What Would You Do?

Hmmm....conundrum. What would you do?

A sweet friend gave us a gift card to Pizza Hut back when the kids came home from the hospital. I decided that instead of using it right away, I would save it for a day when I was just too beat to fulfill all of my mom duties.

Many of you know that for the last couple of weeks, I've been struggling with the shifted role that is: Toddler Mama. Exhausted. Never caught up. Trying to stay consistent. And getting up each morning by the grace of God. I think people have been praying for my endurance because the heaviness of this chapter hasn't been weighing quite as much on me over the last week.

But last weekend, I was still trying to get my head up. And that's when I looked at Sean and said, "I have a Pizza Hut gift card that I've been saving, and I want pizza for dinner." No cooking and minimal cleanup sounded better than digging out my chef hat and fixing supper for the family.

Being the thrifty person that I am, I found a coupon code online for 20% off of my first online order. Awesome! I could stretch that gift card a little further! Booyah!

And that is promptly where the experience spiraled downward. It ended up being one of the most frustrating ordeals that I have ever had with a business.

I'm not one to go looking for confrontation. Truly, I very rarely ask for a manager for anything other than to praise a new employee or let them know how much I appreciated the service. I LOVE doing that! It means so much to the people who are praised to their bosses! But it was such a frustrating ordeal that I felt like I needed to lodge a complaint with the company.

On their FaceBook page, they tell people to email their complaints to them, but then limit the amount of characters they can use, so I eventually sent an abreviated version through the system and the detailed version went on their FaceBook page.

This is what the detailed version said:

"I tried to go to the web address that you are giving to everyone else to log my complaint, but it won't give me enough characters to "give the complete details." I am a first time customer who ordered pizza tonight for my family and it was a horrible experience. 

1. I spent 20 minutes trying to order my pizza online. I had a coupon code which the system wasn’t taking. I tried several times to put it through, and it wouldn’t work. And yes, it was a valid coupon code. 

2. I decided to call the number listed for the store (which is apparently a call center) and ask if I could order that way. They said that I could order the pizza but I couldn’t use the coupon since it was an “internet only” deal. I explained that I had already spent 20 minutes trying to make it work online, and the system wasn’t putting it through. The guy repeated that I had to order online to use it. I reiterated that I would if the online ordering system would cooperate, but it appeared to be having trouble. He then suggested I take my coupon to the store and ask them if they would apply it. I told him that it was a coupon code that I got online and I didn’t have an actual coupon to take with me. He then told me that he doesn’t even like pizza so he didn’t know how to use an online ordering system and couldn’t help me out. I was frustrated, but asked him to put the order through anyway as I still needed to feed my family dinner. 

3. I arrived at the Pizza Hut location about 45 minutes later and the store didn’t have a pizza for me. In fact, they didn’t even have an order. The manager came out to help me and called the call center to find out if they sent my order to the wrong location. I gave him the phone number I used when I ordered over the phone. The manager asked for a supervisor who told him that they didn’t have an order for me either. He then told the manager that I never ordered a pizza. The manager said that I did order a pizza, and I was standing right in front of him. The supervisor then said a few other things to which the manager responded that I wasn’t lying and that I did indeed order a pizza. I don’t know what the supervisor said, but the manager hung up very frustrated that they would say what they did about my order. He told me that they were refusing to take responsibility for my missing order. I guess the original guy I talked to didn’t put it through.

4. The manager was fantastic and did everything he could to correct the issue. He immediately put in my pizza order and gave it to me for free for my trouble. He is the only redeeming part of this whole situation. 

While I appreciate that the manager tried to make it right, I’m really, really offended that the call center supervisor would say that I was lying. Really? Lying for a $10 pizza?? I assure you that I have much better things to do than lie about a pizza order! And I’m actually an honest person, but I guess since the supervisor wasn’t talking to me he just decided to shift the blame to me.

Ordering a pizza was supposed to be the easy way to do dinner. Instead, it was a hassle and I was called a liar. In the future, I won’t be ordering from Pizza Hut as I need easy dinner options and I don’t appreciate being insulted. Bummer, since the pizza was actually pretty good.

P.S. You should give that manager a raise for cleaning up after the mistakes and problems created by the call center! He was incredibly nice and apologetic for the issues that I had. His name is Ibn and he is the manager at store 4704."

I thought that I was pretty nice and calm with my details considering how HOT I was.

Within an hour, I got an automated email with an Incident Report Number and a note that said a representative would contact me in a few days. Then about five minutes later, I got a second automated email saying "thanks for the feedback." At the same time, Pizza Hut wrote on the comment that I left on their wall that they saw the abbreviated report that I submitted through the website and were forwarding it to the proper people.

And then I heard, ".....*crickets*....."

So today is six days later. I still haven't heard anything from the company and decided to email them back at the email address used to send me the Incident Report Number. I haven't heard anything (and I assume the email doesn't actually have anyone checking it). I also sent the same note by private message to them on FaceBook:

"Hi,

I was wondering how long it typically takes for some sort of response regarding the way I was treated last week at Pizza Hut. It's been 6 days and I'm still waiting to hear from someone. My incident report is 0100024076.

Thank you,

Rebecca Ishum"

And at the end of it, I included a saved version of the original note that I left on their wall.

This is what I got back:

 "Rebecca, we never meant to over look you. Please provide us your contact information and the details at www.pizzahut.com/phcares so we can follow up on this."

Umm...what?

So...they want me to submit another form to get a second Incident Report Number that complains that the first Incident Report Number was never responded to....but I included the original Incident Report Number for them to reference!

Now I'm frustrated all over again.

Part of me just wants to let it go. While this didn't take a lot of time, it still took some time.

But part of me feels like there is a principle here!

Hmm...thoughts? What would you do? And what would you consider necessary to "make it right?"

