Tropical Smoothie Cafe
Reviews and Complaints

Manager Janise Massie went above and beyond her way to please my family last night. Doordash declined to send another driver to pickup our order when the initial driver failed to deliver the entire order. Ms Massie pleasantly made up for the inconvenience of having to leave our home when we paid for delivery. The food/drinks were GREAT.

Thank you Ms Massie!

I can’t believe tropical smoothie would change a perfect app with paying features to have this peace of crap to us! Try to sign in to at least get my rewards put all my personal information for ABSOLUTE useless waste of time. So much frustration. Why did you do this to us. This people that claim to be giving you a better app are obviously amateurs and don’t know crap or what they are doing! Why why why why why
Used to love to go at least weekly to order now it’s a hassle, used to absolutely adore having the app to easily pay since covid and because half the time Apple Pay is malfunctioning at store.
None of my rewards have been transferred.
I still haven’t yet got any of my rewards and a bunch of receipts being trashed because I just don’t have the time to figure out with this completely ridiculous app
Please go back when things used to be perfect PLEASE fire this app developer please

My initial visit was through the drive through. A beautiful girl with black velvet long hair and awfully long false eyelashes took my order and gave me the wrong order. When I stated that she may have mistakenly given me the the wrong order, she insisted that it was my order. I paid and received someone else’s meal. I ordered a Triple Berry Blast and I received a blasted cheesy chicken tortilla wrap, strawberry smoothie and ranch sun chips. I planned for 450 calories vs the more than 1600 calories I received. Thank God I met a homeless man on the back street toward the THOP East Hospial. Meal was given to him. Reason I did not argue with Tropical Smoothie Cafe Staff member was because I was hurrying to get back to my husband who was on life support and frankly did not have the emotional fortitude to argue. Have visited 4 times since and have received correct orders. Customer Service is a must.

I have been an extremely loyal customer since the tropical smoothie by my home opened. If it weren’t for the absolutely wonderful people and management at the bayshore cafe, I would have totally boycotted this company. I downloaded the new app and have had NOTHING but heartache with it... my points never transferred... I can’t get my 5$ rewards when the points are accumulated, I don’t get my free supplements every Monday like I’m supposed to, my points accumulated up to 174 and then they were gone and even worse, I’ve called 6 different times and get the same freaking runaround EVERY time! I’m told they’ll mark my concern urgent and someone will call me, but THEY NEVER DO! Don’t know how you people believe this was a better app but it’s awful ! And what actually happened to customer service? You should be working diligently on these issues yet you DON’T ! Very unsatisfactory service! Fix the problems!

I, like others, was prompted to download the new app when I logged into the old app to order food on my lunch break. When I entered my email into the new app, I was told I would be sent a “verification code” to ensure account and perks would be transferred over to the new app. It has now been 2 days and I still have not received this verification code either in my inbox or spam box - therefore, I cannot access my account. I have “re-sent” the code about 5 times with no luck. Frustrated, I tried to order food as a Guest from my regular location, got all the way through compiling my order, and then was told “Error: This location is closed! Please order during business hours” despite it being 12pm on a Monday and the location in question being very much open. Super annoyed that I was forced into this new app, have no record of the money I’ve spent so far, and can’t even order my lunch. Would like someone to contact me, please.

I love tropical cafe but can you please add a few changes to the app and a variety of rewards. I want to be able to have the option to add fruit to my smoothie for example when the cranberry smoothie was out I liked to add kiwi to it but it wasn’t an option in the app so I couldn’t never order from the app. Also when you switched to the new app we can no longer use our free supplement and $5 reward at the same time. Also we need some new reward options for example a buy one get one free smoothie, a free bag of chips, or maybe change it to where we accumulate all our points and they can be redeemed for different products you offer instead of always just getting the $5 once we spend $55. For example 300 points gets you a bag of chips, 600 points gets you a smoothie, or 700 gets you $5 off a sandwich. Last but not least we need a higher tier level I’ve probably spent 10x or more the top tier since I’ve become a fan of the smoothies.

I am very disappointed with this new “upgraded” app. It does NOT allow me to use my weekly “free supplement” to add extra ginger (? Because it is now listed under “fresh add-in”) to my smoothie, as the old app allowed. It allows me to save my favorite orders, which I had been excited about, but it will not let me USE the saved orders. Instead, it says “Detox Island Green” is no longer an option, so I need to manually re-enter my order each time. Additionally, the app does not save my debit card information, instead I have to enter it for each different location I visit. Occasionally, my card info will populate at a location I visit frequently, but this is the exception, not the rule. This has actually lead to my deciding NOT to order a few times, as I was driving and did not want to take the time to pull over to enter the information, so my order could be processed and ready when I arrived. I was very excited about your new app, but I do not see ANY improvements and have only been disappointed with this version.

