El Pollo Loco - Loco Rewards
reviews and complaints

App is convenient to use, pleasing to the eye, and fast. A few problems: I dont like that the only way to use delivery is through their system. For a while they were using Doordash but not in a way that allowed you to monitor progress or give feedback through the doordash app. The only communication was through automated texting that often didnt work. I dont remember who they use now and what its like because the app crashes on startup since fall 2020. Many complaints like that on the app page. Typically if your device is outdated/not supported the app store refuses download or allows you to use an older version of the app, making this more frustrating. I would love to use an app to browse the menu and order ahead but this is the only one and it doesnt work and probably never will again.

I had left a past review complimenting EPL’s app UI, point system and deals/offers. Ever since they updated their entire app UI, the deals are inconsistent. The new points system is such a lowblow, you used to be rewarded fairly, now they make you spend an extra $10 to receive rewards like a classic chicken burrito, for example. Not to mention most EPL restaurants don’t even have a code on physical receipts to collect points anymore, forcing you to only order off the app to collect the points on purchases you made anyways! For a simple menu and (delicious) ingredients, they’ve punished their devoted customers for greedy profit. I understand inflation but this feels like we’ve got the rug pulled from right up under us. 2 stars for EPL’s app. I hope to come back and update this with a more positive experience.

Some franchises are not always the best representatives of the parent company... that being said, the app works great, like it is supposed to. The app, however, does its job and does it well!

When traveling a lot, I’ve found there is not always consistency between physical locations. The app can help make so-so places better (or in some cases where the employees are not as tech savvy as they should be— worse). The app allows me to place orders ahead of time, keep track of spending, earn rewards, get coupons and deals, and see the specials/new items. In my local Restaurant, the only complaint is that they never have enough cilantro. They have integrated the app with their cash registers, orders are ready when I get there, and it’s easy to upload gift cards.

Bottom line, the app does what’s supposed to do and it does it well.

I added the app to my iPhone 10 because I was given a $100 gift card. Initially when I downloaded the app, the “gift card/pay” icon was at the bottom, along with the other 4 icons (Rewards, News etc). I added the gift card to the app but I didn’t throw the card away. Unbeknownst to me, after using the card only once on the app for a $10 purchase, the gift/pay icon disappeared. I went back to El Pollo on a separate occasion to make a purchase using the gift card downloaded on the app but the icon wasn’t there and unfortunately the employee could not assist me. Thankfully I kept the actual gift card because I would have lost a $90 balance. I immediately deleted the app and added it again but it was still missing the gift/pay icon at the bottom of the app. How can this be fixed or should I just give up and delete the app for good.

I have given the app a fair chance, using it several times over weeks. It just doesn’t work. The staff have been given no training and stare at you blankly, every time. In my experience they are on able to give you credit without making you scan the receipt, and the majority of times. I redeemed a $10 credit, and after waiting 20 minutes and asking the entire order was missing. There was no record of it even in the cash register. I decided to use it one last time to redeem a digital coupon for a free entrée. But the app was unwieldy to use at the drive-through window, everybody waiting. I am technically savvy.
But the app just wouldn’t work, and staff had no idea how to help me. I ended up just driving away. So I’m deleting the app. Which is unfortunate in an age when apps and digital formats are so important for the success of the company like this.

I use to love El Pollo Loco, but after installing the app and joining the rewards I’ve been nothing but disappointment! I received two different emails to take their survey regarding their holiday items for $5 credit each, and never received either credit. Their holiday challenge where you buy 3 holiday items to get the fourth item free, never received. To make matters worse, their location on Harbor Blvd in Costa Mesa, next to the Ikea has the worst customer service ever. And there customer service number is so unhelpful.. they do nothing at all. What would be the point of having a customer service number if they do not actually help the customer.

I spend a lot of money with you all, solely based off your promotions and rewards..only to not get what you’re advertising in return. You are ripping off your customers! I am uninstalling this app and you will no longer get my money thanks!

Let me first start off by saying it should not be this difficult to use a coupon/offer in your app. Today I received an offer for $3 off the Classic Chicken Tostada, which I tried to use. The offer details say to redeem online at checkout or in-store. When it came time to check out in the app, the $3 coupon was nowhere to be found. Only a box to enter a coupon code. After poking around for way too long, I found that I had to go back to the coupon details and click on redeem in store in order to get the coupon code. Once I had the coupon code I was able to enter that number into the coupon code box in the checkout screen and have the discount applied to my order! This is ridiculous the amount of steps one has to go through to save a few bucks. I could’ve sworn that all available coupons and offers were listed in the checkout window before! You guys need to streamline this process BADLY!

