Complaint Review: Papa John's Pizza

I used to work for Papa John's as a delivery driver and eventually as a General Manager. The only reason a neighborhood would be cut off is if the drivers were getting robbed, assaulted, or threatened. Most stores don't take checks anymore because too many checks would bounce so why would you expect them to come to an area where they know there is a good chance of getting robbed.

Company policy tells all the employees that they are not allowed to be armed while on shift and that if anyone tries to rob them they should hand over the money immediately. In reality, most of the drivers carry a weapon of some sort if the areas they deliver to are dangerous. I carried a knife and an extendable baton for the longest time when I delivered. When I got old enough I got a carry/conceal permit and had my pistol on me whenever I was on the job. If my boss had found out I had a pistol in the car I would've been fired on the spot, but if I went into a dangerous neighborhood you can bet I had it on me.

Yeah Papa John's does do a lot of things wrong, the training is terrible in most stores and minimum wage workers don't care much, but they only cut out a delivery area if it's TOO dangerous. They want your money and I have delivered in a number of seedy neighborhoods with no problems. How this situation was handled does not sound like the best.

The manager should have been able to do something to make you feel better. But honestly, you know it if you live a dangerous neighborhood. How can you expect someone to come to your neighborhood with a target on their back? Because the car toppers and uniforms are made to stand out in a crowd or be seen from a block off and in those neighborhoods they tell everyone that here's someone with cash who won't fight back.

To people who live in the hood, try Carryout. Or DiGiorno.

Really, how self-centered is that, to expect a delivery driver to deliver a pizza to you when you live in a crime-infested neighborhood? Put away that race-card, its gotten old and tattered now, and get off your BUTT and pick up your pizza if you want one so badly! I wouldn't deliver a pizza or anything for that matter, to a neighborhood where there had been problems and I sure as heck wouldn't care if you called me a racist for it!  I'd tell you to go look in the mirror because if you are making judgments on someone based on the color of their skin, i.e. they must be racist because they aren't black, then who really is the racist?

Poor white communities are below avg in crimes
poor asian communities are below avg in crimes
porr black communities are skyrockets above avg in crimes..

Just because your neighborhood accepts crime as part of a normal day, civilized america refuses to lower itself to your standards.

Instead of going after SMART people for avoiding your neighborhood, why dont you do something about the crimes and see what its like not to worry about getting shot walking out the door !

If you dont want to be steryotyped, dont act and live like one !

I have a delivery driver that was rude. they ended up sending me a card for a free large pizza i will never use it. I do think it was racial he told me he was wasting gas. hope they fired him.

I agree that the original reporter was probably treated shabbily. But paying employees minimum wage isn't exactly a way to insure good customer service.

But like the above poster noted, Papa John's is responsible for their employees. And sending them unarmed and literally marked as a cash-carrying target guaranteed to not resist handing over Papa John's cash is simply stupid. (And yes. The neighborhood around Bon Carre, The Little Theater and Cortana Mall is in fact Mall City. I think Jason "presumed" Megan lived there because of her surroundings- new office park near a police station.)

I have a feeling Megan was crying racism for unwarranted reasons. There are millions of examples of real and devastating racism out there. Not getting cheap pizza delivered to your door because you do, in fact, live in a horrible neighborhood ain't it. 

Papa Johns has a good reason for cutting off certain neighborhoods from service. 99.9% those limitations are set because a driver has been robbed in that particular area. Its not because  it is "a predominantly black area" you know good and well its because of crime in that area. You should go visit the Papa Johns store on Chippewa Street, right off the 110 interstate.They have that store on complete lock down with bullet proof glass separating the lobby from the rest of the store.Along with two remotely locked doors just to get behind the counter. Papa Johns cares about their employees to some extent to give that kind of protection to their staff, and with good reason. Don't associate your own race with the urban crime warfare that goes on in our city, then play the race card. Do something on your end to help fix the problem. Because God knows, we need to quit relying on others to fix every problem there is. Do something positive to fix the problem, not negative like post crap like this on the internet. That just makes whites and blacks hate each other even more, which fuels racism in a very immature and uncivil way. The complete polar opposite of what Dr. Martin Luther King wanted everyone to do. Start thinking logically on the reason why PJs doesn't deliver there.

Usual when they stop delivering to an area, because robberies have already taken place. So I wouldn't understand why you would call and complain because they won't deliver to you. If it's really that big of deal won't you move to a different neighborhood. There is no reason to complain, because they won't deliver to you. It just sounds like you want complain just to hear yourself talk...Because this complaint has no merit, I wonder why the company hasn't called you back?!? It's not rasism or prejudiced, I know of deliver places that don't deliver to all white neighborhoods, because one or more of their drivers have been robbed. They get held at gun point or get beaten up to the point their in the hospital. I know aleast 6 deliver drivers who have been robbed. So these companies don't want to put their employees in danger. I just thought I'd say that I think this complaint is ridiculous and unfounded....

Ghetto blacks think white people are there for them to abuse, assault, rob and kill anytime they feel like it, and pizza drivers are a favorite target. The raised-to-hate ghetto attitude has most business people uninterested in risking lives or property in trashy neighborhoods because it's not worth it. Want the "bad" treatment to stop, get the thugs off the street. The best thing blacks could do is to open their own businesses in these areas and benefit from what they've been working towards all these years. I run a business and make black people put their thumbprints on their checks. You would call it racist, I call it good business, because 100% of my bad checks were from blacks before I started doing it. Nothing personal to you as an individual, but I'm not in business to get ripped off.

Exactly which area are you referring to?

I did not live in any area known as Mall City at the time I filed the report and I find it presumptive that of all the areas of Baton Rouge, you assumed I lived in a specific area.

The point of the complaint was that they handled the matter in an unprofessional way, not that they would not deliver. I can understand if they would not want to deliver to an unsafe area. But it's one thing to say "Sorry, we do not deliver there, would you like to pick it up?" It's another thing entirely to insinuate that they would not come out to the area due to "other" reasons.

I lived right across from Bon Carre and the new Cox Communications Center, near Baton Rouge Little Theater and Cortana Mall. Not a bad area at all.

Other people I have told about the incident have agreed that the area I lived in was NOT a bad area and was unfairly deemed "unsafe" by Papa John's.

I am pretty sure I know of the area that you are located in. I know for a fact that other pizza places don't deliver to areas that are considered "unsafe", it has nothing to do with the color of the people that live there but the safty of the drivers who carry cash. Your area I'm assuming is "Mall City", and is a very dangerous area for anyone, not only those carrying cash with a big lighted sign on top of their car advertising it. I have a friend who lives in the Belaire area and can only get a pizza delivered there if they meet the driver at the street. Comes with the area. If you do live in "Mall City", not getting a pizza delivered to you is purely the least of your worries.

from a Papa Johns store here in Atlanta. The manager was rude. I, therefore, have quit ordering from them and this incident occurred 3 years ago. Its Pizza Hut for us. Think how much $ Papa Johns has pissed away due to poor customer care?

Megan, I am sure there is a Pizza Hut near you. Order from them and hit Papa Johns where it counts, in the wallet!