#1 - my rewards points that I accumulated in the previous app did not transfer over; #2 - still can’t add a note to in-app purchases for customization (i.e. my daughter and I typically share a smoothie and I prefer two small cups rather than one larger one) but the Tropical Smoothie - previous version and this new version - does not allow you to add a note for this type of customization. Other restaurant apps I use have this feature so I’m sure it’s not hard to add this feature; and #3 - removed ability to scan to pay or use Apple Pay. In a time when contactless purchases are important and a national coin shortage, why would you update your app and remove the payment option? Apparently they’re working on #3 but why roll out an update when it is clearly not functional for a lot of your customers who now see it as a downgrade, as proven by the numerous bad reviews. And if you truly intend to make the new app an upgrade from the previous one, address all three comments please. Until I see these upgrades, my review remains a 1 star.

Moving to this new app was more of a downgrade than an upgrade as they marketed it as. There are several issues of note...

First, when doing a redeem of a reward in the app, I found out the hard way that you have to scan a second time to earn points for the rest of the purchase. You would think one scan would be enough to get my customer information into the system that I would just automatically get points for the rest of the purchase. That’s points I’ll never get to accumulate toward the next $5.

Second, in the middle of the pandemic, they took away our only ability to have a contactless payment in the store. Now, you have to hand a card or cash to the employee which is exactly what we’re trying to avoid in the age of coronavirus. And no, I can’t just “order on the app” and pick up in store. I get a customized smoothie that isn’t even on the menu in the app. So the only way I can actually get the smoothie I want is to order in-store in person.

In all, this app was not a good move. The customer experience is worse overall with this migration.

EDIT: after requesting a password reset I was finally able to log into my account. My review still stands as there are clear problems with the link functions to login with Facebook and Apple, as well as the error message on the create account page not accurately conveying what the actual problem is, that being an account already exists with my email. This was not sourced as the reason making a new account was not working.

This review is for the app only. Right after updating the app I can no longer login or create an account. Trying with Facebook does absolutely nothing. Trying with Apple does nothing. Trying to login with what I’m sure is my correct login info tells me an account can’t be found. Assuming that perhaps it’s a new system and I may need to make a new account, trying to make one always brings up an error message claiming certain required fields are missing or incorrect (nothing about an account already existing with my email address btw), and going back I see NOTHING highlighted as missing or incorrect. So I can no longer make or sign into an account at all. Fix it.

I downloaded the app and have been getting emails about these great rewards. I decided to try one and ordered so my daughter could pick it up on her way home. Everything was working great and I got to the checkout. I applied the coupon and was ready to pay. I put in my card information and it told me to make sure my contact information was correct including phone number. Then it cleared the page. I tried it a few times and it never worked. I went to profile and payment options and it says I have no cards on file and there is no way to add one. I called the store and they said they didn’t accept phone orders and couldn’t help me. After messing around for 15 minutes my daughter had to order in person when she got there and I found a way to screen shot the coupon from the app and have her get it scanned at the store. It was a total waste of time. It doesn’t do the main thing it is designed to do - order food easily. You can’t even select “pay in store” like other apps.

This app is misleading in that it doesn’t do what it implies and must not have gone through testing. I have an iPhone 12 and have developed apps that are on the App Store. I expect more.

I NEVER leave reviews. Congratulations, you’ve done so poorly across the board that I feel compelled to write. It’s mind boggling how poor this is. Clearly there was no one testing anything. Here’s my guess... Some development team lied about how easy this would be to improve. They didn’t know what they were doing, and tried to over-engineer it with stuff no one wanted. Time dragged on, and some executive demanded that this go live by X random date, no matter what, only because they promised some other higher-up exec it would go live by then, and it’s better to light the world on fire instead of admit a mistake. Developers, designers, UX folks, project managers were put through the grinder to get this out, so the [censored] execs could check a box. They released an app you can’t even sign in to. Horrendous. Nothing works. Several people should be fired, starting with the out of touch exec who hired the dev team, anyone who bypassed QA and decided to go live as is, and any exec pushing for a false random go live date. Scrap this and start all over, and don’t blame your worker bees. Try listening to them instead! Godspeed, innocent folks in the production of this disaster!

