Stephanie Vs Panda Express act 2

July 15, 2010

Dear Stephanie:

Thank you for taking the time to contact us regarding your experience at the Panda Express in Chico, CA. Please accept our sincerest apology for the dissatisfaction that you experienced during your recent visit.

We appreciate the opportunity you have given Panda Restaurant Group, Inc. to focus on the situation you encountered. This ultimately helps us to strengthen our Guest Services. Your comments have been forwarded to the General Managers, Area Manager, and Regional Director of Operations for their information and review. Please feel confident they will look into this matter and take any necessary corrective actions.

Again, we appreciate your taking the time to contact us. With input from valuable guests like you, we are able to address situations that might otherwise go unnoticed. We value you as a guest and hope that you will give us the opportunity to better serve you in the very near future

Sincerely,

Ruby Avitia

Guest Relations Coordinator

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Why do I get the feeling that this is a form letter?

on the flip side

You really wouldn't think so, but In and Out Burger is a great place for vegetarians who may be on the road traveling or just miss grabbing a burger with friends. Just ask for a few items from the secret menu and you'll be all set.



Above: Veggie Burger, Dr Pepper. In and Out Burger Chico, CA (taken with the hipstamatic app on my iPhone)

Stephanie vs Panda Express

Dear Panda Express,

Look I'm a big fan of yours. I love the Mandarin sauce and I love your veggie spring rolls... I love that you have Dr Pepper at the fountain and I even love your little Panda logo. Pandas are cute, what's not to love about Panda bears?

What I don't love is this; going to one of your establishments and getting basically discriminated against because I'm a vegetarian. Don't get me wrong Panda, I get that the majority of the public isn't and majority rules in most businesses. And I do appreciate the few times when you do have a vegetarian entree, although Eggplant Tofu isn't my favorite, I like it when you think of me.

No Panda, I have a very specific example of being treated badly at one of your locations as a result of what I ordered. See I walked into the Panda on Mangrove here in gorgeous Chico yesterday with the plan of ordering my usual, sitting down and having a nice lunch, you know not at my desk in the office for once, but out and about with other people! Shocking, I know. I go to the counter and I wait (and wait and wait, the lady in front of me was ordering the whole store) and order my side of rice and my side of mixed vegetables. I order this, in this manner because this Panda location didn't even have the Eggplant Tofu I don't even like that much.

Now I've come to expect at this time for one of two things to happen, either whoever dishes out my food will argue with me that I am ordering a Panda Bowl, what do I want for my entree? And when I explain I don't want meat, I want the small order of rice and the small order of vegetables, they will go ahead and charge me for the Panda Bowl. Or whoever is working will GET IT and dish it out on a plate and charge me exactly what the menu says a side of this and a side of that will cost. The latter was always my experience with the stellar Panda Express back in San Luis Obispo, who were the helpful people who told me that ordering a Panda Bowl without an entree is a total rip off.

But yesterday? Oh no yesterday I couldn't even get ripped off for a Panda Bowl. Yesterday when I placed my order, the girl behind the counter pulled out two to go boxes (the little foldy take out kind) and when I told her, that I would rather have a plate or even a bowl because I had planned to eat in, I got this snotty face made at me and was told since I had ONLY ordered these menu items this was the way they were packaged and that I COULD NOT have a plate/bowl/styrofoam box which would enable me to eat inside the restaurant. And I might have taken that and just shrugged it off, except that I watched this same girl make SEVERAL side PLATES of MEAT for the lady in front of me. This woman also got sampled a taste of EVERYTHING on the buffet and was generally treated much better than I was.

Before anyone points out that I was ordering "cheap," I wasn't. I was ordering what was on the menu that I was able to eat. At the end of the line, I still forked out close to six bucks to be treated badly and basically discriminated against because I wasn't ordering any meat products. I mean what other reason could there be, if the other woman also ordering sides was able to get a plate or two out of the girls behind the counter.

On top of all that I had to wait over 10 minutes for my vegetables that I wasn't going to be able to eat in the restaurant. And the Dr Pepper was out of order. Which are petty gripes in comparison with basically being told that what I was ordering wasn't worth giving me a plate and a place to sit. And this can't be company policy or even Chico policy because I've gone to the other Panda in town and they gave me a plate. Sure they charged me for the Panda Bowl, but they at least treated me with respect.

In short, I will NEVER step foot in the Mangrove location of Panda Express again and it might be a very long time before I patronize the other one in town as well.

-Stephanie


*edited to add* Oh good an auto response:

Greetings STEPHANIE,

Thank you for your comments and suggestions. A Panda Guest Relations Representative will be responding to your e-mail within the next 72 hours. If you would like to speak to someone during our business hours, you may contact us at 800-877-8988.

Monday - Friday -- 8:00 am to 7:00 pm (Pacific time)
Saturday -- 9:00 am to 5:30 pm (Pacific time)

You may receive an automated email survey asking for feedback on your experience with Guest Relations.

Panda Restaurant Group, Inc.
P.O. Box 1159
Rosemead, CA 91770

advertising campaign failure, SLO style.

So the other day I was driving to the radio station and happened to be on Broad Street and drove by the Taco Bell there and saw a poster in the window for their new Drive Thru Diet line of burritos and tacos. Basically the concept being this is "healthier" fast food for you to eat, which I get, gotta compete with Subway and everyone else who is doing a "healthier," menu, etc.

Now being in radio, I subsist on cheap food and any time one of the people who have a value menu want to add healthier faire to it, I'm all about it, but the thing that's driving me insane about this ad campaign is WE DON'T HAVE DRIVE THRU'S IN SAN LUIS OBISPO. It's truly absurd seeing something advertising drive thru anything on the side of a building that doesn't have a drive thru.

I seethed about this inwardly for a few days and forgot about it. I mean really, who let's stuff like that bother them? It's Taco Bell's problem not mine. I was sure I would in fact be the only person that noticed or cared about this drive thru thing. Then I got on Twitter today and found that Jojo and Danny P had been talking about it too and I then felt less absurd for having thought about this situation for more than three seconds.

It is pretty strange to think about the things that bother a person in life. Some people can't handle bad typing or nails on a chalk board or whatever. Bad advertising bugs me. It's official, I'm a nerd.