WHO: Domino’s Pizza
WHAT: Domino’s overcharged reader Robert for some pizzas and were rude to him when he pointed this out. Upon complaining to Domino’s corporate, Robert’s complaint was kicked back down to the people who were rude to him in the first place.
THE QUOTE:“Because your Domino’s Pizza store is independently owned and operated, I have forwarded your comments to the franchise owner or local representative. Please be assured your comments will be taken seriously and considered to help Domino’s Pizza improve our operations.”
Domino’s writes to Robert:
January 22, 2008
Mr. Robert [redacted]
Dominos Case #: [redacted]
Dear Mr. Robert [redacted],
Thank you for taking the time to contact the Domino’s Pizza Customer Care Team. As a valued Domino’s Pizza customer, your comments are extremely important to us.
I want to apologize for the situation you encountered at the Cambridge location. Domino’s Pizza takes great pride in providing the quality products and service you have come to expect and trust.
Because your Domino’s Pizza store is independently owned and operated, I have forwarded your comments to the franchise owner or local representative. Please be assured your comments will be taken seriously and considered to help Domino’s Pizza improve our operations.
Again, thank you for taking the time to contact us. Your business is very important to us.
Sincerely,
Arnaldo
Domino’s Pizza Customer Care T.E.A.M.
Robert replies (to Domino’s):
Arnaldo-
After I sent my previous message (the one which you are replying to) I attempted to contact the Cambridge location again, and no one would assist me. They still have my money, and now that I’ve returned home there’s little chance I’ll get it back.
While they might be an independent franchise, they share your name, and their actions damage the reputation of your entire company.
To reiterate-
1) We placed an order for pizza’s you guys had on sale, and we were instead charged full price, which ended up being twice what we thought it would be.
2) When my friend called, he was treated rudely and told it was his fault that the sale price wasn’t given.
3) When I called, I was told the manager would return my call as soon as she could, but that it was our own fault.
4) After 3 calls to the store, we were finally told there was no manager on duty, but that she would call us the next day.
5) At no point did any of of the staff return my calls as they said they would.This entire time we were treated horribly by that stores staff. For you to tell me that you’re forwarding the complaint on doesn’t help much, since I’ve already called them and complain and was treated badly for doing so. All I wanted was a refund of the overage I was charged, and I was clear with the staff that I understand mistakes happen. I saved up for college by working at a pizza place, as did my sister (who actually worked at a Domino’s in Springfield, MA) and I know that sometimes it can be frustrating when a customer calls up with a complaint. As such, I went out of my way to be as polite as possible and simply wanted a return of my money. Instead I received attitude and frustration.
Please look into this a little deeper than just a form letter to myself.
Robert [redacted]
PS- I am CC’ing this email to The Consumerist, which is an excellent customer advocacy site.
(Photo:Tyler Durden’s Imaginary Friend
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“Nothing good comes from the midwest… Nothing”
I’d say one thing the midwest has is friendly people! I’ve rarely had bad customer service issues with people from the midwest…now the east coast on the other hand…
@akalish:
You live in the Bronx and you called Domino’s? Do you eat at Olive Garden too? Seriously, in the NY/NJ area and most of New England you have a large indigenous Italian-American population operating restaurants where you can get real pizza. Same with seafood…I haven’t been to a Red Lobster in my life. Why do they even exist in our area? Low prices maybe? It would be like people in the southeast or Texas going to Famous Daves for bbq. Fuggedaboutit.
@GitEmSteveDave: Hehehe – Good one!
I hate Dominos. Our office used to order from them a lot- hundreds of dollars of pizzas & guaranteed good tip if they showed up on time. Then they screwed themselves by messing up and double charging my corporate card, not providing receipts and being a huge pain in the ass by continuously promising to call me back or fax over what I needed (without bothering to ask for a fax number) and not doing it.
I had to go to corporate, who basically faked a receipt for me off of the information I told them for my order (getting it wrong twice) and two weeks later refunding the over charge.
I love my local pizza chain, and order from them every chance I can get- but they refuse to deliver to our office that is 3 blocks outside their delivery zone. I figure that the punk kids who work there just don’t want to have to make 30-40 pizzas ready by 11:30 am.
@WV.Hillbilly: California and Florida.
I’ve always wondered how effective making up a big sign calling the company a ripoff and walking up and down the sidewalk would be. I’ve never seen it done but have mentally rehearsed doing it a few times.
It might not be very effective for a pizza delivery place although it might garner some attention from folks coming by to pickup.
@howie_in_az:
Don’t drive.
Don’t drive after dark.
Don’t drive in bad weather.
Don’t care to corral and strap in screaming/tantruming kids into car for a five minute drive.
Good value.
Conserves limited lunch/dinner break for, you know, eating lunch/dinner.
Those are just a few reasons I can think of why people still order out.
Me, I just like to see the look on the delivery guy’s face when I answer the door in my vintage pink satin negligee. *g*
@hugslife: So that means it’s ok to be treated this way? People have a right to basic levels of service, whether you approve of the company or not.