I eat from tropical smoothie cafe all the time, I typically order it in person and the food is good. HOWEVER, yesterday I ordered in the app and checked the option that allowed me to save my card as I don’t feel comfortable pulling out my card in a busy Walmart for an extended amount of time typing in my card information as anyone could see it and attempt to do fraud, so I added and saved my card in the app and placed my order in a private location before I completed other errands I had for the day. I saved it because I wanted ease of ordering on the app in the future (side note: I’ve ordered on the app before but have NEVER saved my card).

Anyway, I chose to save my card on the app yesterday and the very next day (today) I got a strange charge on my card from somewhere I don’t recognize. I did nothing out of the ordinary yesterday except for save my card on the app, then the very next day I have an unrecognizable charge on my card for a very specific amount.

I looked through my bank statements to see if it was some sort of subscription I missed that is taken monthly out of my account. I found no such thing.

Be careful saving you card on this app as it seems there likely is shady people behind it looking at your card information and using it to commit fraud.

BEWARE 2nd Update 7/28/2022: they made changes to the app 2 days ago and yet did not fix the combo portion. IT STILL CHARGES 4.79 TWICE. It should be the food plus 4.79 for a smoothie. The app does oh combo? That’s 4.79. Now choose a food for its price. Now choose a smoothie FOR AN ADDITIONAL 4.79?!?!?!?! The combo button should not be adding in a price, EASY FIX.

Over the past few weeks I’ve left this here and on the website “contact us” multiple times, still not fixed. Of course why fix it, it’s a great way to make back money if people are oblivious, right?

*** Update: dear developer, I’ve used the online contact form multiple times. The issue is the same though slightly different. Now, you click on combo (price 4.79) choose food item (at full price) and choose smoothie (ANOTHER 4.79). Only one of those 4.79 prices should apply. Either take it off the combo button, or take it off the smoothies that are inside the combo. Easy? At least now it isn’t 6-7 dollars more, it is 4.79 dollars more than ordering in the store. The latest update makes combos over 4 dollars more than ordering in the store. Employees said oh it’s just going to more when ordering online (no, the app clearly states “order a combo and save”) also the new limited time offerings are not all in the app.

First time inside- the manager did not even look up from his cell phone while we were trying to navigate the menu. My friend states I’ve never been here/ I don’t even know how to order. He STILL did not even look up from his phone.
As I was paying I had to click 3 buttons to avoid leaving a tip on my credit card-I planned on leaving a cash tip. We were the only people inside.

Someone dropped our food off- said nothing when he sat the tray down. My friend received 1/2 a tiny soufflé cup of salad dressing with her salad, my soufflé cup was full. No one ever came back to check on us.

Then my friend who hated onions had a bluish slippery thing in her mouth that she spit out in her plate said what is that? I looked and said it like an onion- she said do onions come on a Caesar? no, they don’t.

I took it and walked to the cash register and said hey, I’m curious - what is this and the young girl said oh no, was that in your smoothie? I said no, in her salad- a guy from the drive-thru stepped over and said it was a fire-roasted onion and took it & threw it in the trash & walked off.

I said does that normally come in a Caesar salad and the girl said no & walked off from the counter.

So my friend said let’s go. We tried to stuff the rest of our food & trash in the silver trashcan on our way out but our food containers would not even fit into the top hole of the trash can. I felt like someone in the company should know…

When you save credit card information to the app, it saves it to the specific store you order from. Imagine having a job that requires travel. Literally every week on the road it’s a new city every week. Each tropical smoothie location you visit happily asks you to add your credit card information. If I were to guess, I probably have my CC info saved 75-100 different times inside of this app.

Recently, the card I used for ALL of those locations was stolen. Therefore, I will have to enter NEW CC information for each one of those locations as I visit them. I mean, could there be a worse design? Honestly…

How about favorites? I’m forced to see my “favorite” location at the top of my list. Despite my favorite location being 2,000 miles away 90% of the time, I’m still forced to see a favorite on the list each time I use the app.

Try to change “favorite location”? Good luck! Go try. See if you can figure out how. When you do, I hope you had a 2nd favorite selected. Because you’re forced to have at least one. (Hey.. why do I need a favorite? It’s really dumb). But hey, at least they don’t force you to choose a favorite location each time you order, like they force you to enter re-enter your already saved CC info..

How about the nutritional info? Some items show calories, some don’t. Does this shake come with Splenda or not? If it does, am I really subbing Splenda? Come on guys.

