I managed a pizza place for six years and I cut the scam orders down to 10% of what they were when I took over. We were insanely busy in the fattest city in the USA.
Aside- I don’t mind giving food away, I always made sure there was food for the staff, even made my own recipes for everyone that’s so much better than what you can order at [corpo store]. During the busy season we had 40 employees and I made sure they were all fed and made sure they had food to take home to their families if they were in a bad spot. I was actually making less than minimum wage because I was exempt salary at the federal minimum and I worked 50-70 hours a week. We also fed homeless people as long as they took what we had and didn’t demand we cook something for them.
Back on topic- Scammers are not starving people, they’re just assholes. We had one guy who was getting one free pizza each week delivered to his fucking boat. I mean this guy was getting a free pizza with no tip delivered during the busiest part of the busiest day of the week for years! When I told him to never call again he called me every name he could, and threatened to call the police. I had so many people threaten to come over and fight me when I refused their scams. I would drop everything even in the middle of the shittiest rush to shut down a scam. Scams hurt everyone and especially hurt the drivers who got $2.15 an hour. Scammers never tip.
For any food managers who read this, I developed a technique I call the broken record. In a cheery voice, I would say “I’m sorry sir/ma’am but without a verified order I’m unable to issue a replacement.” They would but but but but and I would say “I’m sorry sir/ma’am but without a verified order I’m unable to issue a replacement.”
Sometimes they would hang up after two. Sometimes I would say it eight times in a row. But that’s all I would say once I was sure they were lying. It worked fucking fantastic and the more they cussed me out the better my day would get. They would say the most ridiculous shit like the pizza put my daughter in the hospital. And you want another?
Years of this combined with knowing pathological liars since I was a child means I can spot a liar right away. I am very fucking good at knowing when someone is lying. I don’t mind when people exaggerate a story a bit for fun, I do it myself, but liars can go fuck off all the way. They do not care about you, only what they can get from you.
Tbh, my biggest takeaway from that is tipping and sub-minimum wage need to go die in a fire. That corp used you and your employees as a meat shield to soak up the financial consequences for flaws in their shitty system.
Yeah at the end of the day this is another example of corporate greed and them taking advantage of the people on the front line who are measured in dollars and cents where the CEO is measured in percentage of quarterly revenue.
That being said the people who don’t need a cheap pizza but rather just want to game the system or to prove a point of what they can get are the same as the people that refuse to tip because the tipping system is bad. They are costing the corporation pennies while making someone’s day really shitty.
Class warfare isn’t only against those of a different class, it can and is manufactured to make you angry at those next to you so we bicker amongst ourselves as the the actual guy on his boat would never order this pizza to begin with and has his own private culinary staff.
It wasn’t like a yacht. It was this guy’s boat that he either lived in or was in every Friday for so many years. You could look him up in our system and it was just free pizza after free pizza. 52 a year for years.
Oh I absolutely agree. The only things I’m proud of from my time in that fire are the people skills I gained and the people I was able to help. Shit was so bad in this place. One day one of the drivers came in crying. She didn’t have a shift that day I asked her what was wrong and she’d found a body in the alley behind her place. Her husband had killed the guy. She had nowhere else to turn. We sat in the little desk area we called an office and I hugged her and told her we would figure it out and she would be ok. We waited for the police while service went to shit because I wasn’t out there.
That’s your takeaway? That we’re all be exploited so the person who has to deal with the scams should just be OK with it because we’re all on some hypothetical side?
I mean unless that person is explicitly getting paid to deal with scams, why give a shit? If I found out someone was gaming the system where I worked at I’d ask how they did it, because fuck the corporation.
I wouldn’t mind if they did that at all. In total I was at that shithole for 8 precious years of my life. The poverty was grinding. I would make free pizzas happily all day if it was getting the drivers paid.
But in that eight years I cannot recall a single free pizza that got a tip.
Man this is such a sad comment. Imagine people gaming the system are the problem and not the company you work for that is paying a driver 2.15 an hour.
a) This was TB a giant multi-billion dollar conglomerate, not the local pizza joint nor did I ever place it for delivery, no tip was expected.
b) The manager knew what I was doing and was mad about the quantity rather than what I was doing and gave me a stern “Just keep it reasonable” warning. Which I adhered to, had he told me to stop entirely I would have.
Honestly, fuck you.
I managed a pizza place for six years and I cut the scam orders down to 10% of what they were when I took over. We were insanely busy in the fattest city in the USA.
