Panera Bread
Reviews and Complaints

Cafe Order #: 994670
Store: Doylestown, PA
Date: November 11, 2017
Time: 5:05 pm

I placed an online order (Rapid Pickup), picked it up, then drove a half an hour to my home. Upon arrival, I went to take my order out of the bag and it was apparent that zero care had been taken in making and packing my sandwiches. My son's sandwich was thrown together with enough turkey for one half of a sandwich and one entire piece of cheese that wasn't even cut in half. The bread, however, was cut in half. The bread was also not even lined up properly and crushed when they packaged it in the wrapper. My sandwich, the BLT Roasted Turkey Avocado, came with four full pieces of bread and a lot of mess. When I went to take the sandwich out of the bag, the entire sandwich (plus the random extra pieces of bread) poured out into the bottom of the bag. The sandwich was not even properly wrapped and was a recipe for disaster for anyone who pulled it out of the bag. I would like a refund for my order and for more care to be taken. When you order a $9 + deli sandwich, it should be quality food and be enjoyable to eat.

Hello, I came into a panera bread at 10:00 on november 10th 2017. I came with my husband and we were quite hungry to say the least so we wanted to sit at the restaurant and eat. First of all, it was late so I do understand the employees are tired but the way they treated us and our food was very innapropriate. Me and my husband ordered the you pick 2 deal and shared it, and also a bowl of mac and cheese, but really we only got the soup and mac and cheese because our sandwich was very cold and when we tried to correct it they gave us an attitude like they didn't want to remake it, and when they did finally remake it which took an extra 20 minutes it came completely burnt, and smelled absolutely horrible I had to get back home so I just threw it away and left the restaurant without saying anything. Either way it was a less than desirable experience, Really all I'd like is some sort of compensation not only for my sandwhich but the fact that the employees made me feel very uncomfortable it was a very undesirable work enviroment.

The first 2 pictures are what we ordered. The second 2 are what we got. They tried to "fix" it and that's why we ended up with 3 sandwiches, none of them how we ordered them. This is not the first or even the second time this sort of thing has happened at this panera location.

I have Food Sensitivities, Adrenal Fatigue, Inflimation and too much stress to pay good money for high quality food and not get what I ordered! I cannot eat these other sandwiches and I'm starving and breakfast is now over, so what are we going to do about it.

The management needs more a lot of work. Every night, the floors are left filthy yet they sign off on it. The drains have lettuce, onions and other pieces of food left to decay. There's so much trash that it is piled outside the backdoor attracting rodents and insects.

There's cross contamination, where I'll more often than not see tomato and lettuce in a container full of meats and vice versa. What if someone was a vegan? There's bugs flying around the soda machines. I understand that it's sugar, but I've been to many other places and didn't have to worry about a bug in my soda.

The night managers in charge of the bakers are inconsistent. They tell one thing and do another. Constant lies on lies instead of telling the truth and saying they need help, they rather take advantage of someone while they still can. The racks have the wrong wheels on them, which caused them to roll constantly and even burnt one of the bakers.

The only reason this place doesnt smell like a dumpster anymore is because they finally fixed the moldy floors that were always wet and full of food. How they passed health inspection prior is beyond me, unless they paid someone off.

I would never recommend anyone to eat at this Panera Bread, in fear that they'd become sick. Upper management needs to step up and deal with this before someone comes to shut this dump down.

I go into Panera yesterday and apparently, there was no bread left. I had the smallest grilled cheese ever. I tried to order a large loaf of bread but they gave me 2 pieces of bread. One had a piece ripped off. I am very upset by this. How the heck could Panera BREAD have no bread? This is very upsetting and didn't even know that this was possible!

I walked in and the manager (bright green shirt) was in the bakery area on the phone. There were 2 girls standing near him, I believe cleaning and walking from the front to back of kitchen. There was a girl cooking and 2 other girls cleaning around and behind the grill near the corridor that leads to the bathrooms. There were 2-3 customers at the end waiting on their food. No one spoke to me upon entering the café or walking to the register area. I walked to the ordering/register area and 4 of the girls looked directly at me and still said nothing. The manager was having some type of heated conversation on the phone right in the front of the registers by bakery. I looked at my watch; it was 7:42 pm. I stood there and literally watched them walk back and forth cleaning and ignoring me. Still no one said a single word to me. They never acknowledged me and that's what made me upset. I was like, "REALLY?" I just felt that everyone was being rude and a simple Hello or someone will be right with you would have been sufficient. However, I got nothing. I looked at my watch again @ 7:46 pm, I turned around to walk out and a boy who looked of Indian decedent appeared from the back of the kitchen. He appeared at the registers as I was walking out of the store. I am more disturbed that I was in this café 4-5 mins and even though everyone saw me, no one had enough courtesy to say Hello to me. And, I was unable to place an order as no one bothered or cared that I was standing in their store.

