Pizza Hut Team Member Blog

Anonymous!

2009-09-16T21:10:00.003+01:00

Hello everyone who is Anonymous!

You all seem to be different people and it's great there's a few support managers gathering here. Can I just suggest you get accounts of some description so I can contact you/each other.

PS: yes, the daily weather reports are great aren't they?! Maria Swift IIRC? They get filed on the email straight away into "trash".

Management restructure

2009-09-16T20:27:00.004+01:00

Hello!

I appear to have a whole new following of readers who are currently support managers at Pizza Hut. I'm a support manager and in short, we're all pissed off because they are changing the in store (sorry, we must call them Huts now...) structure of management.

All stores will be down to one Restaurant General Manager, one deputy manager (only in high PSA stores...read: not that many) and I think one support manager. I think the support manager role is totally going and it may just be one RGM and one deputy. Both of those roles are salaried so this change does not affect them. And it should be noted, they have no power or say over this. As far as I know, it wasn't discussed at the annual RGM conference and it's all being brought in quietly and on the sly.

What it basically means is, where support managers used to get paid from about £6.70 to £7.20 before, regardless of what job they were doing, they will now be paid team member rate which is about £5.20. These managers will be called "bench managers" and will only be paid the management rate when they are in the duty manager role. If they are working at the same time as the RGM, deputy or support they will not get paid the manager rate.

RGM and Deputy should do 5 shifts each per week = 10 shifts total. There are normally 14 duty manager shifts (2 per day, early and late). So this leaves 4 shifts for the remaining managers. Depending on the size of the store, there can be up to about 6 supports (now bench). 4 shifts for 6 managers? It doesn't work. Previously if the supports worked alongside the RGM/deputy they'd get paid as a manager, as after all, they are a manager.

You will interviewed by your area manager about the changes and you can whinge all you like, they don't care one bit. Apparently it has come about because we've been owned by Yum! for a while, but we now have a new managing director, some german bloke, who has come in from Yum!. Yum own KFC and this is the way they have operated for a while. It's (one of) the reason why KFC has a high turnover of managers, they have no motivation whatsoever (I know two, they both want to quit as soon as they can).

Ultimately the only thing we can do is either put up, or leave. Leaving is what I'm intending to do. Locally, we've already lost a manager who had about 10 years service with the company and everybody loved her. Not sure how Pizza Hut think that cutting someones pay from around £16.5k to £12.5k can work out, but they do. Retail/hospitality management is underpaid as it is, and people are willing to move companies.

The ironic/annoying thing is, in association with The Sun, Pizza Hut are running some bullshit campaign about getting people back into work. They are recruiting team members and shift managers. Pfft, a new batch of people who don't know any better basically.

The people behind it are:

Jens Hofna - Managing Director
Jayne Little - HR Director
Nick White - Operations Manager

If you'd like to email them, it's firstname.lastname@pizzahut.co.uk

They have PAs but these are their direct ones and boy do they love getting email :)

Don't expect a response though, they're too busy working out where they can cut costs more. Maybe they'll try and do something a bit dodgy with the fire fighting equipment annual servicing...oh no, wait, they already have!

Anyone from RSC or Yum care to comment? Email me at phtmblog@googlemail.com if you wish!

I'll be back in a bit...

2009-09-16T16:40:00.001+01:00

Getting quite a lot of comments about the new management structure in huts.

It's definitely pissed a lot of people off and it seems like a step backward.

I'll do a more detailed post about it later today or this week.

Its all about CLASS

2009-05-04T23:04:00.003+01:00

This post is basically, a good old grumble about Pizza Hut's cost cutting measures :)

The EU bought in regulations regarding the shape, size and colouring of vegetables.

Most of the vegetables you'll buy in supermarkets will be Class 1, consistent shape vegetables and fruit. (No more LOL at the shape of that carrot, potato etc!). So all the vegetables that don't make the grade are then called Class 2 and are significantly cheaper. Aldi and other discounters will sell this stuff routinely.

Pizza Hut uses Class 2 vegetables, as they are cheaper. But it causes problems with how our products look. While we are badgered about the thickness of a slice of cucumber, "supply chain" are happy for us to use one cucumber which has virtually black skin, and others which are almost yellow.

While for the majority of the products it makes very little difference, it just shows that their commitment to quality goes as far as "only if it's cheap enough!".

Anyway enough moaning for this post. If I still have any readers left (I must start posting more regularly again and get my name back out there!!!!) Please leave a comment if you're still reading because it'd be great to hear from you!

Table for...

2009-05-04T22:52:00.002+01:00

There are a few things which really annoy me about restaurant-goers.

Pair of mothers with 2 children in buggies...

"Table for two please"

It is quite obviously a table for 4. I can't sit you down on a table for two with two massive buses/buggies can I?!

I have taken to correcting parents on this and saying it's a table for 4. I don't understand why they don't count their children as real human beings, because most of the time the kids are nicer than the parents anyway. A lot of my colleagues are shocked when I correct the parents because they never do, but I think it stems from previously working a different format store. There you were still expected to be polite don't get me wrong, but it wasn't all lovey dovey.

That's not to say I'm rude, well not all the time. I have had a couple of notes written on the back of bills thanking me and when I do very occasionally serve tables, I get reasonable tips. I'm probably too honest with customers sometimes. There are a couple of items on the menu which are pretty dire and always disappoint customers and most of the time I tell them about it. They're normally very grateful for that, but some don't listen to my advice and low and behold cry back at me when they receive it.

The small salmon pasta bake for instance, looks like somebodys scrapped the remains of another portion and put it on the plate. Then an attempt to make it look better with some salad.

The tomato and mozzeralla salad is just the same. The mozzerela is ok but the tomatoes are normally floppy and totally unripe. I have a particular gripe about the vegetables but I will post that in a minute in a new post.

Toilets

2008-11-23T01:19:00.002Z

The restaurant has toilets, it's got ladies, gents and disabled/baby change. These are for customer use only, not anyone who walks off the street and needs the loo.

Occasionally we let people use them, if they're nice, but when they walk in and just assume they have the right to - we don't, well, I don't. Luckily they are tucked away at the back and it means a long walk to them, so they can't be sneaky and slither in.

Based on what I saw my manager say to these kids who wanted to use the toilet, I took that as being the "standard" way to say no. To be honest I think she has had some kind of army training because she is so firm and pretty scary to the average person, she takes no prisoners.

So, do you think I was right, wrong, or just very mean in this situation:

-There are public toilets available about 200 yards away
-The restaurant was full at lunchtime

"Where are the toilets?"
"Do you want a table?"
"No she [younger sister I think] needs to go toilet"
"Oh, they're for customers only, sorry - the public ones are over there near.." (pointing)
"Shes going to wee herself"
"Right"
"Well can she not use yours"
"Sorry I'm not allowed to let you. There are some literally a minute away over there"
"WELL SHES GOING TO WEE HERSELF - DISGRACEFUL"

And she walked out. Now afterwards, two waitresses said I was mean. I think I was reasonable, helpful and considerate of our proper customers. Ok, I do feel quite guilty now, to the extent where it's mentioned in my Facebook status!!

So thats the subject of toilets covered, I don't think the discussions regarding them will ever really change. I've already seen a couple of people trying to "go it alone" with finding the toilets, and they end up in the potwash area, which is quite funny.

Online orders

2008-11-20T13:15:00.002Z

Now all Pizza Hut's are using the fantastic Micros system, online ordering is available for collection and delivery from nearly every hut.

The problem is although it works most of the time, the time it doesn't is the time when you get a silly customer.

If a customer wants to collect in an hour - we won't even know about that order until about 20-30 minutes before the collection is due. Which I suppose can cut down on confusion, but I'm not too sure. The real problems come when the customer inputs their own order. Basically they use our system but in a more 'user friendly' way. So you get orders like this:

M Pan Supreme
NO PEPPERONI
DBL PEPPERONI

NO MUSH
DBL MUSH

and so on.

You get orders which end up cancelling each other out, why the system even allows the customer to do this is baffling.

You'd think they would fix this problem. No - they call it costly. A new menu has just been introduced, with a few price increases. So they spend thousands on these new menus, and changing the website price should just be a quick thing which the internal IT team can do. Not this time though, we got a memo which basically said - because the price increases aren't very big, it isn't economically viable to change the website, so when we receive online orders could you please honour the old price.

Anyway, that'll do for now on the rant. Now I work in a new place I will post more regularly, because the customers are a hell of a lot more ratty.

Change......

2008-11-15T01:06:00.002Z

Hi (special hi to James :))

Just to say...I have moved store and now work in a full restaurant. I therefore have quite a few bits I'll be blogging about...so stay tuned if you haven't gone already!

Potwash

2008-08-30T21:32:00.002+01:00

Hi,

Well its been ages since I've blogged, not really an excuse its just quite 'same old same old' really.

I'm now a Support Manager...it means I can generally get out of doing the crap jobs, help with the more difficult ones, plus do some sitting down. :)

Now...has anyone ever used a potwashing machine?

They are great when they work, but when they don't it's a big big big pain.

But - you designing a potwash machine...where do you put the water pipes inside the machine? Water and electric never, ever mix. So away from the control panel, motors and pumps?

No, Hobart decided to put the main water feed into the machine - in the same compartment as all the motors, controls and pumps. So when the pipe inside the machine bursts, it destroys and burns out EVERYTHING.

Can you guess what's happened?

Something a bit weird and discounts

2008-04-24T22:48:00.004+01:00

Right. I have worked at Pizza Hut for erm...well...ages. So you do recognise customers, and I would say, especially on evening/night shifts about 25% of customers are, 'regulars'. Occasionally if I go into Asda or Sainsburys on the way home, you will see a customer or two you served earlier. But it less frequent to see them, at other random times.

There is a customer, who comes in with his wife and 2 little kids. They've been coming in for over a year. The reason I remember them, is because his kids are the spitting image of him.

So, it must have been a Wednesday I served them. Then on the Thursday, I was in Matalan (sent on an errand looking for mugs) - and there they were, the family, in Matalan. Ok, so that's just coincidence. Then, on Friday - who do I see again, the dad - in McDonalds eating breakfast!

We were sitting on opposite tables, and we got locked into eye contact. I knew who he was, and he recognised me (from the 2 previous days!)...I didn't know whether to say anything, or smile, or look away or what. So I did a small smile and that was that.

Then, on Saturday - on the way home - sitting at traffic lights. Jesus christ who is sitting next to me - him and family!! The lights changed before we both clocked on to who we were glancing at, so there was no awkwardness that time.

I just find that very weird, but total coincidence - I saw the same man and family, four times in a row. How does that happen?

And discounts...

"Do I get a discount cos I work at...?"
"We used to but not anymore, sorry"

Then the mother, I think, piped up:

"Haha - you mean you don't know how to do it on the till"
"No, we don't do it anymore because not many places gave us discount"
"Prove it!" (She was being light hearted)
"I'll read you the discount options to tease you then!!"

I read about 6 before she got the point, but there were 12 more I could have gone through if needed.

Her daughter seemed totally embarrassed:
"Oh my god mum I have to work here, you're so embarrasing, you've embarrassed him too!!"
Mother: "Are you embarrassed?!"
"Ha, I find it quite funny really, so not too fussed!"
"See - he ISN'T embarrassed"

HA!

30 minutes ironing for £5 when using Pizza Hut Delivery

2008-04-08T20:42:00.002+01:00

Pizza Hut on 1st April launched a new service, where you can order 30 minutes of ironing and vacuuming for £5, completed by the delivery driver when you order for delivery. Not bad.

But the funny thing is, that was the "internal" April fools joke. And at the bottom it had a number that stores could ring about arranging training for the service. They actually had phone calls to this number and the next day - they had to send a memo confirming that yes, it was an April fool.

However, if you are registered with Pizza Hut you may get a mail shot with a picture of a delivery driver ironing and cleaning as it's part of their latest marketing campaign.

And I have another what could be seen as an April fool, but what a customer actually claimed he was going to do. Pizza Hut have got the name Pasta Hut, but this man is going to get "Samosa Hut".

The conversation went like this:

"You're always changing the menu!"
"Oh .."
"Not like KFC - I've been eating them 30 years, you know where you stand with them"
"Ha, we're actually part of the same company"
"Really?"
"Yes".

He ranted on a bit more, about how there are always tiny differences each time he comes and then said

"You know what I'm gonna do, right, I'm gonna start SAMOSA HUT"
"Right?"
"Yeah - I'm just waiting for somewhere I can start it, have you ever had a samosa?"
"Only ones from a supermarket"
"WHAT? Not that rubbish, I'm on about proper Indian shit, proper massive good filling samosas!"
"Sounds nice !!"
"Yeah, I'll be a millionaire"
"I'll look out for you then!"

"It's the law..."

2008-03-28T21:58:00.002Z

Some crank today came up with a new law about drinking water. We do not have free drinking water available. The taps we have are either, the toilet, hand wash sink or pot wash sink. You don't want to drink water from there.

But this woman said that "It is the law that all restaurants have free drinking water". I explained the above, but she continued that it was "The law". Is this the law? I'm pretty sure it isn't.

She was also one of those helpful, but unhelpful customers. Towards the end of the night, the cleaners turn the bins round, so customers should just leave their rubbish on the tables. Some customers like to be helpful and dispose of their own rubbish, but that isn't possible at night. But, some decide they will use the empty, clean, with no bin bag in, bins.

New Blog

2008-02-10T21:22:00.000Z

In case you haven't seen this:

Tesco Scapegoat

It's a retail blog...with everyones favourite subject, customers!!

Smile!

2008-02-10T21:15:00.000Z

We are continually losing points on our mystery shoppers because we aren't giving "genuine smiles".

Now...surely if we are being told to smile genuinely, that isn't genuine? It's impossible to do it without smirking. A personal service to me, is loads better than a brand standard smile, hello, and come again....but that's what they want.

So from now on:

Massive smile and greeting
Deadpan face while serving, no conversation (no points for smiling during the transaction)
Massive smile and "Come again"

Not genuine, but that is what they are asking for.

We have new menus, which are loads better than the old ones - but they forgot to change one of the sections, so that looks odd, but you can't expect them to get it right!

Happy New Year!!

2008-01-21T15:00:00.000Z

Happy New Year - bit late but oh well!

Not much has happened, except a customer has scolded their hand. But did he ask for assistance? No, he left it for half an hour to get worse and develop blisters. When he finally told us, the duty manager gave him first aid and security were called to help.

But what I really wanted to post about...and hopefully just warn a few people about is:

www.computerplanet.co.uk

Worst customer service I've ever experienced.

That is all, I think.

Fight!

2007-12-22T22:30:00.000Z

Well as it is supposed to be busy because people are Christmas shopping...the 'crème de la crème' of staff are put on the front counter to clear queues. Well it has not been busy, not much more than a normal week. But because me and a few of the people who are normally tucked away in the kitchen have been on the front, it's been reasonably amusing.

The first customer of any interest, was the one who was shocked when I told him that, no, fries aren't 30p. Fries for 30p !?

The next was very funny I thought. A man bought a Margherita pizza, which as it has no toppings on, you can see all the cheese clearly. We cut the pizzas into slices and then mark the box with the topping and time it needs to be discarded (those numbers from 0 to 12 you'll see on most fast food, or in the case of McDonalds those numbered flags they have in their holds). We use a food safe pen for this marking, which is black - but if it gets wet it goes blue. And the blades for cutting pizza are kept near the pen, as the pizza is taken from the oven, put into a box, cut, then marked.

