Any job where you work with strangers every day has the potential to reward you with either the funniest or the most horrible experience of your life.Delivery driversare no exception. Apparently, there are1.4M delivery driversin total in the U.S. It’s hard to say what percentage pizza delivery people make, but their adventures with customers can probably qualify as the most extreme.At least it seems that way after scrolling through these stories. And the stories come from ther/TalesFromThePizzaGuysubreddit. The community is a place forpizza deliveryguys and gals to share their insane adventures on the job. As the description notes in a suitably punny fashion, it’s the one subreddit “where the OP always delivers.”This post may includeaffiliate links.
Any job where you work with strangers every day has the potential to reward you with either the funniest or the most horrible experience of your life.Delivery driversare no exception. Apparently, there are1.4M delivery driversin total in the U.S. It’s hard to say what percentage pizza delivery people make, but their adventures with customers can probably qualify as the most extreme.
At least it seems that way after scrolling through these stories. And the stories come from ther/TalesFromThePizzaGuysubreddit. The community is a place forpizza deliveryguys and gals to share their insane adventures on the job. As the description notes in a suitably punny fashion, it’s the one subreddit “where the OP always delivers.”
This post may includeaffiliate links.
Let’s send the 19 year old girl to the high crime area, what could go wrong?I delivered pizzas for a chain when I was 19. I didn’t have a cellphone at the time, but this event spurred me to get one. I was a day driver mostly, and I was working for probably a couple months at the time. I get a delivery for a street that apparently has a lot of crime. One of my managers instructed me to only carry $15 in change, and to call 911 if I needed to. I reminded him that I didn’t have a cellphone. He said “That’s okay, just scream 911!” So now that I was nervous, I set out for my destination. I get out, lock my car, and deliver the pizza with no problem. Breathe a sigh of relief, go to open my car and… I locked my keys in my car. Some of the neighbors were out playing basketball in the street, and saw me. One of them lent me a cell to call the shop. The one manager that could help me, had driven into work on his motorcycle, so he had to drive home, get his truck and tools. When he asked me where I was, his response was something like “c**p, there of all places?!” So yeah, instilling more confidence in me/s. But in actuality the people on the street were very kind. Various conversations ensued, like “How good is your insurance? We could just break a window.” And “Hey man, couldn’t you break into it for her?” “Naw man, it’s been years since I’ve broken into cars” . I didn’t want to pay for damages to my car, because I did not know what the insurance on the car was. So they just kept me company for the couple hours it took for my manager to arrive with tools to open my car. Drove back to the shop to clock out for the day. Any time I drove through that area after the incident, the locals waved at me. It’s one of my favorite memories from that time.
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A small kid (7-8 years old) answered the doorUsually, when kids answer the door for pizza it sucks because their parents don’t tell them to tip or how to tip on a receipt. Well a little boy answered the door for a delivery I took the other day, he was really young, like 7 or 8. Had on a bright red shirt with a dinosaur and everything. He proceeds to hand me an extra five and says “Keep the change” and when I say thank you he waves it off. I hand him his pizzas and he inhales like he’s smelling them and says “This is going to be great after the day I had.”TLDR: I think I delivered pizza to a 2nd grader with a stressful job and a mortgage.
Kid tries to give me $100 for a Personal PizzaSo, first post on here. I’ve been delivering for about 3 weeks now, and tips are either really bad, or pretty good. I go to the door and a kid answers, his mom is in the back. I tell him his total and I’m pretty sure he was just happy to pay for something because without hesitation, he hands me a $100 bill, claps, and runs to his mom to tell her he payed and runs back. I don’t notice it is $100 and thought it was $10 so i walk back to my car, and see the bill he gave me has that blue line and gold 100 on it. At that point I got really happy, but realized that I felt guilty if I left. I go back and the mom answers and looks really confused. I show her the bill and said the little boy gave it to me. She called his name and he said he got it from her purse. She told me she was so glad that I gave it back and that it was supposed to be for their groceries that week. In the end I got a $3 tip, but at that point I didn’t mind since I just saved a family from going hungry for a couple days.