Even worse, I was contacted by another manager who claims she would resolve problem. She promised a free voucher which I never received and when I contacted again, I keep getting that the info was sent. Obviously I don't matter as a customer and they just care about our happiness or rude behavior of their staff.

I'm a big Panera Bread fan (1-2 visits/week). I ordered a Rapid Pickup order today (Wed., Nov 8, 2017) which included a Steak & White Cheddar Panini. I brought the order home to eat with my wife and I bit into the sandwich. As I bit into the sandwich I found a piece of wax paper/parchment paper between my teeth. It appears that the preparer of the sandwich left the wax paper/parchment paper on either the cheese or the meat.

I'm not terribly upset about this incident because I realize accidents happen in a high pace environment. I simply wanted to make Panera Bread aware of this situation because it could have happened to someone else who would have 'threw a fit' and caused a large public complaint. Fortunately it wasn't a child - he/she could have choked on this paper. I'm glad I discovered it immediately and it didn't become a hazard - only an annoyance.

As for resolution, I continue to plan on being a consistent Panera Bread customer. An order refund or gift card would be appreciated but not necessary.

I asked one of the employees to help me with the new kiosk because I was unfamiliar with it. The employee who I didn't catch the name of was extremely helpful and nice and made the experience great. Just as the manager walks by she rudely tells the employee that it's the customers job to do the kiosk and that she needs to leave me alone and let me do it by myself. She used a degrading and rude tone and walked away as if nothing had happened. She was extremely unprofessional considering I was the one who asked for help. She talked in such a rude tone to the employee and I feel terrible.

While I was sitting in the restaurant I witnessed an employee slicing the bread loaves. One of the loaves on the cart happened to fall on the ground and was left for 20 minutes. The employee then realized the load was on the ground and picked it up put it through the slicer, packaged it up and put it back on the cart. I have would never expect that kind of treatment of product from a Panera Bread employee.

October 5, 2017, I called the HR Dept, to complain about a manager being a bully, and I feared being physically hit or pushed by this manager. He had been a bully to me in front of customers, made me cry, then when another manager asked for us to step into the tiny office space, he flat out lied and said I cursed at him while refusing to do my job. I had also called my GM, and emailed the district mgr Trent Smith (Smitty). Yesterday, exactly one month after the incident, Smitty came to talk with me, because I had called HR again, wanting to know why nothing had been done. So, yesterday evening, he came in, we talked, he said I have no proof, its just he said, she said. I disagreed, then he went on to say, that I've been getting customer complaints, and that its been said by another manager that I'm rude and dismissive.
I have NEVER been written up or called aside for any such thing. I have never been written up for anything, ever. I have NOT been rude or dismissive to anyone, especially not to a customerjobs.management. So Smith Trent used the excuse of my being rude, to fire me last night. Even if I had been rude, which I have not, others that have been rude to customers, and have been written up, are still working there. I'm the only one that has complained about a bully manager, and I get terminated.
I will be filing a formal complaint with the EEOC later today or tomorrow. This is most unacceptable behavior for any district manager or manager, period.
I had worked for Panera for 6 years, this November 11. Until yesterday, I was the longest standing employee in that cafe. Melissa Jones, being the 4th GM I had there.
And Michael H. who used to be a GM, but was demoted, and has been moved around a lot, are very new to 0995 Cafe, Lynnhaven Pkwy, Va Bach, Va. None of my past GMs or management staff, have ever had any problems with me. Nobody is going to go against them now, for fear of losing their jobs. The managers there stick together, no matter what, I guess.

Thank you,
Rhonda Shaw

If needed to confirm, my info is in the last paragraph.

Who do I contact about your ad campaign?
Good "clean" food? Shouldn't every restaurant have "clean" food? We can hardly bare to listen to your ads anymore.. We turn the volume down... For god's sake... Stop it!
We also eat at panarea bread... Its ok food.. But seriously.. Stop the ad campaign.. We haven't gone back for a while because of it!