So, occasionally the pen can come into contact with the pizza. The man bought the pizza back as it had a blue stain right on the cut line. It was from a dough pen. I replaced the pizza and apologised. A minute later he came back and said "Is it my unlucky day or something...?" he had another pizza with a blue stain! What had happened was - that the blade had a pen mark so was making each pizza blue. So the blade was cleaned and another pizza given to him. Well, I was about to give him his pizza when he walked back to his table - because his bags of shopping and the rest of his meal was gone!!! The cleaners had been very efficient and taken it away while he was at the counter!

So overall, I'd say it was his unlucky day!

Another good thing about the front counter is you can be very nosey and watch the world go by (well, the centre) and I saw two men having a "disagreement". Three large security officers later, they'd been separated and put as far away from each other as possible. I asked later what it was about, and apparently it was an arguement over who had "spotted" the table first (in a similar fashion to car park space wars).

Happy Christmas if I don't see you before!

Merry Christmas

2007-12-20T17:51:00.000Z

Well I have neglected this blog haven't I!

I am sorry about that, but I am gradually losing the "passion" for Pizza Hut as I'm getting tired of working 9 hours and getting 30 minutes break. Thats 8.5 hours standing up, no sitting, virtually no leaning! I'm not asking for sympathy or anything, just sometimes think I could either not be doing anything, or doing some easier (as in physically) for more money. I think I want a part time desk job!!

Have a good Christmas everyone :-)

Mugging

2007-11-29T21:46:00.000Z

Well, nothing much has happened, I've not had to talk to a customer for about 2 weeks which is starting to get a bit boring.

The only interesting nugget I have to post is that was a staff member from another store was mugged in the service yard. They nicked her bag, she fell to the floor and has cuts all over her face. There are CCTV cameras in the area but it just depends if one was pointing that way at the time. An early Christmas treat for the poor woman - scum bags out there.

Hopefully Christmas will bring exciting posts. We are getting a new pizza for Christmas, it is something to do with chicken and hot, I can't remember the name. I know there is some cheesy phrase to go with it something like "Hot and ready for you" etc. Don't say Pizza Hut isn't classy!

Christmas shifts and vouchers

2007-11-15T22:22:00.000Z

I have just discovered that over Christmas, while I have a few days off - I am working some of the nastiest shifts I've come across. Starting at times, which I didn't think possible. Like 7 hours before we even open. But that does mean shifts will be spent with less customer contact - nice! I have also been told I'm a "crucial" part for Christmas. Which I believe translates to "You better work hard cos we will be knackered if you don't",

And for Christmas, we have discount vouchers again.

An example of the problems this can cause:

Man buys two pizzas and pays for them. I complete the transaction, place voucher and receipt on tray.

"Oh I have one of these already so do the pizza as a buy one get one free"

"I can't I'm afraid, the order has gone through and the receipt has printed"

"WELL RE-PRINT IT"

"I can't anyway, you can't use the voucher in the order in which it is given to you"

"MY WIFE HAS THESE VOUCHERS!!"

"Well if you can get me those vouchers, I will do it this time"

"Fine, I will"

He storms off with a seriously bad attitude.

I watch him talk to his wife and he is disgusted when she doesn't have them. Walks back to the counter.

"FORGET IT" and walks off with food.

Then over the next 30 minutes he kept coming back for refills and asking silly questions, and items the knew we wouldn't have - like some kind of weird mind game.

An odd man. Very odd.

I'm not dead

2007-11-08T21:53:00.000Z

No I am not dead, just lazy and there hasn't been much to blog about.

Except for a customer falling straight on his arse after slipping on the wet floor. There were three yellow warning signs out - and it looked wet. After a moment of concern (are we going to get shouted out) everyone retreated to the kitchen to laugh, a lot.

We have a new booklet, which they've made 'pocket size' which lists all the stuff we can get as PH employees - discounts elsewhere. Most of it is rubbish and is like 5% off when you spend over £50. PH claim they have negotiated these deals, I can find most of them on Money Saving Expert. Whitbread discount card was better, and I never even got one.

Well there you have it, about 2 weeks worth of posts. I really need to email a student who wanted information on this blog, I said I would about 3 weeks ago and now I feel guilty.

Another silly question

2007-10-29T22:59:00.000Z

I posted about the most stupid question I've ever been asked a while ago. Basically a man wanted to know if we threw away the UNUSED IN WRAPPERS disposable cups at the end of the night. No we don't.

But, I think that this question potentially beats that one, and the person who asked it adds to it's stupidity.

I'm loitering on the front, in an apron when a man with a white shirt and grey tie comes up to me. He is a McDonalds manager. He then said "Do you have an angle grinder we could borrow?". "An angle grinder?" "Yeah" "Err no...sorry". Why he thought Pizza Hut would have an angle grinder is beyond me. I suppose it would be good for cutting pizza !

Rotten smell and CHRISTMAS!!

2007-10-25T01:02:00.001+01:00

A rancid and/or rotten smell decided it would make itself known today in the centre. It was like sewage, but worse.

The centre staff noticed it pretty quickly, and they clocked us sniffing the air. Security were looking round, one had the nerve to come up to me and ask "Err - is your extractor on ?" Yes it is thank you!

The outcome was, that it was a burnt panini. I seriously doubt that explanation - it smelt worse than sewage. And I have had a recent experience with sewage when someone decided they'd tip oil down the sink and some pipes had to be ripped out and replaced as it had got clogged with various substances. The same person also put a separator (a plastic disc which allows pizza pans to be stacked on top of each other) through the oven and melt onto the conveyor. I do like this person but wish they wouldn't be so thick.

And on the subject of smells. Making pizza and dough is a smelly occupation. I come home and I stink like oil and dough, and my hands no matter how many times I wash them, still smell of cheese.

Being in the kitchen doesn't provide many customer stories - which for me is rather pleasant. I do enjoy the odd complaint however. I have noticed though, that for some reason customers seem to respect you more when you come from the kitchen out to the front to help them. I wonder if it is the apron or that I've just been lucky.

Christmas isn't far away now and this will be my second Christmas at Pizza Hut. I can't wait for the centre to go all festive. The trees, the lights, the robotic animals, the music, the festive cheer from customers (!). Last year I posted about what I should say to customers at Christmas. I ended up just being the same and not say anything special. This year I've got a lot more confidence with customers (potentially bordering on cocky) so I don't know whether to be happy and jolly or delibrately miserable. I might be delibrately miserable to express my disgust that Pizza Hut don't pay ANYTHING extra for working Christmas Eve, Boxing Day or any other bank holiday for that matter. And the likely recognition we will get at store level will be "Disappointing Christmas, down on last year" forgetting the fact we gave up our family and holiday time so we could sell pizza - and be paid the same as if it was any other weekday.

There we go, another moan over with. I've done meat and pay rates now... Next time it might be about the constant nagging for brand standard quality products. We try but when you send wafer thin "chunky tomatoes" and tomato concentrate which is 30% thinner but don't tell anyone until 3 weeks after its introduction, it really isn't easy! And the fact you have got rid of the Pizza Hut logo on the napkins (any other PH employees noticed that?) but you want to build the brand. Oh AND the way they are selling off some restaurants to franchisees and telling the store team and managers after it has happened with a phone call saying "by the way, you are now owned by.."

Motivation and communication are not Pizza Hut's strongest points.

Salt

2007-10-19T23:27:00.000+01:00

I'm not a company spokesman, so I'm not going to defend the fact that a report has found we are the most salty fast food restaurant. But are we really fast food? We're a chain of restaurants who provide dine in, collection, delivery and a relatively new fast food format. Not really fast food, but we are in the Fast Food Song. So in that way the comparison isn't really fair.

But...they used the Pizza Plus meal deal for 4. They divided the salt content into 4 and got as 12.3g of salt each. They then say thats 4 times the recommended amount for a 6 year old. Just a little problem though, 6 year olds don't each as much as adults so are unlikely to have a quarter of the meal deal.

It is interesting to note that McDonalds came out reasonably well (shock: bag of apple and grapes has less salt than a chicken wrap). McDonalds being so big and the stereotype of fast food, has meant they need to be careful with everything now. It all tastes different now. They know where their meat comes from - and are proud to tell everyone. Pizza Hut on the other hand hasn't really been picked on, so has so far managed to get away with what they want - but maybe it will change. Slowly we are changing. When I started they said the chargrilled chicken would be changing to "real 100% chicken breast", a year on and they are still babbling on about how it will be "real" soon. Just how does it take to stop putting the entire carcass in the mincer.

Well after that small moan and definitely not a company advert - I will just mention - PHQ! A new delivery only format has launched in two cities (forget which). They have explicitly stated in the 'Big 5' newsletter that it is to rival Dominos and target a younger market. They do have a website, but it doesn't work. Good start guys.

Donations

2007-10-18T21:03:00.000+01:00

So for 4 weeks we can now ask for a 20p donation to be added to a customers bill.

I really don't mind whether someone donates or not, but it does draw your attention to them a bit more if a customer does not agree to the donation.

Two which stuck out for me were:

One who looked at the cause poster (we got them now as well as badges), and said a cold "No, don't care bout that". Fine. Then went on to moan about everything: Ice, Tango, gas, having to wait, the straws being 2 steps away from the machine, me turning off the Tango because he complained (not much else I could do!) and anything else. He also spat the top of the straw wrapper onto the floor and left the rest on the counter. He also made a huge trail of Tango. What a chav.

The next person who didn't donate, had a daughter, about 15 I reckon accompanied by a friend.. We have self service drinks which you get after you have paid. You either have hot or cold. You don't have cold and then come back with a McDonalds hot cup and use that for hot because you thought it was free refills.

I had this conversation with the daughter:
"Are you alright there?"
"Err yes" - reveals the McDonalds cup.
"That's £1.39 please"
"What?"
"The coffee...you have to pay for it, it's £1.39"
"But my friend had a drink, I thought it was refills!?"
"Yeah, but that is a McDonalds cup."
"And?"
"You can't use that here, and your friend had a cold drink anyway"
"Oh right"
"Can you tip that coffee away please?" - I'd rather them tip it away and waste it than back down and let them get it for free!
"Ok.."

She was nice and did it.

So these are the type of people who don't donate.

World Hunger Relief Week and YUMSOP

2007-10-13T19:49:00.000+01:00

Next week is World Hunger Relief Week. If you visit a Pizza Hut or KFC restaurant anywhere in the world you should be asked if you would like to donate to the World Food Programme. Personally I'd prefer to raise more money for Starlight but that is just me. What is that interesting is that they are making a huge song and dance about it - but they won't provide any signage, or a small pot of money so we can organise something. If a store wants to do something they need to do it from someones pocket first. It is a worthwhile cause but I think more of a publicity thing for Yum!.

Yum! are giving all employees who have been with them over a year to participate in the Yum! Brands Inc. Share Ownership Programme, YUMSOP for short. It looks quite good to be honest, as Yum! is on the up overall. You save up for three years, and then at the end of the three years you have the option to get your savings + bonus, buy shares at the agreed price from this year and sell them on, or buy shares and keep them to sell at a later date. So even if Yum! begins to drop in share price, you won't lose.

I think this is a pretty standard share save thing but it is quite good anyway.

The example they give is:

36 monthly payments of £20 = £720
Bonus = £48
Total = £768
No of shares you can get at the agreed price = 46

The price is £16.67 so if they go up £2 you're about £150 better off plus you got all the money you saved. I might go for it...but I don't know much about shares. And I also doubt I'll be there in 3 years but you can still get the bonus if you leave but not buy shares.

Oh and by the way, I'm aching a lot because I've been on my feet for no less than 11 hours today (sympathy please?) and I'm doing it all again tomorrow.

Loyalty cards and Micros

2007-10-09T13:34:00.000+01:00

In July we got loyalty cards. They gave us 4000 of the things to hand out. I can give you the exact figure we have had back. It has been hard to keep track because of the sheer amount but we did manage it: 3.

Out of 4000 cards we have had 3 redemptions. Oh well, maybe head office will come up with a better promotion other than you need to spend £12 to get a 99p side free or £36 to get a £2.69 pizza, next time round.

Yesterday the new menu launched complete with Meatball Deli. All our previous paperwork told us it was called Mamas Meatballs but they changed their mind. I tried it, the meatballs are soft but a bit dry. They need some kind of sauce on top, and they are so big the cheese falls of them. We also got chicken goujons (chicken fillet in southern fried coating, new to all Pizza Hut formats) and I can conclude they are around 10 times nicer than chicken dippers - not bad for an extra 10p. We don't do dippers anymore thankfully.

We got new menu boards and they are incredibly ugly - instead of having the titles of the meals at the top, it is at the bottom. Maybe I'm being too fussy.

To accommodate the new menu the tills software has to be updated. A lovely company called Micros does this. They have altered some bits but it has mainly stayed the same. Except the final pay screen. There used to be a large CASH button in the bottom right with equally sized £50, £20, £10 and £5 buttons just below them. But in their fantastic upgrade, they'll half the size of the CASH button as well as the £10 and £5 buttons. They have kept the £50 and £20 buttons the original size. And now at the bottom of the screen there is just grey, empty space. So no longer can you tap the bottom right of the screen to go through. It is a pain and just makes the chance of change inaccuracies greater. Micros are the same great people who put a pop up saying "Have you completed the change?" button after the cash drawer has opened but before the receipt will print. The purpose of this I have no idea. If it was saying "Would the customer like a receipt?" I could understand - we could save paper on all the people who don't want one.

I think this post really requires a photograph to explain why this is such a pain. I'll have to get one soon, but I'm hoping the next time I go in they have realised their stupid mistakes.

Delivery

2007-10-05T21:48:00.000+01:00

We don't do delivery. We have never done delivery. We don't do delivery. We used to be grouped for area management with delivery. We don't do delivery. We are listed as a restaurant in the phone books. We don't do delivery. We haven't got any delivery drivers or bikes. WE DON'T DO DELIVERY.

For god knows what reason I tend to answer the phone a lot now. Even if there is a manager there, they'll often ask me to get it. I do seem to be doing more and more manager tasks, which is ok. In particular I like being asked "Pick someone to do potwash ___". Hehe that'll teach you for being lazy! Another favourite is "Count this money for me while I go for a fag". It gets me out of the other jobs so it is good.

So two recent delivery enquiries:

"Good evening _____ Pizza Hut"
"Do you deliver to ___?"
"No sorry we don't offer delivery"
"You do"
"Nope sorry we don't"
"I have ordered from you before"
"Not us I'm afraid."
"You must be new - is there anyone else there?"
"Yes."
"Let me speak to them"
"There is no need, we don't do delivery"
"YOU'RE A LIAR"

I hung up.

"Good evening _____ Pizza Hut!"
"Right can I order a .... for delivery in ___?"
"Sorry we don't do delivery"
"Well I've just been given this number by another store and they said you do"
"Oh they must have got mixed up - because we don't do delivery"
"Fuck Pizza Hut then"

Thanks for that!

New blog - The Night Warden

2007-10-05T21:00:00.000+01:00

I have just found through Mystery Guest Alert - The Night Warden.

It is about a night warden on a campsite in the UK. I think it fits the general type of blog I link to - staff moaning about customers, because even though they pay their wages - they are often morons.

