Pizza Delivery

After closing time at work last Sunday, we ordered pizza and wings from Pizza Pizza (the #1 pizza chain in Ontario, Canada). The order was about 45 bucks for 2 pizzas, 30 wings and some drinks. The delivery guy arrived JUST before the 40-minute guarantee and quickly grabbed everything from his car and ran up to our door. Once we had paid and he was gone, we realized we were accidently given a box of chicken nuggets instead of the 30 wings, even though our bill listed the wings correctly.

We called and told them of the mistake and decided we didn't want to wait again to have the wings delivered. We expected them to offer us some kind of compensation so we wouldn't be upset, not to mention getting our money back since we had already paid and didn't get the wings. The lady on the phone was extremely rude, and repeated a thousand times that all she could do was send out the correction. But we didn't want it since we were finished work and ready to leave. They guarantee your delivery in 40 minutes or it's free, se we even tried explaining that since we only received half our order, then they haven't accomplished their guarantee. She responded by explaining that as long as we received an order in 40 minutes, they met the guarantee, regardless of whether the order was correct or not. She even stated that they do not give any refunds, only store credits for future orders. After speaking to her supervisor, who only reiterated the same position, we grudgingly accepted a credit for the value of the wings on the condition that the head of Customer Relations for the entire company call me two days later.


On Tuesday I received a call from Andrew, Pizza Pizza's head of Customer Relations. I outlined the situation and he was extremely unsympathetic. He stated that the problem could have been rectified if I had allowed them to send out the wings after we realized the mistake. He didn't understand that it was too late, since we were ready to leave from work. He stated over and over again that the company does not offer aything else in this situation, only the replacement product. He even claimed that the supervisor who placed a credit on my account had no such authority and that it is company policy NOT to issue credits or refunds. But he was offering to leave the credit on my account since it was already done. What a nice gesture.

I proceeded to tell him that it must be against the law to refuse to refund my money for a product that was never given to me, especially when it was entirely their fault. I asked him if he would do further business with any company that treated him poorly, and he said no. So then I asked what good a credit is to me if it's obvious that I'm not inclined to ever order from Pizza Pizza again. Finally he caved and said I could pick up a cash refund for the price of the 30 wings from any Pizza Pizza locaion of my choosing. I told him which location I would go to, and when I would go. He told me he would arrange with that location, so that they would know that I was coming in, and they would be prepared to provide a refund as per his authorization. After lecturing him on customer service and good business sense, I told him that the way everyone in the company handled this situation would result in the loss of myself as their customer.

A cash refund is the bare-minimum solution to the problem of never receiving what I paid for, in my opinion. I shouldn't have had to fight to get just that.

To make matters worse, when I arrived on the prearranged date and time at the location specified, the manager knew nothing of my situation and didn't even know who Andrew from head office was! Apparently he never followed through on his word to arrange for the refund. Both myself and the location manager tried contacting him but he was not in the office. We both spoke to numerous co-workers of Andrew, and none of them could confirm that a refund was authorized. I was told to wait and contact him the next day, which was ridiculous considering this was supposed to have been taken care of, and I had come out of my way to pick up money that was rightfully mine. Finally, after almost 40 minutes of phone calls and arguments while in that location, the location manager found a note about the refund in my customer file in their chain-wide computerized ordering system, and gave me the cash.

Was the headache worth the 20 bucks? I think it just became a matter of principle after the way we were treated.


Any other Pizza Pizza horror stories, or perhaps ones that were handled differently?