You see what REAL developers make, and then you see this and think... they didnt just get different degrees from different schools... they majored different subjects. You would be terribly surprised how many times I’ve placed an order on the app had my money taken from my bank then showing up to the Pollo loco and it’s closed or somehow missing the one thing they need chicken it’s a very predictable occurrence that’s how common it is and that’s disgusting why wouldn’t you let us know you have a shortage Chick-fil-A app does it? Sometimes the transaction doesn’t even go through which then causes it to erase my card and makes me re-added and God for bid you want to change your location because you have to redo your entire order and now you can save specific orders to be ordered in different locations you can only save specific orders in specific locations because who knows ask the developers

I get to the restaurant and open my phone to use my app. It says wrong password. WHAT? It’s my turn, so I can’t use the app to scan. Then I go and change my password to THE EXACT SAME PASSWORD and there’s no scan on the receipt. I ask the manager, who says you didn’t read the email? What email? All I have are discount emails, nothing with information. Then someone says the rewards are changed too…you don’t even get to pick what you want. WTH! I order ONE THING here and now you expect me to buy random crap that I can’t eat. Why on earth can’t I just use the ‘points’ the normal way…on things I actually like?
You raised all your prices and reduced all your portions. NOW you’ve taken away the only chance we had to actually save money. Which means I won’t be able to spend money here as much as normal. And I doubt I’m the only one with this issue.
It’s too bad, really. You used to be one of the good places. Now you’re just another mcdonalds.

I’ve only successfully completed orders via this app about 40% of the time. I usually abandon and visit another quick service restaurant. Looks like today will be no different!
Offers specials and invites users to “Order Now with Offer,” only to lead the user through the full order process and:
- Shows no indication of whether/how the offer is being applied
- ends with “…location is currently closed or your order cannot be processed, prior to close” at 2:30pm on a Friday!
Reattempting order, but specifying pickup instead of curbside allows order to proceed (indicating issue was simply that location does not offer curbside delivery, at this time), yet “Apply Offers” at payment stage errors out, stating “Your selected reward is not valid for this order,” when selecting “Free large drink with purchase of any overstuffed quesadilla” for an order of “Shredded beef avocado quesadilla” — how can a reward worded, as described, not qualify?
Why does El Pollo loco hate its customers, so?

You can tell that this app was created “just” for use during the pandemic. Unlike other populate fast food restaurants, this app doesn’t offer a few very simple and important features. Such as: an option to place an order and then pay in store, a simple feature that allows you to put any items on the side, and (MOST IMPORTANT) it doesn't offer any of the coupons that we get in the mail?!? For example, McDonald’s offers all of their digital coupons & physical mail coupons in their app. The El pollo loco app doesn’t offer any of their physical coupons!?! It has a section for “deals” but it’s always empty. They try to encourage you to use their digital app for orders, by creating challenges and digital rewards, but you have to pay full price! They don’t offer the same digital deals as their paper coupons?!? Why not? It doesn’t make any sense to try and convince me to use your app more but then have to rely on mailers to find physical coupons that I can’t even apply with the app?!? I have to redeem those coupons in store?!? This app is very basic.

I have continually had my orders canceled right before pick up. As in if my 4 orders, only one was not canceled when I got there supposedly due to no having any breasts or wings.

Tonight at 7:45 pm, I ordered one & half chickens plus a number of sides to be picked up at 8:30 pm. At 8:27 pm as I was close to the restaurant, I received the message my order was canceled!
Then I was asked if I wanted to re-order which I did. I waited in the parking lot for about 5 minutes before pulling into the drive they. After giving my name, she told me they were out of “mixed” meaning breasts & wings.

Interestingly, the order was not canceled by them but left in progress.

This has happened twice before.
Why aren’t your people reserving the breast & wings for orders or making more?

I’m tired of driving all the way to the store only to have my order canceled!

I don’t even bother or care about points. By the way, I’ve stopped by this El pollo loco and found them out of breasts & wings at 7:30 pm. This is the Monterey & Dinah Shore location in Rancho Mirage, CA.

