A friend of mine recently told me that Domino’s Pizza was offering insurance. At first, I thought he was he joking.

How could Domino’s Pizza be offering insurance to its customers? To their staff, sure, that makes sense, but to its customers? For pizza? No way. Then I randomly saw the commercial he had seen too.

Ironically, it showed a giant tree falling (probably from the neighbor’s yard) onto the customer’s car. And totaling it.

Said customer then panicked, thinking the pizza might be ruined, while disregarding his destroyed vehicle. The pizza, of course, was in pristine condition, completely unscathed. But then seconds later, he slips on some snow in his yard and the pizza meets its doom.

Clever bit, but what’s really being offered here? And are they actually serious?

Domino’s Carryout Insurance Is a Thing, Seriously

So I went online and looked for more information on this so-called “Carryout Insurance” and found some fine print at the bottom of the page, where they explain it in a bit more detail.

The gist is if your pizza gets damaged while transporting it from the store to your home, Domino’s will replace it with a brand spanking new one. And let’s face it, a lot can go wrong in that short window.

Of course, like other insurance policies, there are some conditions that need to be met to get your claim approved.

First, the pizza has to be returned uneaten to the store in which it was originally purchased. No, you can’t eat half the thing then claim it was dropped or otherwise damaged. Nor can you return it to a different location.

Secondly, you need to have the original packaging and the order label or receipt it came with.

Lastly, you need to get the ill-fated pizza back to the store within two hours of the time of purchase. You can’t return it a week later after deciding that you didn’t want it.

If you meet their demands, they’ll bake you a new pizza of like quality and kind, with no substitutions. That’s assuming the store is participating in this limited-time offer.

Oddly, Domino’s Pizza also has a guarantee that says if you’re not “completely satisfied” with your experience, they’ll make it right or refund you the money.

In other words, you’ve already got Carryout Insurance because most customers probably wouldn’t be completely satisfied if they dropped their pizza face down on the sidewalk.

But it is a cute marketing gimmick. The question is if this free coverage is already built into the price of the pie…and if your pizza price will go up after you file a claim. Hey-Oh!