PAPA JOHN’S PIZZA Franchise Complaints

22 thoughts on “PAPA JOHN’S PIZZA Franchise Complaints”

• Was by the papa johns, at a stop sign the delivery driver for papa johns, hit the back of my car, got out of car and instantly he had attitude, I ask him if he was in a hurry, he actually said yes, I said really, he then stood there and argued with me, I ask if the manager was in he said yes why, I said you just hit my 2014 Honda, of course I wanna talk to this person, as I walked in he still left to take his delivery, really !!!! This is the kind of people you have working for you, they hit my car, was no damage, but I still got no apoligy, talk to manager she said she would talk to him, then I called and left a message for the franchise owner and he tested saying I’m busy what’s up, I tested back and said read your voice mail, omg, this is horrible, will never buy from papa johns ever again, this is in Ames ,Iowa. Manager outside smoking, drivers name is Jacob, and franchise owner is Matt donaldson

• Who Cares! Are you thinking Papa Johns all across the country are like this? Come on man, I love their pizza!

• I POSTED THIS MESSAGE 6 TIMES ON THEIR SITE TO NO AVAIL. NOT ONE TIME DID A MANAGER, FRANCHISE OWNER OR CORPORATE REP CONTACT ME AS TOLD 3 TIES VIA PHONE AS FOLLOW UPS TO MY COMPLAINT INITIATED 3/27/14. HORRIBLE SERVICE ON PHONE…DID NOT GET WHAT I ORDERED WHEN TOLD THEY REFUSED TO DELIVER CORRECT PRODUCT.

  HELLO, I HAVE PLACED 3 ONLINE COMPLAINTS AND 3 VIA TELEPHONE WHERE I HAVE BEEN TOLD TO WAIT 4 DAYS AND THE FRANCHISE MANAGER WOULD CALL ME AND THAT MY THIRD REQUEST WAS FORWARDED TO THE DISTRICT BUSINESS OWNER. I FIRST INITIATED MY COMPLAINTS ON THE DAY OF THE HORRIBLE SERVICE ON 3/27/14, AGAIN 4/2 AND AGAIN 4/8/14 TO DATE NO ONE HAS CALLED WHICH LEADS ME TO BELIEVE THAT YOU GUYS ONLY CARE ABOUT THE DOLLAR AND NOT CUSTOMER SERVICE SO I INTEND TO MAKE IT MY MISSION TO SPREAD THIS WORD THAT ALL THE COMMERCIALS THAT WE SEE ARE FALSE AND PAPA JOHNS NAME MEANS NOTHING. I HAVE DONE MY DUE DILIGENCE IN ALLOWING YOUR COMPANY TO REPLY TO ME TO NO AVAIL. ALL OF MY REPLIES ARE GENERIC SO I AM SURE NO ONE EVEN READS THE COMPLAINTS. TERRIBLE SERVICE AND I WILL BE CONTACTING THE BBB AS A MATTER OF PRINCIPLE FOR TREATING A LOYAL CUSTOMER THIS WAY.

• TO ROBIN HUNT
  For starters, normal people call the police when they’ve been involved in a car accident, not a driver’s manager (unless you have different laws in Ames, Iowa). Who cares if a manager is outside smoking. Obviously there is not much going on in Iowa. Learn how to make pizza at home and stop whining!

• The papa johns that is located in Atlanta Ga. On Moreland ave. Is the very worst of the franchise papa johns I’ve personal ever seen. The have employees calling back saying that they r the mgr. Refusing to give name. Then when I did get a mgr. Named gaberiel I thought the problem was over. Well in fact he handed the phone to someone claiming to be His mgr. Then when I refussed to restate the concern he hung up in me. Then in fact I received a phone call 1un. Later from someone who said he was the district mgr. It was the same mgr. The reason for concern they when I came 4-6 weeks prior they madey 3 pizzas wrong did not even bother to give cash receipt then refusal to replace those pizzas. After calling 17 times being laughed at and being lied too. Being told we don’t care by some gut I spoke to last evening on the phobe . this is a bunch if mess. This store should not be allowed to carry the great name of Papa Johns. This is a dusfrace .

• I have tried and tried again to get the mgmt team ie, Morris the actual gm to have the owner contact me. He has cussed me long enough now. I have lodged this complaint on line on june 7 and nothing has yet to be done. I spoke with him again last night and he said to go to hell. Well if I do not hear something today then I will do something with legal action. I will never do business again with this company. This is a disgrace to the great name Papa Johns has. I am so sorry for the bothersomeness of this situation. Do something. [redacted]

