Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  11/17/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Unanswered

  More info

  I purchased what I thought was a SPINACH deep dish pizza one Friday evening for my family and I. I went to the store to pick it up. ****** the manager (who is very cold and rude in my opinion) is the person who took my over the phone order. She confirmed my spinach pizza and pricing. When I arrived, I was told your store doesn't accept apple pay and I had to provide them with my card numbers for the cashier to manually enter. I received my pizza and went home. Upon opening up my pizza, about to prepare to my plate, I noticed there was absolutely no sign of SPINACH and I saw some sausages on the bottom layer underneath the cheese. I was highly, highly upset for several reasons. Firstly, I do not eat pork my religion does not believe in such. Secondly, I specifically, precisely ordered *******, her and I CONFIRMED my order over the phone, however she proceeded to enter my order as sausage. Furthermore, once I realized she did not give me to correct pizza, I called the store AT LEAST ***** times and got NO ANSWER, which is a shame. I am happy to get my call log from my phone company and show you. I've been in contact with **** at the corporate office who advised me someone from the Hyde Park location will be reaching out to me two Tuesdays ago. I have heard NOTHING! This was the most disturbing, unpleasant, cringy experience ever! As you know we were not able to eat the pizza because we don't eat pork. My family and I pretty much starved as a result of your negligence. Very upsetting. You need to make up for this or refund my money. Services were NOT rendered. Please someone of authority call me immediately ************. I have my receipt number, I also have photos and I am happy to pull my call log upon request. Highly do not recommend your business, as i gave ****************** and simple order that she sadly failed to fulfill.

• Initial Complaint

  07/17/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  On 7/15/23 at 7pm myself and 11 others (African American) decided to visit this establishment for dinner. When we arrived, we were told it will be a 15 minute wait to be seated as we did not have a reservation . We noticed that there were five tables empty on the left side of the restaurant. We continued to wait our 15 minutes then asked if the tables were available. We were told it will be another 15 minutes so we continued to wait. While waiting two other parties had arrived with parties of three each and were immediately sat. At this point we have been waiting 30 minutes, and another party of six (*********) had arrived. They were told they will be able to be sat within five minutes. They did not have a reservation either. At this point, I asked the host if our tables were ready and he said they will be ready in a couple minutes. Now we have been waiting 35 minutes and were finally being sat down on the right hand side of the store. As we began to sit, we noticed the pipes above the tables were leaking onto the tables, and the floor was filled with water. There were no signs posted of a wet floor. I asked for the manager and a lady by the name of ****** said she was the manager. I explained to her my issues of the wait time and the hazardous area that we were seated in and asked if we could be moved. ****** told me there were no available seats. I asked her to follow me to the other side of the restaurant which she did. As we walk to the other side of the restaurant, I showed her five tables that were empty and told her they had been empty since our arrival at 7pm. ****** proceeded to tell me We dont do that we do not push tables together, I am not about to do that. My servers have assigned areas, you all will have to wait. At this point myself and the 11 others decided to leave.

  Business response

  07/25/2023

  On the evening in question, the complaining customer and her party that she stated consisted of a total of 11 people asked to be put on our wait list. We informed them that it would take about ***** minutes due to the party consisting of more than what our tables traditionally sit, which is four seats total, as well as we wanted to make sure they all can sit together. She agreed and we informed her that we would not be skipping her party at any point, however we did plan on seating tables that consisted of smaller numbers, as there was still availability for them. We still were planning on reserving space for her party and didnt want any confusion. She understood and walked outside to tell her party, who were all waiting outside. 
  
  
  About 15 minutes pass and she comes back in checking on her table status. We inform her she still had a little bit more time as we were waiting on one final table to wrap up their meal in order to combine three of the 4 top tables together. We estimated another ***** minutes but recommended they take a look at the menu and potentially order before being sat, as our pizzas due take approximately ***** minutes to cook. She declined and said her whole party was not there yet and wanted to wait for them all to arrive, which was understandable and no problem at all. 
  
