CJ and his family have tolerated subpar service from a local Pizza Hut for years because of the convenience: this Pizza Hut is just a three-minute drive away from their house. Well, placing orders from this outlet should be convenient in theory, but his last delivery order was missing the ordered Que Papa potato bites, and somehow took much too long to show up, nearly everyone in the store claims to be a manager, and the delivery person took all of the cash CJ’s son handed him instead of giving some change. Yet the story actually gets worse from there.

Tonight my wife and I decided that we wanted to order some food since we both had long days. We wanted the best food for our money, but settled on Pizza Hut because the kids LOVE the Que Papas. So we placed our order online, and it was business as usual.

Fast forward to 30 minutes AFTER the order was supposed to be here, and we hear a knock at the door. We had given our 14 year old son $40.59 to cover the $32.59 ticket. He brings the pizza in, after the driver has already left, and when my wife asks where the rest of it is he tells her “That’s everything.” We go through the order, and our pizzas are cold, the drink is warm, and there are no Que Papas. We ask him where our change is, and he says the the driver kept it. We ask for the receipt, and there wasn’t one. I believe in tipping for good service, but an $8 tip for cold food? Not happening.

So we call the store, and ask for the manager. The girl who answers the phone tells my wife that she is the manager, and after my wife explains what happened, and that the driver took our change and that we want a refund she proceeds to put the phone down, and all sorts of background chatter commences. At this point another female picks up the phone, who now claims that she is the manager. Same story, same phone put down. The final person to pick up the phone claims to be a manager, and since perhaps we found a Pizza Hut Vortex with too many chiefs and not enough indians, we proceed to explain to her for the last time what happened.

While the other people are giggling in the back the manager tells us that they called us to let us know that they don’t carry the Que Papas. No phone call was received. She claims that they can remake the pizzas, but it would take in excess of two hours to deliver them. I know I failed to mention it, but we live exactly 3 minutes from this location.

I head up there, and ask for the manager, as well as plan to see this corporate training ground. I ask for the manager, and the third person to answer the phone has the same name as the person who says they are the manager, so that is who I speak with. After explaining the situation, she asks if my wife called. Yes, she did. Well what is the phone number. I proceed to give it to her, and she claims that there is no order under that number.

I call my wife to verify the number, and as I do that she miraculously pulls up the receipt. I tell her that the driver took my money, and that the food was wrong. “Well, since you at all of the pizzas and drinks I can’t give you a refund, but I can remake your pizzas and have them delivered.” Mind you, I am still standing inside of the restaurant, and it has only been a few minutes since our pizza was actually delivered. We didn’t eat all of the pizzas or drink all of the drink.

I would like my refund, as well as the change that the driver took on his own accord. Well, here is your receipt, and it says that you only gave the driver $3 as a tip. She hands me my receipt, and it is for a completely different amount as the online order. She then tells me that they don’t carry Que Papas, so our order was modified accordingly. This is funny, because we ordered them a week ago and it was a menu item.

We are FURIOUS at the run around we were given. When I asked for a area managers number she tells me that its all on the receipt, but all that is there is the store number and the regular print on the back. This Pizza Hut has NEVER got an order right, and they have been the one we used for 20 years because of how close they are. This is the last straw. Poor Service, bad food, and bad attitudes don’t do it anymore.

Commenters are probably going to point out that CJ would be better off picking up his pizzas, but I’m not sure that even doing that would help with the pathology of this Pizza Hut. Why were the Que Papas still available on the online ordering menu if they’re not available?

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.