Pizza Hut

To the owner of this franchise:  You need to read your Yelp reviews and take action.  I strongly suggest that you take time to understand how poorly your restaurant is operating - that is, if you care.  If not, someday soon there will no longer be a sit down Pizza Hut restaurant at the East side of Aurora.  I guarantee that, as you won't be able to make enough money to cover the cost of operating a delivery or pick up only business in a restaurant that can seat 40 people, perhaps more.  YUM brands seems to be surviving due to continued success of Taco Bell.  Both Pizza Hut and KFC locations are becoming more difficult to find and I'm not sure of the status of Long John Silver's or A&W.  I like Pizza Hut and reminisce about the 1970s and 1980s, where you would enter a busy darkly lit restaurant to enjoy great pizza.  Those were the days of the red colored soda cups with the shaved ice, a record player jukebox and perhaps a cocktail table arcade game in the front corner somewhere, all under a red mansard roof.  Those days are over, and I'm ok with that.  I'm just not OK with the terrible service at Pizza Hut over the last several years.  And it's not just the Aurora location -- it's the Montgomery and recently closed Westmont location as well. Below are some notes from my visit last night on 2/5/13:
* Upon arrival, it took several minutes to be acknowledged & seated.  The restaurant had 3 other tables occupied.  If the restaurant is not busy, perhaps just allow people to seat themselves?
* There was one server in the entire restaurant last night, attending to three other tables in addition to ours, at different ends of the restaurant.  There were dirty tables around us and this lone server was also the only one cleaning up or doing anything in the seated area.  This was the same experience two other times in the last 6 months.
* While our server was friendly and nice (none of this was her fault or lack of experience - she was SWAMPED!!!), she was obviously overwhelmed with the amount of work, which caused our customer experience to be crappy.
* The restaurant was cold.  Perhaps around 60 degrees - no kidding.  People were wearing their jackets at the tables.  We asked to have the heat turned on, and in 20-25 minutes, we started to get some warmth.  It was strange that we were the only ones with this complaint, but also, our table was directly in line with the vent that was blowing cold air on us.  It was around 20 degrees outside last night - this was not summer.
* It took around 10 minutes to have our drink order taken.  You were out of Dr. Pepper.  We ordered sodas & iced teas and asked to try the new pizza sliders.  The pizza sliders arrived prior to the sodas after approximately another 10 minutes, and both my mother and uncle did not get their drink as the iced tea was still being made.  No water was given in lieu of the missing drinks.  
* The newly introduced pizza sliders were not fresh.  The one I had was actually cool and appeared to have been sitting for 20 minutes or more.  How do you expect to market this new concept if they are not fresh?  I'm not expecting anything custom made, but perhaps serve something that has not been sitting for a long time.
* At this time, my mother and uncle "had enough" as the restaurant was too cold for them, they did not have their drinks, and about a total of 20 minutes had passed and we had not placed our dinner order.  It was obvious to me that their expectation was not met and the meal was going downhill.  They decided to leave and go to the Fox & Hound; my wife and I stayed to tough it out as we have come to expect this level of service.
* Once our dinner was ordered and delivered, the cheese bread, P'Zone & individual pizza was acceptable.  The P'Zone was not served with the usual sharper knife, so I simply ate it with my hands as a butter knife is useless.
* We had to ask for drink refills throughout the night, but as stated above, our server was slammed with many other tasks.
My wife and I don't always set the bar very high and can sometimes trade off crappy service for good food, and we'll probably be back.  I can't imagine many other people are as easy as we are.  My mother and uncle will probably tell others about this (they were laughing about the experience and how they left).
We picked up a carry out pizza a month ago, and upon entering the restaurant, there were disgruntled people at the counter waiting to pick up their pizzas.  I finally got ours after arriving at the expected completion time, and it had been sitting for a while as well.  During this pickup, I overheard a person refunding someone on their pickup order due to a complaint of some sort.
My friend Matt loves shopping at Target because of the service.  Last I recall eating at the Naperville Target snack bar, we had awesome Pizza Hut Pizza, bread sticks, and great service.  Maybe my family and I go to Target from now on instead?

Pizza Hut was cool when you could bring in your Book It button.  Since then, it has lost its luster.

Somebody didn't get the memo:  this is the 2nd pizza place that delivered to my workplace today.  Order of 4 pizzas (Pepperoni & sausage, veggie, and some other randoms) arrived hot and on time.

The sausage that Pizza Hut uses looks like larger pieces of rabbit poop.  The crust has no flavor and a stale texture.  I have no doubt that the ingredients are semi-fresh, but the problem is that they aren't quality ingredients.

I don't understand how Pizza Hut stays in business.  "Bargain " pizza places like Pizza Hut face tough competition:  Domino's, Little Cesar's and Papa John's are better.

This is by far the WORST Pizza Hut I've ever dealt with.

I ordered my meal at 5:00pm and just discovered it will not deliver until 7:00pm. I was quoted 40 minutes. When calling to check on the order at 6:30pm, I was hurried off the phone being told it will deliver in "a few seconds".

Also, I used a coupon on this order and was told in a condescending way that I needed to make sure I gave it to the driver. I understand that is the case, however I do not need to be spoken to like a criminal or a child.

I can't rate the food as I'm not entirely sure I'll ever receive it, but the service gets a 0 out of 10. Choose ANYWHERE else for pizza delivery.