RIP to One of the Best Customers I’ve Had in a WhileWhile I never had the chance to delivery your food to you at your home, you did come into the Pizzeria weekly (sometimes every other day). Everytime you’d come in, you’d ask how Black Betty Boop is running (I named my SUV Black Betty - yes I’m aware it’s a song lol). You always asked about how I was doing. How my SUV was running. You even took the time out of your day, to go through your SUV (we had the same SUV until he upgraded and got a new car), and pull all the fuses and relays to give to me for Christmas, knowing I may need them. Well I definitely needed them, a few days after your gift, my high beams stopped working due to a relay…. lol..You’d ask my suggestion for food and tell me you want a big blue Pepsi to drink on the side, knowing we only served Coke products. You’d bring in your own can of Pepsi and even just fill it with Coke for the s**ts and giggles. So today, I had the kitchen make me a cheesesteak with mozzarella cheese instead of american, just like you once asked me what to eat.I’m gonna miss the times when you’d come to the counter to pay, and as I go to grab your money, you’d pull it away quickly, teasing me practically. You always were a jokester. I’ll miss the folded up triangle bills that you would hide in my tip cup when I wasn’t looking. Everytime you came around, you always brought a smile to my face, to all of our faces here. You were humorous, and caring, and so so generous to everyone.So to one of the best customers I’ve had, Bill, I wish you peace and bliss in your afterlife. We will miss you. We couldn’t believe the news when we were told. We had just seen you on Thursday before.Rest in Peace, my friend.
Hug from cute little girl because I delivered her pizzaIt was a 7 mile delivery, order was $37.36, gave me a $2.64 tip. Gave the dad the food of 4 boxes. His hands were full so he asked his 3 year old daughter who was with him to close the door. He walks away and I stay to make sure she can close the door. But she runs out to me and yells in her little squeaking voice, “I don’t forget to hug you!,” hugs me, then runs back inside, closes the door and screams “pizza!”. That made up for the small $2.64 tip.
Huge big stoner teddy bearI do pizza delivery as my second job. I live in Australia. And, well, I work here too. 40 year old male. Just giving context.So this happened last year some time.I get a delivery for a place I haven’t been to before. I get there, and knock on the door. A huge hairy bearded mother fker opened the door. I could smell the pot smoke as soon as he opened the door. (Which is not at all unusual.) When he saw that I had pizza, the grin that spread across his face, well, it was infectious.“Guys. Pizzas here.” he called.He took the pizzas. He paid. He then asked if I had any menus. “Sorry man. But if I’m coming back past this way I’ll drop one in.““No stress dude. All good.“I don’t end up going past there that night. But the following week I get a delivery on the same road. So I make sure to grab a menu. I call in there on my way back to the shop and knock on the door.After a moment the door opens a crack and he peers out. “Ahh, I delivered pizza here last week and I have a menu.“That grin again.He opened the door and called “Hey guys. It’s the guy who delivered our pizzas last week. And he’s got a menu.” As far as he was concerned, I was the greatest guy in the world. He said if I ever needed any weed to let him know.A couple of hours later I was delivering to another place and the instructions were to go to the shed out the back. I knock on the shed door and open it. There’s some guys sitting around a table playing poker including my new friend.“HEY.” he says. “It’s my pizza dude.” He then gets up and gives me a huge hug. I had no choice. I had to hug him back. And it was good. He then proceeds to tell the rest of the guys how awesome I was for remembering to bring him a menu. They just smiled and nodded as if they were thinking “Man. He’s so fking stoned.“Anyway. That made my night. I’ve delivered to him a few other times. And he is always cool and friendly.I’ve got other stories that I’ll share over time.
Delivered To A Dead GuyI’ve been delivering pizza for over 20 years for the same Pizza chain. About 17 years ago I was delivering to a regular. He ordered every week a medium all meat pizza. He was always waiting for me on the steps when I got put of my car.I got to his house and he’s not waiting for me. I see his front doors open so I know he’s home. I tried to find him in his yard because I hate redelivering. Then I decided to see if I could see through his picture window if he was maybe asleep on his couch. Sure enough I see him on the couch. Then I noticed he’s not breathing.I ran to the door and opened the screen and went inside and watched his chest to see if he was breathing. He wasn’t. I grabbed his house phone that was on the coffee table and called 911. I had a Nokia cell phone but I was panicking and didn’t think about it.I waited for the cops to show up. I stayed on the line with 911 until they got there. I knew they would want to talk to me so I stayed around. The phone rang in my hand I thought it might be the cops or somebody else so I answered. Turned out it was the dead guy’s brother I didn’t tell him his brother was dead I just said he should come now.I stayed around for probably about 2 hours talking to the cops telling them what happened talking to the brother when he came talking to his girlfriend and a grief counselor that was riding along with the paramedics.When I called my manager and told her slightly hysterically that my customer was dead her reaction was to say “do you have any more pizzas that need to be delivered?” Typical for her she had no people skills. She didn’t even bother to ask me if I was okay.Before I left the dead guy’s house the brothers girlfriend gave me $50 in appreciation of me calling 911 and not just leaving I burst into tears. I almost quit that night. I never want to go through that again.
