You all know I’m not one to get screwed by a company and keep my mouth shut, so here’s a recap of my recent “run-ins” with a few businesses.
Domino’s Pizza
I haven’t eaten a Domino’s pizza in well over a decade (because I remember them tasting like cardboard), but shortly before Christmas we bought a Hasbro board game with a coupon inside for a free medium pizza. The coupon stated you had to place your order online, so I followed the directions and after choosing my local Domino’s and entering the coupon code, it confirmed the code was valid but informed me that they wouldn’t honor it. Nice. So I fired off a complaint through their website and got a response back a couple of days later:
Thank you for taking the time to contact the Domino’s Pizza Customer Care Team. As a valued Domino’s Pizza customer, your comments are extremely important to us.
I want to apologize for the situation you encountered at the [redacted] location. Domino’s Pizza takes great pride in providing the quality products and service you have come to expect and trust every time you place an order with us.
Because your Domino’s Pizza store is independently owned and operated, I have forwarded your comments to the franchise owner with the expectation that the franchisee will follow-up with you.
We appreciate the opportunity you have given us to address your concern and improve our operations. Again, thank you for taking the time to contact us. Your feedback is very important to us.
Our goal is to make every Domino’s Pizza experience an enjoyable one!
When a week had passed and I still hadn’t heard from the local Domino’s, I fired off a reply to the above e-mail that said, “I just want you to know I haven’t heard from the local Domino’s. It’s obvious to me they aren’t interested in anyone’s business. You can be sure I will share this experience with others as I think it’s very poor customer service.”
A few days later I received this response:
I apologize that your local store had not gotten back to you. I am sending you some gift certificates to replace the Hasbro coupon you received in your game.
Once again, please accept our apologies and we do value your business.
Sure enough, a couple of days later I received a letter from Domino’s with two $5 gift certificates. I’ll be sure to use them at the same location who has still never contacted me and rub it in their face AFTER I get the food to ensure they don’t spit in it since I don’t plan on going there again anyway. Not going to pass up free food though. What a bunch of a-holes to offer a coupon and then not accept it. I get that each store is independently owned but that’s no way to do business. Plus now they have to give me $10 in free food instead of $5 so their selfish behavior cost them more in the end. Morons!
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Taco Bell
When we were in Phoenix, Joe’s sister had acquired coupons for a free Fruitista Freeze at Taco Bell. We had no problem using them there, and I think we got three during the week we were visiting. She gave us two to take home so we stopped there on New Years Eve once we realized they were expiring. We had the kids with us, so we ordered four, but expected to pay for two. They wouldn’t honor them. I looked at all the fine print and there really wasn’t anything on there other than that bullshit “valid at participating locations” they put on every coupon so they can get away with that crap. So we turned around and left. Perhaps they think they can deny coupon use since most people would end up just paying instead. Not me. Oh no. I also complained through their website but haven’t heard a peep back. I probably won’t go so far as a boycott, but Taco Bell will definitely be getting less of my business in the future thanks to that move. I mean, how stupid are they anyway? They would have still gotten money for the other two items.
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iFrogz
This one actually has a happy ending, or at least it should. Joe bought me two iFrogz iPhone cases for my birthday – one in green/black and another in purple/black. Unfortunately the purple/black one doesn’t fit quite right so I sent them feedback through their website asking for a replacement. They replied if I could either send them a photo of the problem or send the bad case to them, they’d do so. I sent them a photo and they replied that a new case is on it’s way. I really hope this one fits as well as their other cases I have.