D ratekin
Omaha, me
[protected]@gmail.com

Walked in to order breakfast and ask the lady assisting the cashier about the sausage and she confirmed that the sausage used were all turkey sausages and I asked again are you sure at which time she said yes. I collected my change from the order to notice the cashier had given me 18 cents too much. I politely informed her and she made the correction with "Eddie" listening and no thank you was given out.
I went to retrieve my breakfast order to find out from the preparer that the sausage sandwich is pork sausage. Eddie then walked up and I shared the story with him that the ladies up front do not now what type of sausage is on the breakfast sandwiches and he "yes they do", I said "Eddie no they don't" I just ordered to find out its pork. He continue this unprofessional bantering with me with with other customers listening. I stood my ground and said." why are arguing with the customer, I am bringing this to your attention" and he continue to tell me I was wrong and walked off. The customers over hearing this was just as upset as I was to have a supv/manager arguing with a customer instead of thanking me for bringing this to his attention, and saying, I appreciate the feed back, our apologies type of response from a supervisor/mgr. I am so disappointed and will not be returning with family or friends. He is not representing this establishment in a professional manner. Thank you J. Nickleberry

I apologize if this isn't the right place to give consumer feedback, but it's really frustrating that the menu used to offer 2 vegan soup options and now there are none. What happened to the black bean soup and the vegetable soup? I don't think it's fair that nearly every diet concern is catered to for the soup yet excludes vegans. I also think it's quite dumb that your "plant based" menu includes animal products. Yes, you can change some things to make the items vegan, however, anything with animal products is not plant-based and shouldn't be advertised as such. Catering to vegans is not difficult.

I purchased this morning 11/05/17, for rapid pick up at 10:37 am in the Nottingham, MD location. Order #963306. All 3 of my sandwiches were just thrown in the bag. I could forgive that but when I started eating my sandwich the was a huge piece of paper, apparently from the meat, left in my sandwich. I am appalled and after spending $32.69 on breakfast I expect at least cleanliness. I am expected some form of compensation for the error, my time and for not being able to have a meal until I get home at 7:00 pm. Thank you for your quick response.
Victoria Harrison
6 Railroad Ave
Edgewood, MD 21040
[protected]@gmail.com

Every Saturday and Sunday morning, My closest Panera Bread, 164th Street, Vancouver, WA, runs out out of souffles. I have been there as much as 90 minutes before the end of breakfast and told that they are out. They apparently sell out the night before( orders for the next day) and will only prepare 3 batches. Why have an item on your menu that you refuse to sell during the allotted time? Why set a rule to how many you can make in a day? If you know you are going to sell out, order more stock and prepare enough products for your customers.

I live less than one mile from the Panera Bread @ 1900 Green Tree Rd. Pittsburgh. My family and I frequent this particular establishment quite a bit. We're a family of four and my wife and daughters like to go there for lunch from time to time and we also grab danishes and baguettes quite often as well. I went into this particular Panera Bread on Saturday night (11/4/17) at 7:30 pm. When I approached the counter I spotted a half dozen baguettes on the counter. I asked the cashier for a baguette and was told they weren't for sale. I asked for the person in charge. A young girl named Jade appeared. She couldn't have been more than 24-25 years old and quite possibly Jade may not be a day older than 19. I only make mention of her age because I was a bit surprised that such a young girl would be left in charge to handle an entire store and the customer complaints that come with it. I told her that I had made a special trip out to pick up a baguette. Jade proceeded to tell me that she couldn't sell me a baguette because she needed them in case people ordered a particular food item. In disbelief, I then said to her that I can't believe you are saving those for someone who "might" come in ...even thought I am her now...wanting to buy one. Jade couldn't have cared less about the fact that I made a special trip to buy the baguette. I was turned away empty handed. Not only will I never return to this store. I work at the River's Casino in the middle of Pittsburgh. It's my job to interact with 1, 000 patrons a day and I probably have small talk with half of them. I have always sung Panera's praises to my customers...but no longer will that be the case. In fact I will tell anyone and everyone who will listen that Panera Bread doesn't care a lick about their customers and to reinforce my claim I will also make sure I include that the store is run by someone that could very easily be a teenager. I have never been treated so coldly and as someone works in the customer service business I can honestly say that it's a disgrace to have a policy that allows bread that is on display to not be sold because "other customers who might show up" are more important than the one's standing in front of them. My wife also works at the Giant Eagle that is down the street and she will be sure to make sure that her fellow employees and customers know all about how horrible of an experience we had. It's not going to become my mission to make sure I leave a negative review on every social media and internet site I can possibly find. The only thing that could possibly rectify this issue would be for Jade to either be fired or at the very least to be assured that Jade will never be in charge of making decisions in that store again. It's no excuse to say they are short on bread. If the store is short on bread then the store needs better leadership to make sure this doesn't happen. I couldn't be more disgusted.

