It is my first day working at a pizza place. A customer orders a large pizza with half pepperoni and half ham. They call back after they receive the pizza.

Caller: “You messed up!”

Me: “How so?”

Caller: “I wanted the pepperoni on the right side and the ham on the left, not the other way around!”

Me: “Have you tried turning the pizza around?”

There’s silence, followed by the sound of a sliding box.

Caller: *Click*

Me: *To my manager* “I didn’t think those kinds of customers existed, and I get one on my first day!”

Manager: “Of course, you did. It happens almost every day!”

I am a manager at a pizza place taking an order over the phone.

Customer: “Get me a veggie pizza.”

I comply and enter the order. She calls back about twenty minutes after getting her order and starts yelling.

Me: “What is wrong with the pizza?”

Customer: “There are onions on the pizza!”

Me: “Onions come on the veggie pizza.”

Customer: “Not only am I severely allergic to them, but I’ve already eaten two slices!”

If she were “severely allergic”, she would already be suffering by now, I think?

I convince her to bring the pizza back, and I can make her a new pizza without onions for free. She brings back the pizza. When she comes into the store, I greet her and give her the new pizza.

Me: *Opening the old pizza box* “Ma’am, there are only two slices left in here.”

Customer: “I got hungry on the way.” *Walks out*

Related:
Allergic To Common Sense, Part 26
Allergic To Common Sense, Part 25
Allergic To Common Sense, Part 24
Allergic To Common Sense, Part 23
Allergic To Common Sense, Part 22

Back in the 1990s, I was working for a pizza franchise.

I was a Senior Manager Trainee, with a few months of training left to go to become a full-time store manager.

During every weekday, I was the opener, prepper, cleaner, in-store cook, manager, etc. I did my best to make sure everything was ready for our very busy evenings.

I worked a full two shifts one weekend and then worked a full opening shift on Monday morning. On Monday night, I was called to come in as the junior manager trainee was sick, and no one could get ahold of the store manager (as usual).

I offered to come in, but since I had to open the next day, I didn’t have the energy to do a full closing shift, and I had already worked a full opening shift.

So, I went in, took care of all the existing customers, made sure all the orders were taken care of, made sure deliveries went through, and made sure everything was done 100% correctly.

Then, I told the customers we would be closing early because I was not able to get ahold of a manager to help out or to take my morning shift.

I started getting calls from the regional manager to stay and do the full closing shift. I said I was not able to because I was very tired from both the weekend and morning shifts, and I had to open the next morning, as well.

I asked if any of the four or five other corporate stores had an extra person to come in and close so that I could get enough sleep to work my opening shift the next day. I had called all the different stores, and they had refused to help.

Then, the regional manager started to insult me as if I were trying to destroy the store. 

I also tried to call the store manager and got no result, and I had no other choice available to me. 

I had been worked to the bone.

So, around 10:00 pm, I completed all orders, took care of all driver’s money, cleaned the store, and closed it.

When the next morning started, I arrived to do my regular morning shift. I found out through the internal management network that I had been demoted to driver.

No one had been willing to help me, but I was supposed to sacrifice my health.

At that point, I decided to quit because of how abusive that situation was. Poor management by others does not mean I have to abide by it.

I quit immediately and called my store manager, locked the door, and left to never return.

There were plenty of stores that had extra people, and they would rather demand unreasonable effort from me than give me or my store help.

That lack of good management up and down still irks me to this day.

I was in college in 1997. I ordered a pizza from a college-town pizza chain one Saturday night from my dorm.

The only payment I had was a check. I didn’t have cash or a credit card. The pizza was ridiculously cheap; I want to say it was $6.95, but back then, it could have been $4.95. I don’t remember. The important thing is the $0.95.

I rounded the check up to the next dollar. Yes, I wrote a check for $5.00 for a $4.95 pizza. Or maybe $6.00 for a $5.95. Either way, it was horrible.

I remember the delivery guy was super friendly. I was new at school, and he was commiserating with my move-in situation. Then, after I handed him the check:

Delivery Guy: “Wait, I have some change for you.”

Me: “Oh, no, keep the change.”

Delivery Guy: “No, here’s your nickel.”

I have never been more ashamed in my life. This episode still comes up when I try to sleep.

I have tipped the max ever since.

I only live a five-minute walk away from a local pizza place, so I went in to order at the counter for takeaway. I didn’t call ahead; I didn’t see much point as I lived so close and I didn’t mind the extra couple of minutes.

While there, I saw they were doing a special offer: a 10% discount if you mentioned their promotion over the phone and then went in to collect takeaway.

Me: “I know I haven’t called in first, but now I know you do a discount if you do, and to save us both the hassle of me calling you right now and for the fact I know the promotion exists, can I still get the 10% off anyway?”

Employee: “No. It’s for telephone orders only.”

Me: “Sure, I get that, but I could literally just call you right now from my mobile and you’d give me the discount, but that’d be a bit weird to make me do that, so can I just get it anyway?”

Employee: “No. It’s for telephone orders only.”

This employee wasn’t a kid with management breathing down his neck. He may have even been the owner or manager, for all I knew. It was a small place and not a chain, and if it wasn’t just him there doing everything, then it was only him and the chef.

This jobsworth attitude pissed me off, so I was literally about to just forget about buying anything from there and go somewhere else, but as I got outside, I figured that, no, I’d just stand outside and call the number on their door and order a pizza that way to get my discount.

The phone rang and the same guy picked it up.

Me: “Can I order a pizza to collect with the 10% discount, please?”

He recognised my voice obviously as it had just been fifteen seconds since we were speaking inside. He looked outside at me. I smiled and waved. He looked pissed off that he had to give me my discount now.

He took my order and said it would be ten minutes.

While I was waiting for my discounted pizza, someone else was about to go into the restaurant to order takeout.

Me: “Hey, have you phoned ahead to get the discount?”

Customer: “No, I didn’t realise that was a thing.”

Me: “No problem, buddy. I’ll do it for you. What do you want?”

I called the same number again. The same guy answered, heard my voice again, and looked straight at me again.

I smiled and waved again and proceeded to order this random stranger’s pizza order for them whilst maintaining eye contact with the employee.

Me: “My friend would also like the 10% telephone discount.”

The employee looked like he was gonna pop a blood vessel but had no choice but to accept it. After all, I didn’t enforce the rules; he did.

A week later, the telephone order discount was cancelled completely; it’s simply given if you have a menu, and there are menus at the entrance anyway, so you’d be crazy not to see it and use it.

This happened around fifteen years ago, so the promotion wasn’t to do with Google ads, tracking information, storing numbers, etc. It was just a badly-executed promotion that forced you to call the very person standing in front of you already taking your order anyway if you wanted the discount.

I probably risked a spat-on pizza. I don’t suggest pissing off people who make your food. It was not something I was thinking of at the time, though.