Lawyer awarded $900 from Domino’s after suing for order that never came

A man who waited 18 months for a refund on a pizza delivery that never came has finally been rewarded his money—and then some—in court.

Tim Driscoll, an Australian lawyer, ordered three pizzas, garlic bread, and a couple liters of soda for an Anzac Day party—Australia’s version of Memorial Day—on April 25, 2015. The total for the order was just under $30, including a holiday surcharge.

Driscoll told The Daily Telegraph that he and his friends waited for hours, but the order never arrived. Driscoll was able to connect with the store manager who apologized and told him he would be issued a refund soon.

But that, too, never came—even after multiple reminder attempts.

“They kept saying they were looking into it but after 12 months of fobbing me off with 'we'll get back to you', I thought I had to bring it to a head,” Driscoll told The Daily Telegraph. “I took the extreme step of going to court.”

Driscoll, who specializes in personal injury and workers’ compensation claims, sued Domino’s for breach of contract. He was originally seeking over $6,800 in damages.

On Wednesday, after Domino’s Pizza failed to acknowledge or appear in court for the proceedings, a judge ruled in Driscoll’s favor by default and ordered the chain to pay up over $900 in legal fees plus the original cost of his pizza order.

When Domino’s Pizza did not acknowledge or participate in the proceedings, Driscoll was awarded the case by default, and the chain has been ordered to pay $1,203.27 (USD $918) to cover his legal fees as well as the $30 order.

Domino’s has since apologized to Driscoll and released the following statement:

“We are disappointed and embarrassed to hear that we have let down a pizza loving customer. We can confirm we provided free pizza vouchers to our customer at the time of the incident but we clearly could have and should have done more.

“Our aim is to exceed our customers’ expectations and in this instance we let him down. We are working to make it up to him and have reached out to our customer this morning to make amends and to ensure he is not out of pocket for any expenses incurred. At Domino’s if a customer is not completely satisfied with their experience, we will replace and or refund their order. Obviously in this instance we have failed the customer and we will work on making the necessary improvements to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”

We’re sure Driscoll will follow up if Domino’s fails to deliver a third time.