I’m not going to defend Dominos, but I stumbled across their online ordering system while staying at a hotel in San Jose, CA.
I’ll spare you all the details, but it was great. I didn’t have to talk
to someone who could barely construct a sentence, my order was clearly
summarized and totaled for me before I clicked confirm.
At first I thought it was a stupid concept, but I’m sold on it. Not
that they still can’t make mistakes when making your pizza, but I just
liked not having to be treated rudely by someone who acted like they
were doing me a favor by taking my phone order. Plus, you know exactly
what you are going to be charged before they get to your door.
All this midwest bashing really needs to stop.
My hockey team will beat up your hockey team.
@cubicleman: My bad.
@silencedotcom: I come from the Midwest, you big old jerk!
When Dominos was just beginning to expand, they were tremendous. They had eager as hell managers who ran great stores. Why? The promise of ownership of future stores. There was real opportunity and for many it was realized.
Today? Market saturation has been achieved and there is little incentive.
The company that most reminds me of Dominos is Home Depot. When they were first expanding, they had a fantastic reputation for service and for cost savings. sure enough, as market saturation occurred, corporate decides they are simply offering a commodity and would not reward great service.
Laugh at me for saying this, but Wal*Marts were similarly great places 25 years ago. Now they have commoditized everything. Taking care of people does not work in this model. Back in the day, when they were growing, their associates really were associates. Now they are functionary pawns.
I’m an assistant manager at the Domino’s in my town – don’t hate on me, it’s just a job to get through college, and I usually order pizza from this other local place when I want some pie – and I wanted to shed some light on the new “You Got 30 Minutes” thing. The thing they keep repeating on the internal documentation is that “Because we take safety seriously, it’s an estimate, not a guarantee.” I know a lot of people remember when we did that way back when, and think we’re doing it again, but they’re not. It’s really obnoxious, and I hate it. I’d be happy to send the Consumerist all the internal stuff they sent us about it if y’all want, I just didn’t think it was very interesting.
The best part about they way they phrase it is that you can paraphrase it as “If your pizza isn’t there in 30 minutes, wait longer.” Or, “You pizza will be there in 30 minutes, or more.”
@Meg Marco: Thank you for using my photo!
We had a run in one night with a Dominos. We ordered a pizza for delivery, and it never showed up. When we called the place to see what the deal was, the employee told us that we never ordered a pizza, and called me a liar. After speaking with the manager we told him we wanted our pizza for free. He accepted, but told us to “take care of his driver.” My friends and I are pretty nice people, and understand that shit does happen, so the driver walked away with a $20 tip. We win with “free pizza”, and the guy who might make $1-2 a house ended up with a damn good tip.
@moorem2: Except that’s not what he meant by “take care of my driver.”
Domino’s pizza crust taste like cardboard smells. The topping look like plastic. Yucky stuff to say the least.
To be honest, whoever owns the franchise is probably NOT the people you delt with in the store. My guess is that the franchise owner WILL take it seriously. It’s probably somebody who owns the business along with other businesses to make money. The manager and employees do keep things from him, so Domino’s corporate probably contacted the store owner privately by email.. Hopefully that owner will respond.
Alternative to get paid back (don’t brag, you’ll get in trouble)
Since you probably paid in cash, order food again from them worth the amount of money you should have been refunded. PAY ON CREDIT. Call credit card company, and have charge refunded. Store will get a chargeback (don’t sign your name, or write an X”
@chipslave: It’s really, really dumb. I’m an assistant at the local store – don’t hate, it’s a decent college job in this crappy town – and the internal stuff they sent out to us is just inane. “It’s an estimate, not a guarantee.” We’ve taken to paraphrasing it as “Your pizza will be there in 30 minutes, or wait longer.”
Personally, I would handle the following way: 1. Call up the franchise owner, and let him know the attorney general will be investigating him for false advertising and fraud, and further the dept. of agriculture will be inspecting him routinely for food safety until he changes his attitude. (I only add this in because once upon a time Vomit-os Pizza served me a spider on my pizza, no joke, and then didn’t see what the problem was…sigh). 2. Find the district manager, franchise or no, and scream long and loud about it. DM’s are usually the consumer’s best friend in a scenario like this, free meals and letters of apology are all but guaranteed, as are terminations where appropriate. 3. Since they have taken this tack of saying local problem, local owner, your problem, then make the attack local in nature
There are a whole myriad of sites you can report this stupidity to that will make other consumers aware of geographically and lose that location lots of business over time…These include http://www.yelp.com, http://www.rottenneighbor.com, wwww.google.com (enter address in google, then choose write a review), local.yahoo.com, http://www.thinklocal.com, http://www.restaurantrow.com.) Again, this will leave permanent marks and comments against them they can’t erase, so only to be used when you are at war with them and don’t plan to go back. Good luck!
I never get delivery, I always pick up. I guess I’m just adverse to paying a tip to a guy who is basically just driving to my house, but I give generous tips when I do, so I guess I just want to avoid giving one.