I really have no idea how the reviews are so good for this app. There’s so many quirky goofy things about it. If I were to guess, the person who created the app has little to no experience in the field.

Hey please for the love of God bring back your watermelon smoothie drink and if you don’t already add some good honey and granola to your peanut butter banana wrap. I love your wrap, but I think I add my own granola and honey. But please make your watermelon smoothie all year round. It’s spring and I can’t get it and I live in louisiana so I want watermelon drinks that taste fantastic, and yours does. Can you please try to make more refreshing watermelon drinks. Merci beaucoup. I tried ordering my friend some stuff from your place but the delivery people never speak English in her state and it never makes it which drives me insane and they have the nerve to charge me for it, when the people admit they don’t speak English so how the heck can they find a place! Anyway make sure whoever does your deliveries that you make sure the company hires people that understand English and can follow directions. That’s a loss of money for y’all because I can’t deliver it out of state, so I have given up trying to get her your wonderful food and drinks. It’s a huge problem because on Reddit I see many people complaining about delivery services hiring people that can understand English or follow directions. I love your restaurant and your watermelon smoothie is to die for.

They charged me for the delivery several times and my poor friend didn’t get anything and I was billed. I tried again and same thing happened, one time it made it but the drinks were spilled and she didn’t have the right food, so it’s crazy, that never happens to me in my city. I have issues with deliveries at times but not where the driver speaks no English and admits they can’t understand directions. I only tell you this because you are a big client to door dash, grub hub, postmates and ubereats so you can make sure you tell them your deliveries aren’t being delivered and your customers are still being charged. I tired several delivery services and it was an issue.

August 16,2024.

I currently live in Maryland, and someone hacked my account and stole my reward points. I have only visited Tropical Smoothie Cafe in Baltimore City and County. I don’t live in NC.

My points were uses in Carer, NC today: Redemption code [protected], Harrison Square Shopping Center.

I had 1437 and they used all but 137 points to redeem a flatbread.

I ordered a chicken caesar wrap from the location at 8948 JM Keynes Dr., Charlotte, NC. My granddaughter was eating her wrap and 3 bites in found a black bug. I went back to the store and showed the employee. He could not do anything about it at that time because the manager wasn't there. He took my contact information as well gave me hers and took the receipt. The employee said she will call me the next day. I have not heard from the manager yet so I called the store 3 different times and the phone just rings without anyone picking up. I tried the company website and there is no way to contact anyone other than just leaving feedback but no identifying information is collected to get a response from them. I tried calling the number for owning a franchise and that goes straight to a voicemail. I spent $56 on food that no one ate because we all had lost our appetite and were too afraid that there would be another bug . I really would love to get all my money refunded.

I purchased two smoothies on 2/18/24. I went to my car and tasted one of them, and it tasted very off. I returned to the store and informed the staff, and they refused to remake the smoothies. They stated "we can't replace them because you don't like the way they taste." I informed the staff I was asking for the exact same type of smoothie, I just wanted them remade, as I believed they were made incorrectly. The staff refused. I asked for a manager and was told no one was on site. They refused to refund my money, or replace the product, but offered to provide new smoothies if I paid for two more. When I asked for a number to speak to a supervisor or corporate, I was told "you can find it on the internet." This was the worst customer service experience I have ever had at any service location. I was honestly shocked. I attempted to return two full smoothies because they tasted off, a smoothie I order on a regular basis, and it was refused.

The commercial you’re currently running show two guys on a beach. The black guy is sloppy with a huge fact gut but the white guy is fit and trim. The MYTH of white supremacy in commercials at its finest. You know I’m real life it’s the opposite. SMH. Stop it!

We waited in line for a promotion where the first 40 customers in line would receive free smoothies for a year. We were handed the coupons and when we explained that our kids don’t have phones, were told we could put multiple coupons on one phone. We did this, however it will only let us redeem one per day. If we would have known this, we would have put the app on their iPads instead so we could go as a family to receive our smoothies. We tried speaking to the store and they told us there’s nothing they have do.

