Early Pizza Delivery (long)

[donruss]

Hi all, I'm a long-time lurker and this is my 1st post so be gentle. I've been working as a pizza delivery driver for the Hut for 14 years and also did it prior to my joining the service after high school so I have a lot of experience with all types of SC. I will share many tales of pizza suckitude in the coming days and weeks but thought I would regale you with an SC from just 2 nights ago.

I'm walking out the door with nice hot pies and breadsticks. MMMMMM......PIE. As I'm leaving, lady calls back and talks to very timid, nice, 17 year-old, church-going CSR. She wants to add wings to her order. They tell her that said order is going out the door right now and it would be no trouble to add her wings and we could either wait for them and deliver all at once or we can send order out as planned, she pay for whole thing and she gets hers wings sent out with next driver available after they are done. No problem right, well if that were the case, would I be writing this essay now? I think not! Anyway, she whines about how she wants her wings NOW, as in immediately and how she had only placed the order 5 minutes prior, when it takes 10 minutes to cook the damn pies to begin with and like I said, it was already being walked out the door. Then she proceeded to tell nice CSR that her husband wasn't home yet and she didnt want food to get there too soon. She wanted her wings NOW but didnt want her food too soon .

So, no wings ordered, I proceed out the door with hers and one other delivery which I proceed to take to 1st house thinking, OK, I will get it there 5 minutes later than planned because of no hubby at home. Plus she lost her 1st delivery privileges with her massive suck and profanity towards CSR. So off we go. 1st delivery, no problem and $5 tip to boot . Get to suck house and husband is waiting for me in the drive but I didnt really get that bad vibe from him. He looked like he just wanted to pay for pizza and had his kid with him (maybe 11 or 12). At this point I must point out that we quoted them 30 minutes on our delivery time. We got it there in 25. He holds his phone up to me and says:

"Those pizzas can't be done yet"

I thinking WTH!!! I've never had a customer complain that I was early before but whatever.

I told him that Yes sir, they are just fine and I'll be more than happy to open each box and let him look for himself. This usually solves any problems with food we have but NOOOOOOOO, not for this asstard. He again repeats the same thing.

"Those pizzas can't be done yet. Its only been 25 minutes and there is no possible way they can be cooked."

I inform him that yes, they are done and that the oven only takes 10 minutes to cook things. He says:

"OK, thats 2 pizzas and breadsticks so thats 30 minutes total."

At this point the kid is like, "Lets just look at them and check"

We proceed to do so and get ready to open the stix up, (this was a double order of stix and for that we put them in a medium box as it saves time and such), and Dad says:

"Oh, we dont need to check those as I know they are done, lets just get on to the pizza"

OK, on to pizza #1 and it looks great. Kid is like, looks great and smells great too, lets just eat already. Dad is like: "You'll eat anything and who asked you anyway"? Nice!!! Other pie looks great, and he pays and even tips me like $2. Not a great tip but better than what I thought after all that suck and I just wanted to leave anyway. I mean seriously people, PIZZA ORDERING AND DELIVERY ISN'T THAT GODDAMN HARD!!!

[behaviorist]

What is a fair tip for a pizza delivery? Is it a % or a flat amount? I generally tip $5 or more depending on the amount I ordered, but you make it sound like $5 is a large tip.

Do people not tip well, in general?

[Bright_Star]

Jeez...it's not like they ordered a fancy meal. It's PIZZA!

[GolfCart34]

Personally, I never order out for food then get delivery service. I've always found that it's faster to call it in then go pick up the order myself. I can also control when I get the food to an extent that way as well. Perhaps that's something that nut in the original post should have considered, especially since she wanted the pizza to get there at a certain time. Oh, but wait, going and actually doing something for yourself totally goes against typical sc thinking.

The only time I ordered delivery pizza was when I was visiting Colorado this past September for a relatives wedding. My bf, my bro, and I all wanted something easy for dinner but didn't have a car so delivery worked out to be great that time.

[Arcade Man D]

What is a fair tip for a pizza delivery? Is it a % or a flat amount? I generally tip $5 or more depending on the amount I ordered, but you make it sound like $5 is a large tip.

Do people not tip well, in general?

I generally tip with the change remaining to make it a dollar amount evenly divisible by five, unless that would result in a tip under 1.50, in which case I'll toss a buck or two more on.

I usually do try to get my orders to be something like 10.51, though. ^_^

[bean]

(warning, long)

"OK, thats 2 pizzas and breadsticks so thats 30 minutes total."

Apparently somebody has never seen the inside of an oven that can.. you know.. hold more than 1 thing. In other words, he's never used anything except a dorm sized microwave. If I get creative with pan sizes (and some foil), I can cook 4 or 5 items in my run of the mill apartment oven just fine, all at the same time, and it only has 2 racks (if I actually had all of them I could do a lot more). It's not a convection oven either, it's your run of the mill low end 1984 General Electric electric oven/cooktop.

