I would also like to put it on record how impressed I was when I saw no extra change for the gluten free bases, this was and still is a rare treat when you’re not financially penalised for requiring a gluten free alternative.
Now for the moan.
Order once from Dominos and you will receive no end of promotions through your door and into your mailbox, and in general out of all the spam/junk/non requested material I receive a promotion for cheap(er) pizza is welcomed to some extent.
Unfortunately however one chink in their so far shining armour is that due to their own decision to only supply a small base, you can only partake in the deals that include the small range which is actually quite few as like any business they want to encourage larger orders.
The most recent offer to land with me was the ‘One Two Free’ promotion; in essence you order a large pizza and get two sides free. Maybe it was the wording or maybe it was the look of a warm pizza on the leaflet that done it for us but my wife and I felt compelled by our stomachs to call up and order.
I called my local branch and was told that the offer was only for large pizzas so we couldn’t order their gluten free range. At this point I extended a branch of hope and opportunity for them to use their customer service skills by asking if we could purchase two small gluten free bases and still get the deal, the answer “No”.
This was a poor decision for that employee to make, one because it left me hungry and disappointed, two because it cost the company an order and potentially future orders. It doesn’t even make financial sense for them, for example if we use the ‘Original Cheers & Tomato’ pizza the cost break down is such:
- Cost of large - £11.99
- Cost of small - £7.99
- Number of slices of a large – 10
- Number of slices of a small – 6
I would have paid £15.98 which is £3.99 more for the extra two slices, making those extras worth £1.99 (approx) which is actually 65p (approx) more than the cost of an individual slice.
IF they would have used commonsense and allowed this alteration to the offer they would now have two very satisfied customers who also felt valued, not to mention the extra wonga towards their targets and repeat business in the future.
To light a slight fuse I cannot imagine a company restricting potential sales in this way if the criteria for the food was based on a vegetarians requirement not to eat meat, so why does the quandary of just cooking two small bases cause them such a problem? I was hoping it was just poor staff training and once I raised this point they would promise to filter down to their staff to use discretion with promotions when Coeliacs call for an order.
Sadly Dominos response was to defend this decision by their staff and point to their T&Cs.
Yes I am grateful for more major players to finally see the potential profits of catering to the gluten free range, but I find it equally exasperating when they fail to really fulfil their potential letting money slip through their fingers.
I have used the term ‘Dietary Discrimination’ on Twitter to tweet my points about this issue, and I agree that discrimination is far too strong of a word to explain this situation, but I ask you is it right to cater to a group of people and have all the positive PR that comes with it, and then exclude them from promotions due to reason completely out of their control? Coeliacs didn’t ask for this disease and neither did they take the decision to invest just in small in gluten free bases.
In my opinion if you want our money earn it, don’t just flirt with us to get the hurrahs.
Rant over.
