to have sent this email to Pizza Hut

[Honeydragon]

Hi

Just contacting to thank you for a wonderful meal. At Frankie & Bennys.

We decided to go to your restaurant yesterday. Upon entering at late lunch time it was not overly busy. We waited to be seated, the family in front of us were seated, the gentleman dealing with them said some one would be along in a minute. About 5 minutes later a lady said she would be 1 second, we said fine. She then went in to the take away booth (no waiting customers) and preceded to have an in depth CHAT to a colleague, whilst totally ignoring us despite being 2 foot away. Whilst being ignored another two members of staff then walked past and said someone would be with us in a minute. The original lady then finished her conversation and then told her colleague she would do drinks for another table. All this took a further 10 minutes.

By this point we as a family were fed up of waiting quietly so took the clear hint that a presence was clearly not required nor in fact wanted, so we did the decent thing and left.

So thank you as due to your shining example of customer service service we left and went to the local Frankie and Bennys which was just as busy as your establishment, were we we were seated straight away, well looked after and served a fantastic meal. We will certainly be going back again. So thank you Pizza Hut for directing us to a superb family restaurant and ensuring we never have to darken your doors again.

Kind regards Honeydragon

I know I should have sent something more constructive
I know I was BU to have considered going in the first place

But I was really annoyed at having someone ignore me from 2 foot away. It's rude.

Lets face it they probably aren't going to give a toss anyway....they are clearly making enough to not miss customers.

(Oh and not dissing all P.Hut just that one on that day and made it clear in the email which one I was referring to)

Should I start feeling bad now?

Too sarky for me to be honest

If I were the manager I would probably read and delete.

Having said that, I wouldn't have waited 15 minutes for someone to tell me where to sit....I would have chosen a table and sat at it.

I do love Frankie and Benny's though...but since this is the second thread about pizza today I'm craving one now

No you should not feel bad, and I don't think YABU.

I almost left a restaurant the other day for being so late in getting anything on our table. Not even drinks.
I was only stopped by my mum, as the waiter approached us when we stood up.
I would have told him it was too late.

I'm sure head office will enjoy reading your e-mail.

Worra

I don't really care whether they delete it, I hardly think they'd be distraught at losing 4 customers it made me fell better.

We did start to move in Worra but got shepherded back

Sorry about the pizza cravings

YABU for eating in either of those vile, over-priced places.

I expect slow service at pizza hut TBH.

Send it but stick to the point and lose the sarcasm - you'll probably get some vouchers!

Yea as soon as you walk into those kind of places you should expect crap service and a list of all the things they cant do i.e Cant seat you, cant serve you, cant be polite etc etc

YABU for darkening the doors of Pizza Hut in the first place.

It's ok for you to diss all pizza huts. That are all crap. Every single one of them that I have ever been to has been crap. And they have crap dishwashers because you have to check the cleanliness of the plates in all of them. You will always find at least two dirty ones in the stack near the buffet.

Valium, I have sent it. Just thought I normally wouldn't have been so sarky, hence posting in case it was a bit too sarky

If I got vouchers I'd have to go back!

Someone told me that they spit in the pizza sauce there. Probably not true...

Mosy places food has been spat in or something gross dh use to be a chef and saw allsorts of things puts u off going out to eat anywhere

I love it!

I love a good arsey letter and dh is awesome at them. The last one resulted in a £50 voucher from Nandos

I agree with other posters who say it's too sarky. Probably makes you feel better though?
Standard advice re complaints is to be brief and to the point and say what you expect them to do for you - refund, replacement etc. A busy restaurant maanger will probably see the word "thank you" and file it straight in the compliments folder!
My local Pizza Hut usually has a queue right out of the door so I doubt you would be missed to be honest.

