Ridiculous charges, sandy pizza and pompous arrogance!
This evening we picked up the misleading "two for one" pizzas at Abby Pizza.
We ordered two medium pizzas, one was a half & half the other was ham and pineapple. Now remember these are 10" medium pizzas. The bill came to $29. When we questioned the price we were told the half and half pizza counted as two pizzas! Now, I've been buying pizza for over four decades and I must say I was more than shocked to hear that for the first time! Well we paid for our "two for one" and took them home. We set up the table, got the kids set up, father in law happy, and dug in.
It seemed that every bite had sand in it. You know what its like to bite down on a grain of sand, it almost hurts, sand doesn't break with your teeth. Unfortunate to say the least. I have been an Executive and Corporate Chef for the last 20 years of my career, I have international medals for Canada and let me tell you I have made a lot of pizza. I know that semolina or corn meal will toast into hard grit in a stone oven and sometimes can be unpleasant. That's not what this was. The biggest upset was still to come.
I called Abbys and spoke to a lady who was not eager to help. I mentioned we picked up a couple of pizzas and that we were getting sand in every bite. I was told "that's not possible". I said maybe you didn't wash your vegetables, maybe the mushrooms? She said "we just cut them two hours ago, that's not possible." She then went on to tell me not to use the word sand because there was no sand in the pizza and that I ordered well done pizza. I said I did not order well done pizza and was told to "get my glasses on properly" and "do you want to adjust your glasses."
First of all, I did not ask when they cut the mushrooms, I asked if they were washed because clearly something wasn't. Second, being in hospitality and fine dining for thirty years has taught me that the problem is not always the issue, its how you deal with the problem. Even though I was perfectly polite, this lady failed miserably at retaining me as a customer as she was one of the most arrogant and reluctant-to-help service staff I have ever dealt with. I was told that "Abby's has been in business for 20 years and we don't need you."
We just bought a house in the area and I tell you, I'll never be back to Abbys for pizza made with pompous arrogance and sand! read more