But there's been a few things annoying me. Let's start with the drivers. One of the things I've really liked about this job, especially when compared to working at Sonic, is the maturity of the drivers. I rarely have to ride herd or pull rank to get them to do their job, and if they have to stay late, generally not a big deal. In fact, the main reason I was able to start running shifts on my own so quickly is that I was able to depend on the drivers to do their job well consistently without a lot of oversight. However, within the last two weeks, I've had to lock horns with almost every driver we have over one thing or another. Let's see here...
- Mal
This one kind of surprised me. It was a Friday night, the first busy one we'd have since the spring semester started. It was about 6 - 6:30, right in the middle of the dinner rush. There were no runs on the screen, no orders in at all, and Mal was the only driver in the store, so she was first up. It was my shift, but Gina was there. So Mal comes up to me and asks me if she can go across the street to Murphy's Deli and get something to eat. Now, to be fair, there weren't any runs in the store at all; however, it *was* a really busy Friday night, which meant that there could be a run *ready to go* in seven minutes. She was the only driver in the store, and there were plenty of things that needed doing. She got kind of upset when I told her no, saying that "If I go later, it costs me money" - not to sound harsh, but not my problem. The frustrating thing about that situation is that she can basically disregard that and just go on the to or from her next run - which she did. I'm certainly not trying to say this is a problem with her or anything - for the most part, she's one of the better drivers in terms of getting the job done, reliability, etc. It was a fairly isolated incident, just one that took place along with a few others. - Ray
Lemme see... we were closing, Mike was doing the back (due to a misunderstanding between him and I when I jokingly said that Ray would 'duel him to the death' for the right to do the front, which I only said since Mike hates doing dishes so much. I thought my use of that phrase would at least provide a strong indication that I was joking, but he didn't hear me. So anyway, they finish up, and Ray didn't change the front trash can. Not a big deal, but definitely something that's supposed to be taken care of, so I let him know, and he let me know *very* strongly that he didn't want to. It kind of devolved into us yelling at each other across the store, but he did it. Also, that night (I think it was that night, but closing shifts tend to run together), Ray was in, the other closing driver was out. He was waiting for his run to come out of the oven, the only run in the store at the time, when a call came in. I took it - it was to Clovis Barker Rd, which is way the fuck out there, and he was happy that it would end up going to the other driver. So they were having a tough time figuring out what to order - the lady I was talking to radioed some other people to see if/what they wanted; they had to review a few different specials and combinations, and in that time, another call came in. Ray took it since his run still wasn't up, and sure enough, he finished his call well before I finished mine. However, he delayed putting his through, in an attempt to avoid having to take Clovis Barker, since the order runs go out is determined by when they go through, not when the order is started. I saw this, though, and didn't put mine through and went to put his through (not that it would have really mattered, since I would have had him take Clovis Barker anyway). He tried to block me, but yeah, that wasn't going to happen. So he ended up taking Clovis Barker, and got pulled over on the way back. It was something really stupid too, like he didn't slow down sufficiently as he passed a police officer that had someone else pulled over. They didn't give him a ticket or anything, but they did take a while running his license. So he was understandably frustrated, and that segued into the trash incident. - Wes
I've been having issues with Wes in general lately - he seems to take a lot longer than any of the other drivers, and doesn't really care about anything. I mean, it's getting to the point where I'd rather have Ross than Wes. But yeah, in this whole little rant, he's the only one I'm having repeated issues with. All of these other ones, it's just little things that popped up once or twice, nothing habitual or anything. So anyway... one night, he was doing trash; I specifically asked him to make sure to get the trash can out front, which isn't something that has to be done every time. He told me he was ready to check out; I asked him if he had done it, and he told me he had. I went out and checked, and he hadn't, and I called him on it. He told me he was intending to do it on his way out. Which would be fine, if he had told me that, as opposed to that he'd already done it. That wasn't too big of a deal; the next one is. Same Friday night as the Mal incident previously; about the same time, too. Wes starts asking Ross about a possible schedule change. Definitely not the appropriate time to do so. However, it gets worse. Wes calls the store, and asks to speak to Ross, just to tell him that never mind, he doesn't need to switch shifts after all. That was so infuriating, I don't even want to go into it any more. I pulled him aside later to explain that the middle of the Friday night dinner rush is *not* the time to do something like that, and the whole thing just went in one ear and out the other. Rather annoying. - Mike
Not even gonna go there.
