Boxes

I hope you all had a good Christmas and have a Happy New Year.

Because of sales we have been busier after Christmas than before it - weird.

A few unexciting things have happened. Someone broke the coffee machine. Someone broke an oven. Someone broke the dishwasher. Someone broke a till. Someone broke the freezer. All of these things at the busiest time of the year, nice.

I did something very bad and came home with a Pizza Hut marker pen in my pocket and kept it. I'm afraid it doesn't have a Pizza Hut logo on it though, or I might have tried my luck on eBay.

And from the title...a very odd man came in. He wanted a pizza to take away. He said "I'm not too sure about the box" There was nothing wrong with it, except the lid needed closing properly. The pizza was fresh out of the oven a few minutes ago. "Oh right...do you want me to change it?" "Umm I'm not sure..." I grabbed it out of his hand, he was obviously a twirp. I put another box over the existing box. He now had two perfect boxes. "It is in two boxes now - so it will be fine" "Well I don't think it will" "It will." I put it in THREE carrier bags so there was no chance of it ever falling out. Now then the weird person went to me with what I would describe as an intimidating voice "Well what do YOU think of the boxes?" With his face screwed up. I was a bit unsure of what to say so I went "I'm don't know really, I don't use them often". On reflection that was a bit of a crap thing to say.

Now I was a bit confused as to why he had kicked up such a fuss over it, and why he asked such a weird question. I found out later that when I went to get another box, another team member had said to me "Why are you bothering to get another box - it's are fine". I didn't hear them, as we have oven fans, extractor fans above the ovens, extractors over the frier, fan heaters in the hot hold, air conditioning, fridge/freezer fans and to top it off some crap Christmas carol in the background. (Have you noticed I like making lists??)

And that was about it really, except for the chavs who came in and made a puddle and trail of Pepsi footprints. Thanks - that was great.

Oh and talking of Pepsi, if you get a flat drink it is because of the gas has ran out. When I tell you it will be about 10 minutes until it is changed there is no point in waiting there, trying the machine every 30 seconds. IT WILL NOT WORK. If I tell you there is no 7up and will be no 7up today, that does actually mean there will not be any. 7up is my favourite so if there was a box of syrup there to put on, I would put it on.

Oh and one very last thing...where it says 99p and then has a list of sides, don't be a prat and kick up a stink when you only get one but "Thought it was 99p for all 8 sides". Pop off to Iceland if you want that kind of deal.

Merry Christmas

Well Christmas was a bit of an anti-climax really - it wasn't really busy. So this is it. My day off is tomorrow - how exciting!!

I've been round the back for a while. I put some garlic bread in the oven. I discovered about 5 minutes later the oven I selected was off and stone cold. The customer collared me. Rather than telling them I'd been an idiot and put it in the wrong oven, I said "Sorry it will be out in a minute, something just got stuck in the oven and so has slowed it down". Not too far from the truth.

I served this family, who didn't want any pork but were insistent that they could have a pizza with pepperoni on it.

"We don't want anything with pork on, so 4 Supremes please".
"Supreme has pepperoni on it, and that contains pork"
"Yes 4 Supremes then please"
"That has pork on it"
"Yes I know - Supreme"
*head-till-head-till*
"Do you want Chicken Supreme? That doesn't have any pork on it"
"No, just Supreme"
"But that has pork on it"
"Ok do Supremes with no pepperoni".

Why didn't you just say that in the first place? Argh.

This incident made me wary. Now I know there are some religions which don't allow people to eat pork, but I'm not too clued up on their appearances/traditional dress etc, but I was a bit suspicious when this couple ordered two hawaiians. So I confirmed the order at the end with - so thats two ham and pineapple pizzas blah blah. They both agreed.

Then 3 minutes later, back come two thoroughly mangled pizzas, with bits of ham pulled out and an angry man going
"This has ham on it"
"Yes because it is a hawaiian."
"Yes I know it is a hawaiian that is what I ordered"
"Yes hawaiian has ham on it"
At this point he must have realised his mistake but wanted to make Pizza Hut for it.
"I ORDERED CHICKEN"
"You said you ordered hawaiian"
"I ordered chicken."

I took the boxes out of his hand and got the pizzas out, squeezed them into a bit of a mush and then got two chicken pizzas out.

"Thanks mate" was his reply.

The other nasty customer was one who ranted in my face about not getting another cup for free for whatever reason and included the phrases "This is absolutely ridiculous" and "You are so pathetic". The twirp got her cup from another team member in the end because apparently the customer was getting very red and "looked like she was going to hit me". Now if it didn't hurt too much, then that would be very funny. Her and her family being removed from centre by security and possibly the police - hehehe.

