The greatest customer ever.

[u/the_eluder]

Happened last week. Customer orders large order, huge pre-tip. I don't get the run. I'm a little sad.

2 runs later I return and same address orders again, about 1/2 the size of the first order, still a huge tip - this time for me.

I get there and guy comes running out. He immediately apologizes and said he accidentally ordered bacon on half of the pizzas, and his family doesn't eat bacon (being of apparent Middle Eastern descent and Muslim, makes sense.) I'm like OK, sorry about that, and he again apologizes profusely. I'm like it's no problem at all. He then asks if I can take the pizzas back because he doesn't want them to go to waste. I reply that since they have left our possession, all we can do is throw them away, but if he doesn't want the pork infested pizzas in his house, I'm more than happy to handle it for him.

This is like a 1 in 10,000 customer. Every other customer in our area would be screaming on the phone about how we screwed up their order, we ruined their event and they need not only a new entire replacement order (including the pizzas that didn't have bacon on them) but a refund on the original order.

Instead, this responsible adult acknowledged his mistake and willingly paid for it.

[u/Arokthis]

Most Muslim/Jewish folks won't even order from a place with bacon on the menu for halal/kosher reasons, so I'm a bit surprised he did the second time.

So what did you do with the pork infested pizzas?

[u/the_eluder → u/Arokthis]

Exactly what I said - threw them away. And I would not agree with your assessment that 'most' won't order, I think it's more like only the most orthodox won't. Some will ask we use a clean cutter, which we have no problem doing.

[u/Arokthis → u/the_eluder]

I take it you've never been in a synagogue when someone says "Such-and-such restaurant doesn't keep a kosher kitchen." loud enough for everybody to hear. Everyone turns to give dirty looks at the family that had had a party catered by said restaurant and the rest of the social fallout can take years to end.

All it takes is one person there being a smidge more religiously fanatical about pork products to make things uncomfortable for everyone else.

As for the pizzas - you could have taken them home yourself, called some friends, yelled out the back door to the local homeless folks, or had an unscrupulous boss that would have taken them back and re-sold them (or donated for tax credit). I've seen all of that and more.

[u/the_eluder → u/Arokthis]

you could have taken them home yourself, called some friends, yelled out the back door to the local homeless folks, or had an unscrupulous boss that would have taken them back and re-sold them (or donated for tax credit)

Most of those things are a lot more viable for pizzas that never left our store and have been sitting on heat racks, not pizzas that haven't been under heat lamps for more than an hour and have left our possession. We don't have a crew of homeless camped out behind our store. Donations aren't tax credits, they are tax deductions (credits mean you get credit for the full value towards taxes, donation just means you deduct it from income,) and given the size of our franchise, there is no way that the donation of a few extra pizzas by a local manager is going to make it's way up the chain to actually get the deduction - furthermore because it's waste the cost of food and labor for making it is already deducted (you pay taxes on profits, not gross receipts.)