The Redeeming Dominos

So as I’m sure you can all see, my previous post on Dominos left nothing to be desired.  I’m happy to report that after emailing their CEO I was quickly contacted regarding the problem.  Not only did 1 person contact me, but someone from the customer service center, the area supervisor, and the store manager contacted me.

I cannot tell you how many times they apologized and informed me that this was not the norm.  They informed me they were sending the associate (Tim) to additional customer service training and gave me a number to call should I have trouble in the future with customer service.  They also said they would send over some gift certificates not only for me, but for my guests at the party who were impacted as well.

I think that was very nice of them.  I was happy to see that they quickly responded to my concerns and offered to correct the problem.  Not only did they offer me gift cards (which I’m not all that concerned about) but they put the associate through further training which I believe is more important then just giving me a free pizza.  If they didn’t correct the problem with the associate then the next time I called I could very much end up with the same problem.  Free stuff is a nice addon, but if they had only given free stuff I would have been even more likely to never order from them again because I would feel like I could get the same experience again.

Finally giving me the number to call helps ensure that should I have a problem in the future, I don’t need to worry about emailing anyone, but I can call, leave a message if I need to, and know that someone will get back to me soon about the problem.

Will I be ordering from dominos again soon?  Probably not, but will I order from them in the future?  Probably so thanks to the quick response, and effort to resolve the problem.

Dominos Pizza Worst Customer Service Of the Year Award

Let me start out by saying I generally like Domino’s Pizza and have never had a problem with them in the past, and we typically order from them at least 1 time a week.

On Friday my wife and I received a flier on our door about a deal Dominos Pizza was having where you can get any pizza any toppings for $8.99.  We also received an automated phone call from Domino’s stating the same thing.  So my wife and I decided to have some people over and enjoy some pizza and the game.

On Sunday we had some people over and it came Time to order some pizza.  I took everyone’s order and then called my local Dominos (Manassas Junction Store Number 4380) and spoke with Brad.  He was very nice and I placed the following order: 1 largest pizza they had thin crust extra pepperoni pizza, 1 regular crust largest pizza they had half bacon and half just cheese, 1 largest pizza they had deluxe no mushrooms extra green peppers, 1 two liter coke and 1 order of cheese sticks.  Brad informs us it will take about 45 minutes to arrive and with it being the Holiday weekend this doesn’t surprise me.

The pizza arrived within the time limit, however the delivery driver only handed me two pizza boxes.  I inquired about the third pizza to which he apologized and said he must not have picked up the box.  I inform him I would not sign the receipt (since I paid by visa) until my third pizza arrived and asked if he would like to take the entire order back to the store and he said no he’ll just run back and get the pizza.  About 3 minutes later he knocked on the door to inform me that they (Brad I assume) did not ring up my middle pizza (the bacon and cheese) and that since they messed up on the order, the pizza would be free.  He asked that I please sign the receipt and informed me that when he returns to his vehicle he will call the store and ensure they begin making my pizza so that when he returns to the store he can pick the pizza up and get it back to me as soon as possible.

20 minutes later I receive a phone call from the Dominos Store who informed me that the manager will not authorize the pizza to be free because it wasn’t on the ticket to begin with so I didn’t pay for it with my order and therefore I’ll have to pay for it.  I wasn’t too concerned about it, as I just wanted my pizza for my party and had guests waiting so I said that was fine.  The person on the phone (whos name I didn’t get ) informed me it would be another 45 minutes before my Pizza arrived.  They wanted to simply place me back into the queue like it was a new fresh order.  At this time I became upset and asked to speak with a manager.  From my point of view, this could have been told to the driver when he was at my house and he could have informed me or at least told me I needed to call the store.  Instead I get a phone call 20 minutes after the driver leaves informing me of this.  If I would have been informed when the driver left I would have sent the entire order back.

