Pizza Hut And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Reader Chris write in to let us know that even though his local Pizza Hut was having a really, really bad day (car accidents, miscommunication, messed up refunds) they went out of their way to try to make it up to him.

Here’s Chris’ letter:

Tonight I was running a little short on time when I got home from work so I decided to order a pizza from my local Pizza Hut online. As always I printed my receipt number and noted the estimated time for delivery: one hour – a little long but I figured it was worth the wait while I could catch up on some other business. One hour rolled around and I was starting to find it difficult to hear myself think over my rumbling guts. When the clock hit an hour and ten minutes I was started to get annoyed, I got up to get the receipt number and prepared myself for an epic journey into the sixth circle of call centre hell when the phone rang. It was the local Pizza Hut calling to inform me that they were really sorry that my order was late and that the driver had had an accident. They said they would be making a fresh pizza and sending it as soon as possible with another driver – no charge. I don’t know if anyone was hurt in the accident but I felt instantly like a heel for not only caring so much about my pizza but for getting ready to call the place and give them a serving just as they were dialing me up to try to make sure I was a happy customer.

Chris
Update:

Simon from Pizza Hut called again, just before the fresh pizza arrived, and advised me that because I paid with my credit card he had some type of difficulty reversing the charges (?) but he insisted that I ask the driver to give me a cash refund when he arrived and left his own number for me to call while the driver was still there if I had any problems getting the cash. When the driver did arrive he climbed our three flights of stairs and breathlessly offered the pizza and said “Sorry” and “No charge.” I could tell he’d had a rough night and asked if everybody was okay, which he said they were. I didn’t ask for the cash because I figured he had a rough night anyway and I thought I’ll let it be his tip when he gets back and finds out the cash was up for grabs. My bad.

An hour or so later, as I finished up my pizza there was another knock on the door. It was the driver again. He had gone back to Pizza Hut and been told that he was supposed to give me a cash refund and was sent back to my place again, cash in hand, He had again scaled the three flights of stairs and was breathlessly apologizing again. I made it quite clear this time that I insisted they keep the payment, which I assume he will pocket as a tip.

Anyway, I must say that this Pizza Hut definitely went way out of their way to keep me happy and I will definitely be giving this driver a nice tip the next time he climbs our stairs.

Chris

That poor pizza guy! What crappy day he was having. Giving him the money was a nice thing to do, even if he had to drive to your house over and over again to get it.

(Photo: Tidewinder )

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