She found a bolt in her pizza

[Pizzacommando]

First post for me, thought I'd start out on a positive note

This happened a little over a year ago.

A woman called to complain, saying that she had found a bolt in her pizza. One of my lil minions took the call and forwarded the info to me (SM was on vacation in Hawaii). My first reaction was utter disbelief, and I thought it was just another scam to get free food.
Then she brought in the offending piece of pizza, and, sure enough, there was a bolt clearly baked into the crust!!
I was prepared for a full round of SCness while i appologized profusely, but much to my surprise, the lady was very nice and just wanted to let us know about the problem. She said she ordered from us frequently and had never had a problem before, but she understood that mistakes happen. I gave her a couple of coupons for free pizza and thanked her for her understanding, and she left happy.
I want to nominate this woman for sainthood.

Pizzacommando

[Cat Herder]

Because somebody had to:

"I've found a bolt in my pizza."

"SHHHH! Not so loud, or every customer will want one too!"

[Slave to the Phone]

I love the oil change place I use. There are 3 other oil change places in about half a mile, so I want mine to do well. A couple of years ago, when I had the oil changed, the tech left oily fingerprints on my car. No biggie, I just wiped them off, then realized that oily fingerprints might cause other people to go somewhere else and my oil change place might go out of business. Its a very competative business.

I called the manager and explained that I didn't want freebies, I just wanted him to remind the techs to be more careful. I didn't really want to tell him which tech worked on my car because I didn't want to get anyone in trouble, these things happen.

However, I had started my call by giving the manager my full name. The next time I went in, the tech pulled up my info and told me that I had a $20 credit that I could use or save.

I promptly went home and wrote a glowing email to the head office (not mentioning credit or oily fingerprints), about how happy I was with the service and naming a few people by first name and using words like polite, friendly, helpful, cheerful and professional.

They replied with a letter that didn't look generic and gave me a code for $20 off my next oil change.

I guess head office forwarded my email to my oil change place because the next time I went in, the manager thanked me and comped my whole bill.

Nobody else will ever touch my car and I always recommend my oil change place over the others.

Your pizza lady will also tell everyone about how great you are. Its a win-win for everyone.

[Jester]

Is it just me, or does anyone else think that, if it were them at that pizza place, they would have made a point of having someone who knew about these things take a close look at the oven, to make sure it wasn't, you know, MISSING any bolts.

Because the things that hold the oven together might be rather important for future pizza-making.

That, and it's just bad form to be adding unwanted toppings to pizzas. Especially when the toppings are of the hardware variety.

[sms001]

Pizzacommando - I'm so glad to have a chance to write about this!

I worked in a little pizza place that made its own crusts. Came in one day and the manager pulled me to one side. "Had a couple of customers in last night who found this in their pizza..." and shows me a slice with a good size piece of latex glove BAKED INTO THE CRUST.
Fortunately, he was of the "Fix the problem, not the blame" school, so after we sorted out what had happened and how to prvent future mishaps I asked about the details, fully expecting an SC blowout of epic proportions.

Turns out the customers got their pie, had a few pieces, then noticed the offending item. They quietly called their waitron over and pointed it out. She was more shocked than they were. She said we'd comp their bill and make them a new pie and reached to take the bad one away. The customers INSISTED that they get nothing comped, told her to just put in an order for the next smaller pie, and then proceeded to eat the unaffected slices.

Don't know if I woulda done the same myself even, and I've been in food service a long time.

They were apparently very mellow, understood how mistakes happen, weren't revolted by the resemblance of the foreign object to something MUCH less appetizing and really just wanted to make sure their favorite pizza place didn't have a big problem.

Too few and far between these days.

[ralerin]

When my parents owned their sandwich business, I lost a bandaid/plaster in a sandwich I was helping to make, once. Luckily, my parents discovered it before the sandwich reached the public.

Also discovered a crushed mosquito inside a roll of industrial grade plastic wrap.

Oh yes, a nail in a slab of roast beef.

A piece of plastic wrapping inside one of those processed turkey breasts, the kind made of pressed meat. We had to pick the plastic out of each slice of turkey.

What my dad thought was an old tooth inside a caramel pop once, but was a chunk of unmelted sugar.

[ADeMartino]

Is it just me, or does anyone else think that, if it were them at that pizza place, they would have made a point of having someone who knew about these things take a close look at the oven, to make sure it wasn't, you know, MISSING any bolts.

Because the things that hold the oven together might be rather important for future pizza-making.

That, and it's just bad form to be adding unwanted toppings to pizzas. Especially when the toppings are of the hardware variety.

I'm betting, personally, on the dough mixer as the source of the wayward bit of hardware.

[PepperElf]

I'd also recommend looking at your equipment - especially the oven. Make sure nothing else is coming loose.

Is it just me, or does anyone else think that, if it were them at that pizza place, they would have made a point of having someone who knew about these things take a close look at the oven, to make sure it wasn't, you know, MISSING any bolts.

I swear I didn't read your reply before I wrote mine! But yeah... and if a bolt is missing, what was it holding together?

[sstabeler]

I'd have thought the dough mixer would be a bigger concern if it was falling apart, ADeMartino, since there are likely more ovens than dough mixers. If it's an oven, they can probably go without while one oven is fixed. if the dough mixer has fallen apart...

[PepperElf]

ooh good point. it's been over 20 years since I churned out pizza. i forgot about the mixer.

[Pizzacommando]

We found out that the bolt had come from our dough rolling machine when some repairs were done to it.