I made the grave mistake of ordering Pizza Hut online once, about eight months ago. I had a craving, I read about the online ordering, and I went for it....Big mistake. First, it was way too expensive. Second, I happen to live in one of those delivery netherworlds - between the boundaries of one delivery area and another - where the delivery dude refuses to visit. This, however, was not made clear to me on the website - I was easily able to enter my address, and the system informed me that my food would arrive shortly.
Two hours later, no pizza. I wearily called up my local Pizza Hut branch, and a pissed-off sounding teen answered. "...Yea? Pizza Hut?"
"Um...I ordered online, and it still hasn't arrived. Do you happen to know...?"
"Oh. Yea," she said, snapping her gum. "We don't deliver there." (This, mind you, was about .75 miles away). "You can come pick it up."
...And then the e-mailing began.
It started off slow, like an eager pen pal, or your grandmother, testing out her hotmail account. Then it increased, more along the lines of an anxious mother figure or a ticked-off DVD rental place. And now, it's become a jealous, psycho ex-girlfriend, unyielding and exhaustive in her attempts.
Coupons, surveys, alerts...I stopped paying attention about four months ago, and stopped deleting them a month later. In my inbox, they gather, taking up space and being a nuisance, as I vow to never, ever order Pizza Hut pizza again. (Oh, and before you suggest it, I tried to unsubscribe. Twice.) I'm doomed to live the life of an ex-Pizza Hut patron.











Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-01-2008 @ 4:13PM
dennis said...
pizza slut pizza is not worth your coronary arteries.
none of the chain's are any good.
buy from a local if possible...usually they can whip up a good n.y. style pie.
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5-01-2008 @ 5:03PM
A-Pow said...
Try this, I use it all the time.
First, phone then here at the corporate offices (From the Better Business Bureau):
Name: Pizza Hut, Inc.
Phone: (972) 338-7977
Fax: (972) 338-7684
Address: 14841 Dallas Pkwy.
Dallas, TX 75254
Original Business Start Date: January 1958
Principal: Ms. Angela Cantu, Senior Coordinator
Customer Contact: Ms. Angela Cantu, Senior Coordinator - (972) 338-7850 or angela.cantu@PizzaHut.com
Email Address: angela.cantu@PizzaHut.com
Then ask to speak to their Privacy Department or to the contact, Angela Cantu, directly. Explain your situation and tell her the next phone call will be to the BBB and she will likely be fine with having you removed. It's a knife right into their side. Works all the time for me. Hope that helps.
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5-01-2008 @ 5:41PM
Raine said...
We also happen to live on the boarder of two pizza huts that don't ever want to deliver to us. I never even considered ordering online, but that's for the fair warning! I hope your issue gets resolved soon.
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5-01-2008 @ 5:58PM
Danial said...
Two things - 1) Report all their e-mails as spam. Send them into the Spam netherworld and maybe they will be black listed. (It could happen.) There are a lot of rules it sounds like they are ignoring according to the can SPAM act.
2) I ordered online at Papa John's a couple times and it was a great experience. (Although the first time I wondered if a pizza would really appear.) They never e-mail me.
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5-02-2008 @ 12:01PM
AL said...
I have been ordering from Pizza Hut online for 5-6 years now. I have been very happy with the service. I get an email from them MAYBE once every 6 weeks, not at all intrusive. For my buck(s)and taste buds Pizza Hut wins. Papa John's is generally to sweet, and no Domino's for political and ethical reasons. Bring back the 4FORALL!
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5-02-2008 @ 12:01PM
Wyn said...
I haven't tried ordering online -- they won't cross state lines. I used to have them deliver to where I worked on weekends when I couldn't leave the store, and they charged me a $6.00 delivery charge and then wanted me to give a tip. I would end up paying out around $20 for an $11.00 pizza.
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5-02-2008 @ 12:02PM
Pyrofish said...
I order online from pizzahut every couple of months. I live beyond the delivery zone of ANY.. well anything. I like ordering online, they always send me an email confirming the pick-up time.
