Pizza the action

Well it is still dead after Christmas, everyone is in debt so the last thing they want to do is go an buy a pizza.

Oh well you still get the regulars. I like the regulars, because they know me and I know them - this relationship is nice, because they trust you. I don't know why, but I seem to feel that.

There is a regular I'm not too sure of. She has a bright red perm, and faffs around every single time she comes in, debating to herself what to have - and has the exact same thing everytime.

Phone calls
I have taken to answering the phone lately, and pizza places must attract morons to call. Not one call I have taken has been an enquiry about our store.

"Hello my name is Doctor Baylakahjin and I am calling about making arrangements for a surprise party" WRONG STORE - number given.

Man reels off a long list of pizzas, followed by a house number and postcode. "Erm, we don't do delivery I'm afraid..." *CLICK*

"Hello is Pravin there" "Who?" "PRAVIN" "No one who works here is called Pravin" "Have you got his number then?" "No, he doesn't work here, you know this is ___ Pizza Hut don't you?" "Useless" *CLICK*

"Hello can I speak to a Mr ____ (a seriously messed up version of the managers name)" "Do you mean ___" "It says Mr ____ here" "I'll get him for you"

The from what the manager says...it went like this "Hello is this ____?" "No it is ___" "Sorry we can only talk to ____, please get him to call when he is in again" *CLICK*

"Do you have any cash in hand work?" "No" *CLICK* Moron.

"Do you gave the number for Papa Johns?"

Some customers
I tend to stare into space sometimes. I also tend to laugh, and look at people at the same time - who are unrelated. This lady who had bought a pizza kept smiling and making eye contact with me. She also laughed at jokes that were between me and a support manager. She managed to do this while being around 30ft away. Weird.

I was lying on the floor today, stocking up the fridges. I heard a tap of a coin on the counter (how rude!!) to get my attention. I then heard "OI GET OFF THE FLOOR!" (how very rude!!). I put two and two together, and figured I had a bitch at the counter. Luckily, it was a coincidence that a mother was telling her child to get off the floor and not ranting at me.

I broke the bottle warming rule again today - likkle baby having cold milk, what a horrid thought.

A tip to people who want a job at Pizza Hut. If you ask me for an application, you are already in a selection process which I run by myself. If you come up to the counter and say "Can I have one of those f**king what you call it, f**king application forms mate" Ok, you've just sworn quite loud and pretty uncalled for, in an area where children are making ice creams, you are wearing a stupid cap, and you look dirty, then sorry my natural reaction is to say "Sorry we don't have any jobs at the minute..."

Pizza the action!
The Pizza Hut newsletter, January 2007 edition has arrived. It features Thorpe Park branch, going on about how good they are.

It goes on about how Pizza Hut respect their staff, want to keep them updated, make them feel valued etc. It does not mention how all the menial workers at the bottom, which make the whole thing actually work, but instead goes on about how management and 'the board' giving us information. What about us giving them information?

It gives some views of the workers at 3 restaurants (of 700+), all ones which have been nicely refurbished etc.

The Article

Apologies for the current lack of posts about the Hut, which is the reason why I was in the following article, but I haven't been at work since then, but do not worry - I am working virtually non-stop from Wednesday into next week, so I will do some 'proper' posts then.

Many many many thanks to Mr ??? and DJ who both very kindly scanned in the article.

Top
Bottom

Email me!

I've decided to create an email address specifically for this blog now, so I can be contacted in other ways than just comments.

I'm putting a link at side ------------->

It is: phtmblog at googlemail dot com

I don't know if this will prevent spam, I do hope so.

So drop me a line some time!!!

The Mirror

Woah.

I thought my site visits were a bit high, so I checked. I've been featured in the Mirror and/or on their website on Friday! How exciting!!! If anyone has a copy of the page if it was published that they could scan in...it would be great!

Here is the link:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/tm_method=full&objectid=18533036&siteid=94762-name_page.html

Many others were featured. I think the best post thing on there is pretty good, because it sums up the general idiotic-nature of customers.

Arsehole returns

The arsehole came back, just a few days after his original escapade.

He was very civil - no swearing, no stupid requests and actually laughed/smiled/gave an embarrassed look when I called him over to be served by me.

Apparently he is a known drug addict!

Arsehole

Sorry about the rude title, but it sums up a customer.

"Would you mind if I filled my drink cup up with ice cream?"

"Errr, yeah, sorry you can't do that"

"But why not?"

"It is unhygienic and you have to pay for the ice cream"

Muttering to self but loud enough to hear "What a load of shit"

Then the same person came back, and wanted to now buy an ice cream but have two cups "because they'll use the same amount of ice cream anyway". Yes, you will but Pizza Hut will only be paid once. I had to explain this whole thing, which I can't really explain too well on here, but basically it was "You can't pay for one but get two" and their response was "Why?". In the end he bought two. £1.98 in the till - woo!

If you like retail blogs (like I do), check out Working at Food Place.

Losing it

In the past few shifts I have done, seperate customers have left their car keys on the counter 4 times. This has never happened before, but in the past week or so, it has happened 4 times.

The first time I knew who left them there, so took them over to them. They weren't all that grateful so that was annoying.

The other times I had no idea who left them there, and didn't even notice them because they all left them in front of my till, which you can't see over without leaning. The same thing would happen each time "Oh...someone has left their keys here". "Oh right, I'll keep them behind there, they'll come back for them" was my reply each time.

The look on peoples face hunting round everywhere is great. The big sigh which 3 customers have given when I handed them the keys was interesting- hehe - but at least they were grateful, but they all had an excuse similar to "Oh and my son was setting fire to his brother so I was distracted, and oh my god it was terrible not knowing where they were" etc.

