What are you, 8 years old?????

[Racket_Man]

yes it is that time of year again where the "kiddies" think that pranking a large order at 10pm if loads of fun. I must have some sort of "curse" on me this week.

CSR takes a call around 10pm and it is a new customer. CSR gets and REPEATS back vital info such as PHONE NUBMER and ADDRESS. customer agrees that this inof is indeed correct. customer then proceeds to order 4 pizzas, 4 orders of breadsticks and 2 2-liters of soda . total is around $66. I get the delivery when the order is ready.

I drive to the EXACT address given on the ticket and knock on the door. a guy answers the door and looks a bit surprised. I ask if they had ordered from my store and they say no. OK. I apologize to the man and walk back to my car. I call the Phone number on the ticket and get voice mail. leave a message along the lines of "we are calling to confirm that an order was placed from this number and we need to verifiy the address. please call the store at xxx-xxxx" .

I then call the store to let the MOD knwo what the situation is and go on to my next delivery. MOD calls the number and get voice mail also. He leave a similiar message. I return to the store with the undeliverable order so that it the DO by some chance want their order we have it.

guess what no return phone call and we are stuck with this food. OH well at least I have lunch for the next 2 days

the thing that bugs me(esp this week) is that this is the THIRD order that I have been assigned that has been undeliverable.

first one on Monday was a dumbassed customer that did NOT give us their correct address and phone number even after verifying the address twice at the beginning of the call. at least I was able to sell the order to the person who was at the incorrect address (gave them a 50% discount). and yes the person at the incorrect address offered to buy the order.

On Tuesday night I had the "I am drunk and hungry I WANT WINGS" type of person. an existing customer ordered a bunch of wings, which I get to deliver. I get there and ring the buzzer on the apt. NO answer. I can see a light on in the apt. one of the other tenents comes out for a smoke and lets me into the building. I get to the apt where the order is going and I can hear either the stereo or the TV going. I knock but no answer. I knock harder but no answer. go back downstairs and call the number on the ticket. voice mail. leave standard message and head back to the store. it seems that the "customer" just passed out. and not no call back to the store or my phone.


and the customers wonder why the HELL we have to sometimes raise our prices or fees. plus it just wastes my time and gas for nothing (well maybe some free food in the end but that does not pay my bills)

[Lace Neil Singer]

At the pizza place where I used to work, anyone doing that got instantly blacklisted from delivery. Sometimes it was a prank, other times it was just some drunken idiot who'd forgotten they'd ordered pizza and had gone out or passed out. Then they'd ring us up some other time and pitch a fit when we told them that they were blacklisted.

[Itsjustpizza]

I wish we could blacklist people for doing stupid stuff like that, we cant even refuse service to people we know and have proof are scammers!

[Chromatix]

Eventually you have to go to pre-pay, somehow. I'm sure that would cut down on the scam artists and forgetful drunks - or at least on your losses due to them. OTOH, taking cards over the phone...

[emax4]

I remember working at a pizza shop, but we didnt have prank calls that often. What if you implemented some policy where you immediately call the person back to validate that it's the phone number they're calling from? It'll save time, money, and a lot of headaches down the road. If you explain it to the customer when they order, I think they would be somewhat understanding

[jedikuonji]

I'm surprised that pizza places don't require a CC number on every order regardless of the final payment method to prevent this sort of thing. I guess not overly surprised considering not everyone has a CC/debit card number to use, but I could see some sort of guaranteed payment system being useful.

[Itsjustpizza]

I remember working at a pizza shop, but we didnt have prank calls that often. What if you implemented some policy where you immediately call the person back to validate that it's the phone number they're calling from? It'll save time, money, and a lot of headaches down the road. If you explain it to the customer when they order, I think they would be somewhat understanding

We are supposed to do that when we have a new customer, but not everybody does. What I think we should do is call back all new customers. As for the people who have paid for one order out of five due to baseless complaints, just ban them from ordering. Its not like we are making any money with these "customers" anyway
they are scamming and we have to put up with it and be nice and all that crap or get written up and/or fired.

[MoonCat]

The place I order from keeps your phone number on file. The first few times, they call back to verify. After you become an established customer, they don't always call back.

They have reallllly good subs, too......now I'm hungry...

[ReadyToRetire]

first one on Monday was a dumbassed customer that did NOT give us their correct address and phone number even after verifying the address twice at the beginning of the call. at least I was able to sell the order to the person who was at the incorrect address (gave them a 50% discount). and yes the person at the incorrect address offered to buy the order.

This was a scam. I've worked a couple different places and people do this to get their order for cheaper. Claim they didn't order and conveniently offer to buy it anyway for a discount. Scam.

[Sapphire Silk]

Wow. Guess I was lucky. I don't recall running into these problems when I was delivering pizzas for a living.

Of course, that was back in the days of 30 minute deliveries . . . so I had a lot of jerks with stopwatches.

Many of our customers lived outside the city limits, and we were the only place that would deliver outside of town, so I guess that was enough of an incentive for them to behave.

The deliveries I didn't like were to the bad part of town. Several of our drivers got robbed, and I had one close call (had brought along someone as "shotgun", and lucked out).

I do remember that I lived for tips, so I always tip the delivery guys

[Racket_Man]

This was a scam. I've worked a couple different places and people do this to get their order for cheaper. Claim they didn't order and conveniently offer to buy it anyway for a discount. Scam.

I know the people at the incorrect address. I have delivered to them many times. what tipped it for me was the out-of-area area code part of the phone number. I know for a fact that the incorrect address has a local number.

the people who did give the incorrect address finally did call back witht he correct and verified phone and address. and yes they did pay full price for the order.

we do try and verify new customers but we were blasted out busy on Monday night.

[infinitemonkies]

It's not uncommon at the hotel for someone to stagger in after the bars close, order delivery, and be completely dead-to-the-world passed out by the time it arrives.
Sometimes I offer to buy the order for myself, sometimes the delivery guys give it to me for free. I always tip well in either case.