How Warm Chicken = Two Hours of Horror

On Friday at 11:40 A.M. at work I online ordered a Quarter Chicken Dinner Dark meet with a white roll and 7 Up from Swiss Chalet. Now one would think that after over thirty years of perfecting the art of Swiss Chalet rotisserie chicken served with fries that adding delivery wouldn't be rocket science.

But apparently I'm wrong. I will score them a downfall though, the local Swiss Chalet to office was closed so the chicken dinner did have to travel a little farther from the next closest location at Rutherford Road & Weston Road, but why is that my fault?

So, I waited for my chicken to arrive. At 12:40 P.M. I called their order line to inquire as to the status of my order. The agent put me on hold for two minutes and came back to say the order has been dispatched from the restaurant.

What I couldn't figure out was why it took over an hour for a Quarter Chicken Dinner with a can of Seven up could take so long. If Pizza Pizza can deliver a pizza in thirty minutes or less, why couldn't Swiss Chalet do the same thing in, at most, forty-five minutes? That I can't figure it out.

The chicken arrived at two O'clock. I handed the driver twenty dollars. Of course the driver didn't have the correct change to remotely get it lower than a three dollar tip. The whole issue of delivery probably wasn't his fault (i.e. Swiss Chalet hired too few drivers for the lunch rush) but my chicken was one hour and twenty minutes late.

Next, I headed to the Kitchen with my newspaper tucked underneath my arm for a latish lunch. Of course the chicken fries and sauce were all cold. In hindsight I guess I could of warmed my lunch with the steam coming out of my ears.

I returned to my desk and picked up the phone for a second call to Swiss Chalet customer service. I complained about the heat of the food and the fact that perhaps the lateness of the food had something to do with why it was so cold. I also noted that the Swiss Chalet delivery driver failed to leave a receipt with the order. (In hindsight perhaps that was so I wouldn't fill out their little online customer satisfaction report...I fixed him and still entered the code from the e-mailed confirmation receipt from my online order). The Swiss Chalet Customer Service agent said that another dinner would be en route and that the driver would swap out the old one for the new one. I agreed to this and hung up the phone.

1:30 P.M. quickly rolled around and I was still stairing at chicken getting even colder. I picked up the phone a third time. When the Swiss Chalet Customer Service agent picked up I requested to speak to Customer Service Manager. The agent responded, in usual "Customer Disservice nature," that perhaps he could assist me. I then ran down the complete excellent adventure in Swiss Chalet I had and again asked to speak to a Customer Service Manager. I was put on hold for two minutes and then the same Customer Service Agent came back on and said the managers were busy and that he was told to offer a fifteen dollar credit to the account. I responded that I asked to speak to a manager and expected to talk to one. I was put on hold for less than a minute and then, horrors of horrors, a Swiss Chalet Manager actually picked up the phone!

I went through what I had gone through and pointed out the whole problem revolved around the fact that someone in their infinate wisdom chose to close down the local Swiss Chalet. I pointed out that if that location was still open, less than kilometre from the office, I would be chowing down on warm chicken. Instead, I had to wait for the chicken to travel five kilometres and arguing with him about what I've been put through. The Manager was quite understanding to what I had gone through. He noted he lived in the area and that the closure of the Swiss Chalet location was starting to cause issues. He put me on hold and contacted the restaurant to ensure a fresh meal was coming. He then said that a fifteen dollar credit would be applied to my account. He also said that he would speak to the customer service agent I had just dealt with that when a customer asks for a manager that one is available whether they pull them out of a meeting or disrupt management at time. I hung up quite satisfied that Swiss Chalet was at least trying to rectify the situation.

At 1:45 P.M. I had a warm Quarter Chicken dinner delivered. The driver tried to have me hold onto the original cold one he dropped off on his first attempt. I replied that No, he had to take it with him as per the instructions of the Swiss Chalet Customer Service Manager. The driver then tried offering me the can of 7 Up from the original cold dinner. I replied that he had to take the whole original dinner with him as I was afraid that after all I had been through Swiss Chalet would attempt at shystering me out more money for the cost of the pop if he didn't take it back. I also pointed out that it was his and Swiss Chalet's issue of what to do with the original meal and not mine.

So that, my friends, is how it takes over two hours to get a warm Quarter Chicken Dinner meal out of a restaurant chain who has perfected rotisserie chicken over thirty plus years and yet failed to be able to slap it in a car and deliver it!