Anyway check it out, it's well written and rather interesting.

"I don't work here"

2007-10-03T20:55:00.001+01:00

I have a tip for anyone who wishes to impersonate a staff member of any store. All you need to do is wear a plain black shirt, black trousers and have an ID card or similar hanging from your trousers.

Today before work I thought I'd look for some new trainers and shoes. My first stop was JJB for the trainers. Literally 10 seconds after I'd walked in I had someone elses CV in my hand. I thought they were someone handing out leaflets so just took it without making eye contact. Then I realised that the woman who gave it me said "Can I just hand you my CV?". I stopped and was a bit baffled about the whole thing, and said "I don't work here". "Well you look like you do!". The shirt I had on didn't have the Pizza Hut logo on the front (has it at back instead). I looked round and saw the staff in there wear grey and maroon - nothing like my black outfit.

In a hunt for new shoes, I went into Next. I was checking them out when a bloke walked up to me and asked where the belts were. I explained I didn't work there but showed him anyway because I had bought one a few weeks ago.

In total I think I've been mistaken for a staff member in about 7 or 8 different shops. The most silly was Boots - as I was in all black, their staff wear all white.

A final funny thing I heard a colleague say to a customer, when the ICF machine slowed down because the mix inside need to freeze was "Oh you need to leave it to defrost because it is freezing up". Not the brightest.

Correction

2007-10-01T21:39:00.000+01:00

In a previous post, I put that chocolate sauce is being replaced by lemon. I was wrong - and another Pizza Hut employee said so in a comment. I am very sorry about that.

And what did I find on todays delivery?

New ICF sauce! Chocolate and caramel ICF sauce! No lemon. But the reason chocolate wasn't orderable was that it had changed product number and the new number hadn't been released. So I reckon, the sauces will be chocolate, strawberry, lemon and caramel. Umm definitely nicer than chocolate, strawberry, bubblegum and popcorn - I think the new ones are more refined and classy!

They have also changed the bottles from white, to see through. That's a good thing - you can see at a glance if they need changing. Plus the chocolate sauce is a nicer now, it is less sweet and has more cocoa.

Quite an amusing customer I dealt with today. I thought they were a bit of div from the start. She paid and I gave her a receipt. About 20 minutes later, after she'd eaten and was about to leave - brings me her tray and asks where she should put it. I tell her. She then asks "Have I paid?" Her receipt was on the tray she had been eating off and looking at for 20 minutes.

Clumsy and Heelys

2007-09-23T21:26:00.000+01:00

At work I do not have a reputation for being delicate or having any particular control over my movements.

Today, I fell in full customer view on the tiled floor I had mopped just 5 seconds ago. I had even put out yellow warning signs, to tell people the floor is wet. I saved myself on the little door, but it then swung open and I flung to the floor. It didn't hurt but was not particularly nice. It was one of those moments when you just know you are going to fall straight down and begin laughing before you've even fell. I was being stared at so I just said "I did NOT just slip over" and walked into the back to hide.

The next accident was in the back. I was cleaning behind the make table (where pizza is topped). I was mopping it. Then I fell once again on the water I was using. My freshly cleaned stainless steel make table then had my hand prints on it where I again, saved myself from greater accident. The comment I got from the manager sitting down was "Water is wet you know". Thanks for that.

I then went to walk off again, but walked straight into an oven deck. They have nasty sharp corners on. The comment I got from the same manager was "There's an oven there you know". I called him a male body part and went to stand on the front where no one knew about my little accidents.

Then finally, I was cleaning the coffee machine (uses HOT water). I couldn't find the plastic container we normally use, so used a metal one. Stupidly I forgot that boiling water in a metal container will make that container very hot. I picked it up and it then became apparent that it was hot and that I also couldn't put it back down without spilling it. So I rushed through to the sink swearing (we were closed) and gave it a final insult when I dumped it in the sick by putting the fry hopper lid on top of it. The same manager walked round from the desk slowly and just went "Metal conducts heat by the way" and sat back down. Arrgh

Oh and good news, Heelys which I moaned about before have been banned by the shopping centre. They have a new automated announcement and signs and I think they are great! I can't wait to tell children not to skate round because "THEY'RE BANNED" and can tap the sign we have been supplied with if parents come over to moan.

And bad news if you are a Pizza Hut customer who likes the Ice Cream Factory chocolate sauce. Pizza Hut are trying to go "natural" on the ICF and so chocolate sauce has been replaced with Lemon! Neither are orderable though, so you'll have to make do with neither for a bit, or until they click "Yes I do want 700 stores to have ICF sauce". Chocolate buttons have been replaced with chocolate raisins (yum!).

Finally thanks to Keith for a mention on his blog - the chavs and gypos aren't that bad and only make up a small % of the total customers I serve so they actually provide a bit of amusement...most of the time.

McDonalds

2007-09-20T22:57:00.000+01:00

McDonalds are unorganised filth bags. They have offered me a job twice since I started at Pizza Hut in some kind of head hunting mission. Why I would take a job which is less per hour, has a team of dimwits and managers who wear white trainers on shift and you can hear bellowing from the other side of centre.

They also never put their deliveries away promptly. Their frozen and chilled deliveries routinely stay in the service area for 2 to 3 hours. Therefore, within that time there is a great opportunity to be nosey, and I am extremely nosey.

I have discovered, they are doing some Oreo related, there is some new chicken and possibly new uniforms?

Sorry for that let down, but I 'spose it is ok if you are someone who has a particular interest in McDonald's uniforms and enjoys Oreos and chicken.

Cloning

2007-09-19T21:06:00.000+01:00

Chip and pin is great, I've not had to sign a little crappy receipt for over a year now when I use my debit card. The pin also gives better security than a signature. Another advantage is that the customer can in most cases, not have to hand their card to the store staff.

But there are different systems and infact a retailer is not obliged to have to provide a chip and pin service, but if they don't they take the risk of fraudulent transactions and the cost involved in that.

We have chip and pin, but the units we have are all in one machines, so we input the amount to be charged to the card on the same keypad as the customer puts their pin in. To process a sale I need to: insert the customer card (I take it from them), input the amount to be charged, the customer confirms the amount and then puts their pin in. I then need to take the machine back (with card) and press a button to say "yeah, I do actually want to do this thanks" and it goes through. It prints the merchant receipt, I tear it off and then press a button to say "yes please I could do with the customer receipt as well thank you very much". I can then finally remove the card.

So therefore, in normal circumstances I have the card on my side of the counter rather than the customers for most of the transaction. I don't mind if I customer wants me to keep the machine in their view or wants to see everything I do, I have nothing to hide (except swiping the occasional card and photographing the details).

But, when I tell you the price, and you have a card in your hand, and I go to take it the correct response is not:

"THE POINT OF CHIP AND PIN IS THAT I KEEP THE CARD."
"Ok but I need to take it to put it in the machine"
"NO!, I KEEP THE CARD THAT IS THE POINT OF CHIP AND PIN".
I really should have been pedantic and said it that was just one advantage and not THE point.
"Right well the only way you can pay by card is to give me the card, so I can put the amount in..."
"HOW DO I KNOW YOU'RE NOT GOING TO CLONE IT??"
"I will do it all on top of the counter so you can see"
"That'll have to do then" with a shake of the head (He really was bellowing at me before)

So the transaction went through. I then got a lecture on the 'point' of chip and pin. What a prick. He was trying to be all technical with his chip and pin knowledge but I bet he one of those people who will talk to you about their computer and go "Yeah, I got Google last night". Oh really, you got Google did you, you'll have to show me how to do it one time.

Frank Chalk

2007-09-15T21:34:00.000+01:00

I have read this blog for a while, and I'm sure a lot of UK bloggers have too, but I'm adding Frank Chalk to my blog roll. It's a good topical blog, try it if you haven't already!

A few things

2007-09-15T20:26:00.000+01:00

In February, I posted about the general issues people have about saying the names of menu items. Then Al posted about Christmas already, and the other day someone must have had it on their mind. Instead of a "Feast" meal they asked for a "Festive" meal. I didn't correct them, and they said it about 3 times again to their family. Her husband snapped and ranted "IT IS FEAST NOT FESTIVE!!". I just did a sly smile in his direction and he replied with a shake of the head.

Another taking issue has been "Can I have some receipt?". Ha, sure here's a sachet of receipt.

Then some gypos came in (apologies for this term, but they were). I don't know why we have them on a such a regular basis, but they are frequently camped out on the nearby industrial estate car parks but more and more are putting barriers in. So then they move onto farmers fields which are closer.

So the gypos were in. When I see them walking in, with either vest tops or just no top, I pray they aren't going to come up to the counter. Then they all do. They cannot talk, they can only shout so they immediately seem angry. A father and son (about 10 y.o.) came up and ordered some food which included chicken wings. Our chicken wings are tiny and are a rip off, but there isn't much I can do about that. I put them on the tray and the father picks up the box, and looks inside.

"What tha fack are those!" (you know the accent).
"Errm they're the BBQ chicken wings"
"There's fack all on 'em, they're a facking rip off!".
"Oh right, sorry...do you want them still?"
"Fucking hell what a rip off!"
"I don't set the prices I'm afraid, there isn't much I can do...so do you want them?"

While this was happening, his son (large, topless) was also there mimicking every movement and gesture his dad made. It was a very strange thing to see.

So he sat down with the rest of his family and his other kids and relatives seemed to want stuff. I'd say I got about £20 out of them in the end, not bad!

Yesterday, I was on the front on my own, giving the ICF sauces a clean. Mid way between me doing that there was a sudden rush of customers, so I didn't have a chance to wash my hands of sticky sauce. So then every bit of change I gave out was sticky and you could see the faces on some customers obviously thinking "Great, sticky coins". I tried to hide my glazed fingers as much as possible when I could see them wiping the coins on napkins.

Then later on, a mum and two daughters (about...8 and 11) came up and ordered. In the middle of the transaction, the elder of the daughters, took a bobble out of the younger girl's hair. Then all hell broke loose. The younger one had a seriously bad reaction to having her bobble removed and started kicking her sister, then punching, then wrestling. They ended up fighting on the floor, the younger of the two doing most of the damage. She was kicking her sister in the side and shouting "I hate you, you always pick on me" and various other phrases. The mother didn't realise they were fighting as they were behind her, until I pointed it out...which meant I went "Errrm..." with a pointing finger at them on the floor. Her way of dealing with it was interesting, "OH MY GOD WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TWO DOING?". They both got back up, both crying, and saying the other one started it. They were sent to opposite ends of the store to "think" about what they had just done. About 20 seconds later they were joking with each other at the drinks machine. Aww.

Finally to finish off this unusually long(ish) post.

We have matching salt and pepper sachets which are a generic type. Anyone who orders from 3663 can get them.

We get the top ones, in the brown packet. Occasionally, you get the odd white design one, the bottom sachet. I just wondered though, as they are obviously EXACTLY the same except for the sachet design, why Pizza Hut order the top one which looks less 'modern' than the other. I will have to ponder a bit more on this topic I think.

And the corner of the £20 note. Well I found it in one of the till draws and thought I'd nab it...maybe it will come in useful one day and I'll find the other 90% of it. It's not impossible...

Kids meal, again

2007-09-11T23:21:00.000+01:00

As you will know if you read reasonably regularly, the kids meal is a pain. (Oh and sorry for not blogging for a while). People can't read or make up their own variation of what the kids meal is.

It is:

Pizza & drink OR Chicken dippers, fries & drink.

It is not Pizza, drink & fries.

I had this long stupid conversation with two women, clearly mother and daughter (though the daughter was far from a kid, at least 18 or 19). I'm sure I will have missed out bits but this was he general gist:

"Where are the fries?"
"You don't get fries with the kids meal"
"Yes you do"
"No you don't. You get pizza and drink or chicken dippers, fries and drink"
"Nope"
"Err well that is the menu I'm afraid"
"QUIT LYING. I come here ALL the time and get fries everytime"
"Not in the kids meal you don't"
"I DO - I DO!"
"No sorry"
"Well you must have changed it then."
"I've worked here over a year and you have never got fries with a pizza in the kids meal in all that time"
"You have, I come here all the time, it must have JUST been changed and you haven't realised, so you have LIED"

They were really starting to annoy me now and generally I will just go "Ok" but I decided to fight back, a bit.

"I haven't lied to you. There is no reason for me to lie to you, because to give you fries costs me nothing, but the fact is you don't get fries in that meal. Are you telling me you expect pizza, fries and a drink for £2.49?"

"Yes I am - I always get it!"

"Ok whatever, do you want this kids meal or not?"

"Yes and I suppose I'll have to BUY THE FRIES EXTRA THEN"

After they had got their food I had a little think to myself about some scenarios these women could be in, with me deciding their ultimate fate. Afterwards I thought maybe that was a little irrational but they did annoy me.

Then they sat down on the closest table and slowly ate everything. The mother sat studying the receipt (I'm waiting for my first complaint, can't be long surely..) while the daughter just stared at me constantly. Fine love, I'll stare back at you and get paid for it!

On a side note, Pizza Hut have launched some new cheesey bites. The cheese smells significantly worse than before but apparently tastes nicer.

Hmm

2007-09-02T11:27:00.000+01:00

ISP: Yum! Brands Inc
Visits: 7 in 2 days.

Short changing - me?

2007-09-01T19:34:00.000+01:00

When I count my till at the start of a shift, it may say be £99.97 (3p short). If I take £100 my till will be £199.97 at the end of the shift, because I check the money people give me thoroughly and do the same with the change. I do it for my sake as well as the customers, I don't want to give out the incorrect change because if it is over, I lose out, if it is short then I have to open the till which is a pain.

Every day I see my colleagues handing over money because their till is down. The people I have trained on till I have told that "When you are handling money treat it as your own because if it down it's you're paying". A couple didn't take my advice and were down either a round £5, £10 or £15 down every other shift. I did some magical retraining (or corrective coaching as Pizza Hut like it to be called) which involved me standing over them watching their cash handling techniques. I noticed both of them had their notes all crammed together in 3 sections next to each other. There are 7 sections for notes so I put £5 at the front, £10 in the middle and £20 at the back spaced apart so there is no way I can get them mixed up and give a £10 out instead of £5. I worked that out on my second shift.

So it was now obvious why they were always down a round amount, they were giving out the wrong notes. I rearranged their tills and told them this should help the problem. It has worked so far!

Therefore, you can now hopefully understand why I will be annoyed when I'm accused of short changing somebody. Fair enough, if I make a mistake you will probably notice immediately and it'll be sorted. BUT coming back 2 hours later with no receipt and claiming you were short changed by 50p is a out of order, and then crying about it when I didn't give you it because I refuse to give you 50p effectively, personally, because I don't believe you. Admittedly they were around 12, and I do have a bit of heart so instead of the money I offered a free pudding. They took it but I still don't believe them...

A couple of pictures I forgot about

2007-08-29T12:38:00.000+01:00

The silly credit card machines...

And a tiny dolls head I spotted in the service yard...

(you can view this picture bigger here)

Hello again

2007-08-27T22:09:00.000+01:00

Well I have been off work again, not ill or going on holiday just had some time off. Therefore there is a lack of moronic customer postings.

I can post about my visits to two other stores though. Mainly they were unexciting and uneventful though.