So the assistant manager (Tim) gets on the phone and refused to give out his last name because he didn’t feel comfortable giving out his last time.  I repeated my story of what happened and asked him to please speak with Brad and confirm him missing the middle pizza in my order to which he informed me that Brad was out making deliveries and would not be back for 20 minutes and therefore he couldn’t help me.  He repeated that the pizza was not on my original order and therefore I would not receive it for free.  I informed him that the driver did tell me it would be for free which he responded with “The driver is not authorized to give you a free pizza or make any promises.”  I told him that was fine and I just wanted my pizza quicker then 45 minutes because they had already messed up my order.  He then said there were “6 other deliveries in front of me and he could do nothing to help me”.  This made me very upset.  I informed him I was receiving terrible customer service that I believed was unacceptable and asked who the Store Manager was and if I could speak with him.  He informed me the Store Manager was Joel Shepard and he would not be in the store until Tuesday and therefore I could not speak with him.  I then asked him that if they messed up my order why would they not do anything to help resolve the problem by at least getting me my pizza ahead of the other 6 orders and he said “I’m sorry but there is nothing I can do”.  I then asked for his store number for his location to which he informed me he did not have one.  (Please note the store number above was taken from the Domino’s Website). I then ended the phone call with the fact that my wife and I enjoy their pizza and after this we would no longer be ordered from Domino’s.

Unfortunately my wife and some of my Guests headed out to a restaurant to eat dinner since their meal never arrived.  I really believe this is one of the worst customer service experiences I have ever had.  To simply be told there is nothing I can do about it is unacceptable when the mistakes lies with the store.  If it had been my fault, I would have accepted that fact and waited another 45 minutes.  To make matters worse, the driver promised me something that wasn’t delivered on, and I had to wait an additional 20 minutes before the store called me to tell me what the driver promised wasn’t going to happen. Worse of all the Assistant Manager Tim didn’t really seem to care about my problem at all, he had a voice of apathy like he just wanted to get me off the phone.

Needless to say my wife and I will not be ordering from Dominos in the future.

UPDATE

December 02, 2008

So yesterday I took this post and emailed it to the CEO of the Dominos as well as other members listed on the stock market financial executive list from Google Finance.  Here is the reponse I got:

Dear Mr. Clark,

Thank you for taking the time to contact us and inform us of the very unacceptable experience you received while ordering pizza for your guests from the Manassas location.  Our CEO, David Brandon, has received your email and asked me to let you know that he apologizes for this situation and is personnally very embarrassed about the horrible service you received.

To keep you informed, I have reported this incident to the franchise owner of the store, Dave Wood, and asked that he contact you directly to resolve this matter.  I would also like to talk with you about this situation and would appreciate you providing me your contact number or, please give me a call at our World Resource Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan at <Phone Number Removed>.

Again, we apologize for the terrible service you received and hope we can resolve this matter to keep you as a loyal customer.

Pretty nice huh?  I’ll keep everyone posted on how it goes.  Maybe there is some reedeming qualities in Dominos afterall.

Verizon Commits Fraud?

So the definition of Fraud from Wikipedia is: “In the broadest sense, a fraud is a deception made for personal gain.”  Lets review how much Verizon is doing this to its customers (at least me).

Back in February as I’m sure most of you know by my previous “Comcast Blows” posting I decided to move away from Comcast due to poor service and go over to Verizon.  At that time FIOS had just come into the neighborhood so I decided to sign up for their bundle package of TV, Internet, and Phone for the next year to try it out.  Here is the kicker, Verizon did not have FIOS TV available in my area yet (due to a license agreement from what they told me) so they offered DirecTv.  Now explicitly asked for only a 1 year contract as Jess and I are looking to move soon and therefore did not want to be locked into anything more then 1 year.  I asked repeatedly to the representative if this was a 1 year contract and was told that without a doubt it was a 1 year contract.

Now I’m not going to get into all the other problems I have had with Verizon / DirecTV but due to some billing problems (charging us too much, which to be honest, they still haven’t been able to get the amount they quoted me on my bill yet and its been four months) we discovered we had been signed up for a 2 year contract because we have a DVR.  DirecTv told me its is not their fault to which I don’t really agree because if someone is certified by you to sell your product and they promise me something and I sign a contract and don’t get what I was told, is it not breech of promise or fraud?  They told me I would get one thing, and I got another?  To which I was told “well if you read the small print on the back of the contract you signed when we installed your service you would see their is a clause for the DVR being a 2 year contract”… Um I asked if it was everything I had discussed with the person and was told yes… So I guess we should run a business where we tell someone one thing, but write a contract for something different?  Well back to Verizon.