  
  The table that we were waiting on wraps their meal up in about 10 minutes and we then begin to pull all reserved areas together. The table is then set up and we inform the guests that they can now be sat and the server will be over shortly.
  
  
  About half of the party is there and the sever ***** went over to check to see if they were ready. They stated they were still waiting on a few more guest. He tells them he will return shortly to check on them. He returns about **** minutes later to check on them and see if they were still waiting or if by any chance they changed their minds and wanted to get the order started. They inform him, to his surprise, that it was a leak in their area. This is something that we were glad to learn because we have not been informed about this from any other tables, and have not noticed ourselves as there never seemed to be any spills in that area until now, but due to the crazy rain storms at that time, we believe it developed very recently. 
  
  
  Before he offered his solution, the lady who reserved the party started yelling at him demanding to know why they would sit them at a table with a leak. He apologized and said we did not know of the leak until now and he offered to get the manager. She agrees and is still yelling at the server to get the manager, to the point that the manager can hear from the back of the restaurant and already is making her way to that area. The manager gets to the area and is informed about the leak and is, as well, being yelled at by the customer. The manager was actually the one who sat the party, and was shocked to see there was a newly developed leak. Before she could apologize and explain that she did not know of the leak and will reseat them as soon as possible, the customer tells her to follow her to the opposite side of the dining room, which she does. She is then questioned as to why the party wasnt seated on the opposite side. As shes inquiring this, her party of no more than 7 people are all yelling as well and walking out. The manager tried to then explain that for starters, the particular side in question wasnt available 30 minutes ago when they were added to the waitlist and just recently became available, as the busboy cleaned two of those table, maybe, 5 minutes prior to this discussion and when we started reserving her tables we intentionally chose the area that we thought would be available the fastest (still unknowingly of the roof leak.) And also, the tables she was referring to were unable to be moved together due to the positions that they were placed in the restaurant and a current customer sitting in the middle of all the tables. The manager said I do apologize but we cant move those specific tables and without allowing her to finish the sentence, she immediately turned around and stormed out behind her already exiting party, and yelled f*** this Im going to Pizza Capri. The manager never got to speak on or even attempt to rectify the situation. The discussion lasted no more than 45 seconds from the customer telling her to follow her to the other side of the restaurant, inquire about the open tables, and leave without any type of explanation. Due to the quickness of the discussion and what we believe to be the customer ******* to not be left behind by her group, not much was said by the manger or server. In fact the customer did not even stop to ask the manager for her name in the rushed state she was in, as the manger on duty was not ****** (nobody actually works there with that name) and is actually named ********. Everyone was taken back by the events that transpired because as we due understand the frustration at hand with a leaky area and we would never intentionally sit anyone there, we dont understand why the customer got so hostile without allowing us to offer any type of solution to the mistake that was made. 
  
  
  We are glad she informed us about the leak, and have since then been receiving maintenance to repair it. We have also been taking precautions by checking that area regularly and avoiding seating anyone there. We are very apologetic for her experience and did not wish to have anyone leave us feeling upset. We understand that it was a experience that could have been better for the customers and we do apologize for that, however, based off the events that actually took place that night, we feel as though some parts of the story that was told on her end were slightly fabricated or intentionally left out. For instance, she mentioned the race of her party as well as the other party she compared herself to, but failed to mention that the manager, server, and entire front staff that greeted her were also African American individuals. She herself even mentioned that we sat two tables that consisted of three people each, before her party, however she mustve forgotten the prior discussion about being able to seat small parties relatively more quickly than a party that would take up 3 tables, a conversation that she listened and agreed too previously. Her nor her table ever told any of us that they wanted to sit separately and we never assumed they would want to sit apart. 
  
  
  We dont expect customers to know the dynamics of how we operate our seating. However, we do hope they ask questions when there is a concern instead of just assuming the worst case scenario. Our goal is to be able to accommodate all our customers to the best of our ability without jeopardizing the experiences of others. We hope this sheds some light on the issue at hand. 