Most high volume pizzas places have a forced air conveyor oven - it's a convection oven on some really good crack. The cook time at the last PJ's I worked at was 4 min 30 sec, running in the mid 400 degrees. You plop the pizza in at one end, and it pops out the other end fully cooked.

That's not factoring in prep time - and any high volume pizza place runs things in an assembly line fashion. Someone slaps the dough, another one puts sauce on (and maybe the first few toppings), another does (the rest of the) toppings, and finally someone else cheeses it and tosses it in the oven. 1-3 people (depending how busy it is) handle the exit side of the oven, including cutting/boxing/sorting.

In the store I work at now, we have a stone hearth for a pizza oven. Even that thing takes under 10 minutes to fully cook a pie, though they run it pretty hot (600F or so). For nearly a month they were using the bakery's deck ovens until the pizza oven got moved and hooked back up - a deck oven set at 232 degrees. Even that took under 30 minutes (20-25 depending on how many toppings), and could hold 10 pizzas (5 deck ovens stacked, wide enough for 2 pizzas each, though you need to be tall or use a ladder for the top one).

This SC had probably never been to a Burger King either - their "flame broiled" burgers are tossed into a device like a conveyor pizza oven, except with flames.

[smileyeagle1021]

This SC had probably never been to a Burger King either - their "flame broiled" burgers are tossed into a device like a conveyor pizza oven, except with flames.

i used to work at a fast food place that used those, i thought that was the best idea ever... then again, i'm easily impressed

[BookstoreEscapee]

Apparently somebody has never seen the inside of an oven that can.. you know.. hold more than 1 thing.

Damn, you beat me to it...

When I was in school we started doing pizza where I worked. It was a small campus place and we didn't do a lof pizzas. We had a small conveyor oven that could fit 2 pies on the belt (though not actually inside the heating element at the same time), which took 10 minutes to cook, but even then we could do 2 in about 15 minutes.

The place we order from is really good. We've never had a problem with them. The one time they forgot something, my dad told them just to take it off the bill (he always pays cash when they get here), and the guy took it off but then came back 20 minutes later and gave it to us free.

I usually tip $2-3 or 20%, whichever is higher (rounding up if necessary to make an even amount). If we've ordered a lot (usually it's only 1 or 2 pies) or if the weather is bad, I'll throw in a little extra for their troubles.

[jb17kx]

I'd never thought I'd see day somebody would complain that you'd been too fast with their order.

I'm walking out the door with nice hot pies and breadsticks. MMMMMM......PIE.

One quick Q though - here you're saying you had pies (I've never seen a Pizza Hut sell pies...) and then you're saying you had pizzas. I'm a little confused...

[Arcade Man D]

One quick Q though - here you're saying you had pies (I've never seen a Pizza Hut sell pies...) and then you're saying you had pizzas. I'm a little confused...

Pizza pie. Pizza is technically just a slang for the gooey, cheesy circle of deliciousness.

[karma_gypsy]

I've gotten a couple of complaints before about the pizza getting to the house *too early.* Also gotten complaints about the pizza being too hot. (What the hell do you want me to do????!!)

Also had the customers who decided that 30 minutes was just enough time to pop down to the minute mart and get cigarettes or whatever...

[JustADude]

One quick Q though - here you're saying you had pies (I've never seen a Pizza Hut sell pies...) and then you're saying you had pizzas. I'm a little confused...

Pizza pie. Pizza is technically just a slang for the gooey, cheesy circle of deliciousness.

As Arcade Man D has pointed out, the full term is "Pizza Pie". The common shortening is "Pizza", but the popular slang among those who desire informality, and know what the subject is ahead of time, is "Pie".

[mattm04]

I've gotten a couple of complaints before about the pizza getting to the house *too early.* Also gotten complaints about the pizza being too hot. (What the hell do you want me to do????!!)

Also had the customers who decided that 30 minutes was just enough time to pop down to the minute mart and get cigarettes or whatever...

Why would you complain about the pizza begin hot? Is is baked in an oven. If it is too hot let it sit their for a few minutes, it will cool down, I promise.

[jb17kx]

As Arcade Man D has pointed out, the full term is "Pizza Pie". The common shortening is "Pizza", but the popular slang among those who desire informality, and know what the subject is ahead of time, is "Pie".

Well there you go! Learn something new every day...

[ebonyknight]

Why would you complain about the pizza begin hot? Is is baked in an oven. If it is too hot let it sit their for a few minutes, it will cool down, I promise.

I guess for the same reason complain about their convenience store coffee being too hot.