Topic: so I'm a pizza delivery boy, right

[ren]

all my friends have said that their parents would never let them do such a dangerous job. I never really paid much attention to that. I've always had faith in people, so I never really thought anything bad would happen. Last night that changed because I almost got the shit kicked out of me, and it scared the hell out of me. I'm not afraid of a fight, but it's definitely not something I want to deal with as I try and make a few extra bucks. After that incident I kept on delivering for the rest of my shift perfectly fine, but I'm thinking when my next shift starts I'm going to be really psyched out by the whole thing. I'm just trying to decide if it's worth it. my next shift is Wednesday, so I basically have until then to quit with the easy excuse of my parents won't let me do it anymore because of what happened. I kind of thought that's what would happen, but when I told them the story I completely understated it.

what was really bad was that I got a concussion a few days ago, and have been having constant headaches. so when the guy attacked me I hit my head, not very hard, but it caused a lot of pain. the hours really suck too. I work from 5-8 on wednesday, and 5pm-3am on saturday. it averages to $12 an hour or so after tips.

[PyroMenace]

Dude what exactly happened? Did you deliver a pizza to a bear? They want honey not pizza!!

[scottws]

People are fucks.  I had a brief 4-week stint at a chain here called LaRosa's.  I worked in the call center (they have one number you call to order pizza at any LaRosa's in the region).  I heard stories from our Queensgate store, which was in a pretty ghetto area, that drivers would frequenly be confronted with guns.

Like someone would order a pizza.  Someone would go to deliver it, and the door would open and the guy would pull out a gun and point it at the driver and say thanks for the pizza.  Shit like that.  They got blacklisted from future deliveries, but stuff like that still happened fairly often.

Fucking people, man.

[Antares]

One of my good friends accidentally went to the wrong house delivering a pizza and accidentally confronted a crazed drunk guy who fired a rifle a him from point blank range.  The guy missed, but my friend ended up with permanent hearing damage.

[ren]

Usually with apartment buildings we ask the people to meet us in the lobby. About 50% of people are fine with it, and 50% don't want to. These people didn't want to so I told them the total and stuff on the phone and asked them if they could have it ready because I needed to go to another delivery right after. (that stupid 40 minutes or it's free thing is an awful idea)

When I get to the apartment the guy answers the door, and I can see the money in his hand. I hand him the pizza and put my hand out for the money. He signals for me to wait, because he's on the phone, and walks back inside. He comes out about a minute later, still on the phone, and just stands there. So he wastes my time for about 5 minutes and now theres no way that I can make my next delivery on time. I tell him I need to go, and ask him for the money again. He signals to his watch and says it's now after the 40 minute limit, so his pizza is free. I state the obvious, that I've been waiting in the hall for 5 minutes and the pizza was on time when I got it to him. He then says he's off hold and asks Pizza Pizza support "what happens when the delivery guy is late?" to which they say the pizza is free. So the guy says "the pizza is free" and slams the door.

At this point I figure fuck it, he can have the pizza, and the company can deal with him if they want. If a pizza is free you need to get the guy to sign the receipt. So I knock at the door. I can hear them inside saying just to ignore it. So I say into the door that they can have the pizza for free, I just need them to sign something. I knock again, a bit louder, and then start to walk away. As I walk away I hear something coming from behind, and it's the guy who stole the pizza. He's yelling at me for kicking his door, shoving me around. I'm backing up, he pushes me, and I fall down a few steps of stairs, about three. This is where I hit my head. He jumps down, shoves me against the wall, and gets ready to unload. His friends hold him back now but they're having a hard time doing it, because the guy was huge. So I run.

It really wasn't a big thing, but I've only been working the job a month. Earlier that day I had another big, angry guy yelling at me trying to get free pizza as well. So I want to keep working because it was just an isolated incident, and didn't cause any real damage to me. I'm hesitating because now I realize that it could easily happen again, and be much worse.

[idolminds]

What an asshole. Burn his house down.

[scottws]

What a fucking asshole.  That's honsestly pretty retarded when you know where the guy lives.  You might not do anything, but how does he know that?  You could be planning to come back and blow his head off for all he knows.

[Antares]

Wow, what a dick.  I can see why most pizza joints have done away with the whole time limit guarantee thing.

[ren]

The cops were called so he has that to deal with. They advised that I don't press charges since it's my word against a bunch of them, and pizza pizza said the pizza was free so they took their side as well. The cops seemed visibly pissed off at the story, and said that they would go over there and read him the riot act. So basically it's really easy to get away with assault.

[Antares]

It's easy to get away with anything, especially if you've got the balls to flat out deny everything. All the police have to go on is word vs word. A lot of people get fucked over when it comes to liability in car accidents that way as well.

[Ghandi]

What an asshole. You should devise some elaborate plan to pour concrete in front of all the openings in his apartment.

[Quemaqua]

What an asshole. You should devise some elaborate plan to pour concrete in front of all the openings in his apartment.

That would be completely awesome.

And yeah, that's pretty crazy.  People are really horrible sometimes.  Personally, I'd say go find another shit job.  There are plenty of them, and while they all suck, not all of them require you to risk life and limb.

[Pugnate]

WHAT A FUCKING ASSHOLE!!!! I am so fucking pissed off right now...

[Raisa]

Geez..

i swear, you guys should have those tiimer things like what Fedex has..  or you have those recorders you know.. then you can't really cheat.. It's easy to have hidden recorders.  And you only put it on if you think the person you're delivering to is questionable.  or would that be infringing on the customer's right to privacy?

[Pugnate]

That's a good idea. Remember my terrorist landlords? Well I recorded all that crap on my cellphone. If you want to continue to deliver pizza you can try that.