The first, was pretty....old. I think blaming the fact it smelt rancid and had the most disgusting looking floor I've seen for a while on being old is the best way of dealing with it. The managers there must have been idiots. They just seemed lazy...they left the floor dirty from the night before then got someone to clean it in the morning. The same with the bins, left them unemptied overnight then did it in the morning. Then someone we saw on the street waiting outside, who we thought was a tramp turned out to be a delivery driver, nice.

The other store was new. And the place was spotlessly clean like our own store. The people seemed nicer too.

That was about it really!

Obvious

2007-08-16T21:11:00.000+01:00

I bring you through the magic of Microsoft Paint, a drawing which helps the following dialogue.

"Hiya you got any straws?"

"Yeah they are just there" with a slight nod of the head towards them

"Where?!"

"Just there..!" tapping them this time

"Oh yes, thanks".

Next one

In an accent I can't describe other than it being distorted...

"Can I have a pepperoni feast meal?"

"Yep..ok"

I heard her say something about veggie to the people she was with and she didn't seem all that sure

"Pepperoni is vegetarian isn't it?"

"No it is a beef and pork sausage"

"Oh I need the veggie one"

Duh. Who doesn't know pepperoni is meat!

Since when...

2007-08-15T19:38:00.000+01:00

...has it been acceptable to spit in public?

I hate people spitting in public it is dirty and serves no purpose other than making yourself look like a scab. So, where I have the opportunity and if you like, power, to stop it or at least make some punishment for spitting in public - I jump at it!

4 chavs all wearing Burberry caps came and bought 3 drinks and one ice cream. They seemed ok, they pissed about less than most other chavs with the drink and ice cream machines. They were blatently sharing the ice cream cup but that is only a small issue. Then all four of them came over and were watching the master chav making his ice cream (aww). Out of the blue, one of them then spat on the counter. I was literally 6 ft away and facing them when they did it - but they were oblivious to the fact they were being watched.

"Right, do you wanna get out of the store now?"

"Ehh?!! What we done yo man we ain't don nuffin!" etc

"One of you just spat on the counter so you're all leaving now"

"No we dint n anyway PAID FOR REFILLABLE ice cream"

"I don't care, you can all get out because you spat"

"So!"

"Eh...you don't come in here and spit on the counter - simple."

3 of them walked off but one, the master chav acted big and stood there next to the coffee machine. It appeared as though he was planning some sort of retaliation move involving hot drinks. Quite unlucky for him we have a switch for it in the back and I shouted for it to be turned off just as he thought of it. So he had three options, ice cream, cold drinks or condiments. He must have realised that he was an idiot, because we have staff (some with not so good customer service skills) that out number them, security staff that can get to us in about 30 seconds and a hell of a lot of hot or sharp equipment in the kitchen. He rejoined his gang and walked off. A manager called security and gave their descriptions. They found them on CCTV as the manager was on the phone and were removed from the site for "anti-social behaviour". I call that a result!

Want to be a mystery shopper? (with burn update)

2007-08-12T10:28:00.000+01:00

Pizza Hut and other companies such as KFC, McDonalds, Spar, Post Office, Carphone Warehouse, Shell and Ladbrokes all use a company called Gapbuster.

You can sign up for free and if accepted you can search for mystery shopping opportunities local to you. You basically get to eat for free and have to submit a report online.

Burn Update:
It has now almost completely healed, just the skin is slightly more pink, but it doesn't hurt anymore. Hooray!

Meatballs, a weirdo and THE most stupid question ever

2007-08-11T20:47:00.000+01:00

In November/December Pizza Hut in the UK are going to launch a pizza called 'Mama's Meatballs'! Subway have done meatballs, and so have McDonalds. So we'll be tagging onto their success and it will probably be a miserable failure. Who wants meatballs on pizza? I'd love to know if or who they actually survey to decide if a product is worth it. They aren't doing trials in any of their nearly 700 stores, they're just launching it. A bit like, the cheesecake which we sell about one piece of a week but have to defrost 24 pieces a week just to use it.

Support manager to area manager:

"Could we defrost say 5 pieces of cheesecake a week rather than 24 because it just doesn't sell?"

"No! Once you open the box you need to defrost it ALL"

I don't know why I care really, it isn't my money and after all we are owned by the "world's largest restaurant company in terms of system restaurants with over 34,000 restaurants in over 100 countries. " so if they want to waste it - fine!

Oh and the weirdo, a woman constantly grinning and waving at me. WEIRD PEOPLE OUT THERE!

Finally, THE most stupid question I have ever been asked. The shutter about half way down. A man ducks down and comes in "Are you throwing those cups away?", pointing at the new, unused drink cups on the side. Maybe I've misheard him I thought..."Do you mean you need an extra cup?" "No, if you are throwing those cups away could we have them?" Ok, this guy must be simple or having a laugh "No we...err...keep the cups and use them in the morning..?" "Oh right ok. Seeya!"

Mothers, grandmothers and piss takers.

2007-08-09T23:46:00.000+01:00

It's the summer holiday for loads of kids and students. So what do parents do with their toddlers. Take them shopping of course! Great, because the kids are always polite and most of all, willing to accept help.

The mothers though, I noticed today particularly, are moody, ignorant cows. I accept it is not all of them, but nearly every woman with kids I served today either; had a scowl on their face, wouldn't listen to me, snapped at me when I attempted an upsell, snapped at me when I said they could get a pizza and drink cheaper than just a pizza, didn't use any manners, tutted at me or were just plain rude. There were the nice ones, but you just don't remember them.

Then there was the grandmother who I watched used the ICF. She left the ICF running, but instead of walking off like most people, she screamed and started shouting "SOMEBODY HELP - I can't get this thing to turn off!" I walked over and lifted up the lever, saying "Just lift this up and it stops..." "Oh lovey - I thought it automatically shut off...." then she had a laughing fit and walked off. I made a comment about being an ice cream woman but she either ignored, or didn't hear me.

Ok, so we're shut, we shut on time because we all want to get out as early as possible but that doesn't mean we will compromise quality or service. Infact my customer service is probably better at ten minutes to closing because I'm getting chirpy about leaving.

So at the end of the night, we have left over food. Do we want it? No, we're all sick to death of the stuff. A few times a week cleaners and security will ask for it. No problem because we like you and it will be thrown away otherwise. Sometimes people from other stores will ask for it, no problem, take it - it's yours. But, the public "customers" asking for it is a bit of tricky subject. One reason is brand standards. The other, probably more important is a little thing called Food Safety Law.

Up until a few days ago I'd give them one or two pizzas. But I have noticed an increase in piss takers. I offered you one free pizza. You want two. Ok here's two. You want four. Now you can piss off. Leave the store. Get out I hate you.

Then there are the chavs, who you give one pizza to one chav, you get about 6 chavs appear, all wanting pizza. You can piss off as well!

Then you get the ones, who think it is their RIGHT to have the pizza.
"You're only going to chuck them away so give me them"
"Ok here's one"
"I'll take all of them"
"No sorry I can't do that"
"OH THIS IS DISGUSTING, you're going to throw them away anyway - give me them"
"No"
"WHY NOT?"

In the above case I walked off and put the shutter down. She wasn't a customer so had no cause for complaint, she just got free pizza. She soon got out when she saw the metal heading her way.

Then there were the ones who, I gave two pizzas to, then said they were calling their friends to see if they wanted any. No way are they. I went and put the shutter down. Then oh my god, they're banging on the shutter and shouting "How dare you close!".

So a few days ago, I decided I will not give free pizza to any member of the public after we have closed, no way ever again.

Then yesterday, one of the newer team members was getting agro from two women who wanted free pizza. Me and the manager were sitting in the back listening. Manager said to me "Tell 'em to piss off will you". Yes! Hehe I'm always up for an argument with non-customers.

I stomped out there...

[rant]
"Listen, you have already been told you're not going to get free pizza and the reason why. I'm only going to ask you once to leave, now, or we will have to call security and have you removed."
[/rant]

They walked out silent but heads shaking. TM went to me "Thank you". Manager went "Woah where did that come from!". Afterwards I thought maybe I'd gone over the top. But then thought, if they complained, I'd have two witnesses that they were both rude and we were reasonable and following procedure and eventually had to resort to a "customer asked to leave store" situation.

James, suggested I do some type of quiz with some Pizza Hut acronyms. To be honest I can't think of anything I haven't mentioned before on here!! I do however...when I get round to it, put some pictures of items we use on a daily basis to see if you can work out what they do. It'll probably be pretty easy...!

Bloody burnt

2007-08-06T16:21:00.000+01:00

All day yesterday I had a slight pain on the palm of my right hand. When I look at it I saw a cut, not bleeding so thought that was it.

Then when I got home I realised, I'd actually burnt it and it was reaching quite a high level of pain. I woke up this morning and I have a round red patch about the size of a 2 pence coin. It is slap bang in the middle of my palm so whenever I move my hand it hurts - and it doesn't help that I'm right handed. Anyway enough of that sob story.

Onto another. Out of no where, I had blood pouring (well it looked a lot!) from the my right index finger. I put a plaster on it. But blue plasters are so unhelpful. They are actually designed to be crap:

They're blue, so if they get dropped in food you can spot them - but you just look like an idiot.
They come in sealed packets to keep them sanitary. The result is that you have mangle up about 3 before you get one that doesn't stick to itself.
They're not waterproof, because you are meant to change them every 20 minutes for hygiene. After going back to the first aid box 4 times in 30 minutes I grabbed a wad of them and put them in pocket because I had to change them so often.

There is one other sob story. This one a bit more personal...I sat on top of the oven (cleaning!) for about an hour on probably the hottest day this year. You can read more about what happens here. Sorry about that.

I'm Authorised!

2007-08-05T21:54:00.000+01:00

I got really excited when I noticed that the shopping centre put up some new signs, for a plant room. Not many people are allowed in, but I am infact "authorised personnel". Excellent!

Sorry the picture is blurred, D10 got through my trousers and onto my phones camera lense.

Canadians and the naughty broom

2007-08-03T13:41:00.000+01:00

I have a few different topics from this week:

Canadians
Well, we had an invasion of the centre with about 40 sports kids (don't know what sport..) all dressed in bright orange. We couldn't work out if they were Australian or American so we decided on Canadian. It was funny to look around and see people all in orange. They were generally very civil but lacking in manners when they didn't understand you - everyone of them went "WHAT?!!" instead of "Pardon" or "Excuse me". They were complimentary though with comments such as "Dude you guys are quick at serving!" and "Wow it's ready now?". That was nice. They about cleared out the already cooked pizza because on a normal Monday...it is just people on their lunch hour. They had about 20 meals in total. On my break later on I saw their coach struggling round the car park, bumping up over kerbs and revving like mad. The driver must have completely missed the signs saying "NO HGVS OR LARGE VEHICLES BEYOND THIS POINT"

Discounts
A guy from M&S came for a meal and asked for discount. I explained that we stopped doing it. "Well that isn't very good is it!" The advantage of serving other stores employees, is that you know they won't complain (well not very often) or are CHAMPS. "Well do you give us a discount?" I asked. "Umm no." "Thats' the exact reason why we stopped it."

Sauce
"Do you want any sauce, we do tomato, BBQ or mayo?"
"Sauce - yes"
"Tomato, BBQ or mayo?"
"Yes - do you have SAUCE?"
"YEAH, we have TOMATO, BBQ or MAYO?"
Long pause
"Sauce."
"Ok I'll just give one of each"

Ungratefulness
I was standing at the counter, looking down as I was stamping loyalty cards ready to be given out. I see a figure in the corner of my eye, so I decide to finish the last card I'm on and then look up to serve the customer (if there is one). Before I could do this though, I hear "ONE SIDE SALAD". Bloody impatient git. I press the Salad button on the till and get the salad out of the fridge. I ask which dressing she would like. "I don't need one - my other salad fell on the floor so I have still have the pot of dressing". She is fiddling with coins preparing to pay. I don't know the company policy on replacing dropped food, but whenever I see it happen I'll always replace it for free, because I'm kind like that. Most people are appreciative of this, not today though as when I said "Oh right, it's ok then you don't need to pay for another. Here you go" handing her the salad I got a grumpy "Fine - whatever" and she walked back to her table.

The naughty broom
This morning I was waiting for the dough to be done (in the ADPR...Automatic Defroster, Proofer, Retarder) and thought while the walk in fridge is nearly empty I'll sweep and mop it. I'd finished sweeping so pulled the mop and bucket in, and chucked the broom out of the fridge. I watched in, as if in some kind of slow motion film, I broom fall slowly from me to the fire alarm call point. It is the type without glass, and bugger, the top of the handle pushed the button. Because the system thinks "Oh my god, someone has seen a fire and set the alarm off...this must be real!" it went straight to evacuate with the deep bellowing voice I mentioned before. I (well actually the broom) was going to be responsible for 100s of people leaving their shopping and possibly £1000s in lost sales. Luckily this happened at about 8am so there were no customers and we got it turned off within about 30 seconds. Phew.

Good news...

2007-08-01T10:35:00.001+01:00

July's Gapbuster (the agency used) CHAMPS came in, and it was one of the new recruits as the server! One I'd trained, and they got everything right = 96%. We lost 4% because apparently they weren't wearing correct uniform. That's not right so hopefully it will get changed.

I think I might have had a CHAMPS (we have 2 wildcards a year - ie. 2 mystery shoppers in a month) as well this month, because a woman decided to get her own receipt from the printer...I do hope not, as at the time I was distracted by a barking man giving the above new guy grief.

What happened while I was off

2007-07-28T21:48:00.000+01:00

Unfortunately when I arrived at work I was send home straight away as there was a special task force dealing with the ice cream mix that was at knee height. They estimate it will be another week to get it fully cleaned up. No ok that didn't happen. But the ICF offenders are still there, I discovered about a foot of ice cream piled up on the machine. TURN IT OFF, duh.

The uniform was no issue, except the way I wore the shirt, I looked like a "clown" according to a support manager. I explained to that most men will tuck the shirt in and then bag it out a bit so you don't look like a fool, unlike you who looks like a woman in a blouse (he has grown his hair recently...hmm). He disagreed but the next time I looked he had it tucked in and put his apron on to cover it.

However the new credit card machines were a problem. They are of a cordless variety with like a docking station it stays on while not in use. There are metal prongs which fit into the handset which charge it while in the station. There is green LED light on the docking station which indicates power. Now when you put the handsets in to their docks, you would expect them to charge, right? Wrong and for the last week and a bit they've been baffled as to why they won't hold charge and are moaning about low battery. Being probably the most...technically minded there I pressed a few buttons and discovered the option "Charge battery? - Yes press ENT, No press CAN". So they had been leaving them turned on overnight, thinking they were charging in the docks but infact they were losing more power. A totally stupid idea having to go through a menu and ask it to charge. Hopefully they'll be nice and charged up tomorrow.

Al has a post discussing regulars and quite nicely today a regular customer (a man previously with very little hair, wearing a blindingly obvious wig - have I mentioned that before?) said "Oh I haven't seen you for a while!" I explained the reason for my absence, chronic diarrhea, and he was on his way - loyalty card in hand.

Oh and that's another thing, new loyalty cards. I'm going to have to do an entire post on them sometime.

I answered the phone three times today hoping for something interesting - maybe a prank call. All I got was 3 idiots wanting numbers for another store. One of them I had never even heard of, one I was able to give and the other I didn't know and was ranted at because "I'm from out of town and was recommended Pizza Hut!!!". Heading upto 700 stores I seriously doubt they don't have a Pizza Hut where they live.