When signing up, you have to uncheck the radial button that says to send you special offers. I always do that, no matter where I'm signing up. Too late for you now of course.
I do have one problem with Pizza hut's online ordering, they don't allow you to pay online. They say they accept credit cards, but if you try it, they just ask you to bring that card to their store and run it just like normal. Papajohns accepts the CC online. Nice and quick.
I don't order often. Rare weekends when I don't feel like cooking... I'm 30 minutes from any restaurant... for what it's worth.
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5-02-2008 @ 12:02PM
BigGUM said...
Thanks for the warning; yikes!
We don't get Pizza Hut very often, because of it's insanely high calorie/fat counts, but every once in a while we get a craving for the personal pan pizzas - yum.
We do order from Papa John's a couple of times a month, and we have found that the online ordering is the fastest way to go. We have it delivered and it's quicker than calling for delivery or even calling to pick it up. No spam, either.
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5-02-2008 @ 12:02PM
Adam S said...
I rarely order pizza and am not a huge fan of Pizza Hut pizza, but I'd like to chime in with this experience: I've ordered online from them several times over the last 2 or 3 years, and it's always been a joy. There are a lot of options, the delivery time has always been decent, they CERTAINLY DO accept credit cards online, and I've been very happy. They have never spammed me.
Count me amongst the satisfied, I guess.
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5-02-2008 @ 12:02PM
Red Icculus said...
@A-Pow.
Big businesses don't really respond to the BBB. I just got hosed by Microsoft for a defective XBox that was 3 days out of warranty. They can mark it that they satisfied the situation by making an effort and it still not be resolved on my end. Pizza Hut is no exception.
Nice try though.
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5-02-2008 @ 1:44PM
Bryan said...
There is a cool online ordering service, http://www.liveonthego.com that has some higher end pizzas places listed along with a lot of other restaurants. They don't send much email, but when they do it is usually a good discount, like $5 off a $10 order or something like that.
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5-03-2008 @ 6:47PM
Devynn said...
i HATE pizza hut. growing up, it was the go to place, but i got sick of it being the only pizza my family liked, so i went with dominos when i got to college and have NEVER had any problems with them. since i've been to college, i've had NOTHING BUT problems with them. what's funny, is that it's NEVER been online. ALWAYS over the phone or in the store. TWICE, it has taken FOREVER for me to get my food. once, we didn't get our hot wings til AFTER we were done with our pizza. another time, the kitchen apparently didn't get our order. and for my bachelorette party, they didn't bring the pepperoni, which is all i freaking wanted. my best friend got back on the phone and bitched them out til they brought the freaking pizza. i will NEVER order from them again if i can help it. and i'll do my damndest to help it. :)
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5-03-2008 @ 6:47PM
princexy said...
Red Icculus - while I can't say everyone responds to the BBB, I found they were quite effective when I had a problem with Cingular (now ATT) I cancelled my phone but they kept billing me for it for months. I finally decided to contact the BBB after fighting with their customer service reps and managers repeatedly. After that all the bills were cancelled and they sent me a letter of apology. While I would have preferred not to have had to go through all that, I think actually contacting the BBB is quite effective if they will not resolve your problem through direct contact.
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5-04-2008 @ 1:21PM
bookwrm95 said...
Like anyone really cares!
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5-04-2008 @ 11:56PM
joy said...
Delivery areas are not determined by the people at the local Pizza Hut store. It's something corporate sets up, so don't get angry that the "delivery dude" won't deliver to you.
Pizza Hut is always expensive unless you use coupons. Then again, someone else is making YOU dinner, so maybe you shouldn't complain too much about the price.
As far as the delivery charge? The driver gets a small portion of the fee to reimburse the gas they use and the wear and tear on their vehicle to deliver you the food their store made for YOU. Drivers work off of tips, just like waiters.
Generally there's a link to click and confirm your cancellation of an email subscription too, so perhaps you overlooked this...
Pizza Hut is very customer oriented company and always tries to rectify the situation, within reason. If there's a problem, a blog about your experience isn't going to solve the issue. One incident shouldn't make you swear off Pizza Hut, especially when there are plenty of other restaurants not screwing it up.
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