Bob Willard
[protected]

I recently went to Gallatin Panera Bread before my class at volunteer state community college.i receive a pick 2: Bacon turkey bravo, chicken noodle soup, soda, candy cookie, and French baguette. It totaled out to 13.28. My cafe order was 121105. The cashier was Rebecca and this happened 11/2/2017. When I received my order the soup looked wrong, so I mentioned that it looked wrong and asked if they changed their recipe because this doesn't look like the regular chicken noodle soup. They continued to say that the order is right and that the recipe never changed. From there I went to the cashier because the severs/cooks giving out orders were giving me didn't seem correct because I went there a week before and the recipe was the same. She told me that the soup they gave me was chicken noodle and rice soup? Rebecca informed the servers and I had to wait 8 minutes for my small cup of soup, keep in mind the drive through was empty and there were about 15 people in Panera all but 1 lady with food already. I was not pleased as they were very rude and the whole ordeal took me about 20 minutes to get fixed. Ontop of it I asked for another spoon because I used the first one given on moving the new soup around to try and figure out what it was. The lady proceeded to role her eyes. On the bottom of the receipt it mentions my order should be correct every time if it it will be fixed right away and give a free treat for your trouble. Just let any associate know. They told me I received the candy cookie that I PAID for and that counted. I was not please what so ever. I understand having orders being wrong, it happens and is completely ok. The rudeness is not what I think is okay. I come to Panera a lot and I have enjoyed it every time till this encounter. I would also like to give props to Rebecca for being such an awesome new comer (as she said she is new) and being the helpful one! Kudos to her!

I must say for years your company made sandwiches that my wife really enjoyed but then we didn't go to the mall for a while and we go to the mall and needless to say stop in Punier Bread man how things changed on the menu. Lets start here, I know companies can't leave things the same forever but come on your company took two basic sandwiches off the menu and replaced them with, well I don't know what. The Sierra Turkey, basic great sandwich, now replaced with some of everthing on it apples, cole slaw or whatever you get my drift, not good to everyone, next the basic Italian, another great, great sandwich, now in my wife and also my opinion should leave the new stuff off, excuse the expression but to some it taste like garbage. Please don't think I just want to come down on your company altogether because I am sure there are other things just as good as always. Thank you for your time and understanding in this matter.

It's Halloween evening, my friends, their two boys and I wanted to grab a bite before trick or treating. We let the boys choose because they love Panera's mac & cheese. The cashier was not, at all, familiar with the menu at all. My friend wanted 2 sandwiches, 1 turkey and 1 steak and cheese, and the cashier took a really long time to grasp that. She thought it was the pick 2? My friend repeated several times that she just wanted the 2 sandwiches. I wanted the Napa almond chicken salad on honey wheat with no almonds. She kept asking if I wanted, "bread" with it? She also asked if the boys wanted bread with the mac & cheese, in bread bowls. When I got my "chicken salad" it was lettuce and tomato on dry white bread, no chicken salad?
When I went over to prep area to ask about what I received, the "manager" seemed uninterested, and the sandwich maker said, he was "confused" because the salad is pre-made. Why didn't he ask?
I would have been really upset if we had left and discovered the dry sandwich, on the road to Rhode Island.

On 10/29/2017 I went to Panera in Terre Haute, IN. I walked in and asked the cashier if you had black bean soup, and she rudely replied, "well is it on the board?" and I said, "no" and she replied "then clearly we don't have it!" After, I ordered the "modern greek salad with quinoa" and didn't notice that she rang me up with a "Greek" salad until after I got my food. I went up to the counter to say I didn't order this, but the cashier didn't print me a receipt so I wasn't able to prove my order. The girl behind the counter accused me of lying just so that I could receive more food, but I told her multiple times what I ordered. She said to eat what they give me and stop coming up to the counter. This service was completely disrespectful to me, and I most likely will not be attending another Panera for a long time until this issue is resolved.