Everyone in the Lynchburg area has heard of Chestnut Hill Bakery. This is partially because they are located at the top of Fort Ave right near where it connects to Wards Rd. They have the best location of any other bakery in the area. Good location, great desserts, but sadly there’s nothing positive to say of their customer service.
Chestnut Hill Bakery used to have this loyal customer, but then she moved out of state. When she was visiting a few months ago, she was very sick and all she wanted was some of Chestnut Hill Bakery’s cream puffs. I called them and asked if they could hold the few small cream puffs that they had until this lady’s mother could pick them up, which would have been about 30 minutes. She first tried to talk me out of it, saying that they were so small and it wasn’t many. But they were for someone sick and that would have been fine.
Since I couldn’t be dissuaded, she flatly refused to hold them, saying they do not hold anything. I explained that they were for someone sick, who just wouldn’t eat anything else. The customer couldn’t drive to get them herself either since she’d recently had a seizure. But her mother was in the area and could pick them up.
The lady at Chestnut Hill Bakery responded that a customer had walked in the door while we were on the phone, and she was selling her the cream puffs. Unbelievable. They have absolutely no loyalty or feelings toward their old customers, even though she was ill. They were completely heartless.
A couple weeks later, the sick lady went back home and died two months later. She never did get the Chestnut Hill Bakery cream puffs that she so desired because there was no one to pick them up for her. Her mother doesn’t live in Lynchburg, and the person she was visiting was unable to drive as well.
Really, they couldn’t have just held the cream puffs for 30 minutes? Really?
I personally love their French apple pies, but they rarely have them available. When you don’t live near a place, who wants to drive that far only to leave empty handed? The last time I got one, which was years ago, someone else picked it up and said that they gave her grief over putting icing on the pie. This was very strange because it’s not a French apple pie if it doesn’t have icing and they have always put icing on them.
Their customer service is so frustrating that it’s better to go out of the way to another bakery. Forest has some nice bakeries. Personally, I recommend the people who took over Bill’s Pastry on Bay St, which is off Memorial Ave in Lynchburg. They plan to change the name or already have now to the Sunny Kitchen, but they use many of the same recipes that Bill’s Pastry did. They make great desserts and have cream puffs!
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