Meeting customers halfway can make things easier, but it only works when everyone sticks to the plan.

So, what would you do if you went out of your way to meet a customer, but they didn’t show up on time, and then made you drive all over chasing them? Would you push back because it wasted a lot of time? Or would you just go along with the flow, even if you got no tip?

In the following story, one pizza delivery guy finds himself in this predicament and decides to just go with it. Here’s what happened.

Customer wants to meet somewhere, doesn’t show up. Hilarity ensues (at my expense)

I work in a local pizza place.

On weekends, I’m an extra delivery driver if needed.

We’re in a rural area, so my boss is pretty generous with the delivery area. We’ll even meet customers at specific places (a gas station at so-and-so intersection) if their house is too far for us to drive.

On this night, he met a few customers at a predetermined spot.

Tonight, I had a couple of different deliveries to a specific meeting place. (10-minute drive from the store)

When we have these deliveries, we call them before we leave to let them know we’re on our way, so they know to head that way too. This way, ideally, nobody has to wait more than a couple of minutes.

This specific delivery said they’ll be in a black Silverado.

I pull in, and 30 seconds later, one of my deliveries drives up. Easy-peasy.

He waited twenty minutes before heading back to the store.

I waited ten minutes (things were slow, so I wasn’t in a rush), and called the number I have for my second delivery (black Silverado), and they said they’re a few minutes out.

Okay, whatever. I make decent money aside from tips, so I’m willing to wait a bit.

Ten MORE minutes later, I call again, and it goes through, but they have no voicemail set up, so I can’t leave a message. I called 3 more times, with the same result.

I called my store to let them know this customer had no-showed, and I was on my way back. (10-minute drive)

Then, the store called him.

I was halfway back, and the store called me. They tell me the customer is there, but in a silver SUV.

I said, “Well, I just waited 20 minutes for no reason so they can come pick it up.”

Then I get back to the store.

When I walk in, a manager is on the phone with this customer, and says we’ll have it out there in a few minutes. And apparently they’re in a silver SUV.

He had to turn around again.

I roll my eyes, then take it back to the meeting place. (10 MORE minutes)

As I’m pulling in, the restaurant owner calls to ask where I am because this customer just showed up at the store…

So I rush back (10 MORE minutes), and then they want to pay with a card… We don’t carry card readers… we have to call in to the store. (Seriously, does any pizza delivery place carry card readers?)

The whole thing was a mess.

Since we’re at the store, I’ll just run it inside to do it rather than call.

I get back, and the customer says, “Is it still warm? My husband is MAD.”

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Of course, I got no tip for this delivery.

Yikes! Sounds like that policy is a failure.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a cashier who was on break when she was physically dragged back to the register by a customer.

Let’s see what the folks over at Reddit think about what happened here.

This person suggests refusing delivery next time.

According to this comment, that’s why they stopped doing that very thing.

Well then.

These are good questions.

Time for a policy change. If the customer is not there, no one should be wasting that much time waiting.