Recently, as I was on my way home from work, Rachel called me to let me know she was going to place an order with Domino's for dinner. It was the end of a long week for the both of us with work/school, so ordering pizza just sounded nice and easy. They were running a special, the 5-5-5 deal, where you could order any combination of one topping medium pizzas and their new sandwiches. We've used their online ordering service previously, and never had an issue. So, Rachel place the order while I was en route home. They gave an estimated delivery time of 35 to 45 minutes, and an hour later we still didn't have our order. The oldest two were complaining they were hungry, which started to grate on our nerves the longer it took. Rachel and I both called the store on our cell phones to try and ascertain why our order still had not arrived, but due to their automated answering service, were stuck on hold. The door knocked, and an hour and a half later -- our food had arrived. I signed the credit slip, and the driver apologized for the time it took saying, "We had no orders, and then within minutes we had 40 orders at the same time." I gave him my standard 10% tip and he left. Upon review of the receipt, I noticed that they had three bottles of soda listed on the ticket, but I had no soda delivered. I asked Rachel about it, and she went ballistic. The only way to get the 555 deal that day was to order three sodas, and the fact they were missing in addition to the severe lateness of the food was frustrating. Rachel tried to call the store to find out what happened, but became mired in the same holding zone of phone calls experienced earlier in the day. She had to get to work anyhow, so she grabbed and jetted to work.
Here's where the problem came in -- we had paid for soda that we never received, and all calls to the store were met with no resolution. Rachel decided to send an email complaint via their website to see if the issue could be resolved. Since the Domino's account we use to order is in my name, the very lackluster response was sent to my webmail addy. Basically, the response stated, "Sir, we're sorry you had a bad experience. This store is a franchise, and we're sending your problem to them with the hope they will contact you to resolve the issue. Thanks for sending us an email. Leave us alone now." I was pissed, but since I've worked in retail I decided to allow the local store to contact us and make things right. A week went by, and I was done. I sent a follow up email to Domino's corporate telling them that I was completely unsatified with the lack of concern on their part to my complaint. I paid for product that I never received, albeit $3 of soda, but that shouldn't matter. I was working on the "it's the principle of the matter" at stake, and not the amount of money. I was less tactful in my mail than Rachel was, and ended up having to edit portions of the email since I had exceeded the 1000 character limit. I just informed them of my unresolved issue, and that since the local store was unconcerned about my issue that I expected corporate to take care of it. Monday I received a response from them that is paraphrased, "Sir, we're sorry that your problem wasn't addressed by the local store. We're sending you some gift certificates to placate you, even though we still don't admit fault. Our franchises act independantly of corporate, so I'll again pass your concern onto them for training purposes. Go away once you receive your certificates, which should arrive in 7-10 days." I swear, if they're $5 off an order of $25 dollars coupons, I'm going to go ballistic.
It just seems that companies these days could give a crap about their customers once they have your money. If you've paid for a product or service that is consumable, tough crap if there turns out to be an issue. I'm waiting to see how this turns out, because I'm not going to take my father's line of "FINE, I'LL GO SOMEPLACE ELSE YOU JACKA--!" Sure, there's plenty of places that offer pizza, but Domino's oven baked sandwiches (bacon ranch chicken especially) are so good. *sigh*
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