I will say that I've also ordered online through Dominos the last place I lived (where there is no brick oven place) and I was highly pleased with the service, and didn't get opted into any crap. I recommend them if you don't have any good local pizza.

You can also make your own pizza. Though in my experience I haven't had much luck making a good dough, and good cheese is DAMN expensive (us end consumers don't get the good deals the pizza places do). Where I live right now there's no pizza delivery, so I usually just buy the best pizza I can find in the supermarket (I hate how it's always a caky crust though). </ramble>

@sprocket79: But what you said isn't true. "don't eat at Pizza Hut. Their pizza is gross." That's an opinion not a truth. It's also not very helpful.

Second, why give them your real email address in the first place. Many people I know maintain a pool of free accounts at the likes of Yahoo for just this purpose. I have accounts at Yahoo that I log onto every month or so. My only action on login is to mark most of the messages as spam and log out. I have absolutely no expectation that any message to these accounts is meaningful at all.

I wonder if Microsoft, when it becomes MicroHoo, realizes that it will be acquiring many accounts that serve no purpose other than as spam sinks? Afterall, they are going for the eyeballs, right?

@MyCokesBiggerThanYours: "You can always unsubscribe afterwards."

Famous last words.

Hmmm, I order from Pizza Hut, only online, maybe 3 times a month, I hate pizza, but I like the breadsticks (mmm I dip them in hot sauce) I've been ordering online for about 2 years now, and I've never gotten any spam, not even in my spam folder... I guess I remembered to unclick that thing when I signed up.

This is ridiculous.

They could give the stuff away and I still would not eat it. Would much rather give my money to the local pizzeria.

I never really thought of it this way but it really is sort of like captioning for ordering calls. You don't have to use it if you don't want to (you can still pick up the phone, or you don't have to turn on captions/subtitles) but for those of us who depend on those services, they're vital.

2) Do you really want the people who have to hmm and haw over every detail of their order and hear every special offer twice to call instead of doing it online where they can just read everything? I do not enjoy being on hold myself.

We just simply use a google or hotmail account for that kind of stuff. Very easy to dump the account and make a new one if you get spammed and dont want to read it.

But with the generic name, you miss out on the fun when you're on the phone with a business:

Party Poker CSR: May I have your email address please?
Me: partypoker@example.com
PPCSR: No sir, I need your email address.
Me: That is my email address: partypoker@example.com
PPCSR: Alright...

The other option is to eat something that is actually real food and avoid these fast food chains altogether.

The problem does occur if one can actually ORDER PIZZA FOR DELIVERY from their local Pizza Hut via internet or phone. Somehow I get ad flyers for pizza hut delivered to my apartment complex mail box yet the local pizza hut cannot deliver to our complex because "it is not on their system" not too far away or not too dangerous but -not existing.

At first I was going to say "why don't you all just pick up the phone and spend the 45 seconds it takes to order a pizza", and then I realized that for those of us who live in areas where people who work behind the counters don't...how shall I put this delicately...have a great grasp of the English language, online is the best/most feasible option.

There's got to be a way to discontinue receipt of these e-mails through an opt-out link in e-mails they send you?

Dominoes has online ordering but all the shops in my area (2 in range of my place) aren't hooked up yet. mt. Mikes I love to order from as well, but their menu system isn't as complicated, and I always end up spending like $20, for a pizza and salad. Papa Murphys, nothing. Papa Johns, not sure. Little Ceasars, nope.

I'm getting hungry thinking about this.

I get emails about once a month from Pizza Hut vs. 2-3 per week from dominoes in the mail. I think someone once said, Pizza was the worlds most perfect food. I don't think it's perfect, but I do enjoy a good slice.

One "please unsubscribe me" email was all it took for us. Now, fighthing them on a double charge took a bit more effort. I had to call the individual store manager because the corporate number on the website ordering system was no help.

@Buran: The cost of cheese and wheat have gone up dramatically in the last couple years, at least when you're talking about buying it by the ton.

I too miss the days of two large (which really means medium, but whatevs) and a 2-liter for 10 bucks.

Now, I page through the coupons and I wonder why they're even bothering. Their "specials" are what you would think pizza normally costs. They're ripping us off right when people can't afford to eat out.

I just get a single-serve pizza by ordering online from work or SMS if I'm out, and sometimes breadsticks, pick it up myself on the way home and save on delivery/tip fees.

