Pizza Hut - The Topic

[Toliver]

For those of you in Southern California (which includes parts of the Central Valley), did you know when you order food from Pizza Hut, they charge you a service fee? It doesn't matter if you order online or eat in or carryout your order. You get charged a service fee every time.

When placing an order online from the Pizza Hut web site, the service fee has a "clickable" link which causes a small window to pop up that says:

"Due to the rising cost of doing business in California, all transactions will be charged a service fee to offset this cost"

WTF?

So I Googled the service fee and lo and behold, the Southern California Pizza Hut restaurants (and Wing Street restaurants) are all owned by one company based in Orange, CA (click here for the info...I got the link from another internet discussion forum).

Because of this ridiculous service fee, I choose not to buy any food from them. If they wanted to, they could roll that charge into their prices and the consumer would never know. If they are trying to make a point with the service fee, they're doing it at the literal expense of their customers. 

I find it astonishing that they are getting away with this service fee.

Has anyone else in Southern California noticed the fee? How do you feel about it? 

[Yiannos]

I know this is totally unrelated, but I feel exactly the same way about buying tickets for things online, movies, concerts, etc. It just always feels like "Oh here's a buzzword we can charge you a few dollars for so why not?". I don't really visit Pizza Hut very much, and I'm in Nor Cal, but just reading this is enough to put me off them for good.

[hongda]

Up here in Portland, some restaurants have started charging mandatory gratuity, and additional "health care for employees fee"........ 

[Tri2Cook]

I'm sure nobody really thinks increased operating expenses get sucked up by the businesses. If it costs more to operate in one area than it does in another, that's going to be reflected in the cost to the customers. They can call it a service charge, a gratuity, a fee or just hide it in the prices but it will be paid by the customers one way or another. Is it the blatant "this is the reason we're charging you this fee" that's the problem?
 

1 hour ago, hongda said:

Up here in Portland, some restaurants have started charging mandatory gratuity

At the restaurant where I work,  during hockey season when there's a tournament in town, we have reservations for groups of 30 or more 2 or 3 times a day for the duration of the tournament. We charge a mandatory gratuity for those large groups. But a mandatory gratuity isn't part of our normal everyday procedure.

[kayb]

I'm used to and understand a gratuity for a large group. Don't object to it. I don't even mind a standard gratuity added in on all tickets, as I know some people just don't tip well. (I'd always expect to tip on top of the standard, for good service.)

 

But I also like the philosophy advertised by Mother's in NOLA (or at least it used to be), advising, "No tipping. We pay employees well. It's reflected in our prices. Please do not tip."

[blue_dolphin]

19 hours ago, Toliver said:

Has anyone else in Southern California noticed the fee? How do you feel about it? 

 

Yes, I've seen the fee and I do find it annoying.  I thought that the corporate office might have imposed price controls that prevented the owner from raising prices so a service charge was the only way to go.  However, last week, I was in New York State and noticed that the pizza was priced higher back there than it is here in So Cal, by about the same 5% as that "service charge."   Apparently this owner has chosen to do business in California but wants to publicly grouse about the state's business policies.   I'd prefer that he call it a "whiney-ass-cry-baby charge or go buy himself 224 Pizza Hut stores in another state. 

[MSRadell]

139

The other thing they can do while adding a service charge instead of increasing the price of the items themselves is advertise at a lower price. They may run a special that says something to the effect of "large pizza $9.99" which will probably draw more customers than advertising "large pizza $10.99" many people probably don't even notice that they add a service fee.

 

The other thing that's frustrating is the outrageous price they charge for delivery. In our area Domino's just went up to $3.99 for delivery. They say that none of that goes to the drivers so you need to tip them . If that fee doesn't go to the drivers that what is it for? There is really no other reason to charge that much for pizza delivery.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

My biggest complaint about Pizza Hut is they put ice in the beer.

 

[liuzhou]

2 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

My biggest complaint about Pizza Hut is they put ice in the beer.

 

Here they sell the red wine stone cold!

 

But no service charges or tipping!

Edited April 7, 2019 by liuzhou (log)

[Tri2Cook]

9 hours ago, MSRadell said:

The other thing that's frustrating is the outrageous price they charge for delivery. In our area Domino's just went up to $3.99 for delivery.

Delivery from any places that offer it where I live runs from $7 - $10 depending on whether you live in or outside of their chosen boundary. One of the local taxi companies offers a delivery service for places that don't do their own delivery (most places here do not). They go to the restaurant, pay for the order, bring it to you and then you pay for everything to them. They charge the meter which starts when they walk into the restaurant to pick up your order. Unless you live across the street from the restaurant involved and just really don't want to walk across the street, that delivery is never going to cost less than $10. The golden age of pizza delivery, free delivery and sometimes even free food if it took longer than promised to arrive, couldn't last forever. None of the expenses involved have remained static so it had to eventually become unsustainable.

[rotuts]

I loved free delivery back when , with 50 % off if ' late '

 

the pizza from Domino's  ( much better pizza back then )  was always a few minutes late.

 

what an odd thing to look forward to.

 

 

Edited April 11, 2019 by rotuts (log)

[Toliver]

"Pizza Hut is bringing back a fan favorite"

Quote

The Edge, a thin-crust pizza "packed with toppings all the way to the edge," is now available for $12.99. Pizza Hut first released The Edge in 1997 and it has made a few rare appearances since then, with the most recent re-release back in 2009.

I am not a fan of thin-crust pizzas though I have friends who swoon over it.

 

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