Little Caesars

First I don’t understand Darren W’s review about the marked up pricing as I was in the same store twice in the same month as their review (August 2014) and the price was exactly as nationally advertised — $ 5 hot and ready pizzas, crazy bread $ 3.50, wings $ 6, etc. Also huge container of sauce — comes with the crazy bread no extra charge. Maybe they were in the Auburn MA store, not Auburn ME.
My first visit rated *****5 stars — the pizza is not the best ever but I would argue the best of the national chains and you can’t beat the price. I was skeptical about the no wait claim but I walked in, placed my order and was walking out one minute latter with 1 large cheese pizza, 1 large pepperoni pizza, 2 orders (16 pieces) of bread sticks (crazy bread) each with a very large portion of marinara sauce, a 2 liter Pepsi, and 2 garlic dipping sauces (poor dietary choice but so good!) and spent only $ 21 and some change.
My second visit I repeated the above order and added 4 orders of wings. At $ 6 for 8 wings (that’s 75 cents each) — not as good a value as the pizza. They were soggy, not crisp (baked). They were on the small side. Tried four different flavors. In each case the wings were literally floating in over a cup of sauce and fat. There was so much grease that the sauce did not really adhere to the wings.
A little problem with the service on the second visit as well. I am very forgiving when it comes to fast food help because I know they are working hard for minimum wage. We had to wait exactly 15 minutes for the wings — they had 3 orders ready to go but we ordered 4. This is ok — no problem there. The problem is that the person who took my order had left or was on break and the person who filled it shorted my that second crazy bread which luckily I immediately noticed before leaving.
When I pointed it out, she told me that I only paid for 1. My receipt only had the total dollar amount. She said that she had thrown out her copy and apparently it was irretrievable from the waste basket under the counter. I said that for the total that I paid, she must be mistaken. Rather than take a customer at their word I had to wait for 2 somewhat challenged employees to figure out how to reprint the receipt. Of course — I was right. I did get a «I’m sorry — my bad» (exact words). Again — will cut a fast food service employee slack, but the place could benefit from a grown up (all kids) manager type to ensure better service.
Also note that this was a Friday 4:45 PM — so they should be prepared for a dinner rush — people after me were having to wait for plain cheese. Although 5 stars for visit #1, with visit #2 minus 1 star for the wings and minus 1 star for having to insist that I got what I paid for. I will revisit because of the value although I will stick to the basic cheese/​pepperoni pizzas and bread sticks.

My partner and I visit little Caesars around New England several times per week when traveling. Their good quality and even better prices make for easy dinners when we’re busy with classes, working long days, or traveling around. We’ve observed prices raising throughout the chain of pizzerias, but that’s thanks to our wonderful government, and not necessarily from this company in particular. Having said that, enter Little Caesars Auburn, on Maine Street. The very first time we visited this store, we noticed pieces of paper taped over the standard menu boards, with prices $ 1 – 3 more than originally advertised by the posted menus. We only order Cheesey Bread, nothing too complicated or extreme. If each Cheesey bread dinner was $ 4.99, we’d order two, and the total would end up being $ 15.00. Upon questioning, the worker would blabber prices and mumble about food tax, but we were so hungry, we didn’t care. We gave this particular franchise 5 opportunities to change our minds, since we understand different workers or managers can be grumpy or simply «off» on different days. Unfortunately, up until our 6^th and final visit, we were extremely disappointed and frankly pissed off at the lack of customer satisfaction, and also the lack of human dignity shown by this employee. Again, we ordered 2 cheesy breads, one pepperoni and one cheese. The «lady» who took our order had her flip phone between her ear and shoulder during the time she took our order, made our pizzas, and cashed us out. Again, the menu boards said two cheesy breads for $ 9, and our total came to $ 15.99. Even if she charged us for sauce, which she didn’t tell us we were being charged for, that’s $ 3 for each half small container of sauce (we asked for two.) I enjoy marinara sauce, but for that price I’d rather buy the tomatoes and spices at Whole Foods and make a gallon of sauce myself. Of course, she didn’t give us an itemized receipt. That would have thrown an alarm for anyone counting their pennies, like a lot of us do. When four new customers walked in the door, she yelled into her phone, still glued to her shoulder «will you shut up, I have to listen to these people.» She laid the phone down on the counter, not even hanging up on her friend or unfortunate relative. We took our cheesy bread and walked out. Upon taking our first bite, my partner realized there was a spicy buffalo sauce drizzled over the entire bread. Out of the countless breads we’ve ordered, this was extremely out of the ordinary. A buffalo Cheesey bread isn’t even on the menu!!! We walked back into the store and asked her if we could have another bread, because this one had buffalo sauce all over it. (Ps, I watched her prep and package each bread, and I saw her use different bottles for each of our breads.) Upon our inquiry for a new, normally made bread, she became overly agitated and said that she would charge us for a new bread. We realized that she wasn’t going to back down and admit to her mistake, so we backed away slowly, left the improperly made breads on the counter, and drove away. Awesome. We spent 30-​hungry minutes waiting for our dinner, and drove away empty handed. That is the definition of «womp womp…» I’ve worked in a restaurant for 3 years, and know when to tuck my tail and fix the mistakes caused by myself or restaurant I represent. So what did $ 15.99 get us??? Two cups of sauce (we didn’t bring that back inside, since it was the only thing properly made, although the containers were more than half empty…) In an economy that is driving pizzerias to make the next-​best deal for their meals, I doubt we’ll ever make plans to visit a Little Caesars from these experiences with a terribly managed, low end, poor excuse for a business. Hopefully this isn’t the new-​face of LC franchises.