• I actually work for papa Johns location 2601 east Euclid Ave des moines Iowa 50317 as a delivery driver and I’m outraged by my manager paula tate first of all my medicaid ended as of November 23 of 2015 and i reapllied still waiting to be aprooved and I just recently got sick I let my her know that I could not work that day she responds with bring a doctors note which is the usual and follows with you have to be here for super bowl sunday

  i said i understand well I went and got seen just so I didn’t have to get write up knowing I’m going to be billed for the visit will turn out I have rsv bronchitis (baby bronchitis ) (for adults it’s a cold and contagious) well just to day I go into work as an insider and tell her that I’m still not able to work considering I am still sick and I don’t want to make any one els sick she responds well if the doctor says you can’t work you can’t work just don’t come back unless you have a doctors note stating your still contagious knowing full well I don’t have medicaid

  I’m not going to keep going to the hospital and get seen for the same thing racking up a bill I already can’t pay for just to keep my job on top of that my phone got stolen taking a delivery to east high school not even 4 days ago and I need g he GPS on my phone cuz I need to visually see the route I’m taking instead of turn by turn directions so I’m going in today and handing over my uniform and quiting

• I looked at these comments to see if there was any negative feedback on owning a franchise. All I found was a bunch of crybaby whining nonsense, and idiot griping, that had nothing to do with any of that. Lol.

• Jesus Christ! Has anyone that’s owned a Papa John’s ever going to leave a comment? What in the hell are these people talking about!?

• This is Tim from somerset Kentucky, no I don’t own a franchise. And I wouldn’t want to! These returds totally screwed my pizza all the way up!!!! Put the mushrooms on where the pepperoni’s were ‘sposed to go, and u know what?? They put the damn pepperoni’s where the gulldern mushrooms was ‘sposed to be….. when I went to the store to spit some beechnut in the eye of the manager they called the frickin law!! Then one of them punk delivery drivers video camera’d me with his fancy “dumb” phone , getting put in a figure 4 by chuck ,the 2nd shift cop here , while I was screamin ” I THOUGHT THIS WAS AMERICA!! I DIDNT KNOW WE WERE IN COMMUNIST CHINA!!!” Now my boy won’t talk to me. And someone stole my moped from out front of the store that night while I was waiting to see Gary , the local judge…. I HATE YOU AND SCREW UR PIZZA !! Shitty ingredients, shitty pizza poopa johns more like it….sheesh

• The worst franchise one can buy. No support from headquarters. You are left on your own. Senior managememt are too preoccupied with beating Dominos that they lost their sense of reality of what goes on in the stores. Zero support from corporate office when your store is struggling. All they care about are corporate stores that they own. They milk you on high food costs and various fees to the point that you barely break even, if that. Make sure you talk to franchisees before thinking of throwing your money in this franchise. Many have lost their entire hard earned life savings on this failing brand. Lots of Stores are either closing or being converted to other pizza chains.

• Agree with everything Renee said. Corporate is so consumed with stock price they have hung the franchisees out to dry. I the last few years they have destroyed the papa John’s brand. All they care about is more transactions and higher sales. The problem is if the higher sales and more transactions have a smaller profit margin then the only one it benefits is the Corp.

  Sales up 30% in the last 5 years expenses down (not from anything Corp did, but things I cut out which jave caused more work for me) over $10000 and financially not significantly any better. Every decision Corp cost me more $. Somehow they convinced franchisees to raise the national advertising % and guess what, sales are down nationally. Totally incompetent at Corp level!

  Really believed in the brand, which is why I bought. Had experience in several other brands but choose papa John’s. Regretting that decision. Until they fix the problems at Corporate level STAY AWAY!

• Last week I ordered a sausage/pepperoni pizza and an order of buffalo wings. The driver was late. The pizza and wings were cold. I called the manager who informed that it would be another hour before they could place my order. The driver would pick up the food and give me another orderer that is hot. I am hungry for waiting and they tell me another hour. I was so hungry that I had to make it to my microwave to warm the food up. I should not have had to warm up my food. The food should be ready to eat upon arrival. I am very disappointed in Papa John’s treating me as a customer like this. This Papa John’s located on Laburnum {East). Richmond VA

• I am a business broker. My company rep5resents franchisees all over the country. We recently listed a couple of Papa Johns franchise in Southeast and Northeast, I will keep locations confidential for now as we are hoping to have a change in the situation. So the stores are doing very well. They are profitable and numbers are good. We have brought two buyers with money but PJ has refused to approve either of them. The owners are stuck wanting to sell and make some money back but are not able to. Has anyone else experienced anything similar with PJ and an attempt to sell?

• Do not be fooled into buying a Papa John’s franchise.

  I couldn’t help but laugh at the message by “Will Steel” (ironic name) that a store that is making a lot of money has been put up for sale. If it is making a lot of money a smart owner would not sell.

  Either way, this franchise company is dead! I am telling you as a franchise owner. Put things into perspective: a franchisee in Washington State has put up 19 of his stores for sale in an auction!! Many more stores on the West Coast have either closed or converted to something else. Reason is that the brand simply sucks.