Awesome letter, honeydragon

I'm a prolific complaint-letter-writer; I'm such a sad-act that I'm often mentally composing my letter whilst the duff service in question is happening - makes me feel better. If I want something tangible to happen in response my letter - refund, money off, vouchers or some sort of freebie, I'd give it 50% less snark than you did and edit down to two snappy paragraphs. But sometimes a letter of complaint is for catharsis more than anything, and it sounds like yours fulfilled that objective at least!

My first, inexperienced e-complaint was not dissimilar to yours - although it was probably twice as long. Unsurprisingly, they never got back to me.

Incidentally, I hear Pizza Hut are in dire financial straits - not surprising, after experiences like yours!

My rational head is back on now I've vented my spleen. PH is probably not the greatest place ever to work. You probably get shit from customers.

But not all customers are horrible. And if you do want nice customers why piss them off before they even get to order?

Cheers Piij , as I said there isn't anything they can give me, they aren't desperate for custom and I can't demand compensation for a meal we never had. But I wonder how many other people have simply walked out?

X-post, maybe everyone is walking out then?

Pizza Hut are in financial trouble because people have realized that what they are selling is not actual food. And because their service is horrible, etc. etc.

In Canada they actually disappeared in the 1990's for a while, I think, and then tried to make a "comeback" which was not very well received. Actually I don't think there are any more around here now...

I emailed our local garden centre after having to wait 25 minutes for a piece of cake to be delivered to our table (EVERYTHING has to be waitressed out, even if it's sat on the counter when you order it). I told them politely I'd never be going back and the top manager sent me a very apologetic letter with vouchers, saying the staff working on that day had been pulled up. Polite but irked usually works :)

Pizza Hut near me is actually very good - sometimes. Its all according to who is working on that day tbh. I have always found it ok for me, but i am good friends with two of the managers, so that always helps! I had a bad experience once at a local pub when i went with my mum. Got there for when it opened at 12 and found people waiting outside doors so we joined them. Sad i know. Saw staff looking at us and we still waited. No attempt to let us out of the cold. Almost ten past 12 a young man opened the doors and i am sure he had just got out of bed. Very unkempt and with football type short pyjamas on. He didn't apologize. We were seated and i got drinks. Ten minutes later i went to order two carveries as it was a carvery restaurant. Woman said the carvery is not on because the counters were broken. Brilliant. Not one mention of this when we went in or to anyone else by the looks of it. I said i wasn't happy about this to same woman and she seemed uninterested. I asked for my money back on drinks and i had to get manager involved over this as bar staff refused. So i too emailed company and the regional manager actually phoned me and i had to go through it again and she apologized and sent me a letter which basically said "sorry that you had a bad experience in XX and the manager that day has been spoken to etc and take this to show the manager who will allow you a meal for up to 4 people free of charge". I didn't use the letter. I found it unneccessary to put all of that on the letter as he will know it was for bad service. Surely a voucher would have been better but no. Never mind.

fantastic email. not sarky at all, just how it is.
as a manager I would v much appreciate this frank feedback and do something about the service going forward.

YANBU to complain in any format that fits your feelings. It helps to provide names of employees from their badges when highlighting poor service though, asthey can work effectively to train particular staff.

However when they offer you vouchers for a free meal up to £50 or whatever, will you stick to your written principles and send them back bacause you'll never darken their door again, or, will you go in with an open mind that it could possibly have been a one off and you might get a better experience in a different location?

I don't think pizza hut is that bad, it is what it is. You know before you go in it's not going to be michelin starred haute cuisine, but that's of course reflected in the price. But that's no excuse for poor service, I don't think YWBU to tell them so. Please update us if you get a reply! I have to say the last time I went to pizza hut, about 3-4 months ago, the waitress that served our table was fantastic, really friendly and great with DS too, chatting away to him (he's 3) when staff in so many places act as though he's not even there. She brought him extra balloons so he thought she was great! We did leave a decent tip for her but perhaps we should have emailed a nice comment as well. Everyone is so quick to complain but not so quick to compliment. I will definitely try to do that more in future.