Holiday

2007-07-20T22:38:00.000+01:00

I'm on holiday for a bit now so there haven't and won't be any particular posts for about a week.

There has been a few changes though, including the uniform so I'll most likely turn up to work looking like a pillock.

In the mean time check out these, I've recently found them through other blogs and rather like them:

Passive Aggressive Notes

Hacked Off

Searches

2007-07-12T21:59:00.000+01:00

Occasionally I like to look at how people arrive at my blog. The search terms used change every day but here is a selection from today:

8% chipped tooth - I am the top link on Google for this!

old pizza hut uniforms - Seriously you don't want to buy this. It stinks of dough and cheese no matter how many times you wash it.

is there pork in pepperoni pizza from pizza hut - YES!

don't berk - How can you, don't berk? Baffled.

Communication issues

2007-07-12T21:39:00.000+01:00

The better one of the three new people, I could see was having an 'issue' with a customer. I was standing in the back and no one else seemed to be watching him so dealing with the issue fell to me. I walked out in my pizza sauce and dough covered apron...I think it makes me look like I know what I'm doing so try to make my aprons last a few days.

"__ are you ok?"

"This guy says I didn't give him enough discount.."

"Right can I have a look at the receipt"

There are two receipts. One for a buy one get one free pizza and another for a deal with a student discount. The man was complaining that he hadn't got student discount on the BOGOF deal, and when he did get student discount on the other receipt he had got only 6p off.

I read out to the man "Offer is subject to availability and not valid in conjuction with any other offer" from the back of the voucher.

"Rubbish!"

"No really it isn't, that's our rule"

"What about the student discount on the other then"

"Well the student discount button was pressed and that was what it gave. We can't change that."

"Oh never mind. I can't be arsed!"

We can change the discount it gives but there is no way I'm going to undermine what another team member has said/done for the sake of 24p, especially with the customers poor attitude - and any discount is at the stores discretion. I showed him how to give the discount after though.

Then I was out the back again when the above complainer whistled at me and asked for some ketchup. Bugger off, "I can't leave this position I'm afraid, you'll have to join the queue.". It is bad enough people pushing in and pestering the front but to whistle people in the kitchen is one step too far.

No beef

I have posted about a similar thing to this before, the fact that pepperoni has beef in it.

Someone wanted a pizza with no 'spicy beef'. I was on the make table at the time so it was my job to make the pizza. I like to ensure customers know that pepperoni has beef in it so whenever a request for no beef comes I go and ask them "Do you know pepperoni has beef in it too?". In this case the answer was "Oh yes I know thats fine". Excellent I've confirmed it so off I go and make it. 7 minutes later it pops out of the oven, is boxed up and given to the customer. 30 seconds later another woman comes back. Recounted from the front staff she said something like this: "ZOMG I'm allergic to beef and this pizza has beef on it!" It did, but not the spicy beef she requested to be taken off. The team member swapped it because they are soft but I would not have - but I have become a bit mean like that.

Then today, I asked an elderly lady "Do you want fries for an extra 21p?"

To which she replied..."What is the price?"
"It's £3.78 without fries or £3.99 with"
"Yes but whats the price?"
"Now, £3.78..?"
"I said what is the price!"
"It's £3.78"
"YEAH BUT WHAT IS THE PRIZE?!"
"Prize?!??"
"Yes you said for an extra 21p I could get a prize!"
"Haaha I said fries for an 21p"
"Oh!!!!"
"Sorry about that..hehe - so do you want fries for 21p?"
"GOD NO I CAN'T EAT FRIES AS WELL!"
"Ok thats £3.78 then please!"
"Hahahahaha I thought you said prize, but you said fries and then you thought I was saying price haaaahaha!"
"Yeah it's pretty loud in here isn't it...I couldn't hear you and you couldn't hear me...anyway sorry about that - enjoy your meal!"
"It's ok you're only doing your job, I didn't want the prize anyway even if it was 21p."

The customer walked off and I looked to my right and one of my colleagues was crouching down on the floor with laughter.

Then later someone left the ICF lever pulled down again. So then most of the frozen mix was gone and people came to use it and it gives off the most high pitched scream of agony when it is low and it rips through the entire centre. I rather like that though.

To finish off my shift, a girl approx. 12 years old came to the drinks machine and she almost walked into me but instead of saying sorry or anything, instead she did a cocky little dance and went "Oooo".

What keys?

2007-07-09T23:40:00.000+01:00

In one day, three people left their car keys on the counter. I really don't know why these people choose a specific day but it does get quite a comedy value when you go "I've found some more keys" and the reply is "NOT ANOTHER SET SURELY!" by the manager.

The first one came back pretty quickly so I hadn't given them to security for their...safe keeping.

The second set I gave personally to a security officer, who took them to their control room. A frantic man came back around 3 minutes after that and he was quite rude so I told him that "Oh the keys...security have removed them. You will have to deal with them now." I gave him directions on how to get to security and then he ranted that I should have kept them and now he has a long walk to fetch them. Easy solution - don't leave your keys on the counter.

Then bloody hell a third set, this time with a newish looking Mercedes key attached. We were about to shut so I gave them to an 'operative' of the food hall. I hadn't seen him talk to security so I strolled over about 10 minutes later and this happened:

"Umm did those keys go upstairs?"
"What keys?"
"The set of keys I found on our counter and gave to you to give to security"
"What?"
"It was about 10 minutes ago, over there"
"I can't remember that"
"You put them in your pocket"
"Oh lets have a look then..ahh yes the CAR keys!"
"Yeah"
"What about them?"
"Are you giving them to security because we're going soon so they'll need somewhere to collect them?"
"No I don't have time!"
"What are you doing with them then?"
"I'll keep them until the morning unless you want them back"
"Yeah I'll just have them back it will probably be easier"

I gave them to security myself. I mean - what an idiot. First, he had no recollection of what had happened just 10 minutes ago. Second, he was going to keep them until the morning. What use would that be to the person who had lost their keys and couldn't drive home?!!

Gypsies, Terrorists and Misery

2007-07-05T22:52:00.000+01:00

No dodgy customers this time. Except the gang of gypsies we had who not only camped outside but in the food area shouting and screaming.

It didn't last long because since the terrorist attack in Glasgow on Saturday, real police officers (not PCSOs for a change...nothing against them though) have been on site walking round and cruising round the car park. I had originally thought they were because of the gypsies but I realised it was because of terrorists when I saw them bashing down man hole covers and putting seals on them. We've also had some new signage on the staff doors ranting that we must not hold the doors open for anyone. I wouldn't think we're a prime target and Pizza Hut's location is all the way into the centre so if anything did happen then at least us and our customers would be ok - hopefully. But that is quite selfish.

So that above is what I wrote yesterday and saved as a draft.

Then on my bus journey today, I saw something I'd never seen before. A 4x4 paramedic car and an ambulance with blue lights on, next to a bus stop. 3 people in green overalls stood there, as well as a sobbing elderly lady wiping her face with a tissue and one of the green people had their arm on her shoulder. Then on the floor, an elderly gentleman and one of the paramedics performing CPR on him and those shock pad things nearby. The bus drove on and that was last I saw of that. I thought about what I'd just seen, potentially the last seconds of a mans live. It wasn't on TV...it was real. It is very unlikely I'll ever find out whether the gentleman survived but I really hope he did.

That set me up in a miserable mood for the rest of day so I stayed in the kitchen as much as possible only going to front for a cup of Tango and saving pizza from falling on the floor.

Sound, vision and smoking.

2007-07-01T22:41:00.000+01:00

Well there was much excitement today!

I recorded a sound clip of the fire alarm going through it's usual incident --> get out we're burning. We did actually have an 'incident' though which makes a change. Security officers literally came running from no where, and I was surprised by how many they actually have - they must hide away in their control room most of the day. My phone however decided not to save the clip, which is great.

I also got a picture of how fries should look like, fresh from the frier for Arriva Driver and also 'Sweet n Low' for James who's blog looks quite different/interesting! So I got home intending to upload them, but neither are there. I'll have to try again.

Other news is that, I'm going to another store for a day soon...I'll be looking out for filth and poor standards, I hope not to find any though.

And one telephone call, I resorted to saying "We are a slice bar we don't take bookings!!" because after 3 attempts of describing the restaurant format I gave up.

On the smoking point. It has affected us and the shopping centre very little because about 18 months ago it became non-smoking anyway. They have put up the usual "It is illegal to smoke in these premises" now though. I like all the signs, it makes the place look healthy!

Staff and new things

2007-06-30T21:17:00.001+01:00

I'll do the products first, it is easier:

--We now have BBQ pizza. It has a BBQ sauce base, bacon, chicken and red onion on it. It is vile.

--We now have cheesecake. It has cheese, cake and no fruit. It is also vile.

--We are getting a meatball pizza. It will probably - be vile.

Now we stock bacon I scrounged a bun from KFC to make a bacon butty. I was told to put it on a full oven pass. Gradually the kitchen filled with smoke and the distinct smell of cat wee. Then out popped my bacon! It was extremely crispy, black and about a fifth of the size it started. The smell put me off entirely so I didn't bother trying again.

Then the staff...we have some new team members.

They worked well for about 2 weeks. Now they just stand there. Doing nothing. They're all desperate to work BOH but they can't even be arsed to do their front jobs properly. It isn't that they don't know what to do, they just leave it...and have no sense of urgency EVER. I taught them my good ways (ha) with "If you have no one to serve then do things which will make it easier later." So for example, rather than standing there playing Snake, restock the fridges...clean up that puddle of Pepsi...get receipt roll for that till which has had an error message for 2 hours etc.

I mainly work BOH now so I don't get to watch them all the time but I'll go out to the front to fetch a drink and the tiled floor for customers will be sticky with patches of black dried drinks. I look round, and there are 3 front team members standing there staring at their tills but with no customers. Because I trained these people I try and make sure they do things right. So on one occasion I asked "Umm maybe one of you could get the mop out here, it's sticky and going black with dirt..thanks.." and I smiled. The response was "You ain't a manager!" by the gobbiest of the lot. "I know but I trained you to not just stand there doing nothing, and when you do, it makes me look like a prick who hasn't showed you anything". "K." "Are you going to mop it then..?" "Later". A manager then walked in returning from his break, and the first thing he said was "___ clean this floor if you're doing nothing." to the person who gobbed off. Ha, I smirked at her and walked off!

Also, when they get out late, they are surprised - but blame it on being busy not that they stood there doing nothing.

RSS

2007-06-29T21:49:00.000+01:00

I'm not too sure how RSS works but I hope if you subscribe to this blog you aren't getting loads of updates...I'm adding labels to my posts...?

Apologies if you are!

Prank call

2007-06-28T21:16:00.000+01:00

The phone rang and I decided to get it:

"Hello do you delivery?"
"No sorry.."
"Do you do pick up?"
"Yes. We are an Express store though..so we just have set pizzas"
"What toppings do you do?"
I went through the pizzas extremely monotonously.
"Right ok...I'll pay extra if you shit on them"

I went silent and then I heard a lot of laughter in the background. It didn't really bother me so I laughed back at them and they were the ones who hung up first...I won I reckon!!!

I tried 1471 just to see if I could call them back, but it said they were international...do they not have pizza restaurants abroad..?!

No smoking

2007-06-26T18:54:00.000+01:00

I find it quite funny that we now have No Smoking signs on the back door and in the kitchen. Like anyone is going to light up in a commercial kitchen!

Oh well at least we won't be fined.

Early and late

2007-06-24T20:18:00.000+01:00

Early
When I mention to someone I have to be in at 8am...they usually go "You work at Pizza Hut though...who wants pizza at 8am!?" and I suppose it is understandable.

But we have to do quite a bit in the morning... Pan dough, it arrives frozen so it is put into pans - defrosts - proofs and then retards. We have a machine called an ADPR for this task. The A stands for automatic and well the rest I'm sure you can work out. Panning dough basically involves putting 11g of oil in the bottom, putting a frozen disc in, twisting it to remove any air bubbles and then 2 times round with spray release. Spray release is a glorified oil. We use trolleys to put the dough on. Each trolley can hold either 180 or 240 pizzas depending on how busy we are. We have 7 trolleys so can effectively have 1680 pizzas but we never do as the system isn't designed for that. We have a large quantity of pans and seperators. These are Pizza Hut branded (with the old Pizza Hut logo, not because we're old but they still make them with this logo). Quite a lot of the utentils are Pizza Hut's own including spoodles, rockers etc.

When the dough is ready we do pre-top. Which is making the pizzas in advance. HSR/RBD/FSR do not do this except for when they have buffets. We have speed rings which are plastic rings which sit on the dough so we get a brand standard crust. I did a search for an image of these but couldn't so I'll have to get one when I have a chance. I always think about getting pictures but forget. It isn't that exciting anyway. We use a spoodle a cross between a spoon and ladle to sauce. Then we use cups to get the measured amount of cheese on the base. Put the topping on, and we use a two finger space rule for each topping. If you're feeling generous you can on occasion put a piece of pepperoni on top of another and someone will get a treat. I don't do this very often!! We make pizzas in quite large batches and not individually.

Then put pizzas back in the walk-in fridge and they are cooked when required.

Late
Nothing to do with pizza to be honest but I found it quite funny.

On Sundays each store does a fire alarm test as well as the centre itself. They're all linked so when we test ours everyone else goes, but we have to test them one by one!!

We still have our shutter up, it is about 5.20pm and the last customer left about 10 minutes ago. Security check toilets etc but today they only have lady officers, so didn't check the mens.

Being a Sunday, we start the fire alarm test! Depending on the type of unit and type of alarm the system will do different things:

For example, our alarm when a sensor is activated goes to a 'standby message' on the tannoy for 1 minute then to evacuation. If we press a fire point it goes to evacuation straight away.

The alarm is going intermittently and on comes the voice
"Attention please. Attention please. An incident has been reported within the building, please wait for further instructions."

We like to test ours quite a lot because it annoys the hell out of centre management so leave it running.

A minute passes and the alarm goes constant and a REALLY loud voice (they have separate speakers for the alarm tannoy)

"ATTENTION. ATTENTION. PLEASE LEAVE THE BUILDING BY THE NEAREST ROUTE. ATTENTION ATTENTION EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY."

This happens every Sunday so employees know it is ok. But then from the toilets comes running this man looking really annoyed but then stops looking round at the empty place and notices that our shutter is now lowering because of the alarm, starts waving and then runs to the main doors. They're locked and he thinks he is going to burnt to death. Being a nice person I put the shutter back up and walk over to him (quite far actually) and tell him it is ok. He is going crazy though, kicking the doors, running into them, shaking them. I do wonder what he thinks he will achieve and whether I should retreat back to the Hut.

He sees me and asks
"Have you come to unlock this door, theres a fire!!!"
"No it's ok they do tests on a Sunday."
"Well I need to get out right now!"

They must have seen his antics on camera as two security officers arrived at the door and he was released. He got out and one of them went "What an idiot...he must have been on the toilet for 20 minutes!" I concurred, went back to Pizza Hut and drank an Orange & Peach Fruitshoot (new favourite drink).