Wow, was that really it? I guess we just don't have a lot of drivers right now, though we're getting some more. Greg is doing really well, seems like he's already ready to be a strong driver; I haven't worked with Enrique or Tex much, can't really comment on that. Clelia seems to be struggling a little on not getting lost, which could be just a function of not knowing the area well yet, but it somewhat detrimental for a delivery driver.
So I'm not trying to say anything bad about our drivers as a whole. These were just a bunch of isolated incidents that happened to occur near each other. Last week was kind of stressful for everyone, and with the reduced staff we've had lately, a lot of people are just plain tired. This week is definitely the easiest, least hour one I've had in a while. Felicia called earlier to see if I could go close Seguin tonight, but that wasn't going to happen. And I've got to leave in like three hours to go to class with Ambra. If I understand correctly, we're going to be watching a video tape of a business seminar. [Sigh] Fun stuff. Not really, but at least the company is paying for it, and the company will be very nice (note: the second use of the word company there is referring to the people, or more specifically, person, next to me. I thought it was a nice play on words, if somewhat poorly phrased.)
But yeah, people have been kind of rude lately, especially about us being closed. Now, I've been in food service about five years now. Not quite Gina or Dave with their 15-20 years, but enough that I'm fairly experienced, especially in dealing with customers. Our store closes at 2 am on Friday and Saturday, and 1 am the rest of the week, Sunday through Thursday. Period. I didn't set the rules, I just follow them. We're also open an hour or two later than our competitors, with the exception of Pizza Classics, which keeps basically the same hours we do, but being locally operated and not part of a franchise, is the least likely to adhere strictly to their rules. That, and the employees tend to be slackers and lazy - I'm not saying that as a competitor, just quoting two of our drivers that have worked there in the past. So anyway, we're the late night pizza guys, especially for the campus, which we've done a lot of marketing for and on. That, and I tend to close 3-5 times a week. I'm the closest thing we have to a 'closing manager'.
A'ight, so, done with the preamble. People are asshats. I mean, I don't consider myself overly polite, but I have a decent understanding on how to properly behave and show respect to fellow human beings (whether or not I always do is another story, and not quite the point). Here's the point. I've had a lot of people recently being really, really rude to me on the phone concerning the fact that we're closed. When we're closed, and I pick up the phone to let them know, I always say the exact same thing - "Domino's Pizza; I'm sorry, but we're closed for the night." Sometimes, I omit the 'but'. But it's always in a neutral to friendly tone of voice, and I don't immediately hang up the phone, in case they wish to inquire as to our hours of operation, or it's an employee or friend of an employee calling in, or whatever. Generally, they'll respond with "Aw" or "Oh, okay" or "Thanks" or something along those lines. Occasionally, they'll ask if I know of anywhere that's open - which there aren't any for pizza delivery by the time we're closed - or something along those lines.
Those are the okay ones. Ocassionally, though, people (students) feel the need to be real asshats about the fact that we're closed. I don't if they're drunk, or trying to show off for their friends/significant other or what, but it's kind of annoying, especially since I have a psychological block where I can't just hang up on someone. Here are just a few examples.
It's a guy asking if we're still open, which is a moot point, since I answered the phone with the fact that we're closed. He asks "Are you sure?" (Why do they always ask this?) By now, the other people in the room have realized we're closed, and I can hear this girl start yelling "Man, fuck Domino's! I'm never fucking calling them again! They fucking suck!" Had another guy, the conversation went something like this:
-Domino's Pizza, I'm sorry, we're closed for the night.
