Yellow Cab Pizza, Your Service SUCKS!

Most who read this blog would know that I don't usually succumb to emotional blogging outbursts as I'd rather avoid the drama that comes with going public with the crap in one's life. Perhaps I should change my blog's slogan/tag line as this blog really does not cover the whirlwind of crap in my life.

Anyway, there's one piece of crap that I just can't ignore. Hence, here's an emo post with the objective of voicing my dissatisfaction with the service (or lack of service) received a the newly opened outlet of Yellow Cab Pizza in Taipan, USJ 10. The outlet is from Philippines, btw and not New York.

Vic and I went to try this place out last night as we had passed by the other outlet in Dangi Wangi several times and were taken in by its interesting name and concept. So, we walk into the restaurant and decided to take away a 14-inch beef peperoni and mushroom pizza and some twice-baked potato halves. .

Time: 8.50pm
We were the only customers at that time and we were fairly certain that there were no delivery orders as the kitchen was dead quiet. The lady who took our orders was polite enough and we sat down and prepared for the wait.

Time: 9pm
Now, what is an acceptable amount of time one should wait for their food? I say 15 minutes for fast food and a bit longer for fancy pansy joints. So, the clock crept to 9pm... still no sign of life in the kitchen. Amazingly, all the cashiers, floor managers, waitress or cooks seem to be working in absolute silence. That is highly unusual for a kitchen where pots and pans make a helluva a noise.

Anyway, in walks this uncle. He looks like he is hungry. He goes up to the counter (it sorta resembles the one at McDees) and waits. He even picks up a copy of the menu and flips through it. He waits and waits. And no one comes to attend to this man, which looks like he would be ordering a lot of pizza for his family.

Now, look at the picture below:

This was exactly what was happening outside while the uncle was waiting to be attended by the counter. The employees were having a little R&R session outside. Maybe its a pep talk by the 'senior staff' in orange. Maybe it is a little gossip session about the company. Maybe it is a strategic management meeting on how to better serve customers. Whatever it is, they completely ignored the uncle. Now the patient uncle waited and when no one came to his service, he left.

You know what that means in the F&B business when a someone walks out unhappy without ordering anything? It means you have lost money and a potential customer!

Time: 9.05pm
The employee's little chill session outside is finally over (Btw, when we arrived at about 8.45pm, they were already seated out there). In walks in another customer. He orders a small pizza and sits to wait. Meanwhile we notice that our potato halves are being rolled into the oven.

Time: 9.10pm

We notice that our pizza has emerged from the oven. The guy in orange in the picture and the girl in the head scarf are attending to the pizza. They are supposed to remove it from the oven and place it into the box. Tie some strings around it and stick the menu on it.

So, the girl tries to do all that while the guy in orange, the senior supervises. Wanna know how we know all this? Apart from observing intently, we can HEAR them talking, giggling and flirting.

She says its too heavy and she can't lift it. He says to try. She says she can't. He says try. She says she can't. Back and forth.

Can you imagine how Vic and I felt?

I was so tempted to walk over there and pop the bloody pizza into the box myself!

Ok, so finally, she manages to put the pizza into the box. Next tying the string.

She tries and fails. He tries and fails. They giggle.

 The lady who took our orders comes in and helps the two screw ups. Also, throughout the whole process of packing the pizza, I watched as her headscarf which was not properly pinned up, fall repeatedly over her shoulders. I dare not imagine whether it touched the pizza. Our pizza is done and is placed on top of the oven, while we wait for the potato halves.

Time: 9.10-9.25pm

One more pizza emerged in the line up and the two lovers manage to get themselves utterly confused while attempting to read the tickets. The lady has to come in and sort things out. The guy who ordered much later after us gets his food and leaves. Vic loses his cool and walks up there to ask WTF is going on. I join him.

Us: Why is it taking so long?

Orange shirt guy: Oh, because the trainee is new.

(Bloody hell, train on your off-time. Not on our time! Notice how quickly he blamed it on the trainee? When he couldn't do it any better and had to get help from his colleague. Some kinda senior he is, blaming it on others. Worst still, he did not know how to address our complains and apologised half-heartedly which further infuriated us.)

Q: Why did the guy who order after us get his food first?

A: Because you ordered the twice-baked potato halves. It needs to be cooked twice.

(WTF? Does this make sense? So what if it needs to be cooked twice? We came first. Give us our damn food first!!!)

The kitchen has more staff than customers! I don't get it why it took them forever to come up with our food. The only answer I can think of is the absolute inefficiency of their staff. We waited for over 30 minutes for our food and during that time we saw one customer walk away and another who came later than us get his food! Seriously, if this chain were featured in Gordan Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, I can just imagine him pulling his hair and screaming, "You bunch of fucking idiots!"

Seriously, the senior management or franchise owners for Yellow Cab Pizza should look into this. Why do customers have to wait over 30 minutes for food when is not a full-house? We read the pizza preparation guide stuck to the wall and it clearly stated that pizzas should be ready in 15 minutes. Something is wrong and don't do what the orange shirt guy did by blaming the trainee. Don't blame your staff. It is the management who is supposed to lead and train. If the orange shirt guy sucked, its because he wasn't trained well. Or.. it could be that he just sucks anyway.

We often hear of crap like this happening, but it shouldn't be that way. We are paying customers and our time should be treated with respect. Professionalism should be maintained while working and it is absolutely embarrassing when customers have to bear witness to such horrible service.

BAH! This is a bloody good rant and it have to say, despite it all the pizza and the potato halves were pretty good. But there are no pictures because I'm pissed off.

Would I go there again?
No.

Would I eat their pizza?
Only if someone else pays.

Would I recommend people there?
No, but maybe their delivery service is less annoying. You wouldn't have to see morons at work. :)