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Phone is still the best way to order pizza

dan.bulwinkle.net

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Re: Phone is still the best way to order pizza

#401

Post by ssharp »

Nextgrid wrote: post #373
ssharp wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve had food sitting at restaurants for over an hour before while Uber attempts to find a driver. After a particularly frustrating instance where Uber told me to cancel but didn’t refund me for me, I did manage to find a support inbox that’s read by an escalation team and I had a real life human calling from SF let me know that they would refund me. The effort it took to get the refund was ridiculous though as every…

Uber Eats will lie and blame the restaurant for being slow when they can't find a driver. The order status will stay on "preparing your order" for an hour while I know full well (by calling the restaurant directly) that the food was ready for over an hour. Sometimes it'll switch to "driver on the way to pick up" and then back to "preparing your order" which makes no sense. Deliveroo is was similar in that aspect back…

I usually at least make a decent attempt at resolving these types of conflicts before reporting to AMEX. Even though AMEX's chargeback process is probably the best of the credit card companies I've used, it's still not as ideal as simply getting the refund from the merchant, if possible.

Oddly enough, I've NEVER had this issue with DoorDash. I think DoorDash simply makes restaurants unavailable if they don't have drivers, whereas UberEats ALWAYS takes the order and then simply doesn't fulfill it if they can't. What you say about "preparing your order" is 100% correct. There isn't a "waiting for driver" status, so if there is no driver on the way, it stays at "preparing..."

This is a particularly terrible customer experience since you almost always time your deliveries so you eat them right when they get there and you are hungry when they arrive. By the time you realize Uber is not going to bother fulfilling your order, you've already probably been waiting 30 minutes, cannot cancel then without being charged, and have to start making other plans for food as you get hangrier and hangrier. It's even worse when you're getting food for the whole family delivered and have to deal with hangry kids!

Re: Phone is still the best way to order pizza

#402

Post by ssharp »

pwdisswordfish9 wrote: post #328
ssharp wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve had food sitting at restaurants for over an hour before while Uber attempts to find a driver. After a particularly frustrating instance where Uber told me to cancel but didn’t refund me for me, I did manage to find a support inbox that’s read by an escalation team and I had a real life human calling from SF let me know that they would refund me. The effort it took to get the refund was ridiculous though as every…

> I’ve had food sitting at restaurants for over an hour before while Uber attempts to find a driver. If you're in a metro area ordering during ordinary hours and having this happen, it's almost certainly because the restaurant has developed a bad reputation and people refuse to work with them. The thing about Uber's intermediation is that if you had this sort of experience by ordering directly through the restaurant,…

> UberEATS drivers are like Fedex or USPS for food. They have no special powers here. Expecting one to refund "for" you is like having a mail person show up at your door and then berating them for the screwup of whatever business sent you the wrong thing, etc.

I'm not sure what this means exactly or how it's relevant. In these instances, it's not the driver's fault, it's Uber's fault. They are taking orders they can't fulfill and then denying refunds when you cancel until you figure out how to escalate it to a human who can do things other than press canned-response buttons.

Re: Phone is still the best way to order pizza

#403

Post by FDSGSG »

alexvoda wrote: post #311
hilbert42 wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The restaurant had its name on the bill but no telephone number. Presumably, this done to stop or reduce telephone complaints direct to the restaurant. Seems that everything must be done online.

I was a very slow adopter of Uber rides many years ago. When talking to some evangelist at that time offering me codes for free rides, one of the reasons I gave for not using Uber at that time, was that it was completely dependent on smartphone apps, therefore being unusable to certain portions of the population (old non-technical people, those who lost their phone, those who use an OS other than Android or iOS, dead…

>therefore being unusable to certain portions of the population (old non-technical people, those who lost their phone, those who use an OS other than Android or iOS, dead battery and no charging cable, etc.)

FWIW uber has had a web app for years now, and before that there were a plenty of unofficial clients. I remember calling Ubers from my laptop in 2016.

Re: Phone is still the best way to order pizza

#404

Post by wingerlang »

rprospero wrote: post #386
wingerlang wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You order toppings for all pizzas? We usually just order by number/names (via menu). Toppings are very rarely adjusted, and NEVER "built" from scratch. At least I've never seen anyone do that.

I’m forty, been eating pizza my whole life, and I think I’ve only seen people order the preset pizza half the time. When I’m at a decent pizza place, it’s spinach, Stilton, bacon, and red potato. Possibly with broccoli or a vodka base, if I’m in the mood. At a more generic chain place, it’s pepperoni, feta, and pineapple. Never seen those on the menu at any pizzeria.

Probably depends on country. For reference I am talking about Sweden, where I'd say 90% of the pizza eaten is from smaller independent joints, something in-between fast food and a restaurant.

The menus usually has 50~80 different pizzas listed, so there's usually something for everyone without major changes.

Re: Phone is still the best way to order pizza

#405

Post by Tempest1981 »

floatingatoll wrote: post #396
Tempest1981 wrote: post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chipotle’s app always says your food will be ready in Their server needs a feedback channel from the stores. Or it should count the number of incoming items ordered per minute, and auto-adjust the "ready" time. Don't always show 5 minutes.