While I love the restaurant and the food, the new program is less flexible and functional.
1. Before, I could enter a code from a receipt of the app hadn’t been used in the transaction for whatever reason. No more. If I don’t have my phone with me during ordering, too bad. Now I can see how people may have been gaming the system by entering codes that weren’t theirs, but now, if there’s a glitch in the app or the restaurant, there’s no recourse. And if the company is so concerned about people entering codes that aren’t theirs, why not have a limit of one or two per day? Further, the food on the receipt has been paid for already. The damage seems minimal.
2. In the earlier version, the rewards accumulated in dollars, which the customer was then free to spend as they wished. If a customer banked $20 in rewards, they could use any amount from $1-20. Again, this is no longer the case. Now it’s $5 off or a (very) limited selection of free food items.
3. I will say that I like the tier system which accumulates points faster, but the other issues cost the stars. Just my .02.

I love this restaurant so I am sad to have to write this. For delivery they use postmates, it does not keep you updated with where your order is and when it accurately arrives making it difficult to use compared to other delivery services. The first time I ordered delivery my order never came, after talking to the manager at el pollo loco for 30 minutes she couldnt give me a refund and the app wouldn’t let me see my order as soon as I got a cancellation email of my order that i never canceled. So i have not yet gotten a refund. Secondly I decided to take a chance and place an order on the app today for delivery and realized I did not want to take the chance after i placed it after seeing the estimated time was close to an hour. so i went to cancel the order on the app and it told me to call the store. When i called the store they didn’t know what i was talking about and said they couldn’t cancel the order so now it’s past the hour and i’m still waiting for the delivery. It doesn’t even say that it’s been picked up yet. If it doesn’t come that will be 40$ down the drain after both orders. Do not order on this app.

This is the 2nd or 3rd time that I try to use the Loco Reward and it doesn’t work. I ordered a $28 meal On the app and was supposed to get a Free Double Chicken Tostada. The app didn’t let me add it to the order. I showed the email with code to an employee and then to the manager at the location and he denied me my free item. He seemed not to understand about it. The credit in the rewards was lost. A very similar thing happened in the past. This is really frustrating. IMHO this app needs serious review. The user experience is frustrating - navigating from items to order and vice-versa is hard; saved items don’t show all items; rewards don’t get properly applied and credit gets lost. The positive side is all items have pictures, complete description and categories make sense. Using the app saves you time at the line, but it takes you double time to get your order done.

UPDATE:
Sent a message using their contact form online and just got a no-reply automated boiler-plate message repeating all the information already presented by the app which doesn’t fix the issue nor refunds me with my credit. I wish I knew this before spending my time writing them a message. At least it’s recorded here for other customers to read. :-(

I have been a long time patron of
El Pollo Loco, since before it was introduced to USA, summer of
1984!
My family & late husband drove camper to El Faro Beach !
I have very fond memories of this wonderful vacation!
We camped south of Ensenada,
EL [censored]o Beach…
Instead of cooking dinner my cousin/sister Alice introduced me to
This roasted chicken !
It was EXCELLENT!
However, driving to Ensenada I was happy that El Pollo Loco opened stores in Santa Monica “ Lincoln Blvd & Pico Blvd!
I craved this flavor!
So, I have been a patron since 1988!
We would have this for lunch & dinner & I LOVE ❤️ THE FLAVORS!

Last night, I had a coupon that expires 3/16/2022!
I signed up fir the REWARDS PROGRAM to no avail!?
Anyway, food & staff is humble & you know the FOOD IS EXCELLENT!
I parked 1st to try to order for pick up?
Unfortunately, I have to drive thru due to the difficulties with this app!
I did download it!?
It was easier to just order thru drive
Thru!
I asked for free Chips& dip!?
To no avail!
The line was long & this IS WHY I wanted to use & order in APP!?

Oh well!
At least I enjoyed a wonderful, tasty dinner!
It should be user friendly to order on this app to help your excellent staff & customer service !?

I would love ❤️ to see this company on THE BOSS SHOW TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO EXPEDITE SERVICE & not wait over 25 minutes to pat fir dinner!
I am a diabetic & I needed to get home & service & share my flavorful goodies!
Remember, Excellent Customer Service IS JOB SECURITY!
I don’t think I will visit this store again, I will stop by CulverCity drive thru!
But again dinner time is slow & anything that would help expedite orders would be in your BEST INTEREST!
Thank you for dinner & lunch today!

This is an AP review, not a customer service or brick/mortar review..: not sure why people are rating based on store performance. However l, I think employees in-store should be trained in how the app works and accepting online orders/complications of doing such.

