Our first issue with Sbarro came during Ramadan last year. We ordered it for Iftar and the entire order came wrong. The entire thing. My husband had even ordered from their set menu and it was still wrong. It was also the worst time for something like that to happen. After my husband had been fasting all day, this was the last thing that he wanted to happen. But we understood that mistakes can happen, especially when they are busy.
A couple of months ago, we tried Sbarro again. I ordered the broccoli and spinach stuffed pizza, among other things. The manager of the restaurant called shortly after we placed our order and said that they were out of spinach and was just broccoli fine or did I want something else. We told him the broccoli was ok. The pizza came with broccoli and pepperoni and sausage. I am a vegetarian. That’s why I ordered the meatless pizza. We gave it back and found another plan for dinner.
Last night, we felt like Sbarro again. Their prices are actually not bad and the food is good when it is right. We ordered at 6:45. First, ordering was a bit of a hassle. I wanted pasta with just plain sauce. They tell me this does not exist. Finally, I ordered baked ziti without cheese. We ask for garlic bread, they don’t know what this is, even though they sell it! Nevertheless, we check the order and it seems ok. Then we wait.
At 7:15, the manager calls to review our order. He says they are preparing it now and it should be there soon. We wait again. Keep in mind that the restaurant is on Pyramids St and we are just off of Faisal. At 8 o’clock, the food still hadn’t arrived. We call the restaurant to check and the manager says there is a delay because of the rain. We say okay and stick our heads out the window. Did we miss the rain? No. There is a sprinkle, that’s it.
We wait a little more. 8:30 we try to call again. We called the number that called us to check about our order the first time. There is no answer. We call Sbarro’s general number. They tell us the order is out and hang up. We try to call back and there is no answer. We decide five minutes and that’s it.
Five minutes and nothing happens. We switch phones and call and cancel the order. You would think that they would be somewhat apologetic, but instead they cop a bit of an attitude. Firmly, we say no, that’s it and order from another place.
9 o’clock. Ding dong! Sbarro is here! We tell the delivery guy that we already canceled the order. He is incredulous. “Is it because of the wait?” Hmmmm….
5 minutes later, the phone rings. It’s the manager that wouldn’t answer us before. All he says is that his delivery guy is there and is there any hope that we will take the order. Any hope! What do you think we said?
It still surprises me sometimes that the idea of customer service is so different here. We waited over two hours and the restaurant didn’t seem to care. As a result, we certainly won’t order from them again and I can’t help but wonder how many other people are doing the same thing.