  Customer response

  07/25/2023

   
  Complaint: 20329436
  
  I am rejecting this response because:
  
  The company has told more than half lies in their response. For one I would like the actual recording that the store has because there are multiple cameras in the facility. In their statement they said that we agreed to wait 30 to 45 minutes if that was true, why would we come back in the ************* minutes after the initial contact? Also, they lied and said we were seated by someone named *** then proceeded to say we were seated by the manager? We were seated by a man with glasses ****************. They also lied and said the manager heard us from the back of the facility, that is a huge lie the woman with the black and blue top, which is my self, walked to the back by the kitchen, and the manager was sitting in the corner With three of her employees and I requested to speak to the manager as she identified herself and said, how can I help you. When I asked her to follow me to the other side of the restaurant and showed her the open seats, which are the photos that they provided she told me we are not pushing these tables together. We dont do that , even with the leak we still were not going to be accommodated for seating. I also told the manager that those seats have been available for the entire 30+ minutes of us waiting to be seated. They lied in their statement and said that those tables were not available. I would like to see the footage because they were available for the past 30 minutes of us waiting. The company also lied and said there were 7 people when the party of 11 were all there. If the company provides the video footage, it will show all the members of the party. It will show the leaking roof. It will show the floor filled with water. It will also show the tables that were available for the entire 30 minutes plus of our wait, it will also show we were seated by a man named Don **************** male with glasses and an Afro. It will also show the manager sitting in the back by the kitchen and did not come out because she heard us we werent even as loud as they are trying to make relevant. The only factual statement was the leaking roof. The pictures that they provided and yes, one member of my party did ********* this. We are going to Pizza Capri. This is ridiculous.

  Sincerely,
  
  *********************

  Business response

  07/27/2023

  We once again do apologize for the inconvenience of the events that took place on this day and we are saddened to learn that our attempt to clear things up were not as satisfactory as we hoped. Our goal was to try to express that a potential miscommunication might have been the main cause of the confusion and we had no intention on discriminating against anyone for any reason or intentionally sitting anyone under a leaky area, that we were unaware of until the moment we are currently speaking of. The African American host with glasses (named ******) attempted to sit the large party as quickly as possible and needed assistance from the African American Manager ********** who then took over and helped him set up the table to be sat with the African American server ****** It was truly our goal to allow the party to dine with us that evening and from the looks of things there were different interpretations of what was not meant to be a negative experience from either side. We unfortunately will not be able to share our store footage, as well as we dont believe it will solve any problem at hand, rather than just continue to point fingers on unfortunate miscommunication that have clearly been interpreted in different ways. However if anyone wishes to speak to the store General Manager feel free to call the store number ************** after 5:00 on Monday and Thursday and ask to speak with ****. Thank you and we hope you all have a wonderful day. 
  

  Customer response

  07/31/2023

   
  Complaint: 20329436
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  The business is not trying to reconcile the situation. The business was blatantly untruthful and tried to deem our group as the problem. The name of the manager that I was given was either false or being covered up. I called corporate immediately after typing in my phone the names that I was given. I asked for the footage so it wouldnt further delay any miscommunication that *** have came about. However, the business is refusing to provide it. How can a business say they were trying to sit as quickly as possible and have us wait almost 45 minutes for service when there were seats available? The footage wouldve shown that. How can a business say that a manager heard my group of people being excessively loud, causing that manager to run from the back, however they will not provide the footage to show that the young lady was sitting in the corner when I proceeded to walk to the back kitchen area. I will not accept the business response. Me and my group of professional actors, business owners, experienced restaurant managers and entrepreneurs are highly dissatisfied with Giordanos response. We were blatantly disrespected we were not treated as the other paying customers. We were sat in a hazardous area, and were told we couldnt sit where the available seating was, and would still have to wait for seating when the seats had been available for the past 40 minutes. This is unacceptable in any nature of business. 
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *********************

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