I do not, however, get ad spam from them; I used to when I was in their "VIP Program" but they've since dropped that. I also seem to remember opting out of one spam mail ages ago that they sent me during the VIP thing (which was entirely optional) and I was never bothered again. However, that wasn't the same as my current online account. I really don't know why I'm not bothered with spam and others are. Go figure. I'm not sure when I got that last marketing mail, though.

I don't get hassled with "I need your coupon" but the local paper coupons are available online too usually. That particular problem I would guess is a manager who's decided to powertrip slightly and is probably just a local thing.

@magic8ball: Houston, uptown, on a street corner where several ethnic neighborhoods happen to sort of intersect. Hell of fun but definitely not for the faint (or artherosclerotic) of heart.

@greensmurf: No, real live restaurants. Never seen anything like it, even in college towns. And true, no 24/7. Only one decent place even delivers after 9:30 or 10 (Sarpino's, hooray. Open 'til 1, and pizza with everything you can imagine on it but the stripper busting out the top).

@speedwell: Me too, for the most part, but most of those places are pesudo restaurants, but Imagine if you could order Taco Bell and have it delivered? Especially if it were 24/7 delivery, no more border cravings at 1am....
Would that make all us Americans lazy?

It's expensive fast food, nothing more. And their stuffed crust is fucking awful, makes me want to throw up. The commercials are insulting because it's always clean, wholesome families portrayed via the healthy looking delivery boy with not a problem in the world.

Now I've gone back to making my own pizza.

@greensmurf: Just by chance I live where I can have Mexican food delivered. Also pizza, full Italian dinner, fried chicken, Chinese, Vietnamese, Indian, hamburgers, Lebanese, sub sandwiches, hot wings, steak dinners, sushi, and desserts. It's kind of embarrassing in a way.

Also, this is what "pizzahut@example.com" email addresses are for. You can always block it, filter it, or throw it in the trash.

I am just waiting for the day you can order Taco Bell and have it delivered!!!

Pizza Hut is pretty nasty anyway... I'd say they're doing you a favor if you decide to try another pizza restaurant that allows you to order online.

This is timely - I just ordered pizza online today from Papa John's and they had 3 different prices for their 20 oz Coke products depending where on the site you looked. At the top under "Special" it said, "2 20 oz Coke products for $2.39." Then down in the bevereage section it said that two 20 oz Coke products cost $2.18. After placing my order but before checkout, it asked if I would like to order any 20 oz Coke products - for $1.49 each. Crazy. (I didn't order any Coke, though - I was good and drank water with my junk food lunch.)

Yahoo! sends all my Pizza Hut nonsense directly to my spam box.

Pizza Hut further antagonizes online customers by having unstated arbitrary online order minimums in some locales ($15 one place I was, $25 at another); and some locations will make you show them a paper copy of any discounts or coupons you use, even if you obtained the discount online. They don't make e-pizza e-asy.

For all you small-world pizza snobs out there, some of us in the hinterlands don't have access to pizza seasoned with the sweat of an eyetalian brow. On the other hand, we have Pizza Patron, and ellos acceptan pesos.

@Echodork: It's not that it's a trivial issue that we can work around. It's that Pizza Hut is not trustworthy in small things, so how can we expect them to be trustworthy in large things (like food safety and quality)?

Is this a new thing? I have ordered pizza online from Pizza Hut and have never received an email from them besides the ones that confirm your order.

My other choice for ordering pizza without having to make a phone call is Dominos, and Dominos tastes awful. My Pizza Hut usually does a pretty good job -- like any chain restaurant, if you go to a place that has decent staff, the food will be good, if they are lazy you won't like it.

Now what'd make me really happy would be if the local Italian places could set up online ordering, and the local Chinese places.

So their web site sucks even worse than their pizza?? That's *really* hard to imagine.

Thats too bad... sneaky too. The average person would just click the check box and not even read the rest.

If you guys like dominos try ordering from them. Their new pizza tracker thing is a gimmick but its kinda cool, at least I think. The only problem I've had with them is my local stores DSL line being out for a couple of months. I just didn't order pizza then because their phone etiquite sucks. That and you cant get through to them without being put on hold.

I want MORE places to offer online ordering as it's a hassle for me, as I'm hard of hearing. What's taking so long?

We have more pizza delivery than we know what to do with around here. We have not set foot in or ordered from a Pizza Hut in ten years. This is one reason why it may well be another ten years.