Mark didn’t like how a Papa John’s pizza delivery guy was acting, so he paid the delivery charge but marked through the tip line on his receipt. Two days later, he discovered an extra $6.42 had been tacked on. When Mark called Papa John’s to report the theft, he spoke to someone who obviously hasn’t gotten our memo that “taking it seriously” is about as reassuring as “your call is very important to us.”

Here’s Mark’s story:

On Monday, July 28th I ordered a pizza from Papa John’s Pizza. When the delivery driver showed up, he handed me my Visa slip to sign with an ‘x’ written next to the tip line. To me calling any kind of attention to the tip line on a credit card slip is akin to holding your hand out and asking ‘where’s my tip.’ I didn’t like the presumptive tip, and had already paid an almost $2.00 “delivery charge” so I wrote a line through the tip line, rewrote the total and signed the slip.

This morning while getting ready for work, my wife informs me that Papa John’s Pizza had overcharged us by $6.42. Quite upset about Papa John’s Pizza stealing six-and-a-half dollars from me, I immediately googled Papa John’s Pizza corporate number. I was transferred to the finance department, and left a message expressing my extreme dissatisfaction. About 7 minutes later I got a call back from Papa John’s Pizza and the gentleman asked for the details of the transaction, etc. After promising the difference would be reversed to my debit card, he said that “Papa John’s takes this sort of complaint seriously.” To which of course I replied “Please do not ‘take this seriously,’ resolve the issue.” Then the Papa John’s Pizza guy got all defensive and wanted to know why I was calling him a liar. Anyway he promised to have a ‘field supervisor’ look into the situation.

If my charge was off by a dollar, say because the person keying in the charge transposed a number, I may or may not have been so upset. I would have waited until the local Papa John’s Pizza opened up and discussed the matter with local management. But I firmly believe that the delivery driver took it upon himself to give himself a 30% tip. I also wonder how many other people have been ‘fleeced’ by this driver.

I hope to email you with an update about how Papa John’s Pizza refunded the difference and took steps to show me that I am a valued customer, but the day is still young.

Well, we’re impressed that someone at Papa John’s called him back as promised, and in less than 10 minutes—that sort of thing is far too rare with many companies, and makes us think that Papa John’s actually means the phrase. But yeah, they might want to rethink using empty PR-speak if they want to reassure customers that employee theft is not tolerated. But you shouldn’t blame your customers for being skeptical when they hear that phrase—there’s a reason nobody believes it anymore.

(Photo: Getty)

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