Dave Short

You know, I’ve used CampusFood a few times with varying degrees of success. They lured me in with a ‘free’ offer, where during a trial period you could have one item delivered to your room for free (less the tip for the driver).

And it’s convenient. I hate talking to people, because people can screw up. With CampusFood, all I needed to do was pick what I wanted. I could see my order in an itemized list, and even pay by credit card so I could get my food without any hassle whatsoever. Each delivery has been prompt and accurate — just the way I like it.

Until tonight. Tonight, I ordered a medium cheese pizza (on sale for $5.99) and two soda ($.99 each) for a grand total of $8.97 (there’s a one-dollar delivery charge). I have to confirmation e-mail to back this up; I didn’t just halucinate this price. I ordered this meal at 7:00. Having recently acquired a used PC, I figured I would clean my room and set up the PC while waiting. And that’s what I did. I cleared my card table, went downstairs and got a keyboard and monitor from the storage room, and hooked it all up. By the time things were clean and cables were connected, it was 8:00 and there was no sign from Papa John’s.

I gave it another half an hour and called them, perfectly reasonable. I hate confrontations (as you’ll see below). I asked where my pizza was, explaining that I ordered over the Internet. The young man (very polite) on the other end told me the printer jammed and my order would be here in half an hour.

It finally came an hour later, at 9:30. And apparently they charge me for extra time, because I was told the total was $13.22. Now, I could’ve caused a scene, explained to the delivery man that I ordered it for a certain price and that his price was about four dollars off. But of all the agents responsible, he is probably the lowest on the totem. So I had to go back to my room (in my naïvity I assumed that I could write a check for the amount the website told me and be ready) and write another check, this time for $15.50. I could have written it for exactly the amount, but it’s not the delivery guy’s fault. Delivery people rely a lot on income from tips, and I didn’t wanna punish him for what his highers-up are responsible for.

But that’s the last friggin’ time I order from either CampusFood or Papa John’s again. Between the two-and-a-half-hour delivery time and my fleecing, they’ve the both of them lost my financial support. The problem with automating something so complicated (eyes rolled fully into sockets) as the delivery of vittles is that the only person I directly deal with is least responsible for any screw-ups, and the other parties can each finger the each other for the blame.