Papa John's, Eat My Coupon!

The BBQ Pit
1

Last night we wanted to order pizza. We had a coupon that we’d gotten with a pizza a few day earlier (yeah it;s a pizza week, what can I say). This was the coupon sheet that is glued to the top of the box. They sent it to us. The coupon lists an expiration date and the typical coupon info.

They wouldn’t accept it. You’re probably thinking that it was expired. Nope. It hadn’t started yet. They said it wouldn’t be good until Tuesday. What the…??? Well ok, that’s fine, but it was their mistake to send the coupons out early, and the coupons said nothing like “good from XXX to XXX” they just said “exires on XXX”
So I think they should have accepted the mistake and let us use the coupon. They didn’t. We ordered from Domino’s.

We didn’t get rude or yell or anything, simply said what we thought, they said what they thought, we said thank you and hung up.

2

Morons. I’ve only had their pizza once at a place that opened in Austin. It sucked.

3

I eat Papa John’s with some regularity, solely because it’s the only pizza place around that takes orders online.

Yes, I’m either too lazy to pick up a phone and dial, or too introverted to actually talk to a human to place an order. At least it prevents situations like the above.

I’d much rather have Godfather’s, though. Mmm, five-meat-combo deep-dish. I’d club a baby seal for one of those right now.

4

I unfortunately worked as a driver for them for 2 months. We did not have to collect the coupons. I cannot believe the manager would not let you use some other coupon in circulation. They basically have a few deals and just crank out coupons through various junk mails. Sometimes you can discribe the coupon and they will let you use it.

5

They knew the coupon we meant. They had glued it to a pizza box 3 days before. They said that the coupon would not be valid until after Tuesday. It isn’t my fault they sent it out early! And I looked all over the paper it was part of, and NOWHERE did it say that it wasn’t good until Tuesday.

Fuggers.

6

Papa John’s sends me coupons once or twice a week. I order from them once in a while and, in doing so, I’ve discovered something. The coupons are worthless! Every coupon they send me is for the exact same deal they are offering without a coupon! I don’t know what the situation is like elsewhere in the country, but evidently Papa John’s thinks people in Louisiana are pretty fucking stupid.

7

Well this was a kick-ass coupon… $11.99 for 2 large one topping pizzas. Fuckers.

8

Try calling the store back and complain to the manager. I’ve had pretty good luck with Papa Johns and they’ve been pretty responsive to complaints.

(And they have the best tasting pizza of the three major chains)

Fenris

9

I was driving by Papa Johns’ yesterday and ( Hi Opal) on the sign out front “2 large one topping pizzas $10.99”. Probably won’t deliver from Satellite Beach to your place tho…

We’ve had trouble getting Dominoes to accept our ‘Entertainment 2001’ coupons, (you know, those 2 for 1 books the kids bring home to sell for school). Oh well, I can alway walk up to Marios if I need a GOOD pizza fix.

later, Tom.

10

When my wife and I moved into our apartment she ordered a pizza from PJ’s and told them that she wanted to use her credit card to pay for it. When the driver showed up he forgot the credit card slider thingy and said he would return to run the credit card. After two hours she called to find out where he was and the manager told us that the pizza was free because it was thier mistake. In addition they sent us two coupons as way of appology. Almost two years later they have yet to phsicaly take the coupons when they deliver our orders so we have used them over 50 times each. Their $12 mistake has cost them over $100 in free stuff for us.

11

It’s Tuesday–you can use the coupon now! :::d&r:::

12

Back when I worked for Papa John’s, we would take our coupons (whether or not expired) as well as Domino’s coupons, and we almost never required proof of the coupon. We usually gave the “discount” rate at the time of ordering whether or not the customer said they had a coupon.

Of course, we also ran one of the most profitable stores in the Midwest. There’s something to be said for customer satisfaction.

13

Yeah, probably not. AIA doesn’t go all the way to Fairfax, VA does it?

14

I worked for Papa John’s for about six months as a driver, and another six as a manager. All I’ve got to say in their defense is that it is a total pain in the ass to get coupons enabled in the computer system. So even though the coupon is being sent out, the store manager may not have gotten permission to start the deal. Though in most cases, people bitch and moan until they get what they want anyhow, and the manager can use a “special” code for whatever discount they want.

[slight hijack]

Given that, I’ve got a lot of pent up anger for the people that used to order pizza from me. As Lexicon noted in a conversation we had, the pizza business is pretty much the only industry where you can get more than your original order for free if your order is wrong. If you go to Red Lobster and they give you snow crab instead of lobster tails, they’ll give you your lobster tails; not your lobster tails and two free meals at a later date.