[idolminds]

Mate sure the timestamp on your camera is correct and snap a shot of the house as you walk up.

[poomcgoo]

I'm pretty sure it's illegal to use sound recording unless you tell the person you're recording.

[ren]

It doesn't matter anyways. Pizza Pizza headquarters has that stupid "the customer is always right" policy. If anyone make a a fuss, they get a free pizza. It makes no difference to them, only the delivery people and the individual franchises lose money. What some people like to do is claim that the pizza is late, and then call customer support saying it came cold, because the driver took so long. Headquarters then tells us to give them a complimentary pizza. So now that customer has gotten their two orders for free. Our franchise has already paid for the supplies, so we're out money but the company itself is not. It's a shitty system. Even if I was to record a customer screwing us over, the worst that would happen is that they get blacklisted, and even that's a bit of a long shot.

I've worked their less than a month and found so many flaws in the system. Why the managers don't all complain to get it fixed is beyond me. Some basic restructuring and they could save so much money.

Anyways, I decided to keep working. I told my parents who promptly told me I came to the wrong decision, and basically told me to quit. They're not forcing me, but I don't have much of a choice. I didn't feel too strongly about keeping the job, so it's pretty clear what I need to do.

[Pugnate]

It has to be said though, the Pizza Pizza food is fantastic. I love the white dipping sauces.

[poomcgoo]

Pizza Pizza is the name of it?  I've never heard of the place, but I remember that used to be Little Ceasar's slogan, with the little Roman guy saying "Pizza Pizza!"

I googled "pizza pizza" and their website came up with two really appetizing looking pizzas.  I could really go for some pizza right now -- now I know who to call when I want to beat up some delivery guys too.

[ren]

Pizza Pizza is huge in Canada. Theres one every few kilometers. Based on locations alone, it seems like the number one pizza place around here. I don't think there are any in the states though.

[Pugnate]

Yea it is the biggest thing in Canada, and oddly enough nothing outside of it. Fantastic pizza though.

[scottws]

It doesn't matter anyways. Pizza Pizza headquarters has that stupid "the customer is always right" policy. If anyone make a a fuss, they get a free pizza. It makes no difference to them, only the delivery people and the individual franchises lose money. What some people like to do is claim that the pizza is late, and then call customer support saying it came cold, because the driver took so long. Headquarters then tells us to give them a complimentary pizza. So now that customer has gotten their two orders for free. Our franchise has already paid for the supplies, so we're out money but the company itself is not. It's a shitty system. Even if I was to record a customer screwing us over, the worst that would happen is that they get blacklisted, and even that's a bit of a long shot.

I've worked their less than a month and found so many flaws in the system. Why the managers don't all complain to get it fixed is beyond me. Some basic restructuring and they could save so much money.

Every pizza chain is like that.  To be honest, there are times that people do received a cold pizza or the wrong thing or are missing something.  Sure, people abuse it, but that's just going to happen.  The pizza company's main concern is to retain or gain customers.  By providing good customer service, they can do that.

[scottws]

Pizza Pizza is huge in Canada. Theres one every few kilometers.

Sounds like Tim Horton's.  Oh wait, that's one every kilometer.

[Cools]

That sucks ren. Hope that doesn't happen again in the future. You should consider an alternative job though.

Speaking of Tim Hortons. I worked at one in my area for close to 2 years. Decent job, depending on your shift. It can be very entertaining, especially during the night shift. You usually get the weirdest customers in the afternoon. I had people throw all sorts of things at me, donuts, coffee cups, timbits, etc. The fat chicks were the worst, they bitched about anything.

[WindAndConfusion]

i swear, you guys should have those tiimer things like what Fedex has..  or you have those recorders you know.. then you can't really cheat.. It's easy to have hidden recorders.  And you only put it on if you think the person you're delivering to is questionable.  or would that be infringing on the customer's right to privacy?

Or a GPS blackbox that records the car's location at regular intervals, or something.

And no, it wouldn't be an infringement. As you mentioned, FedEx does it too.

[Quemaqua]

I've never even heard of Tim Horton's, so it's obviously only big in your neck of the woods, Scott.  Here competition is divided pretty evenly between Pizza Hut, Dominoes, and Round Table on the main side, then Papa Murphy's on the take-and-bake side.  Personally, I'll take a PM pizza over anything else any day of the week.

[scottws]

I've never even heard of Tim Horton's, so it's obviously only big in your neck of the woods, Scott.  Here competition is divided pretty evenly between Pizza Hut, Dominoes, and Round Table on the main side, then Papa Murphy's on the take-and-bake side.  Personally, I'll take a PM pizza over anything else any day of the week.

Tim Horton's is a Canadian food chain.  They are like Walgreen's pharmacy here, except worse in terms of how many there are.

[Cools]

It's not really a "food" chain. More like Starbucks + Dunkin' Donuts, with extra nibbles.

[Pugnate]

I was amazed by how many Tim Horton's and Pizza Pizzas there were in Canada and no where else. I wonder why the franchise hasn't spread. In Canada you can't avoid it.

[Cools]

It's spreading in some parts of the States. Part of the deal of Wendy's owning Tim Hortons is that they'd help spread it around the world. I think they have (or had) plans to open a few stores in Europe.

[Pugnate]

Good... first Jim Carrey, Celine Dion & Bryan Adams, then ATi and now Tim Hortons.. muahahahahaha.....



No there is no point.

[scottws]

It's spreading in some parts of the States. Part of the deal of Wendy's owning Tim Hortons is that they'd help spread it around the world. I think they have (or had) plans to open a few stores in Europe.

Yeah, I've seen some in northern Ohio.  They aren't on every corner though like in Canada.