We get it: Super Bowl Sunday is to pizza delivery places what Valentine’s Day is to florists and April 15th is to tax cats. It’s the crunchiest of crunch times, and that’s when things can go wrong. What reader P. wonders, though, is whether it’s reasonable to expect your pizza within four hours of the time you requested it for, especially when you called in the order seven hours in advance.

He writes:

I just wanted to get a feel as to what you thought was a reasonable time for a pizza to be delivered on Super Bowl Sunday. I ordered from Dominos Pizza in [redacted], NY previously, and have issues with them in the past. I contacted corporate and was asked to give them another chance with a $10 gift card. I thought it would be a good time to give them another chance, however couldn’t use my gift card since the website would not allow it.

I pre-ordered the pizza at 11:30AM for a 6:15PM delivery. I figured, this would give them plenty of time to arrange their delivery schedule. I noticed on the tracker that my pizza was completed at 5:55PM. At 7PM, I had yet to receive the pizza, so I called the store up. The nice girl on the phone mentioned the pizza was right in front of her and will be delivered shortly. At 7:30, I still had not seen the pizza so I called again. At this point, I was told it was on the road. At 8:30, still with no pizza in hand, I called and was told the pizza was on the road and no estimate can be given. By 9PM, I had given up and ordered from a local place which was able to get me a hot fresh pizza in less than 20 minutes!

I decided not to give up on my quest to get the pizza I ordered. After calling a number of times and being place on hold, I was finally able to speak to [W] (a manager), who informed me that the system had crashed, and they didn’t know what to make for us. Keep in mind that I was already told that the pizza was in front of the girl at 7PM and was on the road. W. then told me that the pizza is still on its way and is on the road and that because it is Super Bowl Sunday, it takes a while for deliveries.

A pizza made at 5:55PM was still on the road at 10:20PM. Luckily we were able to get another pizza a little after half time, and the lights out in the stadium was able to extend our time to enjoy the fresh pizza from a local shop, but how long is too long to be waiting for a pizza, albeit on Super Bowl Sunday!?

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