Delivery Irritations

[Saydrah]

Now, this isn't suck on a specific customer or employee's part, just a peeve. As far as I know the delivery person was tipped well and the bill was paid in full, so no worries-- just a minor vent.

One of the big bosses here ordered lunch in from a local deli that does a lot of deliveries. He let everyone get whatever they wanted, so it was a big order, with lots of variety. We ordered for over 20 people. So, yeah, even though this deli is in a major business center and I'm sure gets lots of large orders, it was certainly complicated. And it was lunch rush.

But if they (literally ACROSS THE STREET) didn't have the staff or ingredients to fill the order, they should have said so! Instead we waited 2 hours for the food to be delivered, and when I got my panini it had obviously been made quite a while ago-- the bread was so soggy I ended up eating it with a fork and knife because it fell apart when picked up like a sandwich. It was also cold when it should have been hot, and the wax paper was soaked through showing it must have been sitting for a while with moisture dripping from the ingredients. Same deal with my coworkers' meals.

Ugh.

[Evil Queen]

Why didn't someone just go across the street and pick it up? I'll bet most of the sitting around time was waiting for the delivery person to get back and deliver the goods.

[powerboy]

That is what I am wondering, why couldn't anyone across the street and get it?

[Becks]

Add me to the "why didn't anyone go across the street themselves" camp.

[Saydrah]

Because this deli has delivered good food promptly before during the lunch rush for just as many people, and I suppose once it was ordered for delivery everyone kept figuring "it'll be here any minute, and if someone goes over there now they'll have already left," and at some point there was a call saying the delivery was on its way out and then another HOUR passed before it finally showed up.

Also, I don't see why a deli that advertises delivery and takes the order, quoting about 45 minutes' wait time due to lunch rush, shouldn't be expected to be able to deliver the order within an hour.

The boss ordered it for delivery, not for carry-out. So, while he COULD have ordered carry-out instead, he mistakenly thought it would be more convenient and a better treat for his employees to get delivery. The deli took the order for delivery and should have either delivered it within the time quoted, or made some sort of contact to explain why exactly it took another hour after "on its way!" to get across the street, and why the food was cold and soggy when it arrived.

[powerboy]

But you would think that after a long while, that someone would have called there and asked about it being with the delivery guy or still there. Not trying to start anything.

[Kiwi]

They should have called when the order was going to be delayed, no way they should have allowed it to be held for that long...

but

some of the staff should have gone over and collected the food instead of waiting all that time
5 people could have carried all of that food easily

[marasbaras]

I'm with Kiwi, they should've called when the knew the order was going to be delayed ... they should have also recognized that you were across the street and suggested that someone pick it up.

Of course, throwing in some free chips for the slip up would be nice, too.

[Sylvia727]

That sucks. Sounds to me like the delivery guy shoved the food behind something, if it sat around the whole time and the clerk thought it was on its way. Would it have been so hard for someone to call, explain that they lost y'all's order and were remaking it? With maybe some extra chips or cookies or something for the wait? That sounds basic to me.

[Akasa]

I hope there was a complaint call after it was all recieved.

[TheComputerError]

To the OP:
I feel your pain and would expect better service from a deli that does business with the local businesses. However, I would not be surprised if the deli was retaliating for your company ordering delivery from across the street.

To Kiwi:
Careful there. You're encroaching on SC territory. I doubt the deli would have wanted to tie up the phone line (where they take their incoming order calls) and an employee (who would be better on the deli counter or grill fulfilling orders) to attempt to call every person whose order was running late. Working in the Harmacy, I get people who expect us to contact them when something has delayed their prescription. We, however, have an automated system that contacts patients when there is a delay in their prescription, but people seem to think it's calling to inform them that their prescription is ready for pick-up. That aside, expecting a busy deli to drop manpower during lunch rush is bordering on unreasonable.

[PhotoChick]

What it sounds like is they had it ready and waiting to go at the quoted time (it explains the phone call and the cold, soggy food), and then for some reason they never delivered it for another hour. Why? No idea. Should they do something to make it up to you guys? Sure. Will they? Again, no idea.

Oh, and I really think a second phone call is in order to let you guys know of the delay. If they're if a quoted delivery and it goes FAR out of that window I think the customer deserves to know. As Dominos says "You got 30 minutes." If my pizza is there in the "quoted" 30 (or hour, or whatever) I'm happy. If its an extra 10 or 15 minutes past the quoted time, I'm still ok. Once we get to 30 minutes or more past the quoted time I'm gonna get pretty upset that no one called. Sometimes I've chosen not to order based on how long its gonna take. Why should they extend the delivery time and not give me that same choice.

If you don't like that arguement, let me put it another way. If you bought a fridge and the company gave you a delivery window of 9-12 so you took the morning off of work. Then at 12 they still weren't there. Wouldn't you like a call for them to tell you were your fridge is?

[Saydrah]

I suppose they could have been annoyed we ordered delivery from across the street... but why? I mean, honestly, I would like to hear from someone in that line of work, is it sucky to order delivery from across the street if it's an opportunity for a delivery person to go out, carry up some sandwiches, and get as much of a tip as they'd get for driving a fair distance? The big boss guys order delivery from delis in the area for lunch meetings at least once a week, and I do know they always tip the driver, so I can't imagine they would really dread the call. Plus, it's a huge business center so the deli MUST be located there to take advantage of lazy/busy execs wanting lunch delivered...

[Broomjockey]

I'm with Saydrah on this deli falling down on their job. Especially since the place called, said the delivery was on its way, and then didn't show up for an extended period of time afterwards.

[Kiwi]

To Kiwi:
Careful there. You're encroaching on SC territory. I doubt the deli would have wanted to tie up the phone line and an employee to attempt to call every person whose order was running late.

your more than entitled to your opinion but I never said they needed to call every single customer whose order ran late

this was an order for at least 20 people, so a minute long phone call would have served 20 customers

I dont think its sucky to expect a quick "sorry its running late can you send someone over to pick it up" is bordering on anything other than common sence.

One of my duties at my last job was ordering catering on a daily basis (office of 250), we had three accounts and one was with a 4 employee deli across the road ironically
it was quite common one of the staff would ring with a quick "were running 10 minutes late is that cool" call and I could organise someone to go over and help them instead of them having to give up staff.