Hungry Howie's Pizza & Subs — Restaurant in Florida

There are some nice staff who work here, who care about the customer experience. There are also some dedicated drivers who want to earn their tips and greet you with a smile. If you have a problem with your order - you'd better hope one of the good ones is dealing with you today. A couple of times, I have had guests who come over and try the pizza tell me they are surprised by how good it was. The hand tossed pizzas are the ones worth ordering - they are spot on and delicious. They are the only thing I can really recommend from the restaurant.

However, there are also people working here who do not want to hear about customer complaints, and who are happy to mistreat a customer so they can go on some kind of pizza power trip. "The customer is always right" is a foreign concept to those individuals. Seriously - you'll say the pizza was cold and they go "no it was hot." You say "I ordered at 4:25 like it shows on my receipt," and they reply "the computer says 5:30, and that's what I believe. It wasn't cold..." There are drivers who show up late as heck, looking stoned, and don't even bother to apologize for mistakes that are made.

There is someone in their kitchen who messes up breadstick orders so badly that I gave up on ordering them. There are coupons that include bread that I quit using. The wings are a mistake - broken bones and wings that are missing chunks of meat and wings that are just a fried piece of bone. There is no celery. I'm sure the wings come frozen from a corporate supplier, so it's hard to be mad at your local staff. Still, Westshore Pizza can give you much better wings for similar pricing, if you are close enough to one. I made the mistake of ordering 60 wings for poker night from this Howie's location, and more than half were jacked up. I was embarrassed because we ran out of food.

Someone else commented that if you buy a 2-topping and choose double pepperoni, they do not actually give it to you. That was my own experience, several times over, until I gave up on ordering double pepperoni entirely. Be wary - if you use a coupon which says "cajun bread" they will give you cajun bread. Even if you choose butter parmesan or 3 cheese instead - they put cajun on it anyway. One time they gave me ALL THREE bread topping somehow and it was a burnt disgusting overseasoned mess that had to be tossed out. It's really not cool to pay $.99 cent upcharge for cheese bread and to have them mess it up literally every single time. The one time they got it right was because I put "give me CHEESE bread" for the driving instructions.

If you end up calling the store and the wrong person answers, you can expect abuse. They will falsely identify themselves as "the manager," they will call you a liar, hang up on you, and if you dare call back then they leave you on hold forever in the hopes you will give up on your complaint. I overheard someone instructing the employee to leave me on hold until I give up.

For the incident in question, the only way I got help was to take my cold, untouched food back to the store in person and demand to speak to the real manager. He turned out to be someone other than the woman I spoke to on the phone. His name was Roy and once he was made aware of the issue, he immediately took appropriate steps by giving me a store credit and apologies for being hung up on. Still... that lack of care and/or staff training really ruined my night. After a two hour wait for cold pizza, I had to bring it back in person in order to demand the customer service that should have been offered over the phone the first time.

I have had many good experiences from this restaurant and its staff, and wanted badly to give them a positive review... However they continue to disappoint even when given another chance (see attached photo...

Customer service is gone out the window at this place. I asked the driver for my dipping sauce for cheesy bread as you have to choose one specifically for this item. She was nice and explained I would have to call the store and they would work something out with with me so I did. The guy that answered the phone basically told me oh well and wanted to hang up so I called back and asked for the manager Curtis. I explained to him my situation and how his employee offered me no real solution to my problem. He apologized and said I'll send you back another order of cheesy bread with 4 dipping sauces, he was trying to be funny cause I only need one per order but ok please do I say and an hour later nothing has shown up. I have been ordering from the place for 5 years very loyal customer because I have a big family but not anymore. I would suggest you go somewhere like Marcos or even Pizza hut where they will apologize and send the driver back with something to make up for the disappointing experience not this Hungry Howie's in Thonotassa where you're made...

I ordered a pizza and it says on the computer that it was delivered but it was never delivered. I called the store & they stated that they called me multiple times & someone answered and stated that they called the wrong number I asked them what number you have on file & it was my own number and I never received not ONE phone call. So I told him that then they stated they will re deliver but I asked if they can re make the pizza & the delivery guy was in the background of the phone stating that why am I being annoying and they dont want to re make my pizza & so he was getting upset I asked for a refund and he was telling the man on the phone to hang up on me then they HUNG UP IN MY FACE. I called back no answer I called on my work phone & they answered I told them you cannot just hang up on me I want my refund. He said he will just void the payment I asked for a way they can prove I will get a refund they said they have...