One of the last runs of the night was to a guy that had obviously had a few before he ordered. He seemed civilized enough, just intoxicated. People frequently order delivery when they have been drinking since they should not be driving.
The driver got there and the guy could not find his money so he wanted to pay with a debit card. He could not read the card number so gave it to the driver. There was no porch light so driver had to step inside to read the card. The driver told me he knew he was not supposed to go inside the house but made a poor decision in a bad situation. Card was denied NSF. The driver gave phone back to customer and I told him it was denied. The guy got belligerent, started swearing and told me over the phone he was going to “punch your F%#@ng driver on the mouth” which he repeated several times and hung up. Then he asked the driver to go with him to his parents house and get the money, but the driver was making tracks towards his vehicle. At this point I got the driver on his cell phone and he informed me he was safe in his truck. I told him to get out of there ASAP and get back to the shop.
While he was on the way back to the shop the guy called and wanted me to send the driver back because he had the money. I told him I did not want his money, or his business and if he called again I would be sending the sheriff out to visit him. He said he was going to punch me on the mouth. All in all a very unpleasant exchange.
When the driver got back to the shop he let me know the guy tried to kick him as he was going down the steps off the porch and in fact the guys foot grazed his back. At this point I was going to call the cops but the driver said to just let him sleep it off.
I was on the phone with the driver when this guys attitude changed, the driver said nothing that would have caused it, he was all “yes sir” and “no sir”, very respectful but the guy was saying he was “talking s@#t”.
This could have been ugly because the guy was apparently completely irrational. We obviously will not deliver to him anymore, but does anybody have a no “stupid slobbering drunk” policy?
You didn’t know the fool was loaded and wasted valuable time attempting to accomodate him.
+1 he didn’t get behind the wheel and potentionally injure someone for a pizza
-1 you wasted your time and left your employee holding the bag trying to straighten it out; folding boxes safe at the shop is more value added then dealing with a drunk
My advice if the customer is drunk and has no means of paying just leave the order; exit immediately; and report it the next day to the authorities (cool down period). Chances are you will never recoup the $20 or whatever it was; but is it worth all of the time and effort not to mention potential harm?
Imagine if an incident did occur and someone got hurt. Give them the order and blacklist them.
Never deliver to him anymore (obviously)
but also,
Never allow him into the store either. You would never be able to tell ahead of time if he is in his uncontrollable drunken state or not, so why risk it at all?
On the other hand…
Wouldn’t it be cool if you could carry a taser and just nail idiots like this? :mrgreen:
I don’t know how calling the police in your town would go,but I know here they wouldn’t really be able to do anything as far as the pizza seeing it is below 20.00 and was handed to the customer. So they probably wouldn’t call it theft. The best idea is to just block them from future deliveries.
You are correct… it would not be called “theft”. It is called “robbery” which is far more serious. When something is taken under the threat of force it is a very serious crime. “I will punch you in the mouth” is a threat of force.
OK guys we are off on a tangent here, I don’t give a crap about the bill, our employee got out of the situation safely, that is all that matters. I wanted to call the cops based on the guys behavior towards my employee, which could be called assault. The employee did not want to press charges so calling cops would have not accomplished much.
I knew the guy was drunk when he ordered but that happens frequently here. The only way we see we could have avoided this problem was to not take his order. If so how do you do that, “Sorry sir you are too drunk to order food”?
Rick I agree the $20 is a non-issue. His verbal assult to you and towards your driver was crossing the line. That alone would warrant law enforcement attention. That alone is also overlooked 99% of the time. The fact that after his verbal intentions of violence that he then KICKS your driver…beit just a grazing… sorry, but both you and the driver should have been on with 911 as soon as that happened. Being drunk in not an excuse for the customer or for you not reporting the incident. I know people here go back and forth about bills not paid or disputed charges… but this was assult and battery against one of your employees. Even if your driver will not press charges you should file a police report and that will at least get this a$$ a visit from the sheriff and maybe get his attention about the fact that he could be facing a number of charges. You also need to file a no trespass warrant against him to prevent any further contact between your business and this person. This needs quick and decisive action for all involved. :!:
RG sometimes I dont know how to respond to your repeat offer to close shop or move whenever something like the above happens. I agree that in 99% of these drunken rages or rants they should be written off as a learning experience but this one went past verbal assult. We are now at battery. I will give one to PPG here and say this person needs to be confronted by the local sheriff and informed that a police report has been filed and issue a no-trespass order to prevent future phone or in person contact. I am not stupid enough to think that no-trespass orders do anything. They do however make a record of the problem. They do make public record of the inncident and a lot of times the embarassment of the warrant is enough to get people to stop any further contact. Turn this into some free advertising for your shop. Print off a nice short note to hand out too all the other merchants in town to help make them aware that someone local assulted and battered your driver and also assulted you on the phone. Just be honest and to the point. Do not list the persons name as to prevent any legal issues from that arrising…but do explain what happened, how you and the driver handled it all, the fact that you have filed a no-trespass warrant on this person, and you are passing this info along as a public service to just remind people of the possible dangers that are exsist for their delivery as well as inside employees. I am not sure how SC works but locally I can pull up state records of all trespass orders and easily figure out who this person was without you having to list it in the letter. I would also contact the local paper and see if they would do a public service piece about deliery drivers and the risks that they and all service providers take everyday. Spin this to work for yourself and the business and mostly for the safety of all employees everywhere. RG you comment about why bother…or close up and move away…and sometimes when actions like this are bad enough people do. To that I will share my view. If everyone refuses to stand up then someday we all close down and move away. I know it is hard to stand up to problem customers and employees for that matter…but we as good and civil people need to and have to stand up and fight for what is right. Maybe RG you are at the point to just give in but we as a nation and world need to make this stand or else it is over. Personally I am not ready to roll over and probably never will be!!! :x
In SC you can actually have someone arrested for cussing you out on the phone.
