Customer Ordered Pizza for 4 p.m. Pickup, Arrived at 4 p.m. and Found Out the Restaurant Thought That Was When They Should Start Making It

A customer who goes by the username Chereche posted on the r/mildlyinfuriating subreddit about a recent 27-minute wait at a restaurant. The person explained that they thought of saving time by ordering two pizzas through a pizza restaurant app, but the staff had taken the chosen pickup time to mean that it was the moment they should have started preparing the order.

The post had drawn more than 9,000 upvotes as of publication.

The customer selected 4 p.m. as the pickup time and arrived at 3:34 p.m. but waited in their car until just before 4 p.m.

When the customer arrived at 4 p.m. and gave their name, the cashier said the order was not yet ready and that they had only just printed the order details for the kitchen. The customer then asked if the restaurant had a backlog.

The employee said there was no backlog and explained they were only now beginning to prepare the order because the pickup time was 4 p.m. The order was ready 27 minutes after the pickup time.

The poster noted that the pizza had been paid for in advance through the app.

The situation led to a more general conversation regarding how restaurants deal with scheduled pickup orders. Many of the commenters believed that the way the app was worded was the main problem. One of the commenters argued that if a customer chose a time for pickup, they should reasonably expect the food to be ready at that time, not that the kitchen would start making the order at that time.

One commenter said that a restaurant accepted a prepaid order for a particular time but only started preparing it when the customer arrived. In another case, a catering order had been placed in advance, yet they imposed a 30-minute wait because the restaurant had not prepared it.

However, some commenters explain why restaurants might delay preparing orders. If an order is prepared too early, the quality of the food can suffer, especially in the case of French fries and other fried foods.

Several commenters said some restaurant chains intentionally held off on preparing certain items until customers arrived.

The conversation also featured examples of the other problem, including a fast-food order that was ready hours before it was requested for pickup. So the food was cold when it was picked up.

For the OP, though, the difference between when an order was prepared and when it was ready for pickup was what caused their frustration. The customer had paid in advance and had chosen a time that the app described as the "carry-out time."

This article is based on a post shared in r/mildlyinfuriating on Reddit by user Chereche. The Daily Dot could not independently verify the events described, the restaurant involved, or the details of the app's stated pickup policy.