[/slight hijack]

15

Computer system? We didn’t have one of those at the place I worked. :slight_smile:

16

…throwing a bucket of cold water on a rant…

Having worked in a supermarket whose very forte was issuing coupons which had limited dates of use before those dates kicked in, I have to side with Papa John’s on this one. Yes, I know it seems stupid to issue a coupon before the customers are allowed to use it. But many companies do it, for a very good reason.

Our supermarket chain, like most chains around here, put a block of coupons in the Sunday papers. Unlike a lot of the other chains, we sent out store coupons on stuff people actually wanted to buy, like soft drinks, ice cream, bread etc. These coupons were actually loss-leaders–intended to get people into the store where they might decide to buy full-price items. These coupons weren’t good until the following day, and were only good until that Friday. The reason? The management figured out after a while that if people saw a coupon for Pepsi, half the customers who read the newspaper would think, “Hey, it’s a Sunday, I’ve got nothing better to do, I’ll run down to the market to pick up a 12-pack.” And they’d just buy the Pepsi and almost nothing else–the store would lose money. Whereas, if the coupon wasn’t valid until Monday…

OK, here comes the cynicism. Our supermarket was banking on consumer behavior. So too is Papa John’s, but in a different way. If you use your money-off coupon, Papa John’s will lose some amount of their profit. Papa John’s is hoping that you will set the coupon aside and forget about it, just like our supermarket was hoping that customers would wait till the weekday and use the coupon while buying a whole bunch of other stuff. Well, that’s capitalism for you. And, of course, Papa John’s is absolutely within their rights to refuse the coupon. The coupon has begin and end dates for their promotion–outside of those dates, the coupon is invalid. It’s just as invalid whether it’s before the promotion period or after it.

OK, it sucks that they didn’t take the coupon. But don’t blame the delivery guy. He’s no doubt had it drilled into him, just like we had it drilled into us, that under no circumstances should you accept an invalid coupon. This tells you something about how Papa John’s treats its staff, though–apparently, they’d rather put their staff through some unnecessary confrontations to save a few bucks on customers not using their coupons.

I have to say that Papa John’s was in the clear to not accept the coupon. Their attitude, however, may leave something to be desired.

17

Except, of course, that the beginning date was NOT specified. If it had been, I’d agree with you. But I also don’t think that Opal would have started this rant, either.

18

Duke, your discourse would be on target, except for one thing:

Opal specifically stated that the coupon had an expiration date and no start date.

Under the laws I know on advertising promotions, the meaning of such a thing is that it’s good from the time you (legally) get it until the expiration date. Regardless of “store policy” or “corporate approval” or any other excuse anyone wants to insert. If I go to a business that promotes itself as being a branch, outlet, franchisee or whatever of a given company, and have a promotional offer (newspaper ad, coupon, whatever) that I received through a “proper” source (i.e., didn’t have 100 of them handed to me by my friend the printer; didn’t have an employee pass me a bunch of them sub rosa; etc.), then they are not only ethically but legally bound to sell the merchandise under the terms they promote it in their publication.

The sole exception would be a newspaper ad with an error in it and a correction prominently posted at the store. If some moron in the newspaper ad office lists a new Ford for $189.95 instead of $18,995, and the dealership gets a letter from the newspaper stating that the ad was incorrectly set in type and they regret the error, then they’re not obligated to give you a new car, a $10 bill, and a nickel for your $200.

In Opal’s case, there was no start date on the coupon; she specifically clarified that. It may have been employee error to send them out before the intended start date. No matter. The business is still obligated to honor them if they distribute them.

I almost started a Pit rant about a motel chain we’ve dealt with for 20 years who refused us a room at a reduced rate despite their advertising. Then found some extremely fine print on the ad that allowed them to do so.

Still ain’t gonna stay at the Cerise Eaves any more, though. Attitude in turning away customers will get you a lot of vacancies in the future.

19

I guess I wasn’t clear… We didn’t order pizza from them. We called to order a pizza, told them what coupon we had, they said they wouldn’t take it, we discussed it (it wasn’t even an argument) and we hung up and called Domino’s instead. No one delivered anything there was no delivery guy, there was no confrontation.

Also, there was no “start date” anywhere on the coupon, which I think should be required if they’re going to claim it doesn’t start until a certain date.

Also also, this isn’t like something that went out with newspapers, where you had to get it in on Sunday to get the max distribution. This was handed out with a previous delivery, taped to the box.

20

Here is the coupon btw…

The hole is where it was glued to the box, I promise it didn’t say “not good until tuesday” there though :slight_smile: