Day 25 is the final day of this saga as Pizza Hut Australia has now responded to my complaint of 10 November 2007 which appears in full below.
Late yesterday, I received a personal call from Megan, the manager of the Goodna Pizza Hut to apologise for Pizza Hut's failure to respond to my complaint in a timely manner.
Megan advised that my complaint had been overlooked until the end-of-the-month check of all outstanding issues at the Goodna store.
She was quite professional in resolving the matter and offered a $40 credit against my account for the inconvenience involved and promised to follow up with her head office regarding a better approach to handling complaints such as mine.
On 10 November 2007, I would have been happy to simply have had a $2.50 credit applied to my account, to correct the over-charge.
Pizza Hut and Megan in particular are testament to the fact that persistence pays off and that consumers should insist on their rights and a "fair go" in redressing their complaints.
Thank you and congratulations for finally resolving this matter.
My original complaint on this site was:
You can bet your stuffed crust that the American-based Pizza Hut chain is making lotsa mozza in Australia, yet cannot offer a humble apology or any form of redress when caught out ripping off customers.
Pizza Hut opened its first store in Australia in Sydney in April 1970 but after 37 years, their corporate approach to handling customers' complaints needs to be seriously beefed up, as it leaves a lot to be desired.
It's not as if this corporate giant is not protective of its name and corporate image. On 13 June 2001, Pizza Hut rushed off to the Federal Court of Australia to stop the genuine Aussie brand of Eagle Boys Pizza from highlighting Pizza Hut's foreign ownership in Eagle Boys' television advertising.
The case was quickly thrown out by the Court in a decision which upheld the right of free speech in Australia and sent Pizza Hut packing back to their corporate headquarters in downtown Dallas, Texas.
When a complaint is received about service or a ripoff - accidental or otherwise - you would think that a company like Pizza Hut would do something quickly to rectify a customer's complaint.
My complaint - for which I am still awaiting a promised callback - is over a $38.40 telephone order picked up from Pizza Hut's Goodna store who gave me $9.10 change from a 50 dollar bill. In other words, I was charged $40.90 for a family meal with various add-ons.
When I queried the price and asked for the receipt, I was told that it was in the box which I was already holding and piled up with drinks and chicken wings and garlic bread, so I decided to check it when I got home.
And how much was the receipt for? - $38.40! So, I had been charged an extra $2.50 which I suspect was for a second bottle of soft drink, which was already included in the $38.40 bill.
They had given me a wrong receipt and double-billed me for a second bottle of soft drink as well! This was the third time that I had been asked to pay more at the Goodna store than the price I was quoted over the phone.In the past, I had not bothered to query this, as I figured that I may have misheard the figure given to me by the telephone operator or there had been a miscalculation of the price by the operator which was rectified - upwards - at the point of sale.
Not so on this occasion. I knew that I had been ripped off and by exactly how much! I rang back Pizza Hut central call centre an hour later and suggested that they credit my "account" $2.50 because the Goodna store was closing for a week for renovations and it was too much of a hassle to go an collect the missing $2.50.
Although the operator was pleasant, she offered no apology and told me that they could not credit me the $2.50 as it was the "store's mistake"!
Don't they all work for the same company?
She offered to take down the details and forward them electronically to the Goodna store for them to call me back immediately to sort it out. Pizza Hut can promise pizzas within 15 minutes of a telephone call but a day later, I am still sitting by my phone for a call back from the Goodna store.
Pizza Hut should not think that I will give up over this issue.I fought a case in 1990 against an Ipswich Night Club ripping off customers for $2 a head - and won! It was a case against the Jungle Attic Night Club and is reported in the law reports as Tully v Ceridale P.L. [1990] HREOCA 6.
Even with inflation, a $2.50 court case against Pizza Hut would be well worth it.
Have you been ripped off by Pizza Hut? Email me with your story.
This is the site for thinking and politically-astute Australians.
Do you have a contribution about Queensland or Australian
Politics or a burning consumer issue or disgraceful ripoff?