I got to hold a 5week old kitten on my last delivery last night.I took the call for these people and it took all the patience I had for it. They were crammed in the back of an Uber (yay for not drunk driving, tho!) and all yelling over each other. Finally the guy on the phone told them to shut up or they’re not getting food and was able to place the order with me lolTips weren’t predictable last night- so I was just like… I’m getting mileage and this is my last run, wasn’t expecting any tip cause they were trashed. Girl writes $20 in the tip line and gives me the receipt “i can’t do math for the total sorry” and tells her friend to bring me her cat.I’m like… why is she telling him to bring me a cat?! Then this tiny little black and white kitten with the cutest meow got put on my shoulder and I’ve never smiled so much in my life. I def hung around there for another few minutes and it legit made my whole year.TLDR; got a $20 tip, but holding a 5week old kitten was really the best tip I’ve gotten at this job haha
Anyone ever have to call social services?So I’ve been a pizza guy for the past five or so years. I’ve called 911 a few times, drunk drivers mostly. I’ve called the non-emergency line dozens of times (dead deer on the road, fights happening, car accidents, downed poles, etc).But this year alone I’ve been in two situations where I’ve called social services, something I’ve never done.The first was a family I delivered to (new customers) in a rough area of town. The guy was screaming at his family before I even knocked on the door. When I finally did, the screams went SILENT. Dude answers the door, his small (3, maybe 4 y.o.) daughter behind him. The transaction goes normally but the daughter gets excited and steps forward to wave at me. “GET THE K BACK!” He screamed at her, she fking flinched like a car was about to hit her. The mom then comes out from the back room and grabs her quickly, whisks her daughter away from the dad. That’s when I notice the mom was covered in bruises and her body language suggested she was terrified of the dude. She wouldn’t look at him, kept her head low. I was disgusted. And maybe I was looking in to this crookedly, but I didn’t want to take the chance. I called my local domestic abuse hotline.Fast forward to this week.. I have a regular customer who is a mentally handicapped lady and her guardian (I assume mother). every time I go there, the house gets messier and messier and messier. Three weeks ago she answered the door in a dirty night gown with a giant reddish-brown blood stain 6"x6” on the crotch… on the crotch. I was disgusted. Yesterday, I delivered there and noticed the previous weeks delivery boxes still stacked on the front coffee table. Weeks old, and the pile just kept growing. While the handicapped girl went to get her mom to sign for the pizza (she’s never tipped me once, 0/50 or so deliveries), I snapped a picture of the gross house. So I called social services, told her that the lady seems happy, but her guardian is forcing her to live in squalor. She doesn’t have the means to move out, and who knows if she has the functional ability to take it upon herself to clean the house. Basically she’s being forced to live in squalor.And just 10 minutes ago, social services called me back and thanked me for the report. They told me they already have a pending investigation open in which the state is trying to obtain guardianship of the girl. My report is just one more big piece of evidence they’ll use in court. I don’t regret a thing, I hope she gets the help she needs.