Sick, fivers and short changing

2007-06-21T21:46:00.000+01:00

Instead of going in the tradesman entrance today I went through the main entrance. There are a few bins around the area. By the side of one is the most disgusting pile of sick I have ever seen. I almost took a picture but it was just too sick. It was round, diameter around 60cm...height about 2cm - very chunky. Someone must have ate something real bad. Anyway it looked nasty and being the good fellow and general busy body I told an 'operative' of the centre:

"Hi ___ theres a huge pile of sick..."
"OH JESUS NOT IN HERE"
"No it's outside.."
"Phew" with a really pleased expression
"Yeah it's next to the bin..."
"Ok I'll radio control and tell them"

I saw her natter something on the radio and there was a rather large beeping sound so I thought that was that, I've done my busy bodying for today.

About 2 hours later, I see a security officer walking a bit faster than normal and with a nasty frown. 30 seconds later I see the same officer with heavy duty dustpan & brush and bin bag. Being a nosey git and knowing her name I shouted over the counter something like "what's up" and got the reply "I've just trod in some puke so I'm gonna clean it up!" and she carried on walking. Ha.

There has been a bit in the news and a comment from Arriva Driver about needing more fivers in circulation because they are there so long they become tatty. I totally agree with this. Most of the £5 notes in my till resemble a used tissue. Crumpled, ripped, brown, faded, damp, smelly, with tape on etc is all too common. I don't think I help the situation though as I keep all the nice notes at the front of the row so I don't give them out and try to have a neat till. A bit odd but it keeps me entertained. If I have a taped up note I save it for a special customer.

Also, I got a full lesson from a customer on how I should short change people as a matter of routine and make some money for myself. When I say the conversation lasted 3 minutes I'm not exaggerating and 3 minutes is a long time of pure talking. He talked about where he had it done to him, which had then given him the idea. He told me to pick "Asians and people who looked tired" and when I was given a £20 note always claim it was a £10 note. It was the most ridiculous idea he had but hey if he thinks he can get away with it...I told him to watch out as next time he comes in I'll try it on him.

Then to finish off my shift I took some rubbish outside and got trapped in between the fire doors. I've decided to take a detour from now on and use the huge delivery door to minimise the risk.

Chipped teeth

2007-06-19T22:19:00.000+01:00

There are three girls, around..8 years old standing round deciding what to eat. They all have bad teeth. One though, in the big top front ones, has about half of it missing. It doesn't look very nice. I feel a bit sorry for her...like maybe she fell or something. But no, while this thought is going through my mind she puts a £2 coin in her mouth and chews on it. There are so many things wrong with this. 1, it is unhygienic, 2, it is dangerous and 3, it is metal - and it is going to chip your teeth. The the biggest problem though was, I got a wet £2 coin. Uggggggggggggggh round to the hand wash sink, bang bang bang on the soap dispenser and a thorough wash upto my elbows.

Then was the mother who is the MOST impatient woman I have ever come across. Not impatient with me (if customers are, I tend to go even slower, arranging items on the tray perfectly, counting out the change, getting out sachets of salt individually etc) but with her daughter. They arrived at the counter, the girl looked at the menu boards. Mother "HURRY UP WILL YOU" 3 seconds later. The girl looked at me like it wasn't unusual. She asked for the kids meal, so I asked what drink. Before she even had time to react the mother went "GET ON WITH IT." She asked for a Fruitshoot "Blackcurrant or Orange??" The girl ummed "IT DOESN'T MATTER JUST HURRY UP". The entire transaction took probably 30 seconds but at the end, the woman went to the girl "THANK GOD FOR THAT". Some parents are messed up.

Later I saw a middle aged woman trip on a piece of paper from a straw. It wasn't a big trip, tiny infact. But she put her tray back on the counter and made such an elaborate story about how she nearly fell and we should get it sorted. Whenever I see crap on the floor I ALWAYS bend down and pick it up, no one else ever bothers so I find it rather annoying when I get tips from people on how to keep the floor tidy. To prove a point to the woman who was sitting close by, I 'closed' the entire section with a barricade of wet floor signs, a broom and bucket - swept and mopped the floor.

Training

2007-06-12T21:39:00.000+01:00

Because I've worked at Pizza Hut for a while now, I'm fully trained (can do anything in store) and am now given the task of training new people. I do get a pay rise and different title to reflect this, but no one knows when that is going to happen.

I've been doing this for a little while and it seems to have gone ok. No one has fell in the fryer or got their skin trapped in a cash draw, which are standard measurements of how well you have trained someone. Then we got the results of our latest CHAMPS check (mystery shopper), it wasn't pretty. All the points lost though, were not because I'd not trained the person properly but they seemed to have left their manners behind when they left for work, and also served cold pizza. I couldn't understand it because this person is normally full of manners it is sickening. So either Mr/s Champ or the team member had a bad day. What we all now do is go well over top with all the please/thanks/come again because...you can lose upto 15 points for not doing them or 1 point for not being genuine. So you can take the p**s and lose one point, but if you just don't do it lose 15 points. The criteria are really quite hard but the harshness of the rating varies a lot. To get the full marks according to the book we should be saying something along the lines of this every time we serve a customer

"Thank for you for choosing Pizza Hut, I hope you enjoy your meal and visit again. Is there any further assistance I can provide you with today?".

I never do that much...but I have been known to get the odd 100% CHAMPS :-D !

On a totally separate note we will soon have a BBQ pizza and strawberry cheesecake. The BBQ pizza looks nice but the strawberry cheesecake is a bit of a weird one. It's plain cheesecake, with strawberry ice cream sauce poured over it. Its nice but not exactly "strawberry cheesecake".

CCTV

2007-06-12T00:24:00.000+01:00

I was at work, bored, as it isn't even slightly busy because of the weather, just looking round. I then counted I could be seen at the counter by 5 CCTV cameras. They're all in mysterious black domes so you can't be sure where they are looking, but I do know they all work. I'm not sure whether it is comforting or not. The security controllers are all nice though, so I don't think they'll be zooming in on me scratching or eating at the counter too often.

Later on, I was standing in the entry/exit to the service yard and I was looking around waiting for my lift home, and I counted that I could be seen by eight cameras - 6 of these the mysterious dome type, one fixed, and one motorised big thing. I did feel quite comforted by this, because if something happened to me or anyone in the area, you'd bet one of those cameras saw it, and hopefully the controller, who could get some immediate action.

So overall, I'd say I like CCTV but don't like the idea of them shouting at you (old story I know but I only realised just how many cameras there were)

Pizza Hut Express

2007-06-11T09:03:00.000+01:00

If you do an image search for Pizza Hut Express you get this rather horrid looking...well I'd say it was a serving hatch. I'm not sure how many people have actually seen a Pizza Hut Express in the UK, never mind ate at one.

It is a lot different to that one above. We don't stand in a 6 inch gap to to serve you, or do you help yourself to pizza. I think the best way I can describe it is...like McDonalds - where they get your food, but with a lobby area (they come into the unit about 12ft x 6ft) where the self service machines are for drinks and ice cream. It is quite modern...in design - but a bit traditional too, curvy and colourful in order to be welcoming.

This one is a bit more like it but in the picture you can't see the full layout, and our counter is a lower...and we don't stand in a huddle (or wear sunglasses!) on the front.

I just thought I'd post this incase you were wondering...? Nah I don't think you were.

Are you doing it?

2007-06-09T22:33:00.000+01:00

Although many people think that we have Pepsi and their other brands, sitting in giant tanks round the back ready to drink, we don't. I say many people think because no one ever seems to understand that although a drink has ran out...it is going to be coming back in a minute when we change the box of syrup...we're not waiting for a tanker full of it to be delivered.

So anyway...some background. We have 5 carbonated drinks, each with two boxes of syrup. These boxes...I think can make...40 litres of drink...? So that's effectively 400 litres of soft drinks we can have available instantly...plus a large stock of replacements. The gas however is another matter. It lasts a long time...well about 4 days...but when it runs out if affects all the drinks, because the go flat. So we run up, and change the gas.

But the gas, then takes a lot of water to run through the system to allow the drinks to be carbonated. We do this manually by pressing the 'soda' button (it uses no syrup - just water). But because the machine isn't drained we have to get a jug, fill it up with this water, then pour it in a bucket. When it finally works again, the bucket is about 3/4 full.

So there I am, with a jug and stainless steel bucket...making the gas come through. There is a man hovering round.

"Hi can I use the machine?"
"No it has ran out of gas...it won't be a minute though"
He hovers a bit more
"Oh so is it being fixed?"
"Yes...shouldn't be long"
He hovers a bit more
"Are you doing it?"
"No I'm just getting a pitcher of water for myself"
"Yes"
"Oh ok"
He hovers - for around 3 seconds
"So you are doing it - right?"
"No mate, I've just got my pitcher of water but I've decided to get a bucket instead, should last longer"
"YES!"
"So what exactly are you doing then...I've never seen this before"
"Why the hell would you have seen it before...and even if I explain you'll be confused"
"Just pumping water through, so it draws the gas, oh look, good - it's done now..there you go!"

Didn't say those bits, just thought them.

Then later on, I saw this woman, hammering the drinks machine. She couldn't work out how to get any of the drinks...not that difficult really but some people need it explaining. Problem was, she was very rude. I'm stood there going "Excuse me..." "Madam.." "EXCUSE ME MADAM....ARE YOU OK". Then she turned round, and looked straight at me in the eye - I thought I was going to get shot or something, she looked evil. She was actually just German and couldn't understand a word I was saying. So I just pointed at the 5 drinks, in a "Which do you want, moron?" manner...and did her drink.

Oh and the last thing I did before I went home, was make a small girl cry. I try to do this as often as possible because it very satisfying. No, actually I felt quite guilty, but I'm not going to allow her to get away with using a KFC cup on our drinks machine. Come on parents, watch your kids a bit more...she was only about 3 and wondering round a shopping centre on her own. Not clever.

Sorted out the lime green font!!

^^^^^ That thing up there ^^^^^^

2007-06-07T22:55:00.000+01:00

That is my attempt at making a title banner for this blog. I originally thought it looked ok but the more I look at it...the worse it becomes. Well it is staying for a while because I've deleted bits of the template and I have no idea how to get them back.

Chips

2007-06-07T22:03:00.000+01:00

I have mentioned before I don't like people calling FRIES - CHIPS. But I know what people mean normally.

Small woman at the counter, weird accent:
"Toe cheeps ples"
"Sorry?"
"Toe cheeps ples"
"Two fries?"
"Nah - toe cheeps"
"Ehh...do you want fries...?"
"No...cheeps"
"Oh right well we only do fries.....they are similar though"
"Lemi see" - I show her the fries
"YES CHEEPS...TWO OF!!!"

HEAD-SHARP CORNER OF WALL-HEAD-SHARP CORNER OF WALL-HEAD-SHARP CORNER OF WALL

Also, the girl who called me sarcastic returned. She was a BIT more civil this time and only had one other possy member with her, but still managed to come out with her own sarcastic comment when being called to my till "Oh great, look, it's my friend...". How rude!

Plus also I don't normally do this but I must do a bit of general ranting:

--New neighbours taking the mick with the bin collections. I've seen this bloke giving absolute total random items to the bin men three times, every week. Today, he ran out to the bin men...who were in there lorry identical to this one with an 8ft x 2ft plank of MDF. I was so bothered by this because, one, it is recycling lorry, two he had a massive flatbed truck parked outside his house as he had the builders in and three that he does this all the time and expects them to take it - how the hell can they with the lorry they are in??!! The next lorry came round and bloody hell he is there again. This time with 8 bin liners as well as wheelie bin full. He just walks up to the lorry and starts chucking it on. He manages to get 4 on before it sped off round the corner and he looked totally miffed as to why it had gone before he had but all his rubble in . Extra bags normally cost about £1.50 each!

--The woman who, when I was a small shop, was going balastic at the girl behind the counter on the phone to what sounded like a customer. "DON'T YOU THINK YOU SHOULD GET OFF THAT PHONE AND SERVE ME" "I DON'T HAVE TIME TO WAIT AROUND" "GET OFF THAT PHONE RIGHT NOW" "THIS IS RIDICULOUS"

--Getting phone calls when I'm about to catch a bus and then missing the bus as I answered the call.

PS: Sorry about the random layout

Very funny

2007-06-03T23:49:00.000+01:00

I overheard this conversation:

"Oh I didn't realise you were veggie!"
"Yep I am"
"So what do you eat if you go McDonalds???"
"Oh one of them fish burgers"
"..."
"I AIN'T ANY OF THAT VEGAN SHIT"

Haha.

Now that wasn't what was very funny. What was very funny is what happened today, I can't post about it though as it is very specific (sorry, I would REALLY like to post it!). Maybe I'll put it in a post at a later date because the situation is still on going. Oh I'm chuckling now.

Tooth

2007-06-01T23:10:00.001+01:00

I knew there was something I forgot to mention in that last blog...

I was handed from a small girls purse, two £1 coins, a 5op and a tooth complete with dried blood in return for a kids meal. I let her keep the tooth with a vicious shudder and "I think this is yours....your change and tooth".

Ugh I washed my hands very thoroughly afterwards and when asked why I used about 10 squirts of soap I explained and got a "yeah thats pretty disgusting" from everyone in the kitchen.

Psychopath Pizza Hut customer

2007-06-01T22:48:00.000+01:00

Somehow I managed to miss probably the most angry customer ever at our hut a few days ago.

I got told about it so I don't know the full story but this is what I was told...

This woman had some issues with a pizza, apparently she'd be given the wrong one which is no problem for us to sort out, but for whatever reason...she decided to have "a spag attack" (that's how it was described to me!) and was then asked by a manager to calm down as there was not a problem with changing the pizza.

In turn, this lead to the customer getting even more angry and walking into the kitchen. It was no mistake that she walked in, there is a small door on the counter and the floor surface changes. She was asked to leave the unit or security and the police would be called, that she would not get her pizza swapped now and she can take the matter up with the RSC.

I am really annoyed I missed this woman, I'd would have laughed at her so badly and recounted every detail on here.

More lies

2007-05-31T17:38:00.000+01:00

"Can I have a pepperoni and Pepsi?"
"Do you want fries with that for an extra 21p?"
"Yes go on then"

So I get the pizza, fries and cup on the tray. I put the order through and give her £1.01 change from a £5 note.

Then..

"I asked for pepperoni, margherita and Pepsi"
"Oh right sorry...I'll charge you for another pizza then"
"AND I DIDN'T ORDER FRIES"
"Well I asked you if you wanted fries for an extra 21p and you said yes"
"But after that I asked for a margherita" (but no cancel of the fries..!!)

I couldn't be bothered to argue, so did a refund thing and dealt with it. But she was a liar.

Ordering ketchup and liars

2007-05-30T13:34:00.000+01:00

I don't really know why this bothered me so much but, it did:
"Can I have a pizza meal and ketchup?"
I just thought - why do you put the request for ketchup in the main part of your order? Most people ask for it after...the way you asked was like it was some form of side order.

Had a bit of an issue with the vouchers. The voucher is buy a single pizza, get another single pizza free. It is not, buy a pizza meal get a single pizza free. In the voucher booklet, you get two of the BOGOF vouchers. So when someone tells you they have had a free pizza with a pizza meal, twelve times in the last few weeks and no one has ever said no, I know they are lying. Unfortunately I can't call customers liars to their face, but when say "Are you calling me a liar?" it is tempting to say yes but infact I said "I'm just telling you the facts. We have been told what the rules are for the vouchers, maybe someone did it differently for you before but I will not do it this time.". They also claimed to havebeen in at the weekend and got a free pizza with a meal and said he was served by "an Asian girl". We don't have any Asian girls.

