Is Pizza Hut’s online pricing a bait-and-switch?

by Christopher Elliott on September 16, 2010

Lauren Bear is confused. She tried to order a pizza from the Pizza Hut site, but the pricing looked an awful lot like a bait-and-switch to her.

She explains,

The item I wanted was listed as “starting at $7.99″, but when I signed in the pricing changed to “starting at $9.99″. I find that highly questionable.

I took a screen shot of the the screens together. I don’t know if they think they can charge me more based on my purchase history, location, or whatever but it’s just not cool to mess with customers like that.

I agree. So I suggested that Bear contact Pizza Hut to get this resolved.

She tweeted about it for two days. Then she tried to call, but couldn’t get through.

So I sent off the form from their site a little while ago but they asked for my date of birth and other information that’s a little too much for the situation (and you can’t complain if you don’t tell them what they want to know about you-yuck!).

I still filled it out but it wasn’t making me want to help them do better. All I’ve gotten is the automatic “we value your input” response so far.

What can Pizza Hut do to make this right?

“I want companies to be upfront about their pricing, no sneakiness of any kind,” she told me. I think that’s reasonable.

I’ll update this post when she hears back from Pizza Hut.

Update: Shortly after this post appeared, I got an update from Bear. Pizza Hut has responded and is “looking into it.” More soon.

Tagged as: Pizza Hut, Pricing

  • Sarah

    Without being able to see the screenshots at a readable size it’s hard to say but it’s most likely one of those things where price varies by area. Consumerist has done pieces on this kind of thing before.

  • cjr

    She probably won’t hear back. I’ve had to put in complaints regarding both Pizza Hut and KFC in the past, and never heard back from either of them. For Pizza Hut, it was the last time I ever ordered from them. Yum Brands customer service is non-existent.

  • Bill

    If they ask your date of birth, which is absolutely none of their business, just make one up.

  • Charles

    Have you ever tried to use lastminute.com? I love the idea of last minute travel, but they have to be the ultimate bait-and-switch site. It used to be common that an advertised package price would be increased as you went through the process. Now it’s the norm or the package is just not available. And, the bait prices just don’t go away, even if the package is not available. Is there no law about that type of selling? They have been doing this for years and yet I find very few comments online about it.

  • James

    Maybe an email to your state attorney general.

    James

  • http://waynedayton.tripod.com Wayne Dayton

    Pizza Hut/KFC customer service in Canada is absolutely no better, probably worse. The master franchise here is held by a company called Priszm LP. and if you even get a response to your complaint it will be from some bully by the moniker of “Corey Evan Goodman, LL.B” who will tell you to take your complaint and shove it and dare you to take it further to the courts.

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