2019-08-01 16:51

A "burnt" pizza that a customer received from Pizza Hut, July 21. / Korea Times file

By Kwak Yeon-soo

Pizza Hut Korea is facing growing backlash from consumers after offering a belated refund for a pizza that arrived "burnt." When the customer first filed a complaint demanding a refund, the company had initially said it wouldn't provide a full refund, adding the product was cooked properly.

"I understand how frustrating this is. However, we will not be able to offer a full refund on this occasion because there was no problem in the production process," a customer support employee wrote.

However, after the customer posted about the unsatisfactory incident in an online community, the pizzeria changed its stance and apologized for the error.

According to media reports, a Pizza Hut customer ordered a Mega Crunch Chicken pizza on July 21 and was surprised to see most of the slices were burnt.

"Except for one or two slices of pizza, the rest was burnt," the customer wrote on the online community, July 24. "I demanded a refund but the franchise store refused, saying the pizza was cooked properly."

Then, the customer posted a photo of the pizza online, where many criticized the pizza chain for delivering a burnt pizza.

"I'm sorry this happened. Pizza Hut just lost another customer," one person surnamed Kim wrote.

"I have no words. How can they say no problems were found during the cooking process after looking at this photo?" another surnamed Park wrote.

Pizza Hut Korea CEO Steven Lee / Korea Times file

When the post went viral online, Pizza Hut Korea headquarters posted an official apology on social media on July 30.

"We found out about the incident on July 22. After discussing with the franchise store, we contacted the customer and apologized, promising a full refund," the statement read.

The local subsidiary of the U.S. pizza franchise added that it will offer product and customer support training.

"We will re-examine the pizza production process and hold training sessions to make sure this doesn't happen again," the company official said. "As a company, we will not tolerate this type of situation in our stores."

The complaint post was deleted as of Thursday, but consumers are taking to social media to express their disappointment.

"Is there a new menu item called burnt pizza? How can customer support refuse a refund?" Twitter user Kwon Eun-jin said.

"Pizza Hut has finally apologized. If customer support had handled the matter properly, the situation wouldn't have gotten this bad," another user named Kim Hyung-jun tweeted.