Oh and man in a mobility scooter came up to the counter. I say came up - he crashed into the metal sign at what I think must have been full speed, reversed and rode off to McDonalds without saying a wordbut with a red face. We stood there, first shocked and then bursting out laughing so I walked off to eat the jellies from dolly mixture. That was my day!

I spoke too soon

2007-05-24T22:27:00.000+01:00

I arrive at work..."Do you mind doing some potwash for a bit?" "Yeah no prob."

So I do that. The first load doesn't look too clean, so I smash the lid down again - it finishes, and the stuff is still filthy. Okay not a problem I think, I'll drain it and put it on a cleaning cycle. I pull out the huge plug thing, and wait. It wasn't draining, so I now have to get all this filthy 90 degree water out by hand. Well, with the assistance of cups and tupperware. I finally get it drained and the next stage is to pour a massive amount of bleach (it's dishwasher detergent) down it and prod with a large metal rod to get the grime out. I then see the problem, it has ran out of detergent and immediately after the person who asked me to do the potwash came over and went "Oh yeah...did I say it was blocked up and needed some more detergent?" "No you didn't" "Sorry" "It's ok you can't help it that you are special".

So I did that and it worked like a dream, in the process of that little issue, I cut my finger so I put a blue plaster on.

I then went to do 'cut' which is taking pizzas from the oven, cutting them and then putting them in the 'hot hold'...
In the previous post I mentioned about the lack of burns. Today though I burnt myself FOUR times, all on seperate occasions and in different places on my hands and forearms. I certainly spoke too soon in a similar fashion to bus driving and witnessing accidents.

Whistleblower

2007-05-22T22:01:00.000+01:00

I've just finished watching Whistleblower which was about the fresh food counters at Tesco and Sainsbury's.

Now I suppose I consider myself to be a bit of a whistleblower, but I've never had anything so terrible to report so it I'm not really much of one. I recognise a few of the situations featured in the programme, but hell fire that lot were pretty bad and a lot of it was the low down employees fault not management.

Temperatures of the fridges is one, we don't need to probe them as they have displays on them - plus we have no raw meat, but temperatures are recorded in what they call the 'Operations Checklist'. A temperature is taken from pizza, one for each deck of the oven and should be probed. In all honesty I don't often see this being done (mainly because I work afternoons/evenings) but I see the test pizzas in the fridge which must be kept and they are what I would call 'mangled'. You can tell whether or not a pizza is cooked - because if it isn't it looks crap - and again we have no raw meat products to get risky with. The ovens have temperature display on them and when it says 236C you tend to believe it, especially when you burn yourself.

We can't and won't sell out of date food. It is a rubbish idea to do that, especially at the minute because they are doing a review for the year which determines how much waste is acceptable for stores so wasting more is actually a blessing in disguise. Also - we are all fat dough boys and girls who love nothing more than to snack at least once an hour while working so we don't want OOD food either. Everything is labelled and has clearly marked dates, a PRMD label we call them. Product, Made, Ready, Discard which includes times, dates and initials. We don't change these labels to make food last longer. I know this for a fact. I'll bring one home soon and photograph it so you get an idea of what I'm on about but it isn't very exciting.

Now some of those cleaning and food handling methods were terrible - and I don't really think Tesco or Sainsbury's were to blame, it is lazy employees. It is their fault the water wasn't changed for hours on end (I think that is poor system anyway). It was their fault they decided to sell raw/cooked mince meat, if I was in their position I'd just chuck it away and f**k what the managers think because you followed procedures and they can't touch you for it.. If you don't think something is clean, then bloody clean it and make the customers wait - I do. If the floor looks a bit dirty, I'll mop it and the customers can form a queue. If I drop something on the floor I will chuck it away and no one ever queries this.

It doesn't take much work to keep our store clean, so it is infuriating to see such poor standards in the big supermarkets but I kept thinking all through the programme...if you think it is so bad, do something about it (ie - the correct way!) because that is the only way things will change and you can't be sacked for doing that. Oh well.

On a lighter note I forgot to mention that yesterday I was splashed with oil from the fryer. It is surprisingly less common than I thought it would be when I started and I'd say out of all the 100s of baskets fries I've dropped, I've only ever been splashed twice and escaped with no injuries. I wouldn't like work in a chip shop though...their fryers always look so much more uncontrollable, and we have the protection of ANSUL. which is fire suppresion system which costs a lot so I think it is good.

Sarcastic - me?

2007-05-21T21:31:00.000+01:00

Hmph, I was called sarcastic today by a girl, around 14-15 years old with her possy of 3 other girls who aspired to be like her. Now my voice tone slightly changed when she asked a stupid question, but it was not sarcastic. "Could you be anymore sarcastic?" - yes I could thanks.

Also, I saw someone skulking around - I was crouching down cleaning behind the counter. This bloke looked all round, necking into the kitchen, couldn't see anyone watching him - and proceeded to fill his McDonalds cup up on our machine. I popped up and said "Excuse me - you need a Pizza Hut cup for that" "K SORRY" and he walked off, with only a small bit of free drink.

Thanks for the comments on the kids meal, it has been suggested that it is changed by management, but, well they have just introduced the cheesy bites - and they haven't got the signage for that yet so we won't get a new sign for...years or never.

It could be read both ways!

2007-05-14T21:19:00.000+01:00

Ugh I had another arguement with someone today about the fries with the kids meal. Apparently it can be read 'both ways' - I understood the menu first time I read it, why can't most other people.

See what you think: click here

I was watching a colleague making the salads, and I noticed him throwing away what I call the 'heart' of a lettuce - the middle bit...and I asked him why...he said he didn't like it so he always throws it out! I always thought the heart was the nicest part.

A child was pouring his Tango, and Tango always has a huge froth/head/bubbles compared to the other drinks and his mother shouted at him "BE CAREFUL YOU IDIOT". He hadn't spilt anything until that point...but it made him jump and he made a bit of a mess on the counter and the floor. He looked at me with a 'sorry, shes the idiot' face - and she was.

Oh and I saw someone 'draining' their pizza of the moisture/fat which comes out of them when cut. This bloke had waited for a new pizza because I one I showed him he called 'too dry'...and then he was annoyed when it was too damp - not much we can do when fat comes out of the meat, and the moisture shows it is fresh.

New stuff

2007-05-12T22:14:00.000+01:00

Well full serve and delivery and launched Cheesy Bite Fondue, which looks rubbish to be honest - it isn't a fondue, it is a dip you put in the microwave.

So to go along with this, we (Express) are launching our own Cheesy Bites, which is pretty good because it means we will tag onto the TV advertising campaign FOC and also be able to yes when someone goes "Do you do them things...I saw them on tele - like bites??" Hopefully they will replace crappy garlic dough balls. But...it means everyone has to learn how to make them - what fun that will be - a group session of moulding dough! Now from the way I've been told it already, we have medium size pan dough, use it to make some cheesy bites round the edge and then - chuck the rest away - seems a bit of a waste, but they know best.

They are also giving us two new pizzas - BBQ and Garlic Crust. How they think we can do this with limited space both front and back I don't know...maybe we can install a food lift and utilise the upstairs a bit more? Yeah right. (A food lift would be fun though, squashing inside it and just going up and down all day.."Wheres ____?" "Hes in the food lift again"

I did know when the new stuff is being launched, but I forgot the date already :-(.

Shouting

2007-05-12T00:17:00.000+01:00

I was cleaning the lobby (area with drinks machines, icf, condiments etc) and I heard this:

"Oi doowahahahyaahahaywaywyahaknowhyughughtheykhnareclosed?"
I'm thinking - that voice seems directed at me...was what ever he just said to me? I look round and bloody hell it is.

"Sorry I couldn't hear you - are you ok?"
His face is blank, but with staring eyes.
"WHY ARE THEY CLOSED?"
"Eh?"
"I RANG THEM AND THEY SAID THEY WERE OPEN UNTIL 8"
"You mean ____?"
"YES WHAT ELSE WOULD I BE TALKING ABOUT?!! Do you know why they are closed?"
"No...I think they normally close at this time anyway"
"WHAT"
"I think they always close at this time"
"Well come on you should bloody know - you work there!" -
"I don't work there...I work here" as I walk in the little door to the other side of the counter.
"I KNOW THAT" (Reminder: he said I worked THERE as I was cleaning PIZZA HUT) "Surely you should know why they are shut?"
"No sorry"
"Do you have the managers mobile number?"
"No...we don't"
"COME ON YOU MUST HAVE IT"
I just blinked at him.
"ARRRRRRRRRGH ANOTHER WASTED JOURNEY"

I was left thinking - what the hell just happened there, I think I just got shouted at because the neighbours closed on time.

Also...about the till - they are forever finding excuses why they can't do it - this is coming from the people who supply the equipment who I'd have thought would be more than willing to get the job done for the ££££ Pizza Hut are willing to pay.

"Excuse me...."

2007-05-08T20:43:00.001+01:00

Approx 30 year old woman,
The end of the conversation about the kids meal...
"No it does come with fries - it says pizza OR fries and dippers"
"It says pizza and fries"
"It doesn't...sorry...you can buy them extra"

Off she goes - and fetches her mother (presumably)
"EXCUSE ME - THAT MEAL DOES COME WITH FRIES"
"NO it does not - it is PIZZA OR FRIES AND DIPPERS. ONE OR THE OTHER"
"IT SAYS PIZZA AND FRIES"
"No, it says pizza OR fries and dippers" - Pointing at the word OR on the menu.
"You are wrong"
"No really, I'm not..."
"Whatever - this place is load of rubbish anyway!"

I don't care what people think of the place really, but to have with was quite a long discussion/argument about the fries which no, you don't get, with me the person who works there. I can read the menu perfectly well unlike you and speak fluent English unlike you. Grr.

The bank holiday meant we were busy busy busy and understaffed but today it was dead dead dead. A customer asked me if we'd been busy - as he looked around the empty shopping centre.

Recently we have had a lot of management, and external people coming in and going "Yeah it's perfectly clean but I can't give you 100% because, well we just don't give them - so I'll knock off 3% because you don't have any coat hooks"

Also, the hot weather has bought out the gypos and chavs for ice cream and drinks
These are some of the problems:

Leaving the ice cream machine jammed on so it pours everywhere
Not buying an ice cream but using the machine anyway
Not buying an ice cream but using the machine anyway and just dropping it on the floor
Pouring sauce directly onto the floor
Putting ice cream in fry bags and then using them as 'ice cream bombs'
Using a McDonalds cup on our machine and then getting abusive when we say you can't
Swearing at us when we say, no, you've caused problems before so we're not serving you
Refusing to leave the store when asked - saying "It's public property I'll stay here if I want!". Yeah sure it is mate - public property Pizza Hut pay thousands of pounds a month for??

All of these problems have had to be dealt with by security who have removed people. It's so silly though, all of these problems over a 99p ice cream - but sorry if you are a prick and cause problems to us or the customers we want (ie. children using the ice cream machine not a possy of 15 year old dirty chavs) then we won't stand for it.

Sorry about my posts being about ice cream and the kids meal so often - it just happens so often!

Yum!

2007-04-30T23:11:00.000+01:00

I have had a visitor on this blog...from Yum! Brands Inc. in Texas. They were searching for 'Pizza Hut Free'

Should I be worried? Probably not.

Weeks

2007-04-29T20:38:00.000+01:00

"Till isn't working"
"Ok engineer there next week"

Next week
"Yeah it needs replacing."
"Ok"
"Will take about 2 weeks to order it"

2 weeks later
"Has the new till come yet?"
"No someone in admin forgot to order it, it will be with you soon though"

One week later - man strolls into the Hut.
"Hi has a big brown box with EPOS written on the side arrived?"
"No"
"Ok I'll come back next week then but before I go can I get a drink?".

Efficient service I must say, they don't operate in days - just weeks. We are still waiting for this till.

Nobody said it was easy

2007-04-27T21:36:00.000+01:00

A lady bought a single pizza, no fries etc - and then asked for tartar sauce. Tartar sauce with pizza - just plain margherita. Does anyone else think that's a bit weird?

A distressed lady then came up to the counter and asked for some napkins because she had "picked up the cup and the drink just went everywhere". I gave her a few and said that we don't clean up outside the store, so get one of the staff to clean up the rest. "Well I can't see anyof the staff to help!". I pointed to the three staff all wearing bright t shirts with the name of the shopping centre on clearing tables. Durr. Then I saw them cleaning it up, and the woman moved table. They were there for ages cleaning it up so it must have been a massive mess. Then she came back had a little rant about how flimsy the cups were. I explained the idea is you put a lid on them so they are stronger, she then ranted about how she didn't see the lids...they are right next to the drinks machine.

The hot weather seems to have made people go a bit crazy, I'm sure I've seen people wearing pyjamas.

Then at the end of the night, I was cleaning up some sticky substance from the wall and the music in the centre was The Scientist by Coldplay. It is the first time I've noticed the music to match my thoughts with "Nobody said it was easy..." when I'm scraping this stuff off the wall.

Refills

2007-04-26T23:23:00.000+01:00

We are shut, so I'm taking the nozzles off the Britvic machine for cleaning. I leave them on the side, the shutter is half down. I walk away to get the mop and the next thing I hear is "ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ" - the sound of Pepsi syrup and carbonated water spraying everywhere, including on the child who has come to get a refill.

I sold this family a meal about 20 minutes because closing time, so really they did have enough time to get at least one refill...

Then I go away and think "What an idiot.." and see the mother getting up and heading towards me. Oh god here we go.

"I want my refill!"
"Sorry the machine has been taken apart now because we're closed"
"But you advertise free refills."
"You can have refills up until we close - we are closed"
"But it says free refills up there."
"Yes I know - there is also an opening hours sign up there telling you when we shut..."
"Well I want a bottle of water then!"
"Sorry you can't have one."
"Why?"
"You haven't paid for it."
"I shouldn't have to"
"The free refill deal is available up until we close and we are now closed, so sorry there is nothing more I can do".

I walked off and could see she was still hanging round...probably thinking about trying to get a drink, or asking to speak to the manager. Bugger that! I put the shutter down right in front of her before she had time to react.... I think you had to be there to see exactly how this worked, but it was brilliant!

There was some more general weirdness but I'll post about that tomorrow.

General weirdness

2007-04-24T21:46:00.000+01:00

Hmm today my shift went quite quick, probably because it was half busy and the weirdos were out.

The first one I got was when cleaning the lobby area:

"Oooo this Pepsi is DELICIOUS!"
"Oh right...good...you can have refills"
"Wow - that is fantastic - this is the most delicious Pepsi I have ever tasted"
"Ok..."

What the hell was that about - the thing is, she was in her 50s and was actually being sincere about what she was saying.

The next one I had was about tea.

"What tea is it..?"
"Erm..its Twinings"
"God no, thats awful!"
"Huh?"
"That Twinings stuff is terrible."
"I'll just show you box so you can check.."
I get the box out
"PUT IT AWAY - HIDE IT - PUT IT AS FAR BACK AS POSSIBLE, I'll just stick with Tango please."

Another - what the !?

Then I had a guy from McDonalds who I spoke to just once before, came up and start chatting about how he'd had a beer on his break. Do I care? No - I don't even know your name - bugger off and flip some burgers.

