I had a first time customer call and tell me he chipped a tooth eating my pizza…are you serious?
My wife is contacting him now. there is nothing in these that can make this even possible.
how does one deal with this?
there of course no way to tell if it was chipped before. I just hate these people.
Anything ground like sausage, beef, or even pepperoni COULD have something in it that could chip a tooth.
So what would everyone suggest? I am one of those people that think no one wants to take responsibility for when “stuff” happens. I mean, if the customer chokes on a chicken bone, does KFC pay them off?
Then again, good will is worth effort. Should you ask for the item that chipped their tooth? After all, you can chip your own tooth by biting odd.
Also, we need to be aware that it isn’t that there has to be something in the pepperoni or sausage, you also need to be careful of foreign objects that can be introduced during preparation or storage.
In any case, I suppose I would take it seriously and investigate, but would not admit to any negligence.
I am not sure how to handle this but let me tell you about my teeth to give you a view of the possibilities.
I had a condition that caused the calcium to be extracted from my bones. I was eating M&M peanut candy and split a tooth in half. A week later I was eating cheese bread and broke a piece from another tooth. Some time later I was eating popcorn being VERY careful not to bite any hard kernels and broke yet another tooth.
My reason for sharing this with you is so you may get another prospective on what could have been the root of the problem.
I have been through this one. The customer chipped a tooth and could not tell us what they bit down on. In the mean time, they had gone home to another state 1300 miles away. (We did notice that evening that the nut that holds the wheel on the pizza cutter was missing) Here is my suggestion:
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“I am sorry that happened to you.” “Thank you for calling, this has never happened to us before and it is imoportant to us to serve good food”
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“Do you know what you bit down on?” "Do you have whatever it was?
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“Have you been to the dentist?” “What did the dentist say?”
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“What can we do for you?”
Try to feel them out to see if they are reasonable people or someone trying to cash in.
If he is a reasonable person, they will just want you to know about it and perhaps pay for the dentist visit. This is what happened to us. I asked what the dentist visit cost, apologized and sent a check. We never heard from them again.
If they have some wild idea of you sending them thousands of dollars, thank them for calling, get the thier information and ask them to provide you a written description of the event and of what they are asking for. You can try proposing that such a request is unreasonable but I would not have high hopes. Contact your insurance agent to notify them.
Good luck.
Hi Guys;
No one has mentioned product liability insurance. Do you folks have that coverage?
George Mills
If they have some wild idea of you sending them thousands of dollars, thank them for calling, get the thier information and ask them to provide you a written description of the event and of what they are asking for. You can try proposing that such a request is unreasonable but I would not have high hopes. Contact your insurance agent to notify them.
George
That is a very important part of the puzzle.
One time I had some people who claimed they FOUND a piece of tooth in their pizza and wanted me to have it checked for dangerous diseases like AIDS. :roll: I tried to be very empathetic and asked maybe if it might have been their tooth but they were insistent it wasn’t. I said I would look into the problem and spent a weekend wondering who you even call to ask if teeth have fallen into the sausage in the factory, etc. and what lab would I send the thing out to for testing?? (Honestly!!!) They sheepishly came back the following week and said they discovered they had indeed broken a tooth. I thanked them for letting me know, continued to sound very empathetic and serious, and that was the end of it. I should have contacted my insurance agent, come to think of it now, but I didn’t.
I’ve broken teeth on nothing myself… it’s part of getting old I think. Now I have lovely crowns!
Rockstar, please, make sure you put your broker on notice…Then your insurer can decide if they need to do anything…But at least you have complied with the “reporting” provisions of your policy…If you fail to report and 2 or 3 years down the line, this comes back to “bite” you, your insurer can claim you “predjudiced” their ability to investigate and may deny coverage even if you are liable…
Putting the agent on notice is not the same a filing a claim. My insurance has a deductable higher than an event like this should cost. If the expense is less than the deductable, you do not want to file a claim.
I would hold off on the notice until I had a sense of what people are looking for.
Nothing will piss people off faster than questioning their word that something happened to them and there is nothing to be gained by doing so. That does not mean that you have to say it is your fault. Similarly, saying your are sorry that this happened to them does not assume responsibility for what happened. Have a polite conversation with them, express concern and ask what they are looking for. It may well be as simple as a respectful conversation and an apology.
About 13 years ago we had a lady say she broke her tooth on a piece of bacon. What was ironic is she was the wife of the US foods driver.
What did we do, nothing. We apologized for her loss and said we don’t know what could have caused it. We never asked what we could do. We never called her. We never initiated anything. We did tell her there is no way to know exactly what happened.
That was the end of it.
I was eating a piece of laffy taffya couple of years ago and it took part of my tooth. Did I call them? No.
If I were you I would do nothing more. If you get served with papers hire a lawyer.
Kris
we talked to our attourney and he had said that there doesnt appear to be any negligence. he told me just because something happens doesnt make you at fault unless ther are mitagating circumstances or negligence. which neither are there. yes I do have the insurance but honestly in the long run it would cost more to turn it in.
Unforeseen circumstances aside…my husband’s teeth are bad…BAD, and he’s broken a tooth eating pizza.
It can happen…but I suspect it’s more “bad teeth” or a mis-bite than it is your food.