Anyway, compared to other fast casual apps or online ordering platforms, this one is easy to navigate and streamlined in my opinion. There is an option to remove items, but needs to have an expanded “add on” menu for individual items, say for example if I wanted to add say beans or rice to a burrito that doesn’t have any, or a different type salsa instead of regular. I would like to see an option to swap items out for a similar priced item, example being if I wanted a churro instead of chips, etc. not sure if there is one or not.

Design and layout are really nice, I like the “account history” layout/desig, love that the deals and coupons are preloaded to the app. There is an added layer of security before accessing payment info which I really enjoy and thought was unique, requiring a pin or passcode before being able to access your saved payment options.

The locations option is designed user friendly and makes it easy to see individual store hours and see which locations are near you on a map or list view.
I really like that the amenities of the stores are listed per store (WiFi capable, drive-thru available, etc) but it would be even BETTER if there could be advanced search options to find such options. Like if you are looking for a specific store, I would like a search query to look at stores “open now” or “with WiFi” , “open late”, etc to narrow down my search and make it easier

Great job on the app! I would like to see more coupons available or an easier way to have in mail coupons accessible through the app.

First off, El Pollo makes great chicken for a fast-food style restaurant. Their menu can be healthier than many other fast food restaurants, and portions are often generous, tasty and reasonably priced.

That said, service is often lacking due to poor management or lack there of. This is something I've consistently experienced when visiting their restaurant near my home, but I keep going back because I love the menu… but I just detest the experience of having to go in due to lack of properly trained cashiers I have to repeat my order to 10x (their menu can be a little confusing due to the resemblance of names across a lot of their items), dirty, unkept facilities (floor has spills and trash everywhere, gnats around the drink dispenser, nasty bathrooms), etc. It always seems to take forever to get my order taken... so this app is geared towards eliminating that.

An uneasy feeling based on service experiences in the past didn't instill much confidence that my order would be received or made, and I was fairly correct in this assumption. However, despite the rigamarole of order taking at my local EPL, the food prep/line always seems to get the order correct, so I decided the ability to bypass the line and the often untrained/unsupervised cashiers would be worth the risk.

So, the app did its job here. The order was sent to the restaurant. Goal achieved. However, as suspected, online orders weren't being properly ticketed or observed and my order went unnoticed until I arrived for pickup. Fortunately, they weren't busy and food prep got on it and turned the order out pretty quickly. I still had to wait 5 minutes, but no big deal. But 10 or 15 minutes would have started to annoy me a bit because the entire premise of app ordering is to have it ready to go when I show up if it's 15 minutes later during a low traffic period (I know first world problem, and we all feel so entitled, but hey–what else are apps supposed to do but make efficiencies and streamline processes ?) It's also to mitigate the restaurant's overhead, make them more productive and theoretically, should make jobs easier. Here, EPL's corporate probably spent a good deal of $$$ hiring devs to build their app, and my in-app experience was pretty smooth and the design was slick. But when [not just EPL] most app ordering fails due to poor process or logistics to prep, it's all just kind of a waste of everyone's time... unless the order taking process is so bad that even a poor experience is improved upon the norm.

So the app (for my use to order and 'skip the line') worked exceptionally well, and I would say it warranted a 5 ⭐️ rating. But the follow through on the restaurant-end was that classic El Pollo Loco jumble

Haven't tried using the rewards. My thought is that the app would apply these. Reviews where people complain about the restaurants not being able to deal with the rewards? Yep–that classic EPL 'service'.

Good thing they make good chicken. I thought Pollo Tropical might replace my EPL fix, but they went faster than they came.

I'll use the app to order from here on out to, if anything, 'skip the line' like their many adverts suggest... let's just hope they do some workshops or send corporate reps to work with the staff on receiving and prep and better training and while they're at it, maybe get their mgmt with the program in keeping their restaurants cleaner and neater.

This company never returns calls or emails their whole app is BS. Anytime I want to redeem rewards it tells me not valid for this order and gives no explanation why so why have rewards if I can’t redeem them. And of course it won’t let me upload the photo of the actual reward how smart is this company app? And now I have to write a whole [censored] essay because my response was too short and it won’t get any attention what a damn joke this company is.

This is the third time I've experienced this situation: I order food online through the https://www.elpolloloco.com/ website. I click on the button to redeem my rewards or a promotion and receive a pop-up that says I can "redeem online at checkout." At checkout, I click on the reward/promotion and get a pop-up that states "Your selected reward is not valid for this order." No explanation of why it isn't valid or what to do to make it a valid order. For this July 16, 2023, order I had three different available rewards - all of which should have been valid. 1) $5 off online order of $25, 2) $6 double chicken chopped salad, 3) $5 reward for 6500 points. I know I can only redeem one per order, but none of them came up as valid. I have not had this problem in the app.

