RSS: Customer Disservice at California Tortilla
If you’ve lived in locations along the east coast for long, you’ve probably had the pleasure of eating at “CalTor” a time or two. The food is good for a fast food establishment and the atmosphere is generally lively. It probably helps that they play mostly 80′s tunes, too!
For a chain that prides itself on its extra-spunky cashiers, the service on two of my last four or five visits has left me somewhat soured on CalTor.
The first problem I experienced was when my wife and I ordered a meal and tried to redeem some coupons we had gotten from a previous “spin the wheel night” visit. The cashier ended up charging us for an item we didn’t order and we were missing one of our free items! When I inquired about it, the manager told me that we had actually gotten a better deal. We argued for a minute or two and I gave up trying to teach 1st grade math to him. In the car, I figured out that the total cost difference was somewhere around $4 on a $10 order.
Our most-recent visit was another service disappointment. We waited a total of 27 minutes for an order of fish tacos and a chicken quesadilla! When I inquired as to what might be taking so long, the manager gave me some excuse about the fish needing to cook. Our total compensation for the ridiculous wait was an order of chips and queso. Luckily, we had good company during our wait.
As a result of these service blunders, CalTor is out of the rotation for a while. I love the fish tacos (my new favorite there) and the burritos, but the quality of service is too much for the food to overcome. I’ll try again in a few months when they have a new cast of characters working behind the counter to see if things have improved.