Enjoy Christmas everyone, and if I don't post before Happy 2007. This is my 52nd post.

Christmas spirit?

My blog is no longer a secret!! It turns out my ENTIRE family has been reading it without my knowledge. Oh well I won't be able to bitch about them on here now. *waving to them*

It seems every other person has turned nasty because it is Christmas. Ok this might be a slightly over estimation, but it's not far off.

The shopping centre has this lovely festive music piping through the entire place. Lovely if you are just popping in for something to eat. But not if you work there and it drives you insane.

This is what I said when a customer was nearby, to another team member
"Doesn't this music drive you insane?"
Before they could reply "EXCUSE ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THIS IS MY FAVOURITE CHRISTMAS SONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Ok, are you really angry or joking - I'm not sure.
"Oh right...do you know what it is called?" I asked.
"NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BUT I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU HAVE JUST SAID THAT" Ok darlin' keep calm. I weren't even talking to you - it was a private conversation but seeing as you are a customer...
"Oh right sorry" half laughing thinking she is joking. I'm really not sorry.
"WELL I AM NOT COMING BACK HERE EVER AGAIN!"

I do have another crappy customer story but I'll save that for tonight so it encourages me to blog again before Christmas. This customer was one where I immediately thought "She is going on the blog".

Fed up

I was told by a customer that "My god you look fed up". I smiled. "And I bet you are". And yes I was. I'm working bank holidays at Christmas for no extra pay. They can shove the rota up their arse if they think I'm doing that again. I asked for some extra uniform ages ago. I ain't got any of it. They'll be on my case if I don't wear uniform though, but wearing uniform which stinks because their is no humanly possible way it can be washed every day, is fine?

Now I've finished that little rant I can go onto talk about the customers. Oops I was too busy walking round looking like death so I can't remember many. I do remember the one who bless 'em, had their card DECLINED a few times, in front of their family. Understandably it's embarassing for them. Luckily they had another card to use.

Anyway. Everyone has been rather civil recently.

Apologies for this rubbish post.

It's Christmas!!!

Thank you for the continued comments and visits! This blog is also being linked to from quite a few places now...places I've never heard of - so that is nice.

We've had a notice come through which went to all huts, that I thought was interesting. It is a reminder that breast feeding is permitted in all concepts of the Pizza Hut brand. There must have been some problems with it recently. Just thought I'd mention that.

So now it is CHRISTMAS! I've already been driven insane by the nasty carols someone has decided to put on the PA system and turned up the volume. I'm wondering whether I just start doing a little jingle that instead of saying have a nice meal... and using"Have a nice Christmas!" I'd be interested in what you guys think? Good or bad idea? I might trial it and see the results.

Oh and one final thing, the problem with availability of salads. This lady came up to the counter and ordered something or other and it had a side salad. She totally flipped when I APOLOGISED (which a lot of my colleagues don't even bother doing) and said we didn't have any salad. "OH MY GOD. I AM LEGALLY ALLOWED TO HAVE SALAD INSTEAD OF FRIES". Legally allowed??? What planet was she on? The funny thing was, she then followed her flip with "Right I'll just have the fries then - I'LL JUST THROW THEM AWAY THOUGH". Sure you will...

CASH

Well just as I said it was getting busier, we have a miserable day where we don't meet the projections and there was a gap between customers at one point of around 25 minutes. So what did we do. Clean? Something useful? No. We squirted cleaning fluids at each other. It quickly came to a stop though, as instead of using the diluted stuff I threatened the use of glass cleaner. Oh well. We must have some fun some times.

But because it is Christmas now some random people (not customers) just appear at the counter and ask me "Do you know what time [Insert name of one of about 40 stores] is open to?" When I replied "No sorry I'm not sure" They each time without fail give me the most vicious glare. Sorry I don't happen to have the opening hours of every store stored in my memory.

I typed something here about some chavs but it was a bit boring so I got rid of it.

And from the title....

We were closed. I didn't have a till - meaning basically I'm assigned to a till, but there is not a penny inside it and the cashing up has been completed. Coming up to me and standing in my way with your face next to mine going "I will pay you CASH for some fries" He then proceeds to show me a £5 note. "I CAN PAY CASH". Paying in cash has got nothing to do with it - so "Sorry I can't, I don't have a till to put the money in and get change" "I can pay CASH it is no problem.". Must have had a thick skull. We didn't have any fries anyway, so that was the end of that.

Well my till hasn't been down for ages. It has only been down once. Which is nice. Just thought I'd mention that.

I do hope I get some problem customers soon. They make interesting stories. Why can't someone find a cockroach or something in their pizza - now that would be exciting! Not that we have cockroaches (oh and yes, I have checked the little catcher things for them just incase we do have them - they are empty).