Little girl drops her mums' pizzaSo I’ve been delivering close to a year now, had no hiccups so far until this happened.Got a delivery to a familiar house, nice and easy drive. Got to the door and heard the mum yell out “I’ll be just a minute”. Anyway, I’m greeted to the face of a 6-7-year-old when the door opens, no mum in sight. Now I don’t really care about kids answering the door in regards to tips, as in Australia we don’t have a tipping culture and don’t rely on tips. I tell the little girl it was $18 all up, and she looks at me puzzled and hands a $50 saying “Is this enough?”. Of course, I’m not going to steal from a little kid, so I carefully count back her change to the exact cent.I think it' going smoothly. How wrong was I.I attempt to give her the pizza, she is obviously struggling to hold the box. I hesitate and say “I think it would be best if you got your mum to carry it just in case”, however, she shakes her head and said her mum said she had to carry it back.This pissed me off a bit, I don’t want to be blamed if she drops the pizza. The little girl gets a good grip of the pizza and walks down the hallway as I’m closing the door. Just as I was about to close the door, the little girl drops the pizza, topping side down, all over the floor.At this point, I’ve shut the door fully and can see a bit of the action through the glass pane next to the door. The little kid is trying to scrape all the toppings into the box, and failing horrendously. I’m in an awkward position as I’m just standing there at the door, helpless. I wait there for another good 2-3 minutes waiting at the door to see if her mum came to rectify the situation with me. I was prepared to talk it over with her and see if she wanted a new one, however, all I could hear was the mum scolding her daughter about the mess she made.At that point, I was pretty pissed off. The little girl must have felt so embarrassed about the situation. The mum didn’t have the decency to help her struggling kid with the pizza. As I went to my car which was a good 20 meters away, I could still hear the mum yelling.I got back to the store and told my manager what happened just to cover my a*s if the mum rang up and tried to blame anything on me. Fortunately, we didn’t hear from her. Throughout the whole shift, I felt awful about the situation and felt sorry for the girl.At the end of our shift, we get to make and take home a pizza for free. I decided to make the same pizza as the one that the little girl dropped and drop it off on my way home to their house. This wasn’t because I felt bad for the mum who probably had to cook her own dinner, but I felt as if it would take the stress off the little girl. So I went back to their house, pizza in hand and some ice-cream for the kid.I explain to the mum that I saw what happened and decided to tell her how little kids shouldn’t answer the door, as money can be easily taken/ food easily dropped. I say that in the future she should at least watch her child when answering the doors for deliveries at the very least. She ended up apologising profusely and thanking me for my troubles.The mum has answered the door ever since.
Delivered 150 pizzas to BungieI deliver pizzas in Bellevue and Bungie was having some huge party for their employees. They ordered 150 pizzas and 3 other drivers and I delivered them in waves. Well, on the last wave the guy who signed for the pizzas asked to wait for a sec while he grabbed something. He came back with a cart of FOUR Destiny 2 collectors editions. One for each of the drivers. Also tipped $500. Easily the best tip I’ve ever gotten. Just had to share!
Kid tried to tip me $34 and I didn’t let him.So today I took a really funny order. At first I thought it was a prank order, the delivery remarks said: “I want my pizza BONELESS!” When I get to the door a good humored looking 15 year old answers and I say “sorry all of our pizzas have bones, it turns out that the Better Ingredients were people all along.“He laughs, I read him his order and his total ($26.30) and he hands me the money and I hand him the pizza and ask if he needs any change and he flippantly waves and says “no it’s a tip, keep it"When I’m walking away I realize the kid gave me sixty f**king dollars.Since the kids parents are home and I don’t want him to get in trouble I turn around and knock again and an older guy (dad) answers.“Hey, normally I would never turn down a tip but he gave me at least twice what the pizza cost.” Holding up the 3 $20s I told him I couldn’t in good conscience take a 120% tip without questioning if it was an accident.He took back one if the $20s and was basically in awe that I was so honest. He asked my name, shook my hand, and gave me an extra $5 making the final tip $19 plus a customer for life.
Pizza too fast?Just heard yesterday that a customer I delivered to on Friday called to complain that his pizza was “too hot to eat” after I delivered it to him. My boss said it dumbstruck him momentarily, since the guy seemed to be sincere about it. He repeated the complaint back to the guy, then told him that his complaint would be a perfect quote to use for advertising.Anyone ever hear some feedback like that after doing your job too well?
How big is the personal pizzaI happen to be up at the counter doing some stuff, when a lady comes in. She is looking at the menu board, then asks “how big is the personal pizza?“Without even thinking, I snap off “Any size pizza can be a personal pizza ma’am. You just have to believe in yourself.“I don’t think that she was amused, but the people behind her were cracking up.
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Your guard dog has a weakness.The only thing better than a 5$ tip on a short drive, is petting a friendly animal while I’m out. Usually cats and dogs, but I’ve had odd luck with horses too. One night I was off in a rich ranch type area. I pull into the open gate and while I’m grabbing my bag, I hear a loud “AWOO!” And I see this bloodhound barreling towards me. He stops dead about a foot away and immediately starts wagging his tail and trying to get me to pet him. He’s licking my hand and following me to the door. The owner opens the door and looks mortified. She goes “Oh my god I’m so sorry I forgot to lock him up! He’s a guard dog, he’s really well trained.” She made a huge fuss thinking he was going to hurt me or something while I’m petting him and he’s just happy as anything. I told her “I think your guard dog has a little weakness. He likes me because I smell like pizza.” I ended up getting a pretty good tip, it was a good night.
