Dominos Pizza outlet in Jorhat in fresh controversy

From a Correspondent

JORHAT, August 25: The second opening of the Dominos Pizza outlet in Jorhat on Tuesday witnessed yet another unusual episode when customers who ordered fresh pizzas leveled allegations against Dominos of providing expired packets of spices used as add-on.  The Dominos Pizza outlet situated in the KB Road area was earlier closed down by JMB (Jorhat Municipal Corporation) by an official order issued on July 8 after the outlet first opened its gates for customers on June 6 this year.

Customers who did not wish to be med said, “We had ordered pizzas to take home and the outlet provided us with poly packs of the spices that have already expired. The contents of the packets were manufactured in January while its expiry was in June. But these people kept fooling the unsuspecting customers with these expired poly packs of spices.”

A second customer said, “I actually ordered for a pizza priced at Rs 226.20. But when I paid the bill through my ATM card and when I got the money receipt of the HDFC bank, I found the round up bill to be Rs 227.  That means every customer has been paying Rs 1 in excess per every order and this way they are duping customers who do not ask for change. Moreover, the pizza we ordered is made of expired ingredients. This is a serious offence as we will be consuming it. In the event of food poisoning will the customer get an appropriate compensation? This is a serious lapse of quality check and hence accountable for an immediate clarification.”

Another customer said, “Today I ordered a pizza and after receiving the processed pizza, I took a close look at the packet and found the date to have already crossed the best used before six months deadline. The manufacturing date was 07/01/2015. An expired product was being sold to us without our knowledge and when I called their toll free helpline number to lodge a complaint, two persons from Dominos Pizza came to me and offered me Rs 5,000 and informed about rectifying the mistake. But I refused and called the media to highlight this gross negligence.”

However, these allegations were strongly refuted by the PR of Dominos Pizza, New Delhi Corporate Office, identified as one Akash who called in to say, “The poly packs in question are not of any spices as alleged but that of Oregano salt that Dominos provides to every customer as an add-on to the pizza for increasing its taste. The batch number in question has been thoroughly checked and I am here to assure you that the packs manufactured as on January, 2015 was discontinued across all Dominos outlets across India after the best before six months time.” Akash further said, “As regards to the chief complaint, I would like to inform you that he is a regular visitor to our outlet owing to the close proximity of his office being situated just opposite Dominos Pizza. Even earlier when we were open in between June and July before JMB ordered closure, the gentleman often took large number of the packets with him with every delivery and I believe even today the person and his friends ordered pizzas. We have already initiated an interl enquiry and have verified every detail. I believe there is a conspiracy to malign Dominos brand me. And if required we will also clarify it through an official statement.”