It may not be high in quality, but Little Caesar’s cheap Hot and Ready for the win.
I had no idea that Domino’s was still in business. I had the misfortune of having their pizza 10 or so years ago. Worst tasting cardboard I’ve ever had. I haven’t seen any of their stores around in years and didn’t miss them.
I had a similar experience with Papa Johns months ago. Called in the pizza, arrived 25 minutes later. No pizza. Said come back in 10 minutes. Came back *15* minutes later…now a line. Waited in line. Got to counter 10 minutes later. No pizza. Guy looks around, runs to the back and throws together a pizza. “I just put it in sir” “Ummm give me my money back, I am not waiting 15 MORE minutes for a pizza you just threw together after you’ve had almost an hour to make one”.
Emailed corporate…never got a response. Guess they don’t take matters like this very seriously. Papa Johns = 1 year boycott now.
We never order Domino’s pizza; we prefer the hole in the wall pizza places.
What’s cheaper: make your own. It may be a little more work but tastes much better. Some pizza places will sell you the dough for $1-$3; enough for a large pizza.
@Starfury: Plus, Domino’s is run by a
megalomaniacal uber-right-wing Christian, and those aren’t usually the
types of people I like to give my money to.
@howie_in_az: I don’t own a car and most pizza places aren’t close enough to make getting a pizza via the bus a good idea.
There are a couple of local pizza places near my job where I could just get it after work when I wouldn’t be standing around with it for an hour but if I actually want Pizza Hut I have to get it delivered.
@Saboth: A Papa John’s delivery guy ran off with my money without giving me any change (there was a lot). When I called to complain the guy was all, “Well, what do you want me to do about it?”
I hope my change was worth my never ordering from them again.
@spinachdip:
virtually all
We had a pizza delivered from our local Domino’s (Waynesboro, VA) – and part of the pizza had been eaten – we took a picture upon receiving it (but had not thought to check the pizza before the driver left) and called within minutes of the driver leaving. The manager on duty was rude, and told us there was no way this could have happened. This was delivered to our business address, and we have never had issues with them before, although our department orders from them quite often, and we had many people witnessing the opening of the pizza where slices were missing and it was all askew in the box. It took a few days and repeated calls to get them to refund our money, and although we have ordered from there since (since there is only one other service which will deliver to our business address) – but now we always make sure to open the pizza in front of the driver before he or she leaves. It would not have been that upsetting if the manager had just sent another pizza out – I imagine this was one that they had at the restaraunt for their personal consumption, and there was just a mix up in which box was brought to us, but we were appalled at the treatment from the manager, and did receive a similar response from corporate.
FOIA their health inspection results.
If there is anything bad on it, print up scary flyers, and blanket the closest parking lots with them.
Dominos Pizza tastes like crap anyway, they’re the bottom of the barrel here in the city. Even Little Caesars does better then those idiots.
@Rectilinear Propagation:
I really don’t want to burst your bubble, but that’s what makes businesses give up caring. Lots of customers means lots more customers, means if they lose one they have 10 more behind him. Being expendable is a fact of life. This is why a lot of businesses don’t pay their employees fairly, because someone will always do it cheaper, ignoring the economic impacts and realities.
/Shameless Plug
This is one of the reasons Consumerist is such a great site. Ahem
Update (I removed my last name and such, but everything else (typos and all) is word for word. I did in fact receive the $25 in gift certificates, in case you were wondering
Mr. Robert [redacted]
Dominos Case #: [redacted]
Dear Mr. Robert [redacted],
Thank you for your reply. I want to apologize for the situation you encountered while visiting Cambridge for a convention. All of our creative does state that you must as for the special to get the offered price. I am sorry for the confusion and poor experience that this caused.
In appreciation of your time and business, I am mailing some gift certificates that can be used at any Domino’s Pizza nationally including your local Chicopee store. It is my hope that you will use the certificates to give us another chance. We will be running the Big Fantastic Deal (Large, unlimited toppings for 10.99) promotion for a little while longer so you can order it at your local store, just tell them when you call that you would like the BFD and they will get it right out to you.
Thank you again for your interest in Domino’s Pizza. We look forward to serving you soon.
Sincerely,
Catrina Salts
Domino’s Pizza Inc.
Customer Care
Dominos makes me angry. A lot. I go to college out on the coast, and Dominos is one of the more affordable pizza places. And what college student doesn’t like pizza? Well every semester, my college hands out a book of coupons for local eateries and such. Without fail there are Dominos coupons. Within the coupons there was one advertising a large pizza for a low price, so I decided to order one to share with neighbors. Low and behold I call and the coupon is “not in there system”. After arguing with them for twenty minutes, telling them it is for that specific location (which is printed on the coupon) and that it is feasibly in my hand, they agree to give me that price so long as I give them the coupon when they drop it off. Ok. The delivery guy shows up and tells me the coupon is for online orders only. Not only is that not specified on the coupon, their website works probably 10 % of the time. In one corner of the coupon it says you CAN order online, but it says that on all of their coupons and advertisements. Was I in the wrong? No.