Someone asked for and this is an exact quote "Can I have a cold drink, but not cold?". Ok - you are odd. My reply was something along the lines of "Erm, we can't really control the temperature of the machine" "Well no ice then please" "We don't do ice anyway" "Ok I won't bother".

Another stupid person came up to the counter just after we closed. "You got any blah blah blah?" "Yeah, but the fries might be a bit cold - but it is free" "Oh...can you not do some new fries?" "No sorry, we're closed so I can only give you it free anyway" "WELL I CANNOT EAT COLD FRIES" "Do you want the pizza anyway - it's free?" "I CAN'T EAT PIZZA WITHOUT FRIES! HMPH". They walked off and I thought, I just offered them free fresh pizza, and they turned it down. Odd.

The coffee machine is looking tatty already, because customers insist on breaking bits off it. It has already had to have a panel replaced because some cretin broke it.

Oh and finally, to finish off my notes for tonight, a lady who looked, well, posh/well off whatever came up to the counter. She was really friendly, but she then started moving - and she STUNK. People should wash more often.

New template

Well I think this colour is lovely! Any suggestions or comments?

Nice people

Thanks to all the nice people who I'm afraid I can't remember to put on here.

No thanks to the idiot mother who was very harsh on her 3 year old daughter. If she wants to go and smile at you through a pane of glass less than a foot away from you, why not let her instead of shouting at the top of your voice "OH MY GOD _____ GET BACK HERE YOU IDIOT - I AM GOING TO SMACK YOU FOR DOING THAT". Nice people out there.

To the person who left a pile of crap on the counter - thanks for the receipts detailing all your purchases from Asda, it was interesting reading.

Oh and to the tramp who came in, and sat at random peoples tables - and was then surprised when someone reported you and you were ejected by the boys in yellow. Don't come back, you smell and have really really terrible teeth.

Cluck cluck

A short little post to say hello and:

I was checking the quality of the things in the hot hold/hole and checked the wings.

I opened the box. I looked at them. I discovered an entire feather on one of the wings. Yum yum from Yum!

I swiftly chucked it away and vowed never to look at, or eat wings ever again.

Can I interest you in an extra side for 80p - like BBQ wings or garlic dough balls? :-)

Why??? So???

Happy New Year. Christmas and New Year are gone, done for another year - and we are DEAD. Not actually dead, because I'm writing this, but the guest checks (no. or customers) are very low. Which is quite nice but a bit boring, when you've done everything short of scraping chewing gum from the bottom of the counter (customer side of course).

Now I thought only full serve restaurant team members would get tips.........but today I got huge - 73p!!!. The lady said "Keep the change". I replied "It's 73p...?" "Oh no it's alright you keep it". Woo. Thank you for making my day - not for the money, but for wanting to give me the money.

Thanks to the fully grown adult who I saw once top his cup up with Pepsi, and had a thought it wasn't a Pizza Hut one, and then came again, in full view of me, as I was standing next to the machine cleaning it - filling his KFC cup up.

"Sorry, you can't fill that up here..."
"WHY?"
"Because it is a KFC cup"
"So?"
"You have to buy the cup from here then you can use it..."
"Why?"
"We can't just let people have free drinks"
"Well that's stupid"

He got away with his 2nd free Pepsi and left. Seriously, was he a bit...dumb? Yes we have Pepsi 'on tap' but it is for us and our customers only, not you and your scabby cup. I told a colleague about this. His reaction was - "Where is he?" and various expressions including "I've got security on my side" combined with a 'headbutting' movement.

I have developed a new strategy/policy on giving out extra/more cups. It is basically 'Give me your old one and I will give a new one if you want'. I will not tolerate "Yeah erm I erm accidently erm put my erm cup in the bin and erm CAN I HAVE ANOTHER ONE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE". No. I told you could have free refills so as you walk out don't look at the free refill sign, look shocked and ask for another cup. I am not giving you one.

This new strategy was highlighted perfectly with a mother coming up and saying "Can I have another ice cream cup, because I put chocolate sauce in it and it turns out he doesn't like it...?" My reply was "Yeah if you bring the old cup back...because it has be entered as waste". Her reply: "I won't bother then". Your plan has been foiled - you wanted two cups for the price of one.

I saw a man put strawberry sauce in his coffee though. I remembered his face, and guess what he was back at the counter in about 5 minutes. "I just had a coffee and it tasted TERRIBLE....I think I put something I shouldn't have into it!". I laughed out loud. He must have thought I was a freak. He got another cup, because he had his original one.

Parents. If you toddler does not want their coat on, and after 3 times asking them to put it on, don't run round the place chasing them and shouting at them "PUT YOUR COAT ON NOW". They obviously don't want their bloody coat on, so let them have that choice and give everyone including yourself some peace.

To jezpiz who wanted pictures of a Pizza Hut uniform. I'm afraid I can't really help though as I don't work in full serve.

I can tell you what there is though.

FOH staff in traditional restaurants have a black PH top with PH logo on the back near the neck and managers get black trousers with a tiny PH tag on them. BOH have black PH t-shirts and aprons. Caps can be worn by whoever. Fleeces and jumpers also exist, as well as motorbike jackets. Everything is pretty much black with the Pizza Hut logo in colour on. I'm interested to know why you want a pic of it...and have a devoted a blog to it??!!

Anyway on a final note, I have burnt myself for the first time properly today, it's got a red mark, stings and everything. Please send your sympathy in the form of comments. :-)