I Ordered Domino's With a Pizza Emoji and It Took Three Hours

Domino's announced last week that starting today, customers would be able to order pizzas simply by tweeting a pizza emoji at the company. And as someone who would love to start emoji.eater.com, and recently deleted their seamless account, I was all too excited to give it a try. Pizza at my door, simply by tweeting an emoji. It seemed simple enough, until it wasn't.

If you already have a Domino's account set up, it technically is quite easy. I, however, did not. I filled out my address, and payment information, and connected my account to my Twitter account to enable ordering by emoji. Unfortunately, to use the Twitter system, a customer has to have an "Easy Order," or a saved preferred order of choice, on hand.

However, the only way to have an Easy Order is if you've actually placed an order before. So, for me to order a pizza via Twitter I had to order a pizza via the company's online platform first. This is a pricey flaw in the system. Not everyone using the ordering method is a frequent Domino's customer: It was the appeal of being able to order with an emoji that motivated me to make an account in the first place.

Regardless, it was a smooth transaction: My payment information saved, I was given the option to name my Easy Order (I chose the really unimaginative "Eater Pizza"), and a medium mushroom-and-pineapple pan pizza with a Coke Zero arrived at my door in just under 22 minutes.

@dominos

— Khushbu Shah (@KhushAndOJ) May 20, 2015

While I was waiting for the delivery of the first pizza, I tried to place a second order via an emoji. Within seconds, Domino's sent me a DM asking me to confirm the easy order with a thumbs up emoji or by simply replying with "Confirm." Moments later I was sent this message:

Being directed to go to the website defeats the purpose of ordering via emoji. I figured that it was maybe due to the fact that my first pizza order hadn't arrived yet, and the company thought it was a mistake that someone would want two mushroom-and-pineapple pizzas before 11 a.m.

I waited for half an hour before tweeting a pizza emoji at Domino's again, this time followed by "#EASYORDER," which the chain notes is the other way to place an order on Twitter if you're a fan of hashtags and not emojis. (Another point worth nothing: Domino's website reveals that if you order with a pizza emoji, that tweet must be limited to 25 characters or less for the chain to take your order seriously.)

@dominos #EASYORDER

— Khushbu Shah (@KhushAndOJ) May 20, 2015

Once again I received a quick response, but again I was rejected. Heartbroken, and hungry (but not really because I already had another pizza) I tweeted at Domino's asking why it wasn't working, and added a crying emoji for effect.

@dominos why won't you let me order with a ?

— Khushbu Shah (@KhushAndOJ) May 20, 2015

Half an hour later, the company tweeted at me, saying that they were looking into it. Shortly thereafter, they said that it should be working and asked me to try again. Turned out third time was the charm. There was apparently an issue on Domino's backend which prevented the system from connecting my order to the nearest store. The order was confirmed and I was given a link to track the progress of my pizza. Within half an hour, another pie was at my door.

@KhushAndOJ We're looking into this now, sorry for the trouble!

— Domino's Pizza (@dominos) May 20, 2015

Overall, the system — while it may look stupid and geared towards Twitter-loving millenials — is actually pretty useful if you fit a very small set specific criteria: You must be a creature of habit that enjoys ordering the same things over and over, and you must be a Domino's fan with an account already set up. For those who don't want to receive the same order over and over again, or want to make a slight change to a pre-existing order, you're out of luck, unless you login to the online platform and change the order there. But at that point, you might as well press the checkout button instead of returning to Twitter. There is already multitude to order Domino's — online, over the phone, via a smartwatch, and more, which begs the question: Is being able to order via Twitter really necessary? Perhaps the company is spreading its delivery prowess a little too thin.