RG
I guess there is no reasonable way to avoid this, and it only has happened once in ten years, but it is still frustrating. I was on the end of the phone listening to this guy, knowing I was 10 minutes away if James needed help and the Sheriff’s Dept was probably 10 min to a half hour depending on how busy they were and what type of assault was taking place. I have refused to accept orders from people who were intoxicated and hostile, or for that matter just hostile. This guy was fine right up until his card did not go through, in fact he did a better job of ordering than about 25% of our regulars. When something goes wrong like this I like to find a way to prevent it from happening again, I realize that we can not live in a risk free world but we also need to control what we can.
Sorry all but this is total BS! Rick I can respect you as a business owner but RG said you did all you could and dont give it a second thought… there is no perfect world RG so I must ask if the fact that this employee was the victim of a physical assault and battery…and although just a grazing KICK TO THE BACK! at what point do you call the authorities? Baseball bat to the head? Gunshot… in the back and not just an ankle or something. Dave? Richard? Deacon? all of which have family that deliver… at what level of assault would you not write it off as just drunken stupor? Sorry but the ignorance and just lack of common sense to this post really gets me going. Does it matter if the driver is the 250 lbs linebacker that works two nights a week or your daughter that took the run because you got a late rush and needed an extra driver? This post is why a$$holes like this get away with items like this. Nobody puts a stop to them. Fine… tonight a slight kick… so no report and he just drinks more and orders from the place down the road. Next time…maybe he does the same thing with the 18 yo hs girl that delivers. Drunk…asks her in to wait for money…etc…etc… all drivers make poor choices at times…and where does this lead too? Everyone fill in your own horror story blank. Now ask Rick and RG about what they think when they read the name and story in the paper? Oh wait…I know RG… it’s not the imaginary perfect world that you think we all live in out of a fairytale and we should just close up and move the business elsewhere. WAKE UP PEOPLE! We can either stand up and do what’s right or you can close up and go hide under a rock somewhere. If it is not obvious the responses to this disgust me. There are plenty of incidents that happen everyday that require no action. I dont care if a driver whines about folding boxes. I dont care if a cook has to clean a restroom. I expect the mgr to go shovel snow if it is falling and it needs done. Those are simple and meaningless whining that happens at all places of employment. This situation is not like any of those. Grow a pair and stand up for your employee, yourself, and your business. If you cannot or refuse too then I would take RG’s suggestion… CLOSE UP! :x
Rick to add one last thing. You said it only happened once in ten years. That is one time too many. This person did it once to you! How many others? Maybe none…maybe once a week. Although the local authorities might do nothing…what if yours is the 5th complaint. At what point might the county attorney actually step up and do something. Maybe he is on probation for his 3rd DUI? There are a lot of factors that nobody here knows. All we do know is that he verbally and physically assaulted you, your business, and your employee. I dont care if you are the 1st or 5th complaint against this guy… your report might just open his eyes and make him realize his problem and help either the court system or he himself treat the problem. I also understand it might just make things worse for all involved… but who defends the next person he has contact with that has no clue of his violent history? Who helps thems? OH…after the fact when you climb out of that hole under the rock or the page from RG’s fairytale book!
Note: Rick & RG… no disrespect intended but I think you are both 100% off base here!!! :idea:
When I said “maybe close and move away” - I was being sarcastic. As in, I thought all of the commotion was a bit overboard.
I don’t think he should move away.
Now, the perfect world I’m talking about is the one that you are living in. Nothing is going to happen to this guy. I’d give it a 50/50 chance that the police would even pay him a visit.
The guy was being a jackass. Fire him as a customer and move on.
As far as standing up for the employee - the employee can do whatever he wants. In fact, if the police are to be called, it would need to be the employee doing the calling. Rick has no claim against this guy.
RG I know its sarcasm. Assault and with the actual battery would 100% get a visit. File the report. Get the no-trespass order. Make a point. I also believe, maybe not in SC, but here if an employee is assaulted the company can also file the complaint against the person that did so. My entire point is not just that this a$$ is getting away with it…but why let him? So lets say he gets nothing more than a 5 min phone call from the police asking what happened? Maybe just that would be enough to make him think twice before taking it further the next time. Doing nothing will do only one thing… the driver left a free pizza and he got away with all of it! That is not the solution here. How about sending a bill for the pizza? Stick it to this SOB and see where it all falls. Call the guy and explain that he assaulted the owner and his driver and three things. 1. At this point we are not filing a police report against him. 2. You owe us $xx. and 3. You are no longer a welcomed customer here. Maybe the best case happens… he apologizes to both of you, thanks you for not calling the police, and third…pays his bill with one heII of a tip!
I’m just a bit jaded, and after years of dealing with this sort of stuff, I’ve come to realize that most of the time it isn’t worth spending any time on.
Lest you think I just roll over and take it, ask me about the armed robber currently serving a 13 year sentence…