Went to Tropical Smoothie in Little Elm, Tx drive thru on 6/30/23 in early afternoon. Ordered one (1) Blue Berry Bliss, staff stated it would be $6.96 which was normal. Got to window, used my debit/credit card, it stated $6.96, he then began showing how to use or by pass tip by pushing buttons. I opted for no tip but not sure what he pushed. Got bank statement today & I was charged $12.96, some way I was cheated out of $6.00 by staff. He did not offer or give receipt & I did not think about it until later. I am a Senior Citizen on fixed income & $6.00 loss is a lot for me. What can I do other than not going to Tropical Smoothie ever again? Thank you

I have gone into the South College Road cafe every day for a week now. The first time I went in, I purchased an Island Green Smoothie and a Jerk Chicken Wrap. The smoothie always comes first, and you have to wait for the wrap. Somehow, they forgot my wrap and people that came in after me were served and left as I was still waiting. No explanation was offered. Because I know I will be frequenting this establishment, I decided to join the Rewards. On the receipt, it clearly states that you can get a smoothie for $2.99 with wrap or flatbread purchase. That is a good deal, so I do the survey each time I come in. For the first time I tried using my receipt dated 6/25/23 to get a Tropical Island smoothie and a Southwest Wrap, I had no issues. The cashier was more than happy to give me the smoothie for $2.99 with my receipt showing the validation number I received when I filled out the survey. I go into the cafe this morning, 6/27/23 and order the same items, smoothie and Southwest Wrap, present my receipt showing the validation code and I was told that I could not use the code for what I ordered. No where on the receipt does it say the wrap can't be a breakfast wrap. It says wrap or flatbread purchase. The cashier refused to honor that even after I showed her my receipt from yesterday where I was given the discount. I guess I just need some clarification on which wrap goes along with the smoothie for $2.99.

I placed my order on the app to receive my free smoothie with a purchase of a food item. The app did not allow me to choose the reward. I went to pick up the order (smoothie and a salad) in the cafe and asked for my reward. I was told since I paid on the app, I could not get the reward. I was also told by the manager that she was not responsible for mistakes on the app. Order # [protected].

This is terrible you should be able to walk into the store me and my friend went to the place and we didn’t have the app so we needed the app to go in so stupid any ways when we got the app and we were able to go in there was hair in my smoothie there was bugs on the floor and a dead rat near the door my friends smoothie had peanut butter in it so he couldn’t eat it even tho he said no peanut butter this was TERRIBLE!

All my previous reward points disappeared! Emails says to download new app and you will have your old account and rewards integrated, get a free upgrade to the next level and receive a $5 reward. I got nothing! Lost all my previous points. No order history, no extra points for downloading and I’m still at level one. What a waste of time. I don’t like that you can’t scan to pay anymore. I really hope they fix the rewards stuff.

I worked at Tropical Smoothie a few years ago so I am qualified to write this review...I’m not just a needy picky customer complaining. I paid for extra white chocolate and tipped and received a smoothie that tasted like a bitter strawberry flavored water smoothie. It was awful. It was $19 for two smoothies that I had to have remade and they still tasted like there was no white chocolate but I wasn’t going to waste any more time there.

I’m unable to add anything to an order. I can select items and customize them, but when I tap “Add to order” nothing happens. I’ve tried it with multiple food and smoothie items...same result. I tried to contact Tropical Smoothie customer support within the app, but the “help” section is useless. There is no way to contact them about a problem with the app. I love Tropical Smoothie, but I can’t be a customer if I can’t place an order.

The advertisements for this app boasted about an easier, smoother experience. Yet, of all things to take away, WHY get rid of the option to scan to pay in store? You can no longer link your debit card. There’s not even an option to add funds. With the exception of scanning your receipt to get rewards if you forget to scan in store (which I can see happening very frequently now), absolutely nothing about this new app is better than the last.

I used to order TS 2-3 times a week with the old app because it was so convenient. The new app doesn’t allow in store payment and attempting to order through it is an absolute hassle because it never saves my payment information. Just deleted the new app off my phone because I barely order from TS anymore due to the loss of convenience. I’ve never left an app review before but felt compelled because of what an abysmal failure this new app is.

Why are you not allowed to order an extra ingredient to whatever smoothie or meal you order? If I order a Bahama Mama the app doesn’t allow me to add extra strawberries or extra pineapples or whatever extra I want. You can add everything else but not the ingredients which make up the smoothie. I have to order through the app then call the store to add something to my order which defeats the entire purpose of ordering through the app... Please Updated!

I was excited at first when the new app came out because I thought they might allow me to finally order on the app, making substitutions. Not only does it still NOT allow this, it now doesn’t allow payment through the app. I always have paid with the app and now I keep leaving my other payments in the car and have go back out and get it. Why take away something good? Please bring back app pay capabilities and allow item substitutions when ordering through the app!