Fun with Papa Johns Pizza

Morning everyone! I was going back through my email inbox the other day and came across a little email conversation I had with papa johns pizza. The back story to this email conversation as follows. I went to order some pizza at the papa johns website (obviously) and there was an offer on there giving new customers 50% off. Brilliant I thought, I'm a new customer, I'll have some of that action. Only after I click on confirm at the checkout, the price reverts to full price. I call the store and ask them why the deal has come off my order. Apparently somebody at that address has ordered before so I can't be considered a new customer...and here we pick up the email...

(My emails in italics, their emails in bold)


Hi,

I've just moved into a new flat. When I tried to place an order using your first order gets 50% off voucher code displayed on your website, once I clicked confirm it had changed to full price. When I phoned the store (Barnet), I was told that because someone has ordered from that address before, they couldn't do 50% off. And there was no way of overwriting this. 
This is surely ridiculous?! You can't apply this offer to people who live in shared accommodation, or even people who move into a new house, if the people before them have ordered to that address before?!
In the end, I got so annoyed at being told that even though I was a new customer, I couldn't take advantage of the offer because at some point in the past, somebody has ordered to that address, that I cancelled the order and went to the pizza hut website instead.
Surely the must be some way round this when placing an order online?
Please let me know, as I have heard much about papa johns, but as of yet, have not experienced your pizzas!
Chris

Hi Chris,
Thank you for your recent email.
Unfortunately the terms and conditions of this promotional offer are strictly one per household.  We do have many offers online, such as the two for Tuesday, which will give you the same, or similar discount as the 50% offer.
Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience that this may have caused you and do not hesitate to contact me should you require any further information.
Regards,

I has pizzas!

Hi,
Perhaps your marketing department could consider the following: I personally think you should check against email addresses that have been used to place orders before, rather than addresses, as it doesn't make sense to penalise someone who moves into a new house/flat and cant use the discount because a previous occupant has ordered before. Or at the very least, on your website, don't accept the voucher code on one page of the basket process and then allow the customer to click confirm only for them to see that it has not actually been accepted. I noticed and phoned the local branch, but not everyone will, and could end up arguing with the delivery driver over a website error.
As for your two for Tuesday, I appreciate that it effectively is the same discount, but it is a discount that is only in force on a Tuesday. I don't want 2 pizzas on a Tuesday.
As I mentioned in my first email, I went to pizza hut, and even though you are all roughly the same price at the end of the day, this non-offer has annoyed me so much I'll just stick with them in the future.
Regards

Hi,
I appreciate your frustration regarding this offer, however if we allowed new customers to be noted on our system by a new email address then there is nothing which stops customers creating new accounts on our system and taking advantage of this offer on multiple occasions.
We do run many different offers, both instore and online.  The advantage of our online ordering facility is that if you sign up to Papa's Lounge, each online order you place accrues loyalty points.  Once you reach 300 points then this is exchanged for a £5.00 voucher, which can be used in conjunction with other online offers and there is no limit of £5.00 vouchers that you can use on one order , you just have to have a minimum spend of £8.99
Once again, apologies for any disappointment that this may have caused you.
Regards,

Hi,
I don't want 2 pizzas on a Tuesday and I definitley don't want to sign up for a loyalty scheme! Please stop ending your emails with marketing offers that I am clearly not interested in. Either solve the problem I came to you with or not! Your replies effectively read like this to me:
----------
Dear Nuisance Customer,
I see what your saying but life's not fair and I don't really care anyway, heres some marketing bumft that will hopefully make you shut up!
Getting bored now, random apology line,
Piss off, 
Random Employee
----------

Fair enough with the email address and the taking advantage multiple times thing you mentioned, but why could the store not overwrite the offer when I called them up? The man on the other end was effectively just saying "computer says no". 
How about this: 
-The error is thrown up on the website
-A message is displayed asking the customer to phone the store
-Customer phones store, explains problem
-Store then logs customers phone number in system and gives 50% off
-Pizza delivered. Good times
(Some weeks pass, customer tries again to get 50% off)
-The error is thrown up on the website
-A message is displayed asking the customer to phone the store
-Customer phones store, explains problem
-System notifies store employee that phone number is already in the system and this is not a new customer
-Pizza delivered at full price. Fair times.
This way you are not alienating potential new customers like me by telling me I'm not a new customer because someone used to live in my property that once had a papajohns pizza and you're not endangering your delivery drivers because of a faulty website.
Fear not, my consultancy is free. But should you wish to acrrue loyalty points from our little emails you can swap them for some pizza hut vouchers on a Tuesday at 12:01 and 57 seconds exactly. 
Once again, apologies for any internal anguish this email causes you.
Chris

Hi,
Once again, I understand your frustration that you can't have this deal. But there is nothing I can do. Thank you for you suggestions, I will pass them on to our marketing department.
Regards,

Hi,
Sure you will.
Chris

Hi,
Enjoy your pizza hut
Regards


You can tell the point I got bored of not getting anywhere and thought I'd have a bit of fun with them. And maybe educate them for future customers! Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this little diversion from the gym stories. Don't worry, they'll be back next time they're being cretinous. Leave a comment, let me know what you think.

Chris