So now that I’ve earned my $10 I can’t even log in. It’s giving me some type of encrypted message. This is the 2nd time it’s done that.

I was traveling and had a craving for El Pollo Loco. I downloaded the app but was not able to create an account. I can only explore as a guest.

Forces email list signup. The emails have no unsubscribe button within them or other option aside from logging into the website.
Just obnoxious as an app.

This latest update removed the ability to add gift cards. Plus there is no way to update your payment method. These issues have not fixed for over a month.

Every time I try to use it it’s Ayana internet connection. I get home where I know my phone has an internet connection and it still says no internet connection.

I ordered and paid for a 16 piece mix family meal.
Paid $38.24 and I drove 25 minutes back home to find out they only gave me 8 pcs!
I tried to call them and it rang with nobody answering.

So upset!

The food and service and both locations near me are great. I wish the app was even half as good. Why do we get multiple notifications to just find one thing when we open the app. It seems very amateurish.

Signed up to claim the free pollo bowl but never received the coupon :/.

Update: received coupon. You have to buy something to get the coupon and then you must buy a regularly priced item to be able to redeem it. Changing from 1 start to 2 stars.

Ive tried removing and reinstalling and it still crashes. Says app cannot be launched and at the bottom says some BS about internet not found.

Fix. This. Please.

UPDATE: still broken. I even got emailed by el pollo loco asking for me to come back.

Set up the account on my computer, and after downloading app on my iPhone it doesn’t recognize my account.

I would review if I ever had a chance to use it.

Update
The app must be junk, sent contact information and details as instructed and no answer.

The only reason I downloaded the app was for the points to get something in return for eating at this over priced chicken fast food restaurant. Every time I try to earn points it never gets them or says I already used the receipt ridiculous awful app needs a lot of work.

I’ve had this app for a while, and I can always see my points, etc. But whenever I try to order, it always tells me to restart the app. Every single time. I’ve deleted and reinstalled it and still the same message. I can order online fine, but without being able to order from the app itself, it’s worthless.

Another update and no access to gift cards

eached out like the developer said to do no response I now believe that the developer response is an automated message that is sent out to anything with less then 5 stars. They took the money I had stored in my app from the E gift cards and ran. I can no longer access them

This app is awful. Why is El pollo loco being so cheap with their app, especially when everyone pushes for you to have it? Get a ln app that’s user friendly and actually sends you coupons or discounts on a regular basis. If you aren’t sure what I’m specifically talking out, check out Del tacos and perhaps that will help you and me out.

Send 2 emails and couldn’t even respond to
one! I can’t scan my receipt because it’s says I can’t scan a receipt more then once when I had just made a purchase and that couldn’t be possible. Not only that but they couldn’t explain why they took away some points I had earned and all I was left was with 7 lousy points then the 45 points I had originally.

I downloaded the app, and my husband and I went to El Pollo Loco to eat. He ordered and paid for his meal; the El Pollo Loco employee scanned the receipt , and I received a notice that it could take 60 minutes until I received notification of that transaction.

I then ordered thinking I would receive record of an original El Pollo Bowl gratis at a later time, but I never did. However, my app reflected points earned. So much for their well- advertised offer!

The app itself is fine. Unfortunately the staff don’t support it and were exceptionally rude. She rudely told me I can’t pick up app orders in the drive thru. It would have been faster to just order it the regular way. Next, she abruptly threw the food together and slammed the window, clearly annoyed it was an app order. I waited till she came back and let her know we didn’t receive our drink. When I checked my order , the new fit salad had no dressing. Paid for a double chicken tostado and only got the regular one with no avocado. Also no salsa included. So ended up paying for items not received. Not happy and will not use the app again.

Horrible nonexistent customer support. Used it twice for delivery and the first time I was missing an item from my order. There is absolutely no customer support you can contact for help. The website simply hands your order to the franchise store and an available local delivery company. This part is exactly where it breaks down. On my second order, I noticed a delivery company was never assigned. My order got stuck in “order received” and an estimated arrival time. When it past the arrival, the app assumes it was delivered and charges you immediately. Called the store and there’s nothing they can do as they simply get the orders from the site and a delivery company comes to pick it up. Will be disputing the charge with my CC company.