Then I had a woman bark at me - like really shouting when ordering things. I can hear you thanks, no need to bark. She used no manners so I tried not to use any - but it is very difficult and I feel very rude when I don't - so she got "Thanks. Bye"

No I will not give you pepperoni on a kids meal. No you cannot 'upgrade' it. Don't moan at me, I can give you what is on my till and will only ever give you something not on it if I either: like or know you or you've waited a long time so need a bit of 'compensation'.

Oh and then at the end of my shift, these odd children came along and were attempting to do ICF themselves. Approx a 6 year old, lifting up a 2 year old to get the machine - she was really struggling and in the process making a hell of a mess. The parents are no where to be seen - arrrrgh!

100th post

2007-04-23T19:11:00.000+01:00

This is my 100th post...which isn't all that much...but then when I think it is - in total it is probably the longest bit of writing I have ever done.

Anyway - check out this blog...Mystery Guest Alert.

I like to be stubborn sometimes.

2007-04-22T23:18:00.000+01:00

This woman (I wasn't keen on her) has just paid for her meal. Then "omg" she produces some vouchers from her handbag.

"Oh yes...and I want this free dessert"
"Ah well I needed that when you ordered and paid because now I can't put it through. Sorry"
"WHAT"
"I can't give you the dessert because it has already gone through"
"What has gone through?"
"The order, in the till"
"Oh that is everyone's excuse these days! The till, the computer - just give me the pudding!"
"Sorry, but it does say on the voucher present at time of ordering. You have already ordeded...ok..."
"Well get your manager because I'm sure he can sort this out"

I go and talk to the manager, who I explain the story to in the back with some derogatory comments as well as discussing my hours next week.

"I asked him, he said we couldn't give it out for audit reasons"
"Well can I speak to him myself!"
"Sure..!"

"Hello - _____ has explained the situation to you, so unless you want to buy another meal you cannot get the free dessert, ok."

"Hmm well that is a load of bollocks!"

She went to sit down with the rest of her gypo family.

The same woman later:

"Can I just get a cup?"
"Yeah"
"Ok thanks"
"£1.09 please"
"WHAT?!"
"We charge for the cups...you can have as many refills as you want after though"
"This whole place is a load of bollocks!"

She slammed the cup down on the counter and went off.

Later on, we had a man with a moustache in. His pizza wasn't ready - but he seemed fine to wait for it. So it was in the oven, on a conveyor, cooking - nothing we could do, and by chance 3 of us were talking at the front while he was waiting. Then he flipped:

The manager was the one replying...
"What are you lot doing??? I have been standing here waiting for 10 minutes"
"Your pizza is in the oven..they take 6 minutes.."
"WELL MAYBE IF YOU LOT WEREN'T JUST STANDING THERE IT WOULD BE READY"
"Ok....."
"It isn't just 'oookay' - stop chatting and get my pizza"
"Calm down"
"I AM CALM, but I am getting fed up of waiting"
"Ahhh it is out now"

This manager doesn't have the best customer service skills, but that makes it all the more amusing.

Also, we have all got Pizza Hut Discount Cards now. They have punctuation errors on them of course - head office produced them.

eBay

2007-04-21T21:54:00.000+01:00

I wondered how long it would be until these appeared on eBay.....

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170103267782

Not very long anyway!

Maybe I should get a bundle and make some £££.

Searches

2007-04-17T22:13:00.000+01:00

I have this clever little tool, like many other Bloggers which records how people get to this blog.

A few are through searching the internet....and here are some of the terms they used to get here.

kids meal restaurant - yes, we have kids meals.

how to become a pizza hut manager - most of the managers have been promoted from lower positions.

isn't worth the hassle of returns - IT IS ALWAYS WORTH THE HASSLE!!!

securitas vehicle under attack - I wonder why.

pizza hut team member blog - a very precise search, bordering on scary.

pizza hut team member - another precise search.

alasdair murdoch pizza hut - he is the new-ish CEO, and he seems to be doing quite good!

pizza hut uk application form - get one from your local restaurant.

how old do you have to be to work in pizza hut? - 16.

Veggie berk.

2007-04-17T21:40:00.000+01:00

I started my shift with this:

"Veggie burger and small fries please"
"Erm.....ha...this is Pizza Hut"
"Yes and I want a veggie burger and fries"
"We don't do veggie burgers.."
"YES YOU DO - IT SAYS IT UP THERE - VEGGIE"
"Yeah, that's a veggie pizza."
"THATS WHAT I BLOODY WELL WANT!"
"Oh right because you said a veggie BURGER"
"I did NOT do such a thing"
"Okay........"
Then I went through the process blah blah blah.

Then I was cleaning some dirt of the little door, and I get "IS ANYONE GOING TO BOTHER SERVING ME???!!!!!!!!" She bought a tea which was 79p. I then watched her fill it with a hot chocolate which is £1.39. We give out smaller cups for tea, so if you have anything else we know. This happened, haha. I could of told her she couldn't have hot chocolate because she'd need to pay more - but watching her spill it was funnier. (She knew she couldn't have hot chocolate because I saw her trying to shield what she was doing.)

Ooo and we have the new menu. It is nice, upsells galore on it. The kids meal has got confusing. The chocolate pudding has got even more confusing. It is the exact same one as KFC have (we are both part of Yum! Inc). Now - guess what KFC call it - Baked Chocolate Sponge. This is exactly what it is. Pizza Hut decided to call it - Chocolate Mousse. They soon realised their mistake however, THREE weeks after...and they have now renamed it "Chocolate cheesecake, with a sponge filling, chocolate sauce topping and milk chocolate swirls". We have no idea where the cheesecake bit came from, there is nothing like cheesecake in it. So we have 13 words as opposed to 3 - you know it makes sense.

And those in charge have also, decided to give us some vouchers. We sometimes put them on the tray ready for a customer. You get some vouchers when you buy something. Please don't steal one, and then try to use it in the same transaction. When I tell you can't do that, don't come back in 2 minutes and try to use it - I AM NOT THICK.

Also, on the subject of me being thick - never try to give me crap foreign coins, because I notice everytime. No I will not accept this 20 god knows what, from god knows where in replacement for a 5p. Yes I know it is only 5p - but I don't care, if you haven't paid in full then why should you get the food.

Finally - I saw one of the water boys/chav/general horrid children getting an application form for another fast food outlet...aaaaaaahahahhaha even they won't have you - well not after our manager told their manager about you getting removed from the centre because you threw ice cream around in our restaurant.

So slow.

2007-04-13T22:36:00.000+01:00

Some people are just SO SLOW. I wanted to clean up the drinks areas, because it was dutty and I needed to stock up the lids. I was standing there for what seemed like an hour (probably 30 seconds) watching a prune getting a drink, then waiting for the fizz/bubbles to go down, because they'd gone a bit crazy, and then stirring TANGO.

Oh and on the subject of drinks I also over heard someone go "No don't get me the full fat Pepsi - get the skimmed one if they have it". Ok..

Then I went outside to dump some rubbish and witnessed a Securitas van being robbed. Ok it wasn't being robbed but it did have an alarm and was shouting "HELP HELP - security vehicle under attack - please call the police!". The driver was just standing there going "No don't call the police, the computer has gone wrong so I'm just waiting for the battery to die". He was so concerned about the alarm that he went to McDonalds, bought a coffee and sat down.

One last thing - how should I respond when someone goes "How big is a 6 inch pizza?". It happens everyday and I need something witty that won't get complaints.

Wallets

2007-04-11T19:31:00.000+01:00

People's wallets/purses are quite personal things. If you lose it, then you are probably buggered for at least a day, and more likely a week whilst waiting for things to come through...plus you might have lost photos etc.

Anyway, the reason I'm saying this, is because I served a bloke who was using an empty cigarette packet as a wallet. Hand all sorts of stuff in there...just seemed funny/mean at the time.

And in the same day, someone dropped about 10 passport photos of children...must have fallen from their wallet, we've still got them - so maybe they haven't noticed.

That's all really - bit of a gap filler!

Extra cheese

2007-04-04T23:04:00.000+01:00

Our new pizza:

'Pepperoni Feast Extra cheese, double pepperoni'

I've been studying the manuals and I can't get where they get that this pizza has extra cheese. It has half a cup on the bottom + half a cup on top. Thats one cup. All pizzas we make get one cup.

Hmm...

That's all I had to say!

WELL DONE

2007-04-03T21:16:00.000+01:00

This is my 92nd post. Soon I'll reach 100 posts...

Today a man asked for his pizza 'well done' like he's at some posh restaurant ordering fillet steak! I said they were already made, showed them to him - he liked them, so thats £7.98 in my till! Brilliant.

The brainiacs at Imperial Place are on to a winner with the new menu they've introduced. The Pepperoni feast is very popular, and the double your fries deal for 30p has increased average spend by around 20p - that's a lot of money each year for Pizza Hut..more bonuses for the managers, and if we're VERY lucky maybe some Capital Bond vouchers for us. They've nicked the Whitbread discount from us though, apparently we're getting a new Pizza Hut one - hmm!

I had another one of these idiots in who likes to complain about the prices. I don't set them, I don't care what you think to be honest about them - I get what I want for free or if I'm not working at the time, for 50%, so it will never be expensive to me thanks.

Basically the new menu has changed the kids meal...although it is better it has made it difficult for the simpler people to understand. I don't think this guy was simple, just a bit odd:

"I don't really think fries and chicken dippers is a very substantial meal for kid."
Thinking "Me neither" Said - "Oh...well you do get a drink, or have a pizza instead - and add a dessert for 50p"
"WELL IT IS ALL JUNK FOOD!"
Thinking - "YES IT BLOODY IS!!" Said - Nothing
"Well I want the pepperoni on the kids meal"
"You can only have margherita on the kids meal"
"WHY ON EARTH IS THAT"
"Because it is only £2.49 and it is a kids meal afterall"
"Well kids meals should be cheaper than an adults meal!"
"A kids meal is actually cheaper than buying a pizza on its own.."

They then told me what they wanted (oh yes he had a approx. 7 year old daughter with him)...

I told them it would work out cheaper if they had a pizza meal.
"WELL THAT WAS WHAT I WAS GOING TO HAVE - IT IS NOT FOR KIDS!"
"It is cheaper like that, and you don't get a toy or anything in the kids meal anyway"
"I think Pizza Hut in general is just ripping people off you know."
"Oh well, if.."
"THERE ARE PLENTY OF OTHER PIZZA PLACES YOU KNOW!"
Thinking - "Oh really can you name any other chain that has 700+ stores in the UK? :-)"
He then wanted a 'special' pizza making. In a FSR this isn't a problem, in Express it isn't really a problem either but I wasn't keen on him.
"We have 5 set pizzas so that the pizzas are ready instantly." I pointed to the "READY TO GO" sign while saying "This is Pizza Hut Express."
"This is bloody stupid. I am not going to eat what YOU want me to, I will eat what I want to."
"Shall I cancel your order?"
"YES - COME ON ----- WE WILL GO TO A PROPER PIZZA RESTAURANT!"

So off they went...probably spent about 15 quid in our neighbouring FSR!

Eww and finally, we had a group of 7 chav scum in today, I hate them with a passion now. They think because they've bought a 99p ICF they own the place and can demand what they want. When I said no they couldn't have a 4th spoon, they said "I'll report it to your manager then!" - ok you do that, he is the one who just turned off the ICF to stop you and your nasty dirty crew making a mess and being general scabs. Arrrgh.

Did I ever post about the guy who wanted his pizza wrapped in 2 boxes and 2 bags because he was afraid it would fall out, then was complaining that the boxes were 'crap' along with the fries which were 'shit'? I can't remember now...

I don't like it!

2007-03-26T23:04:00.000+01:00

Hmm a woman today. "Yeah I don't like this pizza and it is COLD!". I felt it, it wasn't cold at all so...should I stand there and argue about it or replace it? I replaced it, because I don't like to argue with old ladies cos they give you a particular look...

So she got another type pizza because she didn't like the one she asked for - right or wrong?

I've had a sneak preview of the new menus and it is great. We've got a new pudding...a new pizza...a new meal, all sorts! So any of you who go to Express (please comment if you do...and where it is if possible?) you'll be in for a change from next week, but nothing is being taken away - so don't worry!

PS: Glad most people like the new template :-)

New template

2007-03-23T22:44:00.000Z

I am sorry to keep changing the template...well actually I've changed it twice in about 7ish months but I feel a bit odd when I do change it.

What do you think of it now? I've moved away from red because that was like an advert for Pizza Hut and also the template from before because it seemed as though it was what a lot of people were using and unoriginal (although probably 10848494+ others use the new one too).

I hope you like this one...it is easy on the eyes I think but I would like your comments - is it an improvement?

Thanks :-)

Hairy

2007-03-23T20:52:00.000Z

I can always tell when someone is coming back to complain that they had found something in their food. It is different to the 'slightly jolly' face I would say most people who have received the wrong thing or it isn't hot enough. The finding something though, their face can be neatly summed up with a Google Image search of disgusted.

I had two in one day of the above. The first was "EEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR I HAVE FOUND A HUGE HAIR IN MY PIZZA!". It was rather funny because she had eaten all but one slice, and then bit into it to discover this "huge hair". It was infact short and curly...which I can only assume came from someones goaty in the morning! Apparently beard nets are now on order. A refund, an offer of more food (refused!) and a sincere apology later she'd gone but she probably will not return...

Then another lady came back. It was quite a nasty accusation which started the conversation. "I just bought these dough balls and they've got one of YOUR hairs in."... I could barely see this hair and I was going "Where is it??...Must be the light I can't see it...oh yes there it is, but it can't be mine...so do you want a replacement?" "A replacement hair?" A fake laugh and "Err dough balls or something else?". "No just a refund I've lost my appetite now". I gave her the refund. The thing was, the hair was inside the dough ball, which we don't make, we just put them in pans and through the oven. I was not involved with these dough balls at all but it was somehow MY hair!

Oh well, it adds a bit of variation and refunds are very simple. We have a complex system where...we give them the money straight from the till and then say "Yeah I had to give a refund because...blah blah". You then see it written in the column in the refund book - Reason - Beard in pizza.

PS: Exciting news for any of you who do visit Pizza Hut Express....the menu is changing VERY soon so look out for some new things. It is going to change now on a more regular basis, as the corporate geniuses seem to have woken up...that yes we do exist, yes we've served the same things for years and yes we are actual Pizza Huts!

PPS: I have added Arriva Driver Richard and Work Blogging James to my blogroll. Both of these blogs are worth a read.

Dirty

2007-03-21T21:27:00.000Z

Just thought I'd pop in and say..please don't hand me money when you hand is covered in mud. Don't get keep coming back asking for stuff which means I have to touch your hand even slightly again. And don't come in a group of 4 who all have the same filthy hands.

Stop hanging round a shopping centre eating ice cream for your dinner - GO HOME and have a WASH!

Oh and...if the shutter is down so far you have to about break your back and walk over my freshly mopped tiles to get in - no we aren't bloody "still serving!".

Hmm.

2007-03-18T00:11:00.000Z

Just as I thought I might start using my real first name, I discover...there are only 24 Express stores (out of 700ish) and the RGM is talking to me about blogs a hell of a lot!!!

I'm afraid I don't have any moronic customer stories as I have been working in the back which makes quite a nice change. Should be some next week (idiot permitting).