  The pizza simply is bland in taste and I get a lot of complaints from customers about the taste of the sauce and the gooey bread. As an owner you will get screwed trying to find staff who can make the dough in the store. You are at a disadvantage over Dominos as in Papa John’s you have to time slapping the damn dough while other franchise store have an easier dough preparation process.

  Then on top of that corporate will screw you on food cost and various “fees”. With rising rent across the country and labor, you will struggle big time. No support from corporate at all. Most of the regional managers are idiots with no real business sense. The CEO of the company (Steve Richie) is not educated in business. The guy simply worked for the company as a driver all the way up to franchise manager. But no business training!

  Same goes with most other management level personnel. Meanwhile the competition has sound managers who are well versed in business. Don’t throw your hard earned money away!! As Rene suggested do a thorough research on the store you want to buy.

  This company is a sinking ship with sales dropping each year.

• i have no context on papa johns, but as to frank dreuiters comment above regarding him laughing at the idea of someone selling a business that makes a lot of money, people sell highly profitable businesses all the time for many reasons.

• I second what DeRuiter said. 99% of the time an owner will want to get rid of a or several stores if: 1- stores are doing poirly in sales 2- store will be doing poorly in sales in future due to forecast. Yes some sell because of health reasons but use your judgement. If you store was making great profit why sell?? You can keep it! Its not like you work in it. Even if you do work in it you can hire a good manager if it makes money.

  About Papa Johns, the company sales are down. I like in Seattle as a business broker and a franchisee with 19 stores went bankrupt. Apparently the company is in trouble from top down. The owner apparently blamed some of his problems on regional corporate management and the franchise business director. Seems they are all useless.

• Once again, there are numerous reasons other than failing health to sell a profitable company, including:
  -Defined business strategy, ie build value and cash flow for 2 years and then sell. the math can def be favorable under this scenario. consider the following:
  -300k startup cost
  -20/80 equity to debt
  -Cash on cash sixty thousand
  -Cummalitive cash flow over 2 years 200k
  -sale price five hundred thousand
  -Total return 700k over 2 years minus 60k cash out of pocket, 640k real return
  – debt on company assumed by buyer
  -In order to generate 640k in returns operating the business, the owner would need to maintain cash flow for approx 5 additional years.

  another reason to sell a profitable business is someone wants to monetize and go into another industry or market, has concerns about long term trends of some type, wants to retire, issues with partners, financial pressure from other debts, divorce, upcoming lease issues, tax problems, inherited money, etc. The reasons are endless.
  Some of the business analysis I see on this site makes it pretty clear why there are so many failed franchisees

• If you store was making great profit why sell?? You can keep it! Its not like you work in it. Even if you do work in it you can hire a good manager if it makes money.

  I also want to point out that statements like the quoted one here reflect a deeper issue, which, to be frank, is that many failed franchise owners had no business going into business to begin with. There seem to be a lot of franchise owners who cash in home equity, 401ks, etc and are convinced by sleazy franchise sales people and brokers (like kim marinoff) that they can just “hire a manager” who will proceed to build them a successful business. Its a dangerous perception that experienced small business entrepreneurs know to be false

• Eric

  Irregardless of what you say about reselling franchise businesses, fact is that Papa Johns as a brand has failed. When you have so many franchise store closing and or struggling there are issues.

  And yes some profitable stores might be put ip for sale but vast majority are ones that have “issues”.

  Again this thread is not about buying or selling franchise stores, its about warning potential start up investors about a crappy brand like Papa Johns. Simply google Papa Johns and read what experts ate saying about how poorly this brand is doing.

• ive owned a few papa johns and the company is the worst Franchise to be in. i own multiple franchises and by far papa johns is a sad company. they want th anomais

• I was a Papa John’s multiple franchise owner. Richie and Simon say they are helping Franchises but it is way too little and way too late. I have been told more than 250 stores have closed on the west. I finally closed my 3 stores recently. Sure, they cut royalties, however, at the same time they hike up the price of cheese etc. . .I’m telling everyone right now, it is my opinion that you cannot run a profitable Papa John’s on the west coast. At one of my locations I was down 11k at the beginning of every month just for rent. Then I get hit with royalties, co-op fees, commisary costs, payroll rising steadily, maintenance and a bunch of other costs. In the few years I had my stores, I NEVER, again, I NEVER, had a profitable month. In fact, after Schnatter’s meltdown our sales dropped another 30%!! After firing John corporate did a lot of talking but nothing got done. All us west coast owners pleaded with them. We told Richie and everyone else that we were in dire straights but or words fell on deaf ears. They gave us a lot of lip service.

  I can’t go into detail here but after November 2017 every Papa John’s in the west should have closed their doors. Corporate did not have a good plan. They signed up marketing companies then fired them. They would go in one direction then change their minds completely. All the while stores are closing one after the other. They (corporate) should have done a lot more for us. Instead they stuck their head in the sand
  Again, this is/was my experience but I’ve talked with other owners who have closed and they will tell you the same thing. This is a horrible franchise to invest in. ‘Nuff said.