Hmmm....conundrum. What would you do?

A sweet friend gave us a gift card to Pizza Hut back when the kids came home from the hospital. I decided that instead of using it right away, I would save it for a day when I was just too beat to fulfill all of my mom duties.

Many of you know that for the last couple of weeks, I've been struggling with the shifted role that is: Toddler Mama. Exhausted. Never caught up. Trying to stay consistent. And getting up each morning by the grace of God. I think people have been praying for my endurance because the heaviness of this chapter hasn't been weighing quite as much on me over the last week.

But last weekend, I was still trying to get my head up. And that's when I looked at Sean and said, "I have a Pizza Hut gift card that I've been saving, and I want pizza for dinner." No cooking and minimal cleanup sounded better than digging out my chef hat and fixing supper for the family.

Being the thrifty person that I am, I found a coupon code online for 20% off of my first online order. Awesome! I could stretch that gift card a little further! Booyah!

And that is promptly where the experience spiraled downward. It ended up being one of the most frustrating ordeals that I have ever had with a business.

I'm not one to go looking for confrontation. Truly, I very rarely ask for a manager for anything other than to praise a new employee or let them know how much I appreciated the service. I LOVE doing that! It means so much to the people who are praised to their bosses! But it was such a frustrating ordeal that I felt like I needed to lodge a complaint with the company.

On their FaceBook page, they tell people to email their complaints to them, but then limit the amount of characters they can use, so I eventually sent an abreviated version through the system and the detailed version went on their FaceBook page.

This is what the detailed version said:

"I tried to go to the web address that you are giving to everyone else to log my complaint, but it won't give me enough characters to "give the complete details." I am a first time customer who ordered pizza tonight for my family and it was a horrible experience. 

1. I spent 20 minutes trying to order my pizza online. I had a coupon code which the system wasn’t taking. I tried several times to put it through, and it wouldn’t work. And yes, it was a valid coupon code. 

2. I decided to call the number listed for the store (which is apparently a call center) and ask if I could order that way. They said that I could order the pizza but I couldn’t use the coupon since it was an “internet only” deal. I explained that I had already spent 20 minutes trying to make it work online, and the system wasn’t putting it through. The guy repeated that I had to order online to use it. I reiterated that I would if the online ordering system would cooperate, but it appeared to be having trouble. He then suggested I take my coupon to the store and ask them if they would apply it. I told him that it was a coupon code that I got online and I didn’t have an actual coupon to take with me. He then told me that he doesn’t even like pizza so he didn’t know how to use an online ordering system and couldn’t help me out. I was frustrated, but asked him to put the order through anyway as I still needed to feed my family dinner. 

3. I arrived at the Pizza Hut location about 45 minutes later and the store didn’t have a pizza for me. In fact, they didn’t even have an order. The manager came out to help me and called the call center to find out if they sent my order to the wrong location. I gave him the phone number I used when I ordered over the phone. The manager asked for a supervisor who told him that they didn’t have an order for me either. He then told the manager that I never ordered a pizza. The manager said that I did order a pizza, and I was standing right in front of him. The supervisor then said a few other things to which the manager responded that I wasn’t lying and that I did indeed order a pizza. I don’t know what the supervisor said, but the manager hung up very frustrated that they would say what they did about my order. He told me that they were refusing to take responsibility for my missing order. I guess the original guy I talked to didn’t put it through.

4. The manager was fantastic and did everything he could to correct the issue. He immediately put in my pizza order and gave it to me for free for my trouble. He is the only redeeming part of this whole situation. 

While I appreciate that the manager tried to make it right, I’m really, really offended that the call center supervisor would say that I was lying. Really? Lying for a $10 pizza?? I assure you that I have much better things to do than lie about a pizza order! And I’m actually an honest person, but I guess since the supervisor wasn’t talking to me he just decided to shift the blame to me.

Ordering a pizza was supposed to be the easy way to do dinner. Instead, it was a hassle and I was called a liar. In the future, I won’t be ordering from Pizza Hut as I need easy dinner options and I don’t appreciate being insulted. Bummer, since the pizza was actually pretty good.

P.S. You should give that manager a raise for cleaning up after the mistakes and problems created by the call center! He was incredibly nice and apologetic for the issues that I had. His name is Ibn and he is the manager at store 4704."

I thought that I was pretty nice and calm with my details considering how HOT I was.

Within an hour, I got an automated email with an Incident Report Number and a note that said a representative would contact me in a few days. Then about five minutes later, I got a second automated email saying "thanks for the feedback." At the same time, Pizza Hut wrote on the comment that I left on their wall that they saw the abbreviated report that I submitted through the website and were forwarding it to the proper people.

And then I heard, ".....*crickets*....."

So today is six days later. I still haven't heard anything from the company and decided to email them back at the email address used to send me the Incident Report Number. I haven't heard anything (and I assume the email doesn't actually have anyone checking it). I also sent the same note by private message to them on FaceBook:

"Hi,

I was wondering how long it typically takes for some sort of response regarding the way I was treated last week at Pizza Hut. It's been 6 days and I'm still waiting to hear from someone. My incident report is 0100024076.

Thank you,

Rebecca Ishum"

And at the end of it, I included a saved version of the original note that I left on their wall.

This is what I got back:

 "Rebecca, we never meant to over look you. Please provide us your contact information and the details at www.pizzahut.com/phcares so we can follow up on this."

Umm...what?

So...they want me to submit another form to get a second Incident Report Number that complains that the first Incident Report Number was never responded to....but I included the original Incident Report Number for them to reference!

Now I'm frustrated all over again.

Part of me just wants to let it go. While this didn't take a lot of time, it still took some time.

But part of me feels like there is a principle here!

Hmm...thoughts? What would you do? And what would you consider necessary to "make it right?"