No more Dominos Pizza for us!

In the past, we have blogged quite a lot about specials from Dominos. We have also commented on their pretty fast delivery and easy to use online ordering via their website. However, a recent event has change all our positive opinions about Dominos and we have decided that we are not going to order from Dominos (at least the Bloomfield, NJ branch) ever again. Here's what happened.

The Wrong Order
On September 2nd, we ordered the two medium pizza with two topping promotion ($5.99 each) and a 2 liter bottle of Coke online. It's not the first time we that have ordered online and so far, we never had any problems with it. When our pizza arrived, Kevin noticed that on one of the pizzas, there was only one topping. He ordered extra large pepperoni and bacon but all he got was bacon. We doubled checked our receipt ( just to make sure that we really ordered extra large pepperoni and bacon) and yes, it shows extra large pepperoni on both the online receipt as well as the actual receipt. No problem, all we need to do is call them up to tell them of the mistake and they should bring us the correct order, right? Well, wrong! Continue reading.

The Phone Call
We called the Bloomfield, NJ branch and spoke to Esmirna. We told her that they brought us the wrong pizza and went on to explain to her that we ordered extra large pepperoni and bacon but all we got was bacon. We then asked if they were going to re deliver the correct pizza to us. Guess what? Esmirna just rudely said "WE AIN'T GOT NO EXTRA LARGE PEPPERONI". Excuse me? It was on the menu, we picked it, the order went through, you charged us for it and then you are saying that you don't have any extra large pepperoni? She then said "OH, YOU ORDERED IT ONLINE, RIGHT?" Yeah we did. She went on to say " WELL, IT'S AUTOMATIC THEN. THE ORDER JUST GOES THROUGH. WE DON'T HAVE ANY EXTRA LARGE PEPPERONI. IT'S NOT OUR FAULT, IT'S CORPORATE.". What do you mean it's corporate's fault? Anyways, we then asked her why didn't they call us if they are out? We could have changed to another topping or if you don't have any extra large pepperoni, just use regular pepperoni. Don't just give us one topping and act as if nothing happened. She then rudely said "WAIT!" and I could hear her talking to the manager (Carlos) saying that we want a new pizza and why didn't they call us if they didn't have extra large pepperoni...blablabla. We could hear Carlos rudely replying "NO NO IT'S NOT OUR FAULT, THEY ARE NOT GETTING ANOTHER PIZZA". She then came back and flat out said "NO IT'S NOT OUR FAULT, IT'S CORPORATES. WE CANNOT GIVE YOU ANOTHER PIZZA!". Not wanting to argue anymore, we just asked for her name. She then got all defensive and asked "WHAT YOU WANT MY NAME FOR?". Then we said that since you insist it's corporate's fault, we will bring this matter to corporate and file a complaint against the Bloomfield branch. We ordered and paid for a two topping pizza but was given a one topping pizza. That's outright cheating. She then rudely said "FINE, GO AHEAD!" and in a challenging voice asked "YOU WANT CORPORATES NUMBER? I CAN GIVE THAT TO YOU TOO!". So, I took the number from her and hung up. Not a single word of apology from them even though they didn't deliver what we ordered.

The First Email To Corporate
Since it was already pretty late, we figured that we should just send out an email instead of calling (most probably nobody will be working at this hour). So, we went to the Dominos website and filled up their contact form, telling them all that has transpired. With an hour, we received a reply from them. I am not sure if it's automated or if "Denise' actually typed it out, but here is their reply:

September 02, 2010
Dominos Case #: 809259

Hi Kevin,
Thank you for taking the time to contact the Domino's Pizza Customer Care Team and notifying us of this matter. We will forward this information to the appropriate department for further investigation.
Sincerely,
Denise
Pizza Customer Care

Again, not a single word of apology from Dominos. Of course, we understand that they will have to look into this matter to see what actually happened. However, if it was me, I would just apologize first (even if the customer is wrong and the company is right). Anyways, we left it at that and allowed them to do their 'investigation'.

