Its Saturday and my friend Y2C like every other Indian is just awaiting THE MATCH .. yes the finals....and like every other Indian praying for India to win. It was a big day indeed with a super smashing success in the Semis and with a billion hopes of repeating history..
But arghhh the life beyond World Cup doesnt let him enjoy that ONE DAY when he would have liked to lazy around at home and just get glued to the TV and enjoy that emotional turmoil that every Indian experienced on that day. Poor guy came to office with few plans in mind..I would work methodically, no distractions, eat somewhere nearby so that I save on time and go back asap to enjoy the match.
The day started with the plan and followed it till good half of the day till the time he decided to find a cure for his hunger.. being in a place like ISBT we are hardly left with much options of food Domino's is one such place where we go for three reasons- one when we want to think beyond burgers two when we are short of time and three when we have good reasons to shell out that good amount of money that the pizza chain charges.......Incidentally all reasons got checked that it was world cup finals and he was already high on it.... He checked his watch in was 1.25 pm and he realized that if he goes now then probably he can be back around 2 ish and enjoy the 'toss' after all domino's is just few flights away from our office...
And 'aaj to Cheese Burst pizza banta hai' Here he goes to the counter orders his fav veg cheese burst and garlic bread and sprite at exact 1.33pm from where his back counting to toss starts.... and like those 1000 times we have been there gets the sprite first .......with the usual thing in mind would Dhoni win the toss or not ... he better wins the toss whosoever has lost the toss in finals have lost the game too.... Suddenly his eyes go to the clock and whoosh its close to 2 ..... so here he goes and asks in the counter.. whether his pizza is ready or not.... and to his surprise he gets an answer ' You havent been served yet ?' The clear answer is obviously no else why the hell m I asking this question......and after checking the records the dominos guy says sorry we have mistakenly forgotten your order....
Surprisingly its the same food chain that claims its numbers as hunger helpline and has a punch line "Hungry Kya".... Yes he was very much hungry waiting for the food.. and missing the match what else could go wrong... Wait theres more to come.. to top it he is asked what all have you got till now ... poor boy surviving on sprite had finished his whole bottle by now.... the domino guy says sir you please take your seat start having garlic bread and we will make the pizza... Y2C with so much of work on head and match in mind said you give it to me in few minutes I can wait and have garlic bread .... but no came the answer it would take more time sir after all its cheese burst....So he gave his visiting card and said you deliver in my office in any case you are supposed to deliver in half an hour so you can deliver in the time left.....which was exactly 3 minutes he also insisted that you write on the bill why it got delayed........ but no again came the answer along with the same response that you have garlic bread till then and sorry we cant write ( it came after much discussion amongst them)....By now he was too irritated and said forget about delivering in 3 mins you take 10 mins give it to my office but no again came the answer By now the coin was already tossed twice and India had already lost the toss and SL has decided to bat....and Y2C had already lost so much of time ......
So now he said I have finished the sprite , you return my money deduct the sprite price I would now like to go back I cant waste my time. And Dominos here gave the quickest of the service they have ever given and reurned the money in no time. But he atleast wanted to speak to manager but some fellow came back and said manager is really busy and cant speak to you now ... Has the funda of 'customer is king' become old well it seems so....anyways he still insisted on it somebody came and introduced himself as manager. who just apologized for the delay and asked him to start with garlic bread.... Garlic bread in all his life would never have irritated him the way it did today.
Poor, Hungry, irritated, angry boy went back to office and decided to shoot a mail to domino's complaint email address. with the whole story... an autogenerated reply of getting back in 48 hours also came.... after all these Multinational chains are supposed to be very efficient in all these things.... It was already 2.20 and he had decided to get back to work without wasting any more time on food.........So with an empty stomach he started working on two windows parallely one with scores of the match and one with his work.....he did not want his remaining day to go bad... and all he was looking forward to reach home as soon as possible.
His work was at peak around 4 o clock and reaching back home and enjoying the TV did not seem too far...when our office gate guard came looking for him and asked did you have a pizza problem? he asked as in ? the Guard says there are people from Domino's waiting for you downstairs...
He goes downstairs and two men introduced themselves as the manager and the shift incharge and to his surprise the manager he met before wasnt one of them.......When he questioned the same that I wanted to meet you and you sent somebody else .... very smoothly came the reply I was busy and we apologize for this how can we make you happy ? ....This seemed the most irritating question then..... to which he said whats done is done I havent had my food and I would not like to waste my time further.... to which they said we can give you a complimentary pizza for all this mess.... A complimentary pizza he did not create all this mess for that, all he wanted was to eat on time and save time......He turned down the offer saying he did not do it for a free pizza..... and nor a free pizza can erase what they did....The faces of both the guys on other side suddenly went pale ..... probably it wasnt expected that in a country where people do not mind going that extra mile to save on few bucks somebody will turn down a free pizza!!!.......
Anyways he accepted their apology and said he would not like to waste his time further......and the episode ended there..... unlike promised to revert back in 48 hours, its been 3 days... India has won the Cup! celebrations are On! all the players are back home! and a reply is still awaited from Domino's side......
This whole episode made me write this post and pose certain questions.. has this brand game actually improved the standards..... Competitive market leads to better delivery but this kind of attitude clearly shows that the idea is yet to sink in to each and everybody serving........Has anyone ever noticed how madly these delivery guys race their bikes to ensure that it is delivered on time.......If these shallow ideas of delivery time etc is removed probably they can ensure something that we would like to cherish and that is quality and taste.... Have we as consumers forgotten that quality in service and food is what matters having my dinner at 9.27 or 9.34 would not make much of a difference.... And leave apart the fact that all these do make a big hole in our pockets.... and if you are dining in then it makes the hole even before had the first bite of your food
Next Time I would rather say No I am not Hungry!!!
