This didn't happen to me. I'm got it second-hand from the manager in question, but when he passed it on the occurence was probably still fresh in his mind and thusly recent (as I'll go on about a little later).
A lady calls up to place an order for her daughter and puts it on her credit card. So far, not so strange. We take the card number, expiration date, and the last three digits of the protection number on the back over the phone. We print out a slip to be signed, but because we already have all the required information, most anyone can sign it. It's mostly just proof that the order has been delivered and the transaction is completed, so the driver leaves a copy for the customer and brings the other copy with their John Hancock back. The card isn't charged properly until the end of the night, so if the customer wants to cancel the order before it goes out (or when the driver arrives at the door - thanks for the wasted time and gas, guy), it can just be voided and there will be no deduction. So she's ordering for someone else and won't be there. Okay. She knows the total bill and we're counting this as permission. Fly, my pizza delivery monkey, fly.
There's also an option for the person who picks it up to leave a tip on the card when they sign it. This is pertinent to our fun little tale.
Jeremy delivers the pizza. He's our most veteran driver, and is very professional. I'm quite confident that it was delivered in a timely manner and that he was in no way rude, so the daughter must've justifiably thought he deserved a tip. She puts a two dollar gratuity down and he goes back to home base. Not really great (particularly since go juice was around four-fifty a gallon then), but better than nothing.
So mommy calls back some time after the pizza has been delivered, and she is livid. The daughter wasn't supposed to put any tip on the card, she says. Apparently, she is fond of pointing out that she (the mother) is a cop. Like it matters when things are so clear-cut. It gets really "interesting" when the daughter says she didn't put any tip on the card. So we're playing That Game, are we? The one where we contrast a customer's honesty with that of the people you work with regularly and know much better?
It's usually at this point that we hand the customer over to the home office, because we can't give money back for an order. Naturally, they'd love us for granting them the honor of dealing with this harridan. However, the mother won't let it go. She's not making any big deal out of the order in itself, she just thinks Jeremy is a thief and her daughter is innocent. The manager relents, and agrees to send another driver (Jon) back to the address with two dollars.This is irregular, but gives me an idea of what a pain in the butt she was. Interestingly, the daughter wouldn't even come to the door to accept the refunded tip. Almost like she's... Ashamed of something she did wrong, perhaps? Jon says she whispered something to the effect of "No, no. I don't want to even look at him." Some dude takes the couple bucks and Jon returns.
Ring, ring. Officer McKvetchy is not done.
Couldn't she just call the local office and register a complaint? No, she's here with the daughter in a conference call! And she's apparently a stuck recording. "Blah, blah, I'm a cop. Your guy is a crook." The manager has had enough. He's listened to her carry on about this for nearly an hour, so she needs to SHUT UP. That's verbatim. He outright shouted out the "silence, foul witch" part when he was telling me the story. You could hear a pin drop after. The manager relays his end of things, and says that Jeremy has a virtually photographic memory when it comes to his job (this is true, and helps with his efficiency, naturally). I don't recall him saying he did this, but he probably pointed out that Jeremy couldn't have held down his gig for over a decade if he wasn't trustworthy.
"Well, can you make some note that anyone delivering a credit card order here shouldn't get a tip?"
"Ma'am, that's a moot consideration now." Click.
Funny. We usually only blacklist a place after multiple problem orders. I wonder why he made an exception...?