Email me now with full details for the whole world to read.
Late yesterday, I received a personal call from Megan, the manager of the Goodna Pizza Hut to apologise for Pizza Hut's failure to respond to my complaint in a timely manner.Megan advised that my complaint had been overlooked until the end-of-the-month check of all outstanding issues at the Goodna store.
She was quite professional in resolving the matter and offered a $40 credit against my account for the inconvenience involved and promised to follow up with her head office regarding a better approach to handling complaints such as mine.
On 10 November 2007, I would have been happy to simply have had a $2.50 credit applied to my account, to correct the over-charge.
Pizza Hut and Megan in particular are testament to the fact that persistence pays off and that consumers should insist on their rights and a "fair go" in redressing their complaints.
Thank you and congratulations for finally resolving this matter.
My original complaint on this site was:
You can bet your stuffed crust that the American-based Pizza Hut chain is making lotsa mozza in Australia, yet cannot offer a humble apology or any form of redress when caught out ripping off customers.
Pizza Hut opened its first store in Australia in Sydney in April 1970 but after 37 years, their corporate approach to handling customers' complaints needs to be seriously beefed up, as it leaves a lot to be desired.
It's not as if this corporate giant is not protective of its name and corporate image. On 13 June 2001, Pizza Hut rushed off to the Federal Court of Australia to stop the genuine Aussie brand of Eagle Boys Pizza from highlighting Pizza Hut's foreign ownership in Eagle Boys' television advertising.
The case was quickly thrown out by the Court in a decision which upheld the right of free speech in Australia and sent Pizza Hut packing back to their corporate headquarters in downtown Dallas, Texas.
When a complaint is received about service or a ripoff - accidental or otherwise - you would think that a company like Pizza Hut would do something quickly to rectify a customer's complaint.
My complaint - for which I am still awaiting a promised callback - is over a $38.40 telephone order picked up from Pizza Hut's Goodna store who gave me $9.10 change from a 50 dollar bill. In other words, I was charged $40.90 for a family meal with various add-ons.
When I queried the price and asked for the receipt, I was told that it was in the box which I was already holding and piled up with drinks and chicken wings and garlic bread, so I decided to check it when I got home.
And how much was the receipt for? - $38.40! So, I had been charged an extra $2.50 which I suspect was for a second bottle of soft drink, which was already included in the $38.40 bill.
They had given me a wrong receipt and double-billed me for a second bottle of soft drink as well! This was the third time that I had been asked to pay more at the Goodna store than the price I was quoted over the phone.In the past, I had not bothered to query this, as I figured that I may have misheard the figure given to me by the telephone operator or there had been a miscalculation of the price by the operator which was rectified - upwards - at the point of sale.
Not so on this occasion. I knew that I had been ripped off and by exactly how much! I rang back Pizza Hut central call centre an hour later and suggested that they credit my "account" $2.50 because the Goodna store was closing for a week for renovations and it was too much of a hassle to go an collect the missing $2.50.
Although the operator was pleasant, she offered no apology and told me that they could not credit me the $2.50 as it was the "store's mistake"!
Don't they all work for the same company?
She offered to take down the details and forward them electronically to the Goodna store for them to call me back immediately to sort it out. Pizza Hut can promise pizzas within 15 minutes of a telephone call but a day later, I am still sitting by my phone for a call back from the Goodna store.
Pizza Hut should not think that I will give up over this issue.I fought a case in 1990 against an Ipswich Night Club ripping off customers for $2 a head - and won! It was a case against the Jungle Attic Night Club and is reported in the law reports as Tully v Ceridale P.L. [1990] HREOCA 6.
Even with inflation, a $2.50 court case against Pizza Hut would be well worth it.
Have you been ripped off by Pizza Hut? Email me with your story.
This is the site for thinking and politically-astute Australians.
Do you have a contribution about Queensland or Australian
Politics or a burning consumer issue or disgraceful ripoff?
Email me now with full details for the whole world to read.
