Was I sucky? or was the pizza joint? or both?

[mymaskofsanity]

An old story I remembered while reading some posts : )

It involves a famished beer store employee and Canadas largest pizza chain.

A relaxing friday evening concluding my work week as I kick back to watch my beloved Toronto Maple Leafs ( no flaming allowed ! ) : )

I was famished and decided to order myself a couple of pies from my regular joint, I order at least once or twice a week from this place. My orders are generally large , I always get the family deal and it lasts me the weekend

2 pies
wings
garlic bread
pop
dips

normally around 40 bucks,

Little did I know I would almost DIE ! that evening, ( again for effect ) I was really , really hungry. LOL

So after I call in my order I sit back and check the clock since in 40 minutes its free.

About 5 minutes go by the phone rings...Call ID tells me the name is "restricted" and the area code is long distance. I assume its my mothers work or some relative. I let the voicemail get it......this is important later.

So its been 39 minutes and I'm about to have free pizza, yay!

45 minutes.....still no free pizza ( at this point I'd Still pay cause im not one of "those people"

50 minutes.....still no free pizza

realization.....was that the pizza place calling me back?

voicemail

"hi this is "so and so" from "the orange and white logo'd pizza place" , we need you to call back and "confirm" your order, please ask for customer service.

double you tee eff

didn't I "confirm" my order with the orignal rep who repeated my order back to me before giving me my time guarantee?

So I call, and wait on hold for 15 minutes (exactly since i was already watching the clock i knew)
the rep finally comes on the line, after explaining my reason for calling,
and informing him that I dont generally pick up long distance un id'd phone calls hence my delayed call back.
he goes over my order and says "ok it will be there in 40 minutes or its free"

Excuse me?

when during the time guarantee or at any point for that matter was it said that I would possibly be called back to "confirm" my order

He didn't even offer any sort of discount or extra food, which I still would have accepted. Since I work in retail and am not an asshat and didnt really want to argue.

But expecting me to wait an additional 40 minutes? on top of the 50 I already waited and the 15 on hold waiting for this douchebag? THEN PAY FULL PRICE?
( his attitude was also kind of sucky, he sounded over worked and stressed)

"so your not going to offer any compensation?"

Him (scoffingly no)

Me " fuck you then ill order from pizza hut"

which i immediately did and had pizza in half an hour.

The following monday at work I fired off an email to thier corp and explained the whole thing again and had my account credited with 25$

Was I sucky? Was it bad of me to expect free pizza or compensation?

Something just came to me as I wrote this, maybe they thought I listened to the voicemail then waited 40 minutes so I could "scam" free pizza?

but thats a pretty crappy scam idea since I would have had to pay if they just got it right the first time.

how was I supposed to know that an unfamiliar number ?

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Don't pizza joints usually call to confirm the order? They do around here, so prank pizza ordering doesn't happen.

I'm not sure how that that prevents it, but I'm pretty sure most places do double check the order with a call after you make it.

Personally, I think demanding compensation is kind of tacky. At least for something like this. Especially when the screw up was in part to your failure to answer the phone when they gave you a call to double check the order. No, it was not entirely your fault. But it wasn't entirely their fault, either.

[smileyeagle1021]

i'd say both you and the pizza place were sucky, but them more so. You should not have to expect a call back to verify what they should have verified the first time... that being said, if you are screaning calls, always check your voicemail quickly just in case it really is important (not just pizza confirmation, but you have no way if knowing that it isn't a hospital or something like that calling).

[hawkchick11]

I've never had a pizza place call back and confirm an order, so I don't think you were that sucky. Maybe they were having a problem with prank orders?

Although if I do have an odd phone number call and they leave a voicemail, I usually check it right away.

[Crazeyal]

You made a mistake with the voicemail. They made a mistake not programing their number with a name.

There is a REASON compensation is in place. It's to keep customers happy when they've been mistreated by circumstance, error or bad employees. The reason this place exists is the ABUSE of the system, and the self entitled idiots/scam artists who continually do so.

You were treated poorly (in your view), and could easily have wrote off the chain for a number of years, if not permanently. It's worth it to them to keep your business. You MIGHT want to keep the anger to yourself next time, though. Even though the staff (in your opinion) was rude and scoffed at you, there is a better way of handling things. Two wrongs usually equals MORE WRONGS! Piss a bad worker off, you get worse work from them. Piss off a GOOD worker.. same thing to a lesser degree)

That doesn't affect you, but what about the poor people not aware of the situation? Attitude central.

