Nathan wonders: if a company makes repeated errors, then attempts to make things right, should you still warn others against patronizing them? He tells Consumerist that a chain pizza place failed to apply his coupon on four separate orders. He failed to notice at the time, and the restaurant manager offered a refund and free pizza once he called them on it. But should he recommend the place to others? What would you do?
Question for you and other Consumerist readers: If you discover repeated overbilling by a company (in this case, failure to apply a coupon), report it to the company, and the manager tries to make it right, would you still give the company a bad review to warn off other consumers? Or would you let it slide because the manager has done all he or she can do?
Here’s my story: We order the same pizza from our local Round Table Pizza whenever we have friends over. We always tip the driver the same amount (we overtip because our house is a pain to reach and we are always nice to the driver and the person taking the order, so it’s not that they’re getting revenge on us or anything like that), and the bill is always exactly the same. We always use a $3 coupon from Round Table’s website and clearly state at the beginning of the phone call that we’d like to use that coupon. We always use the same credit card to pay for it, and we pay over the phone. Yes, we are very predictable.
The most recent time we ordered, I noticed when the driver got to our house that the $3 coupon hadn’t been applied. When I looked back through my credit card statements, I saw that the coupon was not applied the previous three orders over the last few months, for a total ripoff of $12.
When I called them on it, the manager apologized profusely, credited us the most recent $3, and gave us a coupon for a free pizza to make up for the $9 from earlier months that she claimed were too old for her to credit us back coupon amounts. I said that was fine (I’m aware I could have pushed for the $9 instead, but didn’t feel like arguing over it given that the coupon will be more of a $20+ value anyway). Now I’m going back and forth on the question I wrote above: Do I warn people away, given that the repeated nature of this screwup suggests others are going to face the same issue? Or would that be vindictive of me, as there’s really nothing else the company can do?
More From Consumerist
-
CFPB Warns Specialty Credit Reporting Agencies: You’ve Gotta Issue Free Annual Reports, Too
-
Yosemite National Park Warns 1,700 Visitors They Might Have Gotten A Rodent-Borne Disease
-
Be Sure To Specify ‘Weed Killer,’ Not ‘Every Plant In The Yard Killer’
-
FTC Warns Against Scammers Trying To Cash In On Aurora Theater Shooting
-
Mom Displeased That Toy She Bought Her One-Year-Old Turns Out To Have A Potty Mouth
This pizza thing could be an honest mistake, or it could be good for nothing high school kids that don’t care. I can’t comment on that, but, if the problem occurs again, I think it’s fair to let people know, even if the manager handled the issue very reasonably.
That said, I warn a LOT of people about the tactics of all the scumbag printer manufacturers, let them know about any lawsuits against those manufacturers, and give them info on which ones are less scuzzy than the others. I am more than happy to tell customers very frankly, to never put another dollar in XXX’s pocket again. Plus, if I can keep even one person from renting from my old apartment complexes management company, then I am a happy man. I’d post to Consumerist about them, but I kinda screwed up too there at the end.
They owned up to the mistake and offered compensation. What’s the big deal?
I doubt I would warn people completely away, given that this could be an issue with their computer system or something. Especially if I really liked the pizza and otherwise got good service. I would tell them to double check their receipts, however.
The real question should be when should consumerist stop redacting business names and locations.
warnings are useless if no one knows what the warning is about. Imagine if the media announced this on tv (essentially pulling a consumerist)
“what ever you do, don’t go (redacted) today”
“due to heavy snow we recommend that you avoid (redacted) on your way to work as we are looking at 3-6 hour delays”
“The government is warning all (redacted) residents to get to shelter as over 9000 category 6 tornadoes are expected to hit the small town of (redacted) between 4PM and 6PM”
“Due to bad weather, all schools in the area of (redacted) are closed, along with the select few schools in the NY area whose names are as follows (redacted), (redacted), (redacted), (redacted), (redacted), (redacted), (redacted), and lastly, (redacted).”
“There is a nation wide recall on all products sold by (redacted), due to salmonella, mustard gas, nerve gas, anthrax, toxic waste, and swine flu contamination. If you or anyone you know has eaten any products in the last 30 days from (redacted), please seek immediate medical care.”
Anyway businesses that constantly fail at something and offer rewards to those who are very vocal about it are still scamming people.
It is cheaper to offer a sale or good coupon and not honor it and give a free item to people who complain, than to be honest and offer sale or coupon for all customers. Many businesses do this, you get a item from the shelf, you wait in line 20 minutes, you see a different price, after waiting so long, most people will not be skip the item and will pay the higher price, the store profits in the end and for the more vocal shoppers, they simply refund them the difference and they get the actual promised sale price, this keeps the vocal shoppers happy while the less vocal sheep silently become angry but accept being scammed.
no, especially if it is a place you go to allot.
no.
forgive and forget
I would just warn them that when using a coupon make sure they apply it properly. I have had X number of problems with them handling the procedure properly. The good news is when i brought it to their attention they responded appropriately.
No, but if you review the company you should note the company is sometimes inattentive so they should check to insure the coupons were applied. I tend to do this automatically.
Well, since YOU didn’t notice it and they corrected it once you did and brought it to their attention, I would say not to warn anyone…yet. If they forget to do it on your next order, then maybe warn others they aren’t good about coupons but are great otherwise.
We did the same thing with our local Papa Johns basically. They completely messed our order up but it was still edible. I sent them an email the next day and got a coupon in the mail for a free pizza. I used it the following weekend, no problems. Then the next time we went to order they said “cash only” as we had been marked in their system as bad check writers. WTF ? They certainly cashed all of our checks and we’ve never written a bad check to them or anyone else. So the manager got mad because we got a free coupon from corporate and he flagged us in the system. I’ve been boycotting them ever since and will Never order from Papa Johns again.
For me it’s not so much the mistake, but how they choose to handle it.
Merchants have no excuse when it comes to money.Then again neither does the costumer.
If the company is sincerely trying to set things right with their customer, it would seem extremely juvenile and petty to continue bad-mouthing them.
The manager fixed the problem when she was made aware of it. Why would you warn people not to eat there?
I think you should only warn people about the possibility of the problem, and tell them to watch their receipt just to be sure that their discount is applied appropriately. They deserve to know the story, but the manager should get a lot of credit for helping you to the best of their ability. You should also get a lot of credit for not blowing up, and being willing to accept the $3, instead of $12.
Receipts are issued to prevent accidental errors such as this. People make mistakes, computers make mistakes, your receipt allows you to politely ask for the mistake to be corrected. I applaud you for being so civil though, many people would have just gotten upset, which this doesn’t really warrant.
One screwup may be an accident or untrained employee, but 4 times with the same problem is a systemic and is likely a deliberate “problem”.
If I were charitable and liked their product, I’d give them another try and if the problem recurred, they’re either incompetent or crooked – in either case, I’d dump them and advise others to do the same.
If I weren’t charitable or their product was mediocre, I wouldn’t give them a second chance.
Round Table has excellent pizza. If the manager gave them a free pizza, worth more than the coupon discounts, then I’d be a happy camper.
I answered no, but the real answer is to just include the entire experience in your review. Mention that you like their food, you like their deal, you had a billing issue come up multiple times, they were very gracious about fixing it, and you still eat there as a result.
Just put the entire story out there and let people decide what to do with it. Most people give the benefit of the doubt if they know the restaurant was cool about handling their mistake.