Wednesday, October 3, 2012

3 of 31. Zippys: a Hawaiian food Horror Story

Sigh. Okay. I really wanted to keep my blog upbeat. I wanted everything to be "awesomeness." But I simply must rant. I am not afraid to tell the truth, but sometimes I just gotta hope for the best. My days of hoping for the best are over.

Zippys.

WHAT THE FUCKING HELL!?! I have, in the past 3 months or so, eaten at your establishments (plural) at least 18 times. And in those 18 times, I have had bad service or problems at least 40% of the time (8 visits went bad). Now if these "incidents" were small enough to ignore, then probably I wouldn't be making this rant. But lets document them now, shall we?

One. Sit down in restaurant (waipio) at 11pm. 1140 Pm I walk out, not having even been served water, let alone my order taken.

two. Kahala. Takeout. my order is "lost" completely. no sign of it. 25 minutes later, after a massive rush of people finally clears out, they figure out that my Pastry and hot chocolate order was indeed forgotten. Didn't even offer any sort of discount on the spot. Just a "here you go." (note, the word sorry never happened)

three. Mililani. Take out. They serve breakfast at the take out window starting 11pm. I arrived at 1045. I told them that I would like to place an order for breakfast and I will wait til 11 to get my order, if they couldn't take it yet. The counter helper (with trainer on her badge) says okay and then proceeds with other people in line. 11pm, I stand in line (which has grown to monumental proportions by this time with non breakfast orders. Okay, no biggie. I place my order about 11:10, knowing it was going to take a while. 1125 rolls along. every last person whom ordered before and and after me has come and gone. I am thinking "fast food my ass." So i walk up to the counter and inquire about my order. "oh they are having trouble switching the kitchen over to breakfast. They are almost done. they couldn't get your XXXXX cooked.They are making it now." Whatever. 10 minutes later, I step back to the STILL empty counter and ask "whats up?". The counter worker has no clue and she keeps screaming into the back to see whats going on. No one is there. i go and sit down. not saying a word. 5 minutes later, the counter girl comes up and apologizes and offers me a drink to wait because "they are starting your order right now." Pathetic. I refuse, since I am a gastric surgery patient I shouldn't drink before I eat. I need to separate it by time. She gives me my money back when my food finally arrives somewhere in the neighborhood of 1145. Fast food <> zippys.

Four. I drive into the Pearl city Zippys in the middle of afternoon rush. Thirsty, I order a sugar free green peach tea non carbonated drink. Takes a few minutes to get it because of the line. i jump into the car, and head out. First sip, Diet pepsi. Once again. Gastric surgery patient. No carbonated drinks allowed. I go home thirsty.

Five. Mililani. Take out. Call in an order while I am at work. Ask for a pickup time of 330 (ordered at 315). Simple order. When I arrive at zippys, not only is the order not done, when it does come, its wrong. What did I order? 2 pieces of chicken. What did I get, chicken plate lunch. Did the order taker repeat back my order? Yes. Price Quoted on the phone matched 2 pieces of chicken, not chicken plate. How in the world does this kind of error happen?

Six. Oh my. Six. So now I decide to give Dine in at Waipio another try. Everything goes good, so far. Takes my order, writes it down. her writing style actually made it easy to see what she was writing, and i could see enough of her shorthand to understand that she got my order right. Ham Steak Breakfast Plate. The place is slow. So I chill. 20 minutes later, she comes back "your order is almost ready." okay. I wait some more. She sets my plate down in front of me. Its a Hamburger steak. Seriously, what. The. hell. Inform her of the problem, takes the plate back. I wait another 7 minutes or so for the ham steak. hash browns and eggs cold by that time. tired of complaining. Didn't bother.

Seven!!!!!!! Two nights ago, Waipio fast food location. the "cleaning crew" starts scrubbing the floors with the restaurant still open. using the floor scrubber/buffer apparatus, he scrubs all the way up to where I am standing, waiting for my order and proceeds to splash water all over my legs and shoes, which was the third time I wore those shoes. He continues on, pretty much ignoring the event ever happened. Got my food, has browns way underdone. Entire plate tilted in the take out box before even getting to me. All the items slid to the left before I even left the counter. Annoyed, I eat in the parking lot

Eight! Last night. I needed a spot to write 2/31 so I drive to zippys Waipio for my usual late night breakfast. I bust out my laptop. Begin to write. Place my order. Veggie omelette. it takes a while to get to me, which I have come to expect from zippys so no problem there. The manager 'runs' the plate to me and after I move my computer to the side, sets it in front of me. Staring at me, right in the face is a hair the length of my watchband. I think he either saw it or sensed something was wrong by my reaction because he asked if there was anything wrong. I did not have the strength to complain about zippys again. I simply told him "no" and pulled the hair out and ate around that spot.

Fellow citizens. Seriously. Zippys has gone downhill! The only reason why I still go to zippys is convenience and breakfast in the evening. Although the twitter account is responsive to complaints, there comes a time when zippys needs to acknowledge that their current quality control system is lacking. My nickname for Zippys has become "smokey the bear". They seem to be more content with putting out forest fires than preventing them.

At this time, I cannot recommend zippys to anyone. Will i still eat there, sadly yes. but if there is ANY other option available to me, I will take it.

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