What exactly happened to our Pepperoni Passion? (dominos.co.uk)

Member Name: RayWhitney

Product:	dominos.co.uk
Date:	23/02/09 (345 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Clear and simple, lots of options, nice freebies

Disadvantages: Delivery service can be pretty poor, could be more choice

Pizza is probably my third favourite type of takeaway, after Chinese and Indian, but it's by far the one I order the most often. This is because it's the only one from that list that's widely available to order online. Ordering from a website is easier than by 'phone - the menu's always there, you can pay by card, and specify and customise your order to how you like it. All of the big pizza places have sites and I tend to alternate between them, but I have been using Domino's for the longest out of them all so I feel I know it best.

Clicking on dominos.co.uk will send you to a pretty sparse, white page that presents a handful of buttons to press and an animated advert and that's about it. You'll be given the chance to log in to your account, or search for a store by your postcode. You'll get the most out of your Domino's experience if you open an account, as the site will remember your delivery details and your orders. If you're that way inclined, you can simply log in and ask it to repeat your last order. I've had an account with them for something like three years now and I never receive any trashy spam from them or anything like that, so it's definitely worth doing if you plan on eating more than one pizza in your life.

Once you've tapped in your user name and password, you can populate your order by flicking between the 'Starters', 'Pizzas', 'Desserts', 'Drinks' and the newest addition, 'Meal Deals'. There is also a tab that allows orders via text message, but I have yet to place one so I can't really pass judgement on the service. The food available on the online menus will be provided by your local store so it should match up with their menu, but don't expect everything to be available online. Occassionally, it takes a while for new menu items to be available to buy via the web.

I'm not here to tell you whether or not to eat Domino's, but to review their internet presence. However, this review wouldn't be quite right if I didn't take a look at all of their delicious wares, would it? Mmm... wares.

Starters - A good place to start. Domino's offer an interesting if limited range of starters, including (at time of writing) Loaded Potato Skins, spicy Chicken Kickers, Chicken Strippers, Garlic Pizza Bread, Coleslaw, Potato Wedges and a bunch of Dips, including Honey & Mustard, Garlic & Herb, Sweet Chilli, Barbecue and Extra Hot. Like all of the menu items under the other tabs, they are presented in a list with a brief description, thumbnail image and an adjustable 'Quantity' option for each one. Coloured dots next to the item names let you know if the food is Vegetarian, Hot or Reduced Fat. If you find something you fancy, click on 'Add' and it will travel over to the 'Your order' list on the right side. Prices range from £1.49 to £5.99, with Dips costing 30p.

Pizzas - The reason we all came. Pretty much every pizza is shown off here, with all of their variants on offer. Picking a tasty-looking pizza is easy, as is selecting your prefered size from the drop-down list (you can have Individual, Small, Medium or Large). If you don't want to conform to what Domino's expect from you, feel free to customise one of their pizzas or make your own one. You can select from the four sizes, one of four base types (Regular, Thin Crust and the ingredient-packed Double Decadence and Dominator), your favourite pizza sauce (Pizza, BBQ, Piri Piri or the sublime Sundried Tomato & Garlic Sauce), Mozzarella or Reduced Fat cheese, and single or double helpings from their wide range of toppings. There is a lot to do here, and hopefully having it all written down on paper will mean that the staff putting together your meal won't make any mistakes. More on that later. Prices start at £5.99.

Desserts - I never order desserts from takeaway places, because they're quite simply trash. Domino's online selection is no better, and seems to be there simply because it has to be. Currently on offer are Cookies, Waffles and Chocolate Brownie Squares. £3.49 a serving.

Drinks - A 1.5 litre bottle of Coca Cola, Diet Coca Cola or orange Fanta. Not much choice and they're fairly expensive at £1.99 each.

As I mentioned above, customisation, as well as picking and choosing ingredients for your ideal meal, is a massive benefit of ordering online and one that Domino's provides for. While you are limited to three changes per set pizza (for example, swapping a topping counts as two changes, while removing a topping counts as one), you can create your own to your heart's content. I haven't tried the Meal Deals, but they seem to be pretty basic Buy One Get One Half Price jobbies.

Checkout is simple yet secure. They don't seem capable of saving your card details just yet which is a nuisance, but everything else is recorded under your account name - telephone number, address, delivery details etc. You can pay by cash or card, and can collect or ask for a delivery (you can set a specific time too). The best thing about Checkout are the bonuses - you can opt to use a discount code or ask for a free side! A simple Google search will bring up some codes you can use here, the best of which seems to be 25% off when you spend £20, but they vary. Alternatively, you can request a free garlic bread or chicken strippers portion. Score!

Once your order is placed, you will receive a simple email providing your local branch's phone number, plus a breakdown of your order and an order number. My last order included a Medium pizza, a Personal pizza, a Chicken Combo (Chicken Strippers plus Potato Wedges), two bottles of drink and an extra dip. With my 25% discount, this cost £23.44. The pizza should arrive within 45 and 60 minutes, depending on your personal branch.

I've only ever had one major issue with Domino's online delivery service, and that's the execution of the deliveries. While the site is great and the deliveries punctual, I must say that it seems like 40-50% of my orders show up messed up somehow. Normally, it's just the wrong dip (I'm very specific about such things), missing sides or "bonus" toppings on the pizza, which are irritating and damage my faith in the company. My latest example was with my last order. Basically, they neglected to provide us with the personal Pepperoni Passion pizza we ordered. Getting nowhere with a confused conversation with the delivery driver (who had a bad grasp of the English language, and an even worse persecution complex), we ask for a phone number. He points out our own one. Oh dear. We call the store and ask what happened to the little pizza, and apparently it was never included in our order email. A chat with head office ensured that our pizza was sent out and received about forty minutes after the rest of the order, and luckily it was delivered by a man with an apology and not an "I didn't do it!" mentality like the last guy. Still, what exactly happened to our Pepperoni Passion? Why was it not emailed to our branch? Even the prices on the receipt and the email were different. Although it was resolved easily (as are all of the mistakes I decide to complain about), you still wind up waiting ages for food sometimes.

All in all, it's a high quality site - simple, easy and functional, with a lot of room for customisation. Unfortunately, it's let down by sloppy deliveries. I can't tell you if this reflects Domino's in general as I do not order by 'phone, nor do I collect my orders, but I don't feel that making minor slip-ups everytime something is ordered is acceptable, especially when the specifics of the order are written down. With regards to the latest mistake - granted the Pepperoni Passion wasn't written down, but that brings up another issue. Why was it missed out by the email? Technical error? I hope it was a one-off. I have to remember I'm reviewing the site here, and not the company, so I'm going for a high mark. However, they could improve by offering better deals and a wider menu. Also, a personal Pepperoni Passion pizza.

Summary: Great website, let down by some of the branches