The Second Email to Corporate
One week went by and still no news from Dominos. What's taking them to long? In my opinion, it's a straight forward case. We ordered something, but we received the wrong order and the branch refused to deliver the right order to us. What's there to investigate? Anyway, we emailed them again and asked what's happening? Mind you, it's been a week and not a single person from Dominos apologized yet.

The Reply from Dominos
On September 10th, we received an email from Ryan.

Dominos Case #: 809259
Hi Kevin,

Thank you for taking the time to contact the Domino's Pizza Customer Care Team. I apologize the local management has not addressed your concern. I will once again inform the local representative of the Newark store of the unsatisfactory situation you experienced so they may address these types of issues in their training efforts.

I will be sending gift certificates through the mail for your use at any Domino's Pizza store. Please accept the gift certificates in appreciation of your business and for taking the time to bring this situation to our attention. You should receive the gift certificates in approximately 7-10 days.

We hope to regain your trust in the future and have the opportunity to serve you again as our loyal customer.

Sincerely,
Ryan
Domino's Pizza Customer Care

If you noticed, it's the first time anybody from Dominos apologized. However, he didn't apologize for bringing us the wrong order and refusing to redeliver the correct pizza to us. He didn't apologize for charging us for a two topping pizza but delivering a one topping pizza. He didn't apologize for the extremely rude staff at the Bloomfield, NJ branch. He was just sorry that the local management didn't address our 'concern'. Concern??? Excuse me...I think it's more than just a 'concern'. Putting aside the rude staff and also having to sent a 'reminder' email, the fact remains that we were given a one topping pizza but paid for a two topping pizza. Even though we are talking about a small amount, that's outright cheating! Wouldn't that warrant at least an apology?

Our Gift Certificates
On September 18th, we received this letter and $15 worth of gift certificates in the mail. Not wanting to be petty, but if you noticed, not a single word of apology. Yes, we thank you for the gift certificates (which was how much we paid, minus delivery charges and tax) but in my opinion, it still doesn't make it right. What would? Just a simple "I'm sorry, we screwed up this time" would have worked. This shows, up til now, Dominos still refuse to admit that it was their mistake and thinks that the $15 worth of gift certificates will shut us up. I am not saying that we won't use it, oh yes we will. However, that will probably be the last time we will ever eat a Dominos pizza. They are not the only players in the market, there are many other pizza companies out there. Looks like Dominos has lost two very loyal customers. Instead of giving us the certificates, maybe they should have put that $15 towards classes to teach their employees some manners instead. :P

Wow! We now own a diner??

Every since we started this blog back in 2008, our readership has grown quite a bit. When we first started, the only readers of this blog were my dad, Ashley and a few of my cousins :P Today, we pretty much get visitors from all over the world. It's really exciting and fun actually, to get comments and make new friend with people from all over. Of course, not every comment is pleasant and nice. There are a few nasty ones too. Hey, we understand. If we were to have a blog and choose to open it up for the world to see, there are bound to be a few people out there who do not share the same opinion as us. That's all good.

I don't know if you guys noticed the slight updates that we added to the blog recently. We now have a contact form, among other things. Since we added that form, we have been getting quite a lot of feedback/comments/emails from readers. I was pretty amazed that people actually used the form! :P Most of the comments have been pretty good but we do get a few weird ones occasionally. Yeah, weird ones...like people trying to sell us Viagra! We received a really weird comment a few weeks ago and by far, it's the weirdest. Check this out!

RE: Complaint

Myself and 2 friends stopped in your diner today for lunch. We were surprised to see that you didn't make wraps which is what we all wanted for lunch. Due to our disappointment we left and the nasty waitress cahged us for soda that we didn't even drink. Needless to say, we will never return or recommend your diner to anyone.

