Customer Non-Service

Tom and I were craving pizza last weekend while rushing to catch a movie, so we called ahead to the local pizza joint in Concord (as we know they take 25 minutes). We told them we'd love to enjoy our pie at the restaurant when we arrived. 

Before I could even place my order with the adorable, 16-year-old young woman who waited on me, I was put on hold twice.  Finally, I was able to place the order and we were on our way. Shortly thereafter, I received a call from the manager (or owner, I can't remember which), stating that we couldn't pre-order a pizza to eat when we arrived.  Being that it was a call-ahead order, they'd have to package it in a to-go box.  Does this defy logic to you?  It certainly did to me.  I simply replied, "ok, that's fine, we'll eat it out of the box at the restaurant."  Everyone was happy.

However, It occurred to us in a discussion later on that this was not a customer-centric approach to accommodating your clientele.  For a place that has to put you on hold twice just to take your order, does it make sense that the top dog would have the time to call you to tell you that they can't accommodate a simple request of eating your pizza when you arrive?  And going as far as telling you you'll have to eat it out of the box?  Don't these people know they operate out of Concord, MA?  Just ask Don Henley how green we are.  It seems to me this is an insane way to allocate resources of time and pizza boxes based on the principle that you can not call ahead to order your pizza.

Unfortunately, we also didn't make it in time for our movie, "True Grit."  And true grit was something we needed that night for sure!