I’ll preface this with a few statements. I have delivered pizza several times in my life, for more than one pizza place. I’ve had misunderstandings, and I’ve learned from them. But I’m sorry, this customer is completely in the wrong, and were this my pizza place, they would be blacklisted, and I’d make sure other places knew what happened at the very least.
Now, long story short, driver delivered pizza and assumed they were not asked for change. The customer called and had the driver return to give them their change. While the driver was in the room, they weren’t nice, but weren’t horrible either. But, once the driver was gone, they turned into the kind of people you laugh at when they slip on ice.
First rule of delivering pizza, NEVER assume a tip, period. I actually carried coins for the first few months I drove, so I could give exact change, as did several drivers who I worked with. My boss (actually, the franchise owner) actually lowered prices where he could when he found out, so that the totals for as many options as he could think of, were round amounts, but also made sure every person who ordered from us knew that the drivers do not carry coins. With credit/debit cards as widely used today, I don’t think that’s a huge deal any more, but it was nice at the time.
Next, from what I could get from the video it sounds as if the customer gave the driver more than they needed to. I’ll admit, when I pay in person at a business with cash, I will sometimes give an amount that means I don’t get small bills. For example, when I’m at the grocery store, if my total is $14.83, I will pay with $25.00 so I get a ten dollar bill back. This is for two reasons, one for me one for the cashier. First, I don’t like having a lot of cash on me, but beyond that, putting a lot of small bills in a wallet makes it uncomfortable in a pocket. Second, I know from my time working a register, ones and fives are the bills you run out of most often. So, if this was the case, and were I the driver, I might think for a second it was a tip (say the order was $19 and change, and they gave me $25, I might think it was a tip). I presume this as the driver actually asks if the customer gave him a five dollar bill he would just get right back. Now before you say it could have been like my retail example, I’ll explain why I might think that.
We’ve all see the “driver carries less than $20 in change” signs and such. This is a typical bank for a driver, so much that when I was taking orders rather than driving, if an order was a large amount, I would stress this. I didn’t want a driver to get to the house with a $59 dollar order, only to be given a $100 bill and asked for change, even though it still happened. Thankfully, our drivers had a prepared script, and cards, so we could reinforce the “$20 or less” rule, and provide a way for our corporate office to send a check. It only happened once (not to me,) and the boss actually told the driver to keep the amount he’d just written a check for as change to the customer who didn’t listen. As I understand, he also had a policy put into place where any order over $40 required a credit card payment or check payment. I really liked him, but he retired and is likely in the Caribbean right now.
So, where am I going with all of this? Who was in the wrong, and it’s not that simple, as the driver and customer both made mistakes. As a driver, I would always say something like “let me get your change” or “your change is $xx.xx” so the customer would have to tell me to keep it. I wanted them to say “keep the change” or “keep it” or “I don’t need change” so I covered myself, as I’d heard horror stories. Beyond that though, the customers were far more in the wrong here. I won’t go so far as to say they set up the situation, but to say you’ll put your foot in his ass, or tell someone to call the owner or manager so you can demand a driver be fired over a misunderstanding? Well, you’ve just proven to me you deserve absolutely zero respect from me. I don’t live anywhere near this dealership, I don’t know exactly when this happened, or if they’re still in business. But I’d buy a bicycle and freeze as I rode everywhere, rather than buy a car from these clowns.
Smokey, out