor would I ever. The app then requests every personal detail of my life in order to be sold in exchange for the option to order food from an app. No thanks. Maybe I’ll check back in another year.

The app is very visually appealing but you can’t really customize your food.

I went to order a grilled chicken caesar wrap and in the ingredients list it only showed the lettuce, dressing, and wheat wrap. It didn’t show the chicken or Parmesan that are included in the wrap. I was trying to find any way to find the Parmesan so that I could remove it from the wrap but there was no option to do so. Parmesan wasn’t even in the list of add-able cheeses in the customize menu.

I’m hard of hearing so I depend a lot on mobile ordering because ordering at a counter is frustrating for everyone especially when I want to customize my food. This app is missing a lot of necessary features and I hope it gets fixed soon because I really enjoy McAlister’s food.

Tl;dr Incomplete ingredients list and terrible customization options.