Writing corporate and complaining after being mistreated is fine, understandable and proper. Again, misuse has demonized the act.

Methinks you owe the people at the Pizza place a phone call and an apology for cursing them out. You got the rebate, spreading a little good will and topping the pizza off with the crow you ordered should put the account up straight.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Well, now that you mention it, it was beyond stupid of the pizza joint to not have their name show up on caller ID if they have a policy of needing to call back. I didn't consider that, but I should have.

[Broomjockey]

Around here, they only call if it's late at night, or an order over $50, so it's definitely not the norm.

But I think you were within your rights to cancel your order, as having to hold for that long was bad, even for a Friday, and they should have tried calling back at least another time.

I don't really support the swearing at the worker, no matter the attitude, though explaining in an email to corp was a good move.

Judge's ruling? Minor suck on both sides, larger on the side of Pizza Chain. Lack of communication on Pizza Place compounding their error.

[Deathwing]

Don't pizza joints usually call to confirm the order? They do around here, so prank pizza ordering doesn't happen.

Back in college, I can remember having Dominos call to confirm orders and make sure people would be there to meet them - since you had to trek halfway across campus - , but I can't say i've had anyone else do that for years now.

[ReverendBSB]

I have to side with the pizza place here. There could have been a very good reason why they needed to confirm the order, I assume you did not ask. There could have been a computer problem, or the person taking the order could have been new and prone to screw up.

I had a similar situation when I worked pizza. A woman called and made an order, then told me she had a credit from a screwed up order a few weeks before. I could not find any information on her credit, the manager said not to give it to her, so she said fine and hung up before I could give her the total and delivery time. I assumed she did not want the order, but I tried to call her to confirm. She did not answer, so we cancelled the order. An hour later she calls back wanting to know where her food was. Could have been avoided if she had answered her phone.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

The fact that the pizza place showed up as a long-distance number on the caller ID is odd. As is the pizza place calling to confirm the order, as I've never ever had that happen. But there could have been a reason for it. Computers can always break and orders can be written down or typed into the computer wrong.

I don't think the request for compensation is too tacky, but dropping the f-bomb on the phone definitely is. There's no reason why you need to be cussing on the phone.

[Kaylyn]

Around here the big pizza joints use a regional call center to take orders. I thought it was strange when I called the local number, placed an order, and had them actually ask, "Is this order for the ('Subject Hometown Here')** location?" The local number would transfer to the call center. They would take the order and send it via computer to the local pizza store. Then, just to make sure, they would call back and verify the address and usually get directions, even though they'd been there a thousand times before. So maybe it was something like that.

**Cake for the reference!

[STEELMAN]

I have to side with the pizza co. I deliver pizzas part time and the reason we always get a phone # is so if there is any mistake, regardless of who's fault, we can call, get the issue fixed, and still provide good service. An example of this from one order. The address was a new street that was not on our map. Nobody working at the time knew where it was. We tried calling several times over the next 45 minutes to get directions but no answer. When she finally called looking for her pizza she said she was on the internet and did not have a separate line. If she had answered we could have got the directions and had her order there on time with no problem. We have to call quite often for various reasons, from we have run out of wings, to their credit card was declined. If you place an order you should make sure you are availlable in case of a problem.

[BookstoreEscapee]

I suppose when everything runs smoothly the call center system might work well enough, but when there's a problem on their end and you have to speak to customer service instead of being able to deal directly with the store it seems rather inefficient...

They really should have their name show on caller ID, though. When I call for food delivery and they need to contact me for some reason, I don't expect a different area code to show up, since in most cases the place delivering isn't going to be more than a few miles from my house.

[Marnier]

I would think the bigger issue is that you wouldn't expect a confirmation call when you order from there once or twice a week. If I order chinese for delivery once every two weeks then they know me before I even finish my order.

[Kusanagi]

When I worked for a pizza place, if it was a large family sized order like what you were ordering, we would call back to confirm it.

The reason for this was that we would get alot of prank calls, and none of the managers or the drivers like it when we showed up to someones house with six or more pizzas and found out it was someone pulling a prank.

One or two pizzas, it sucks, but hey, what can you do? Get a few calls where you make a ton of food and take it out? That can add up.