1st Pizza Delivery in Chengdu

After such a busy morning, I didn't feel like cooking dinner and anyway Gary's gonna be home tonight at about 8.30pm so we decided to order our 1st pizza delivery. 

It was such a funny experience that we agreed that we should blog it, so here it is.

I called and the person who picked up the phone spoke in English, and I thought to myself, 'Oh good, I can converse in English and not crack my head over how to say certain things in chinese'. 

So I said 'I will like a chicken pizza' and he said 'ok.' 

And when I said 'I will like another vegetable pizza', he paused and answered 'huh?' 

For a moment, I thought they don't do Veggie pizzas. Then I repeated again my order but he still can't get it. 

So I said ‘蔬菜’. And he went 'Oh 蔬菜 pizza, ok'. 

Then I said 'I want Fish and Chips.' He didn't get it though I repeated it twice. I was trying to translate it to chinese so I tried '鱼片和薯条.' And he went '薯条? Ok!' 

I nearly fainted. 

I said 'No, not fries, I want fish and chips.' I think he really couldn't get what I wanted so he asked me to wait while he asked his co-worker if they have that item. And when another person picks up the phone, I had to repeat my order all over again. But at least he got my order for fish & chips down. 

Phew, finally, with my order taken and address noted, I asked if there's any delivery charges, and he said 'No delivery charges, you just pay for our taxi fare to deliver your food.'

I paused for a while and confirmed what he said and also find out how much the taxi fare will cost. (If not, they ke-tok me, I also don't know.)

So he calculated the cost of the food and told me my order came up to 170RMB, so I can round up the figure to 200RMB to cover the taxi fare. Now, I think you can only find this in China, where prices are not really fixed and you never know when you are being fleeced. 

When the food arrived about 45 minutes later, the guy showed me the receipt for the food only and asked me for 200RMB. So I asked him for the taxi receipt and he said he forgot to ask from the taxi driver.

So I asked how much was your taxi and he said 13RMB. Firstly, how can I verify that he is speaking the truth? The taxi fare could be under 10RMB but he could quote a higher price without me knowing. Secondly 170 + 13 = 183RMB. I told him he should give me 17RMB change back. He looked so blank when I said that. 

I was so assertive that I even calculated for him and insisted to have my change of 17RMB back (not that I need the money, but I refused to be fleeced). I was so insistent that he took out whatever notes he had in his pocket (which was not enough to make 17RMB, by the way) and asked if I have small change, which i didn't. By that time, I was on a roll, and I couldn't back down and say forget it, keep the change. Until he said '170 + 13 + another 13 for return fare = 196RMB, I should give you only 4RMB change.'

'Oh.' I said. I forgot about the return trip. In my own little mind, I was thinking about the food and the taxi he took and that was it. I felt so bad at putting him at a spot and wasting his time, so I apologized and told him to keep the change. And he left.

Now, at this point, who's to verify if his taxi fare is really 13RMB in the first place and that he will be taking a taxi back? So I comforted myself by the thought that it's not a huge amount - just take the 30RMB as delivery charges. Now if they had set that as a standard, wouldn't that be much easier? *Sigh*

Anyways, here's our dinner:

Check out the really small portion of fish from the fish and chips order on the left side.