Potbelly Sandwich Works

It is evident that insufficient effort was put into Potbelly’s online ordering system, which provides customers grossly inaccurate information based on a fixed estimate rather than accounting for demand or, ideally, using real time information from the queues employees at the shops are using to actually complete the order.  Your system should never be telling customers that an order is ready for pickup when it is sitting dozens of orders back in a queue for the person making it.  This not only leads to a disappointing and ultimately unfair customer experience, the stress and problems it creates for your workers is inappropriate.  Running promos is great for driving volume, but not if your stores are not equipped to manage additional or even varying volumes of demand. Your system is inadequately, arguably poorly, designed to reflect the reality of throughput. That is, no store can make an infinite number of sandwiches per hour, yet your system tells customers a time based on a fixed number, regardless of how many sandwiches have been ordered. It’s a very simple concept that more sandwiches ordered means more time to make those sandwiches. Doing this shows Potbelly prioritizes profit and creates false expectations, leaving customers and employees to endure the burden.

I’ve been using this app for years. Like many of the reviews say, the original version was rough, but for me it got the job done 9/10 times even if it was difficult to get there. When I was alerted that the app had been updated, I was thrilled, I’m a loyal Potbelly’s customer and their rewards via the app are fabulous. Much to my disappointment, options available in the previous version of the app are now gone. My favorite soup isn’t listed on the app anymore, but it’s available in-store. I order the Italian frequently and like to add extra pepperoni but not extra of the other meats, the option to add extra pepperoni is gone and you can now only add extra of all the meats, but I’m able to add only extra pepperoni in-store. The option to add roasted red peppers is gone, but is still available in-store. And I can’t just put it in the special instructions, the special instructions box has a very small character limit of just 10 characters, so I can’t possibly fit my customizations in that portion of the app. I have to say I’m very frustrated because the beauty of the app besides the rewards and time-saving is the customization. Now there is little customization available. I’ve used the pickup option in the app to save time for years, because my store for whatever reason is particularly slow and I don’t like wasting my lunch break waiting. Now I will be forced to go in-store to order and waste my time just to obtain the customizations I prefer. Which means I’ll be at Potbelly’s a lot less now as a result, when previously I’ve gone 1-2 times a week for lunch during work. I hope they are able to fix these losses and add these options back. Until then, Potbelly’s will have a lot less of my business, this is a major oversight on their part.

Have used the Potbelly’s app for years now, but the recent update to app and website all of sudden won’t let me log in on my phone and asks for password change. So I do so, and get no new link sent to my email to perform said change. Tried multiple times with no link sent. Had to pull up the potbelly’s website on my laptop to then perform the password change request again. This time I was able to do so and made the change. Went back to phone to use new password and it won’t recognize the password…which renders the app on my phone useless!! It does however let me use the new psswd on the updated iPad app version. So website and iPad app are functional but iPhone app STILL gives error when I try to login. Reinstalling the app and restarting phone didn’t fix it either. Way to eff up a simple app devs!!