Pizza Pizza delivery driver fired over offensive text messages to customer

A Pizza Pizza delivery driver was fired Thursday for sending offensive text messages to a female after he dropped off a $25.00 pizza to her condominium outside the guaranteed 40-minute delivery time.

“You shouldn’t get harassed over a late night pizza,” said 20-year-old Nadisha Mendes.

It was just before midnight on Tuesday when Mendes and her sister ordered a pizza from Pizza Pizza to their Thornhill condominium.

They were told that the food would arrive at 12:37 a.m. at their condo or it would be free.

When it hadn’t arrived by 12:40 a.m., Mendes called Pizza Pizza customer service to see if there was an issue with the order.

“My intention was not to get a free pizza, my intention was to pay, but it was 45 minutes, so what can I do now?” Mendes said.

While she was on the phone with the customer service representative – who told her the pizza would be free because it did not arrive within the timeframe – she heard a knock on her door.

When she opened the door a “disgruntled” pizza delivery driver appeared with the payment machine ready for her to pay. Instead, Mendes gave him the phone with the customer service representative on it.

The pizza delivery driver handed her the pizza and walked away without charge.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t the last time they would hear from him.

As they ate their pizza, they noticed multiple messages on Mendes’ sister’s cellphone – the one used to make the order of the pizza – from an unknown number.

“Oh my god, I am getting these text messages – look!” Mendes remembers her sister saying.

“We were shocked that a big corporation like Pizza Pizza would even hire people that were capable of doing something like this,” said Mendes about the text messages.

They blocked the driver’s number so he couldn’t message them anymore.

After speaking with Pizza Pizza customer service and having a district manager call to apologize, Mendes said she is concerned for her safety after someone could get that upset over a pizza.

“How are you supposed to trust Pizza Pizza anymore because who knows how many of them can text you now … they have your information?” Mendes said.

Pat Finelli, Chief Marketing Officer for Pizza Pizza, said that the delivery driver’s actions are “totally unacceptable.”

“I’ve been doing this for 30-plus some-odd years and it is totally unacceptable what this gentleman did,” Finelli said. The driver should never have texted a customer, that is why he was let go.

“To us, customers are king and they are always right,” he said. “We stand behind our guarantee and that is why the call centre even said whether she was right or wrong, just give her a free pizza.”

The district manager offered Mendes a $100.00 credit at Pizza Pizza, Finelli said, but that does nothing to alleviate her fears.

“It might sound silly, but I am genuinely scared for what could happen for me, for my life,” Mendes said. “This guy knows where I live, he knows what I look like … He went out of his way to do something like this just over a pizza, and now I am scared. What if he comes after me because he loses his job?”

Finelli said that he isn’t sure why the delivery driver was so upset about the pizza.

“He doesn’t pay for it. We absorb that as a company.” Finelli said.

Mendes said people shouldn’t feel unsafe when ordering food.

“It has left such a bitter taste in my mouth,” she said.