Friday, August 31, 2012

The Pizza Delivery Debacle

Or, "My Punishment for Ordering Pizza" 

We rarely do this. At least in recent history. But, on a Thursday night, after a long day at work, where I sustained a minor injury due to my own clumsiness, my husband suggest we order pizza to be delivered. I succumbed, against my better judgement. We discuss who we should call, because we live in something of a pizza delivery wasteland, where the only options are chains, so we attempt to select the best of the worst...Sarpino's. 

We used to order Sarpino's when we did order delivery pizza, and it wasn't bad, and their service was decent. We stopped about a year ago when all that changed. We suspected this particular franchise might be under new management, which caused the quality and service to go downhill. It happens. We just started making pizzas on the grill, and we like them a lot. But, on this ill-fated day, we decide to give them a second chance. 

Sarpino's has an online ordering system that gives you updates on the status of your order. Very cool, except that it sets an expectation of when your dinner should arrive. We received an email at 7:11 stating our pizza was "out for delivery." In my world, that means in the driver's car, on the way to my house. And in the past, that usually meant he was at our house in 10-15 minutes. So, tick, tock.... 

Thirty minutes pass, then forty...we start peeking out the door, wondering if the delivery driver is at the wrong house. I am just about to call the store, when we hear a knock. Hooray ! Pizza ! My husband answers the door, takes the credit card slip from the driver, and asks "So, what happened, that it took 45 minutes to get here ?" The driver, stands there, stunned. Ray signs the slip, and asks, "Has the pizza been riding around in the car for 45 minutes?" The driver then says "Just give me the receipt!" grabs it, and the pizza, jumps in his car and drives away. Huh ? 

We stand there, stunned. What just happened? Our pizza took 45 minutes to get to our house from a storefront 10 minutes away, and now we stand here, credit card charged, and no pizza. I call the store, ask to speak to the manager. A nice, young man, by the name of Alex, comes on the line. I explain what happened, and Alex says, "I don't know why he took the pizza." OK, me neither. I ask that he make sure our credit card doesn't get charged, and ask if he can explain why it would take 45 minutes for a pizza to get to our house from his shop. Alex tries to explain that the email is automatic (of course it is), and that just because it goes out, doesn't mean the driver actually left with the pizza. This makes no sense to me. 

I tell Alex we have a problem now, because we have now been waiting over 2 hours, we have no dinner, and we're upset. He offers to send the driver back to the house with the pizza, but quite frankly I don't want a pizza that has been sitting now for well over an hour, nor do I want to wait another hour for a fresh one. I tell him just make sure the card isn't charged, and email me confirmation of this (which he claims he can't do). Again, he offers to have the driver bring out the receipt. I don't want this driver anywhere near my house, he wasn't scared when he left here, he was ANGRY! So, we agree the best course of action is just to leave it at that. 

We order another pizza, from another place, and the waiting begins again. Approximately 45 minutes later, there is a knock on the door, and we think it is our fresh, new pizza from the newly selected restaurant. No, it is someone from Sarpino's ! A nice, more mature gentleman presents us with a pizza and a gift certificate and says, "Alex would like you to have this, with our compliments" and leaves. I am stunned. It was a nice gesture, yes. But now we have another pizza on the way. We are ravenous by this point, so we open the box, and each take a slice. It's horrible tasting, undercooked,  and slimy. And at some point, Ray looks at me and says, "You know, they might be angry with us, and messed with this pizza in some way." We both put down the slices of pizza and grimace. And now we have a gift certificate for a place we really have no interest in patronizing again. 

The whole experience kind of put us off pizza in general. We had a ton of left over pizza this morning as I left for work, my original plan being to take some for lunch. I couldn't stomach it, but I am not sure if it was the actual pizza or the experience that made me feel that way. 

12 comments:

  1. lol, I used to work at this branch. Hey Alex tried his best and I'm sure he wouldn't mess with your pizza ... not sure why a driver would run off with the first pizza though.. that's just... weird

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  3. I am the driver who delivered the pizza. The manager alex sent me out with 4 delivery's at once and told me to deliver them in the order they were assigned, I told him it was a stupid idea and that the orders should be split up between me and another driver but alex insisted that i take them all myself despite the fact they were already running a little late. when i got to the house i was going to apologize about the wait like i would any other person but the man who answered the door was the one who was ANGRY!!! He didnt politely ask me why it took 45 minutes to get there he SCREAMED WHY THE FU** DID IT TAKE YOU 45 FU**ING MINUTES TO GET HERE!!! Which explains why i was in shock. If anybody else outside of work would have talked to me like that i would have knocked them out but rather than going that route i decided to walk away where once again the man who answered the door decided to scream YOU LITTLE FA**OT FU**ER!!! at me... Moral of story these people are not as innocent as they make themselves seem.

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  4. As you can see, I deleted the previous comment due to the profanity, I will allow your rant to stay posted as you have elected to remove it, in some fashion. While I appreciate hearing both sides of the story, I was on the other side of the door while this happened, and there was no profanity used, he did not scream at you, and at no point in his life has my husband ever called anyone a F**G*T. Your point about being sent out with too many deliveries, however, is understandable. Thank you for that. I imagine you did have several upset customers at that point in the evening. It may have clouded your perception of how events unfolded on our doorstep.

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  5. Ma'mm with all do respect... YOUR HUSBAND RAISED HIS VOICE TO ME AND USED PROFANITY!!!

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  6. This individual does not deserve to wear Sarpino's uniform and represent this company

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    1. you know what your right i deserve BETTER!!! Why would you want to work for a company that has employees working 90 hours a week with no overtime pay, or where the owner of the story takes money out of peoples checks with no permission and treats everyone with a level of disrespect that no one should have to deal with. why would i want to work for a company where the managers drop food on the floor and in trash cans and still send it to customers!!!

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    2. Wait, VOSKO took money from your check without permission? 90 hours a week with no overtime? Is this even legal? I guess I'm glad I got out of there when I did. Sounds like it fell apart :(

      Sorry you are going through that. The pizza industry is supposed to be so much fun... it sucks that it's being ruined like that.

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  7. It certainly was not my intention to start a "he said, she said" argument, it feels a little juvenile at this point. A week later, I am still getting calls, and correspondence regarding this matter that, quite frankly, I would just as soon forget. Regardless of what did or did not happen, I am a customer. It is inappropriate to handle this in this fashion, when a problem caused by your store created the issue in the first place. Apologize and let it be done.

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    1. Your right and i do apologize its very unfortunate that this situation happened and is now being dragged on. I've said what i had to say so I'll leave it that.

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  8. I as well use to work here. I left about 18 months ago, its true, you work 80+ hours a week with no overtime and they justify it to labor department as 'salary'. I had a total of $437 taken from my checks while I was employeed, they were audited during tax time and was ordered to pay it back but I am shocked to here they still do it. Can't believe they haven't learned. Vasko is the scum of the earth and I hope he gets what's coming to him

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  9. Seems to me, y'all have a complaint to make with your corporate office. Glad I could bring it to their attention, and I will be calling the district manager with all of these concerns. I have worked in restaurants, customer service, you name it. I teach classes on how to handle difficult customers, and providing customer centered service. I hope some of these stories aren't true, but one thing I know for sure. We used to enjoy the service we received from this store, and something drastic happened about a year ago, we aren't sure what. But as a manager, I know that if you train your staff, and treat them right,they know the right thing to do with customers.

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