My customer service story - Part IIG

Ok....so after the grocery store incident, I made my way over to ABoR and enjoyed two fantastic classes instructed by a top notch national instructor (I'm not putting her name here because I don't want her to be associated with the rest of this entry!) on Social Networking, The REALTOR® Code of Ethics, and how to adjust my company's policy and procedure manual given this new social networking world we're in. Great classes. Only 30 people there - that might be the topic of my next post!

Anyway, at the end of the day I went home, traffic a little heavier than normal but no big problems. Took a bit of a nap (let's be honest, I'm not used to getting up at 6 a.m. and engaging my brain until 4 p.m. non-stop!). Then we decided to head to Best Buy to look at laptops and iPod stuffs. When we were done with that we were going to figure out what to do for dinner. In the car on the way to the store, we decided pizza sounded good. I pulled out my iphone and did a google search for the pizza place we wanted to order from. It's one of my favorites - but not as good as Casey's Pizza back home!

I found the site, but couldn't get a phone number to come up for the local store. Thankfully Rick was able to. So I called the store, and asked them what their specials were. They were two large two topping pizzas for 19.99. I asked if they had a special that included a specialty pizza - she said yes, one specialty pizza and one large two topping pizza for 21.99. I said perfect - let me figure out what specialty pizza we want and I'll call you back.

So we fired up the iphone again and looked at the specialty pizzas. I settled on the Smokehouse bacon and something or other - that came from the menu I pulled up on the iphone. Rick wanted the two topping to be Canadian bacon and mushrooms. So I called back and someone else answered....here's how it went.

PG (phone guy): Thank you for calling ABC Pizza (name changed to protect the...well, anyway), would you like to try two large two topping pizzas for 19.99

ME: No, but I'd like the one large specialty and one large two topping pizza for 21.99

PG: Sure sir - are you Chad Cardani at 2523 Carlow?

ME: Yes I am (wondering why they know this and thinking it's creepy - but a sign of the times apparently)

PG: Ok great. Is this pickup or delivery?

ME: Pickup (we're too cheap to pay someone to deliver it)

PG: Ok, what would you like as your specialty pizza?

ME: The Smokehouse Bacon and something or other (again, directly from the menu on Ricks' iphone that was in my hand)

PG: Gosh I'm having a really hard time hearing you - these phones are terrible. Would you repeat that?

ME: Sure. I want the (repeated it....THREE TIMES)

PG: Ok sir, sorry about that, it's really hard to hear. (in the background - HEY Sheila - is asjas;liasdglkasf asdljhasd asdl;hfasd asdjhk ) I couldn't tell what he was saying. Phone was hard to hear on. :)

PG: Ok sir, that will be $26.00 plus $2.00 for tax.

ME: 26 PLUS 2 for tax?

PG: Yes.

ME: How is that? The special is 21.99 for blah blah blah....

PG: Yes, but the Smokehouse Bacon blah blah pizza isn't a specialty pizza anymore, so I had to create it for you, and that adds more toppings (apparently that is what he was talking to Sheila about"

ME: But it says it is a specialty pizza online

PG: Well that's online - we're on the phone

ME: Uh...ok...so you're telling me there are two different menus?

PG: Yes sir.

ME: And you can't honor the online menu because we're on the phone?

PG: Yes that's right.

ME: And you weren't going to tell me there was a problem, you just created the pizza and added extra dollars to the special for me?

PG: Yes sir.

ME: Wow....so you can't fix this problem?

PG: No.

ME: So you want me to pay extra because I'm on the phone and not online?

PG: The pizza you want isn't a specialty pizza anymore

ME: But it says it is online

PG: But we're on the phone

ME: Ok....well I guess I'll figure out something else for dinner.

PG: Uh....ok....as;lk asd;lkjhasd asdlljhsad (he said something as I was hitting the hangup button.

WTH is that??? Really??? I realize we're talking about a couple bucks - but really? Wouldn't it have been better to make the pizza I asked for and not charged extra? So instead we wasted 5 minutes? And instead of keeping a happy customer and giving up those two extra bucks, they got NOTHING?? (And this bad PR!)

Since we were in the grocery store parking lot, we went in looking for something to eat. Low and behold they have take and bake pizzas...for 5 bucks. We got an onion, some lemons for water, ice cream, frozen fruit bars, and had a great conversation with the friend we ran into, for far less than the pizza stores price.

Now - here's a quick update. As I sat down to write this I pulled up the pizza stores website so I could find the name of the specialty pizza. It's not there. Apparently when you're using the mobile interface they haven't updated the site to show the current offerings.

Ya - I know the right thing to do would be to contact them and let them know there's a problem. And the right thing to do last night was to give me the pizza I asked for at the specialty pizza price.

I'm hearing my moms voice saying "Two wrongs don't make a right"....

Good thing she's in Iowa... ;)