Shot Down by the Red Baron

Frozen Pizzas serve a very important purpose in the life of a busy homemaker. When life’s demands pile up on you all at once just prior to supper time, a nice rising crust Red Baron Pizza can save the day. The kids will love it, Dad always agrees with pizza, and anything left over works perfectly for lunch the next day. I heard it said recently that pizza is the lubricant of our society—it keeps so many things around us going. I’ll second that, but only when your pizza is delivered correctly. A week or so ago, my wife breathed a sigh of relief as she spotted a single Reb Baron frozen pizza in the freezer. She was having one of those days, and she had just discovered the answer to her dinner dilemma leaning up on the wall of the freezer. With the oven preheating to 450° she took the frozen answer to prayer out of the box… only to find the pizza was completely void of toppings—no pepperoni, no cheese, no sauce, nothing. Frozen pizza crust is all she had to work with. On any other day she may have thought to take the lowly pizza crust back to the store and exchange it for another; however, pizza still seemed to be the best meal option as she considered the happenings around her. After finding some tomato paste in the cupboard, cheese and pepperoni in the fridge she made the most out of the situation and filled the empty food canvas. She recounted this story to me as I ate my slice, and I immediately prepared to let the good ol’ Red Baron know that one of his pies shipped out without getting sauced. The customer service number was easy to find, I didn’t have to wait on hold, the voice on the other end of the phone was nice, and she was knowledgeable. After 2 or 3 minutes I had a sincere apology and a coupon in the mail for a replacement. I knew I could count on the Red Baron, or so I thought. I received some mail yesterday from Red Baron. The envelope contained a canned apology from some dude with a child’s signature, and a coupon for a $1.00 off my next Red Baron purchase. I looked in the envelope twice more to make sure there weren’t any other coupons hanging around in there. Nope, just one; stapled right to my letter of apology. What a let down. My high hopes of being taken care of by the Red Baron were literally shot down. I could have easily gotten more love from the Wal-Mart than I did from the Baron, they take back things that you didn’t even purchase from them. I guess the missing toppings from our rising crust were being compensated with this measly coupon. Lesson learned: if you’re going to make the effort to show the love to someone make sure to meet the expectation you’ve set. Secondly, make sure you show more love than one would get at the Wal-Mart.