-What, you're closed? I thought y'all closed at 2.
-No, that's only on Friday and Saturday. The rest of the week, we close at 1.
-Then why did you even bother answering the phone?***
***We get asked this every once in a while. There are *plenty* of reasons why we answer the phone after we're closed:
*As a courtesy to customers, so they're not sitting around listening to the ringing, wondering if we're open and just taking a while to get to the phone, or what.
*Because drivers can theoretically leave the store on a run up to ten minutes after close, and they might call back with a question.
*One of our sister stores might call concerning inventory, or with a question on paperwork.
*Not everyone has a cell phone, and occasionally, friends/family/significant others will call the store after close, since it's a fairly convenient time to get a hold of someone on a closing shift (ie, they won't be out on a run, and won't be too busy to be able to talk for a few minutes.)
*One of the employees that's not working could be calling up for to ask about their schedule
-Any number of reasons; as a courtesy to you, in case one of our drivers out on a run has a question-
-Oh, so you've still got drivers out on runs, so they could bring me a pizza?
-No, they're taking orders that were placed before close, forty minutes ago.
-Well then, fuck Domino's. I had a coupon, and I was going to give you a chance, but if this is the way you treat your customers, I'm never going to try y'all again. I'll just give all of my business to Papa John's.
-I'm sorry we wouldn't make you a pizza forty-five minutes after close, sir.
-Well, be sorry that you just lost my business. I have a doctor, a msters in business, and I know that the first thing they teach you is "The customer is always right."
-I have to go now sir, have a nice evening.
It was just mind-boggling. First of all, if he had graduated business school, he wouldn't have been living in the area of town he was (we had his info on the caller database from some previous orders). It just bothers me that customers will act this, well, childish, throwing fits because they don't get their way. I could understand being upset if it's like ten minutes before close, and the we're just not taking their order because we want to get out of there a little earlier, but we don't really do that, since most of the drivers would get really upset, since they're there to make money, which only really happens when they take runs.
Also had a few people trying to scam us for free pizza. It happens every once in a while, but had a few come in relatively close together. Now, first, we're always happy to take care of legitimate complaints. It's only when it's obviously fake that we start getting annoyed. For example: Guy calls up, tells me he had an order messed up a few days ago, that he's supposed to have a credit, and he'd like to get it. Fair enough, nothing out of the ordinary there. So I ask him for the phone number it's under. He gives me the number which he's calling from, which has... no order history whatsoever. I ask him if it might be under another number. He says to try his friend's cell phone number, which also has no order history whatsoever. Early on in the conversation, he starts saying that he's not trying to pull a fast one, that he's a correction office and that he makes X amount of dollars, and that he wouldn't need to get the free pizza, and that he's going to tip our driver *so* well... So I start asking him if he's sure that he called Domino's, that there isn't another number it might be under (we usually ask them if they just want it under the number the original order was placed from). He accuses me of calling him a liar, I tell him that no, I'm just trying to find his information. So, since it's slow, I ask him when he ordered - Monday, around 8:30 or so. I also get his address, then pull up the Daily Order Register for Monday, which lists EVERY order that went out, along with address, phone number, etc. Even orders that were placed, and then cancelled, or orders that didn't go out for whatever reason. We can't always do it, but it was *really* slow. So I start checking around the time he claimed to ordered - nothing to his address. Nothing at all to his entire street. I start widening the search - from close, all the way back to around 3 pm. Nothing at all to that address, one order to that sreet, definitely a different address (nothing close by), about 3:30 pm - nowhere near "8:30 pm". So I tell him that I'm not seeing any orders on Monday going to his address, that I've checked most of Monday, and ask again if it might be under another number, or if he's mistaken about which pizza place it was, or if it was on another day. He starts saying "What do I have to do?" Which is kind of a weird thing to say. Yeah, it was kind of amusing.
Hmm.. yeah, people are asshats. More later.
Girls Aloud -- Sound of the Underground
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