I called Verizon after DirecTV said I was SOL and spoke with a supervisor who informed me sucks to be me (not in those terms).  Not only did I get a two year contract with DirecTV because I had a DVR but I also got a two year contract with FIOS… WTF?  I asked her to credit me the fees and she informed me that they couldn’t.  I told her this is what I was told and this is what I expect to get, and your mis-representing yourself and was informed “I don’t know what you were told so I can’t say” so I asked them to pull up their recording of the call and of course I got “We don’t record calls, we only monitor for QA”.  To those of you who don’t know that translates to: “This way we are not liable for when we promise you something and you don’t get it”.

So where is the personal gain that something must have in order to be considered fraud you might ask?  How about the $176 for me to cancel my service with Verizon (early cancellation) followed by the $350 for me to cancel my service with DirecTV (early cancellation estimate)…  That’s a gain for them which means FRAUD in my opinion.  I would love to hear other peoples thoughts.

Also before you start commenting about how it is just lack of training.  I would tend to agree except for the fact that you shouldn’t be putting people out to sell stuff if they don’t know what they are selling and are promising things that are WRONG.

Sears New Slogan

Not sure if many people have heard about this, but Sears is coming out with a new slogan/motto. Let be the first to inform you about it: “SEARS!!!!!! We’ll bend you over, and screw you until we get every last cent!” They wanted to move to something that more describes the company and how they operate then what they currently have.

Okay, so maybe thats not their new slogan, but it demonstrates how I currently feel about sears. Jess and I got a stove from mom and dad for our Wedding, so they gave us some giftcards to go and pick one out from Sears. We head to there and after speaking with a sales associate who didn’t even seem to know what the hell he was talking about, we pick a stove. Well lets not forget the delivery fee of $75, plus the $10 to deliver on the weekend, plus the $10 per item hallaway fee, plus the $100 installation fee… Not to mention the $200 warranty. Plus $20 for the cables, because they are not allowed to use your cables/wiring you have, you have to buy them from the store… I mean shit, by the time we are done with their fee’s the fee’s cost more then the damn stove and hood range. WTF. Well I sucked it up and dealed with it, and said fuck it, with the installation and warranty I’ll do it myself.

Well when they deliver it they can’t give you a time until after 6pm the day before they are going to install it. No need to have you plan early or anything because you work, and hell if you arn’t going to pay that $10 for a weekend delivery you better just take the whole damn day off from work. Its not like they have a computer system that tells them who has bought something so far, and what their time preference was or estimated delivery time is…… Well they do arrive at the proper time they said within the 3 hour window they gave me, but when the tech comes in, the first thing he does it pull out the bottom of the stove and see if it is directly connected or plugged into the wall. Surprise, it is directly connected and that means they can’t do anything besides deliver it, no free hookup of your stove with the wiring / plug you were forced to buy from them. Gee if the techs knows the first thing to look for, I sure wish the sales associate would have told me that so I could check and prepare before hand…. But no, that would be too easy and too much of what to expect from a customer service friendly organization. So he gets on the phone with customer service, who tells me that if they deliver it today and don’t hook it up, they cannot remove the old stove (cause its hard wired) so I would lose my hallaway that I paid $10 per item. Well I’m about to say reschedule to another time, when the tech tells me that the stove isn’t in a box so it will get damage by the time they return to install it. ARRGGGGGG its brand new, why isn’t it in a box, well because they inspected it at the warehouse, which involves removing the box (yet in the truck there were other items in boxes fine….). Well after much discussion we decided to just have them deliver it, and I would re-wire the walls and shit myself. But yet, here is another surprise, you can’t get your refund over the phone for the installation because they need you to go into the store…. UM WTF….

In the end, Billy (father-in-law) ended up removing the old hood and stove, installing the wiring we needed, and installing the new hood and range in under 2 hours and that 2 hours counts the time it took me to run to Lowes and wait for him to arrive.

So thats my rant about Sears. Until next time.