PIZZA HUT NORWOOD - DYSFUNCTIONAL ONLINE ORDER SYSTEM
On Saturday 15th December 2018. I went online at about 20:00 and ordered Pizzas for two hungry boys from Pizza Hut Norwood Restaurant. I needed to go to the office to prepare a speech. We got the confirmation that the Pizza would be ready within 30 minutes. About an hour later there was still no delivery man in sight . I was also unable to call the restaurant because the phone lines appeared faulty. I have a 24 Hour guard at my gate, which detail I noted on the order, so there was no way the driver would have arrived without us knowing or unable to get in. Irritated - I decided to drive to the restaurant myself. When I got there I asked about my order - the female attendant explained that no order was received because there booking system is faulty and their phones are down. I asked to speak to the manager. A gentleman by the name of Clement echoed what the lady had just told me. He told me that they had reported both issues in the morning to their superiors. I asked who that was - they gave me the number and name of their Regional Manager Farai. I called him from the restaurant and expressed my dismay. I also asked him why a simple matter of posting these important details on the relevant online sites was not taken care of earlier. Given their reliance on a functional online service this is an easy notification for an IT/WEB service manager worth his salt to broadcast. He (Farai) apologized and offered to give my pizzas on the house. I wanted a witness so I handed the phone back to manager Clement. The point for me is not trying to get a freebie and to put an ineffective plaster over fundamentally poor service industry blunders. We have really bad endemic challenges in SA. If we don't fix them we are all affected. Given how shockingly badly our politicians are dealing with abjectly dysfunctional SOE's making endless excuses - I vow to do my bit in my sphere of influence. Left as is we are headed for Somalia not even Zimbabwe. I am in the services industry myself. From time to time mistakes happen - it is how we respond to them that matters. Being off for an entire an entire day and allowing glaring omissions on a website knowing what the implications are smacks of something entirely different. I explained this to Clement. I insisted on paying for my pizzas but promised that I would take the time to post a complaint. I would like of of the Pizza Hut SA Principles to respond to this. This is a case of operational front desk staff being left in the lurch and to face the chagrin of clients. Come Pizza Hut let us know how you are going to address this issue