We used to have this sweet old lady who would stiff us…It was a little shtick that she would do. She ordered from us about once a week and our store was just a revolving door so we always had new drivers. Whenever a new driver would go out to her house, she would know whenever because she was familiar with most of us. She would always order a medium cheese and a 20 oz drink and paid with cash every time. She would see the new driver and take a while to count out the change to the penny. She would give the driver exact change and say, “Oh I don’t need change back for anything. Have a great day!” The driver would turn around dejected and she would always say, “You forgot something!” and hold our her hand. $20 without fail. She was one of my favorite customers whenever I was delivering. I thought you guys would get a kick out of this story.
I was given a kitten as a tipI can’t believe this story really happened so if you don’t either then I understand. Today I delivered to a motel 6. In general, 4/5 people at Motel 6 don’t tip, so I wasn’t expecting much. The guy answers the door and I hand him his pizza. As he’s signing the credit card slip, I notice his pet cat. I love animals, so I always get really extra and I say “Omg your cat is so adorable”. He opens the door a little wider and points to the corner where there was a full liter of about 10-15 kittens. He says “Do you want one?”. At this point i’m kind of shocked. I ask if he’s being serious and he says yes and tells me to go grab one. I picked one up and he says “that can be your tip!” and hands me back the slip (which did indeed have a nice little 0). So now I’m the owner of a 4 week old kitten named Tipsy.EDIT: I would like to add on here because I’ve seen a few people worried about the well-being of the kitten. Yeah, it’s super sketchy that a guy is giving out kittens. I just hope the rest of them go to safe homes as well. We are confident that we can provide this kitten with a loving home. Though she is young, both the Vet, and people at the Pet store said she was fine to be away from her mama (since this was also one of my concerns), so long as we are diligently feeding her, and giving her lots of attention!
I busted a kid making prank orders.I had a delivery for two 20” pizzas and wings. The order was $55. I get to the house and the whole family was outside. The daughter stopped me and said they didn’t order and have received numerous fake orders to their house the last few days. They were real nice and wanted to find out who it was so I gave them the name and number on the ticket and went back to the store.I tried calling the number from a store phone but got no answer. I felt bad for the family and was a little pissed this kid wasted my time so I called from my cell and the kid answered. I told him I’m from pizza place and he made a fake order and needed to pay. He said “oh s**t” laughed and hung up on me. I was pissed and bored so I tried googling his number to get a name or address but couldn’t find anything.I decided to try and scare him. So I sent him a text saying if he doesn’t call and pay the cops will be at his house in a little bit. It worked. His sister called back crying and saying please don’t send the police her parents will pay when they get home from work and she will make sure her brother gets in trouble.Later that day his parents called and paid for the food and I’m pretty sure that kid won’t make any more prank orders after this.I also got free pizza and wings out of the whole thing.
What is the most soul crushing delivery you’ve had?About a year agoGet a 30 piece order for the local college Basketball team. They always order each player some individual item so it isn’t easy. They always want each players/coach name written on the box. I took an order to them a couple weeks before that was around $300 and they stiffed me so I wasn’t too keen to take it again. Unfortunately this order is too large for anyone else to take (I have a larger vehicle, so it would only take one trip). I bring them their $470 order to the arena where an aid or assistant coach tells me to bring them down 3 flights of stairs. I’m at the end of my shift, it takes me 4 trips to get everything, and they ask me to help display it out and tell them whose is what (even though it has their names written on it) .I. AM. DONE. WITH. THIS. SHIFT.Polite and courteous because I believe in good customer service and I don’t look at the tip line until I get back to my vehicle. Written out is $0.00. I’ve spent the last hour doing nothing but making/boxing/delivering their order. I told my manager I would never take a delivery to them again, and they could come pick it up if they don’t want to tip for a big and highly personalized order like that.
Apparently the term “keep the change” means different things to different people. Why?Had a lady hand me a 20 for a $14 order and said keep the change but as I walked away she was like oh I meant the coin change sorry. For most people keep the change means all of the change. We are not mind readers for f**ksake.
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