Aside- I don’t mind giving food away, I always made sure there was food for the staff, even made my own recipes for everyone that’s so much better than what you can order at [corpo store]. During the busy season we had 40 employees and I made sure they were all fed and made sure they had food to take home to their families if they were in a bad spot. I was actually making less than minimum wage because I was exempt salary at the federal minimum and I worked 50-70 hours a week. We also fed homeless people as long as they took what we had and didn’t demand we cook something for them.
Back on topic- Scammers are not starving people, they’re just assholes. We had one guy who was getting one free pizza each week delivered to his fucking boat. I mean this guy was getting a free pizza with no tip delivered during the busiest part of the busiest day of the week for years! When I told him to never call again he called me every name he could, and threatened to call the police. I had so many people threaten to come over and fight me when I refused their scams. I would drop everything even in the middle of the shittiest rush to shut down a scam. Scams hurt everyone and especially hurt the drivers who got $2.15 an hour. Scammers never tip.
For any food managers who read this, I developed a technique I call the broken record. In a cheery voice, I would say “I’m sorry sir/ma’am but without a verified order I’m unable to issue a replacement.” They would but but but but and I would say “I’m sorry sir/ma’am but without a verified order I’m unable to issue a replacement.”
Sometimes they would hang up after two. Sometimes I would say it eight times in a row. But that’s all I would say once I was sure they were lying. It worked fucking fantastic and the more they cussed me out the better my day would get. They would say the most ridiculous shit like the pizza put my daughter in the hospital. And you want another?
Years of this combined with knowing pathological liars since I was a child means I can spot a liar right away. I am very fucking good at knowing when someone is lying. I don’t mind when people exaggerate a story a bit for fun, I do it myself, but liars can go fuck off all the way. They do not care about you, only what they can get from you.
Thanks for coming to my Fred talk.
Tbh, my biggest takeaway from that is tipping and sub-minimum wage need to go die in a fire. That corp used you and your employees as a meat shield to soak up the financial consequences for flaws in their shitty system.
You and your team are victims of wage theft.
Yeah at the end of the day this is another example of corporate greed and them taking advantage of the people on the front line who are measured in dollars and cents where the CEO is measured in percentage of quarterly revenue.
That being said the people who don’t need a cheap pizza but rather just want to game the system or to prove a point of what they can get are the same as the people that refuse to tip because the tipping system is bad. They are costing the corporation pennies while making someone’s day really shitty.
Class warfare isn’t only against those of a different class, it can and is manufactured to make you angry at those next to you so we bicker amongst ourselves as the the actual guy on his boat would never order this pizza to begin with and has his own private culinary staff.
It wasn’t like a yacht. It was this guy’s boat that he either lived in or was in every Friday for so many years. You could look him up in our system and it was just free pizza after free pizza. 52 a year for years.
People like that are not our allies in class war.
Oh I absolutely agree. The only things I’m proud of from my time in that fire are the people skills I gained and the people I was able to help. Shit was so bad in this place. One day one of the drivers came in crying. She didn’t have a shift that day I asked her what was wrong and she’d found a body in the alley behind her place. Her husband had killed the guy. She had nowhere else to turn. We sat in the little desk area we called an office and I hugged her and told her we would figure it out and she would be ok. We waited for the police while service went to shit because I wasn’t out there.
You are being exploited by whoever owned the pizza place. We are all working class.
That’s your takeaway? That we’re all be exploited so the person who has to deal with the scams should just be OK with it because we’re all on some hypothetical side?
I mean unless that person is explicitly getting paid to deal with scams, why give a shit? If I found out someone was gaming the system where I worked at I’d ask how they did it, because fuck the corporation.
In this context it was their job to deal with the scammer.
Because it was costing all the minimum wage employees in the store money. They literally told you exactly why they gave a shit.
Always scam companies out of pizzas and give employees a larger tip with the money you saved. That’s the lesson here
I wouldn’t mind if they did that at all. In total I was at that shithole for 8 precious years of my life. The poverty was grinding. I would make free pizzas happily all day if it was getting the drivers paid.
But in that eight years I cannot recall a single free pizza that got a tip.
Man this is such a sad comment. Imagine people gaming the system are the problem and not the company you work for that is paying a driver 2.15 an hour.
a) This was TB a giant multi-billion dollar conglomerate, not the local pizza joint nor did I ever place it for delivery, no tip was expected.
b) The manager knew what I was doing and was mad about the quantity rather than what I was doing and gave me a stern “Just keep it reasonable” warning. Which I adhered to, had he told me to stop entirely I would have.
Unfathomably based. You’re a good person.