Lauren Camperlino (lc3891@yahoo.com)

Wow! What's going on? When did we become proud owners of a diner?? Not only that, our diner doesn't serve wraps for lunch?? That's horrible! All diners should serve wraps for lunch. And our waitress was rude and nasty to you? Man, we don't cut no slack in our diner. Lauren, I'll make sure that this never happens again. You know what? I think I'm just gonna fire her tomorrow. Imagine that, charging you for a soda that you ordered but chose not to drink. Tsk tsk tsk. Actually Lauren, come to think about it, this is what I'm going to do. I am deeply ashamed that we don't serve wraps for lunch, especially when that's the ONLY thing that you wanted (what about dinner, do you like wraps for dinner too? or is it just a lunch thing?). So, we are going to give you free food for life. As much wraps as your tummy can hold. Oh, and we will even throw in free sodas. How's that? Please please please recommend our diner to your friends and family. Please return. We cannot bear to see the diner (that we have no knowledge about or even own) go down the drain.

National Donut Day 2010

For those of you who don't know, today is National Donut Day! No, it's not some 'new holiday' created by donut companies but it actually has been celebrated since 1938, when it first began to honor women who served soldiers donuts during WWI. So, since then, every first Friday in June is National Donut Day!

We were out grocery shopping earlier this evening and on our way home, I remembered that Dunkin Donuts is giving away one free donut with a beverage purchase the whole of today. Actually, Krispy Kreme is giving out free donuts all day too (and we don't have to buy anything), but the nearest Krispy Kreme is in NYC...so, yeah, it's not worth it to go all the way there just for a donut! :P Anyways, since it was so hot and humid today, we really didn't mind going to Dunkin Donuts to get a nice icy cold Coolatta. So, we stopped by the Dunkin Donuts (not our usual one) near the grocery store to get our drinks and free donuts.

Now, here is when it gets interesting. Firstly, let me say that Dunkin Donuts has been really promoting this free donut thing. It's everywhere. On TV, in the newspapers, all over the Internet, heck, there is even a poster right in the middle of their glass door when we walked in (I took that photo later on, when we were on our way out). How difficult was it to buy a drink and get that free donut? I told Kevin that we better ask the guy again about the promotion...he looked really shady and I didn't want him to screw us over by selling us the drink and not giving us the free donut (I know, it's just a donut, but it's a matter of principle and not about us wanting some free donuts). So, we asked him if they are giving away free donuts today. He looked at us straight in the eye and said "YOU want ME to give YOU a free donut?". We were like "Yeah, National Donut Day? Free donut promo? Buy a drink and get a donut for free?". He then repeated himself again, like we were total morons...like why in the world would we ask him for free donuts. He had like bloodshot eyes and had this really thick Indian accent. Maybe he was on crack, who knows. I really don't know what his deal was, but he just had no clue of the promo and acted like we were crazy to ask him for free donuts. I was getting a bit irritated and was about to walk out when another guy came over and said, you have to buy a drink, THEN you get a free donut. Like doh! Of course we are buying a drink. We just asked if you are participating in the promo and giving out free donuts today! Geeezzzz...

Anyways, I ordered a Watermelon Coolatta and despite saying "Watermelon Coolatta" for like 5 million times, he kept on saying "Strawberry?". What's wrong with that guy??? Watermelon doesn't sound like Strawberry at all!! At last he said "oh watermelon" and asked me what size I wanted. Before I could say anything, the other guy told him "just make it a large!". I was like WTH! Who said I wanted a large?I told him medium and Kevin ordered a medium Strawberry Coolatta. If you noticed, I took the picture of the Coolattas in the car, cos Kevin didn't want me taking pictures inside the store. I guess he didn't want them to jump over the counter to beat us up or something, I don't know. Anyways, for the record, both the Coolattas sucked big time! Not only were they super watered down, they tasted really weird too. Terrible terrible. I'd rather drink water instead of this yucky Coolattas. At first I thought my Watermelon was really bad, then I tried Kevin's Strawberry...even worse! Just horrible.

Soooo, here it is. The free donuts that got us into that terrible Dunkin Donuts in the first place. Two sad looking Boston Kreme donuts. What a night. Getting all irritated with having to deal with the two Dunkin Donut workers that probably doesn't even understand English all that well but thinks that they are the smartest people around, super yucky tasting Coolattas that cost us about 7 bucks...all for two Boston Kreme donuts. Worth it? Hell no! Please remind me to go to Krispy Kreme next year!