I walk into the shop at 4pm and i am told I just missed a call from a 'customer" that claimed to have ordered Saturday evening and never got her pizza. Strange because I was here all day Sat until 30 min after close and we had zero complaints. I checked and found no record of an order from her Friday or Saturday. So I called her up and she said yes she ordered a large Hawaiian pizza about 7PM Saturday and we never brought it to her and what was I going to do about it. I asked her if she called and spoke to anyone when her order did not arrive and she said yes. I informed her that I was here all day yesterday and we had no complaints and she changed her story and claimed that she attempted to call several times but never got an answer. I told her she must have called somebody else because we had no order from that address. She hung up.
Fast forward 2 hours. The same woman calls and asks our specials. Thanks me and says she will call back in a few to order. Wife and I got into a discussion as to whether or not we wanted her order. After all. two hours earlier she lied and wanted to get something out of us for our mythical mistake. She never called back so we never had to actually decide, but I was leaning towards not serving her because I know she would claim there was something wrong with the order.
So would you serve her knowing she just lied and tried to scam you two hours earlier?
Sometimes people makes mistakes and just think they called Place A, when, in fact, they called Place B. She might have called another place and ordered that special.
The worst that could happen if you took the order is that you’re out a couple of dollars. It’s pizza, not a new car or a Rolex watch. Teach the poor dear to put your number on speed dial so she always orders from you. :lol:
Forgot to point out, “you must have called someone else” was throwing her a bone for a graceful retreat. We are the only people that deliver where she is located.
I usually give the customer the benefit of the doubt and if there is some sort of issue that comes up, I will always give them another try. Any other shenanigans after that and they go on the PITA/No Orders list! These type people have a knack for knowing just how much they can get away with and so long as you remain firm yet courteous, they usually will move onto another place that hands out freebies for any and every reason.
We had a similar situation a few months back. Customer places order for a sub, then calls to “let us know” that we messed up his sub. I apologized and told him that I would be happy to replace his sub or make his next sub on the house for the error, he decided he would use his sub credit for next time he ordered. Well fast forward about 2 weeks and said customer calls back and places an order for 2 subs, using his credit towards one of them. I assured him that we would make sure his specific order was exactly as he ordered without any errors as it was last time and re-read the order back to him to be sure. He mentioned his son would be picking up the order too. So I went back into the kitchen to personally watch the assembly of the subs to make 100% certain the subs were nothing less than perfect. I labeled the boxes as we do and customer’s son picks up the order. Then…I get a call from the customer saying that his sub was incorrect! At this point, I tell my partner about the call (and he is usually the calm, cool and collected one), he takes the phone and tells the guy to come up and get a refund, to which the customer states he will be sending his son again. The son arrives and my partner refunds the money and then says to the son sternly “I don’t ever want to see you/your dad back in here, obviously there is a problem every time you order…” to which the son begins profusely apologizing and seemingly doing so because he knows his dad is just trying to get free stuff. To this day the dad still orders, albeit under a false name and I have never heard a peep from him again! 
No freebies, I would take her order and her money. She would be flagged for not having legite complaints
Our solution is to have the 2nd order visually inspected and accepted before leaving the store (or driver leaving the house). They inspect for quality and correctness, then it is all their issue. We have even had a customer sign the receipt before after a couple incidents. It originally was to be sure we really did meet their expectations (even showing we were concerned enough to get THEIR acceptance), and then became a strategy to stop further manipulations for some customers.
Dealing with a proven thief is just a bad idea. We would have (politely) declined the order.“I’m sorry, but you seem to be on our do-not-accept-orders-from list.” Also, the ones that throw the biggest fits are the professional scammers - regular people are so shocked/embarrassed when they are told “No”, that they run away.
I once had a guy call on Tuesday morning, complaining about the pizza we delivered Monday night; I was very apologetic, found out the exact time and kind of pizza, his name, address (a local motel), etc. Double and triple checked that it was Monday nite. Basically strung him along for about ten minutes, before I broke down and informed him that not only do we not deliver, we are not even OPEN on Monday. Really made my day.