Telling the customer to leave immediately for the store is the only viable solution for a time window that could be 7 to 55 minutes wide, if your priority is maximizing pipeline efficiency and throughout at the expense of occasionally making customers wait for up to 45 minutes in-store. Providing a If the pizza’s ready in 7 minutes, you’ll be there in 10 and receive a hot pizza. If the pizza’s ready in 55 minutes, yo…

The downside: you have 30-40 angry customers packed into a tiny restaurant, some unmasked, all crowding the pickup window, waiting for their name to be called.

Surely technology can help improve this?

Re: Phone is still the best way to order pizza

#406

Post by bee_rider »

kzrdude wrote: post #222
bee_rider wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cheese pizza must be the default, right? It is the lack of toppings. Although whether they follow up to clarify about toppings must depend on the place. In my experience, if the guy on the phone is rude and lets you mess up your order, they are much more likely to produce a good pizza. Places will only be polite (or offer lots of options) if they can't compete on quality.

Ah, the 'Soup Nazi' hypothesis

I haven't watches Seinfeld, but I'm under the impression that the main characters are actually the villains, right? The Soup Nazi did nothing wrong (I assume)!

Re: Phone is still the best way to order pizza

#407

Post by fortydegrees »

tjoff wrote: post #354
ioman wrote: post #340

My local pizza place in Seattle has moved the technology the other way. Here’s the dialog when I call. “Pagliacci Pizza, how can I help you?” “I’d like to order a pizza” “Sure thing. Is this John Smith?” “Yes” “Do you still live at 1234 Main Street” “Yes” “Would you like to order the same thing you did last time?” “Yes” “Ok, it’ll be there in 20 minutes” Even better, while you talk to the store you called, the order…

Sounds good, but "the order goes into some sort of pizza load balancer and gives the order to the least busy store with a good drive time to your house" seems to be optimizing only for fast delivery. Which might, or might definitely not be the highest priority to me.

You might not be the person the software was being sold to ;)

Re: Phone is still the best way to order pizza

#408

Post by ineedasername »

rprospero wrote: post #386
wingerlang wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You order toppings for all pizzas? We usually just order by number/names (via menu). Toppings are very rarely adjusted, and NEVER "built" from scratch. At least I've never seen anyone do that.

I’m forty, been eating pizza my whole life, and I think I’ve only seen people order the preset pizza half the time. When I’m at a decent pizza place, it’s spinach, Stilton, bacon, and red potato. Possibly with broccoli or a vodka base, if I’m in the mood. At a more generic chain place, it’s pepperoni, feta, and pineapple. Never seen those on the menu at any pizzeria.

>decent pizza place, it’s spinach, Stilton, bacon, and red potato. Possibly with broccoli or a vodka base, if I’m in the mood.

This sounds like the type of pizza common on the west coast, maybe California in particular? Possibly other parts of the world, but I'm less familiar with regional pizza varieties outside the US. In a traditional Italian pizzeria on the east coast those are simply not part of the regional variety. "Stilton" would get you a strange look. "red potato" would probably be met with "we can put fries on it". Bacon is very common. Broccoli and vodka sauce are a lot less common, but I see the options sometimes. A plain pie (crust, mozzarella, red tomato sauce) is the most common though maybe about tied with the most common topping, pepperoni. "Detroit" pizza is seen as an abomination by many pizza afficionados on the east coast, west coast, and Chicago, but I'm no pizza snob, and have been looking for the opportunity to try it, but have only seen the option from one of the big 3 chains and they're.never the same as the authentic regional varieties.

Re: Phone is still the best way to order pizza

#409

Post by monocularvision »

Tempest1981 wrote: post #393
tyoma wrote: post #5

This is only true for very simple orders. And may heaven help you if you and the person on the other end are both non-native English speakers. As soon as you want anything remotely custom, using an app or website is a lifesaver. And the good apps remember your order for one/two tap re-ordering. Chipotle’s app is one that does this extremely well.

Chipotle’s app always says your food will be ready in Their server needs a feedback channel from the stores. Or it should count the number of incoming items ordered per minute, and auto-adjust the "ready" time. Don't always show 5 minutes.

Yes, this. I am about ready to give up on Chipotle entirely because of the incredible lie that is their Ready to Pickup time. Last time I was there I would have saved time if I had just waited in their incredibly long line and ordered that way instead of doing them the favor of ordering ahead.

Re: Phone is still the best way to order pizza

#410

Post by monocularvision »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #38
post_break wrote: post #9

I'm sorry but I don't agree. Dominos pizza has coupons, deals, etc. Trying to get those deals over the phone is a chore. Ordering specific toppings can be a chore since it's a relay back and forth vs a button. Multiple pizzas with multiple toppings? The delay just compounds. If you live alone and order one pizza or one style of specific themed pizzas then sure, it might be faster, if that's the metric of "best" but i…

Dominos has been abusing push notifications on iOS recently. They have two push notification settings, one for order events (being made, in the oven, ready for pickup), one for marketing. Even with marketing off, they've been sending marketing notifications. Dislike.

Misuse of push notifications means an immediate loss of push notification permissions for me.
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