Awful Treatment at Subway on College Blvd, Oceanside, CA

It was just that Subway! I manage a Subway in Ellensburg, Wa. and We
bend over backwards to make everyone happy. Bad news travels faster
then good news and we know that. Our Subway is #4 out of 122 Subways
in our region, and our goal is to be #1 by this summer. I hope you
went on line and filled out a complaint on them, that will help with
maybe getting rid of that employee.
good luck and please don't give up on Subway.

Here's what I would have done if I'd been working there, I would have
said well I'm sorry this happened and I would given you another small
sandwich on the house.

These people are so cheap, it would kill them to give a customer a
sandwich. What they don't realize is now they have lost you as a
customer and now several of us here are talking bad about their store
and this will hurt there business.

Fast food places are getting so cheap, the Jack in the Box I go to no
longer puts napkins out. It seems you don't get any unless you ask,
but I did notice they put some in my bag when I ordered a take out. I
guess the homeless people have been stealing them. I understand they
are trying to cut costs and their stock has been falling.

Any time I have EVER been to a Subway, if I say "I'll have the tuna
sub", the first thing I'm asked is "Half or Whole?" or "6-inch or
12-inch?". If her son was instructed to order the footlong and just
said "Roast beef sub", he would have been asked to specify size, would
he not?

I imagine the cashier might have been more accommodating if she had
been approached in a more conciliatory manner instead of being made to
feel that Subway did something wrong by giving little Timmy exactly
what he asked for.

Horrible Customer Service. Good Letter!

I used to go to this same store with my daughter once a week. Then I
switched to the nice new subway by the Lowe's on Old Grove Rd. it's
just a little further down the street. The people are nice, the food
is way better and they DON'T HAVE TERMITES crawling all over their
wood window seals. I HATE that Subway and you're right, that woman is
incredibly RUDE.

I had subway on Friday for the first time in perhaps two years. I was
looking forward to it: I bring my lunch to work every day, so getting
food from elsewhere was a nice treat.

I was soooo underwhelmed. The tomatoes weren't read -- they were
light pink and hadn't been de-cored. The bacon was gross. The turkey
was flavorless (more so than usual for turkey). My request for "just
a little salt and pepper please" resulted in an insane amount of salt
and pepper shaken all over the sandwich (so bad that I had to scrape
it off with a napkin).

Next time, I'm having Jimmy John's.

Many years ago, I went into a Subway (it may have been my first time
in one) and I ordered sub, some chips, and a drink. Exactly the items
in a combo.

The cashier rang up my order and I handed him a $20 bill. He gave me
back change. It was then that I realized that I was overcharged.

"I think it's supposed to be $[whatever a combo meal costs]," I said.

"You didn't order to combo," said the cashier.

"I'm sorry, but it looks like the combo is a 6" chicken sub, a bag of
chips, and a medium drink. I think that's what I ordered, no?"

"You didn't ask for the combo, so I charged you for what you
ordered."

"I didn't know I had to ask for the combo meal. I thought you'd ring
me up for that when you saw I got the exact items in the meal. Can I
get back the difference?"

"I can't open the register," said the cashier.

"Who can?" I asked.

"The manager."

"Where is the manager?"

"Not here."

"So, only the manager can open the register and the manager isn't
here. Are you really saying that you're unable to refund money if the
manager isn't here?"

He remained unmoved. "That's right. No manager, no refunds. For any
reason."

Wanting to make my point, I added, "So, you accidentally have someone
the wrong change, you'd not be able to make it right?"

"That's correct. Once the register closes, it doesn't open again
unless you buy something. No exceptions."

"Even if it was YOUR fault?" I asked.

"That's right. No exceptions."

At this point, a woman walked up to the register and removed the key
she had on her wrist. She unlocked the register, silently handed me
back the difference between my a la carte order and a combo meal, and
walked back to the sandwich making area."

Anyway...

I feel for you. If the 6" and the 12" cost EXACTLY the same, then it
seems silly for them to refuse to just toss another 6" your way (note
that two 6" subs may not contain exactly the same amount of filling --
although I'm sure that a Subway employee may correct me on this).

But, like me, the error was in not asking for the special. If you
don't ask for the special, you can't come back later and ask for it.

I'm struck by the fact that you told your son to get the footlong and
that's not what he ordered. While it's easy to make a mistake
(especially at 13), I'm wondering what happened there. Was he talked
into getting the 6"? Did he misread the sign and figured he was
saving you money? Was he like my grandfather, who purposefully
doesn't order the special (at a lower price) because he he's not
hungry? (He's rather pay extra to NOT waste the food).

In any case, I've learned that Subway employees don't all subscribe to
the same level of logic that some customers do. (Note, I said
"some").

I doubt this was the employee being sadistic. I think it's more about
being locked into the "the customer orders, we deliver what they asked
for" mentality. This person didn't see it as their job to notify your
son that he could get a better deal. And, after the fact, saw no
reason to help because, after all, it WAS his fault and why should she
have to go through the trouble of dealing with this?

One last thing: Subway is franchisee owned. What they'll do is send
this letter to the local store. Where the owner will decide if they
care or not. Maybe your owner will.

It's a shame that the Subway people will never know which Subway
outlet you were at. Your title is only seen by the people viewing
PFB. The title does not go into the e-mail that is sent via PFB.

I would have asked to speak with a manager (And I sure hope this lady
wasn't it!). I used to work at Subway and back then we had $3.99
footlong specials on Tuesdays. If someone ordered a regular sandwich
(Some even cost more than that) as a 6-inch I would always tell them
about the special, even though we weren't required too. That is a
shame she didn't.

I feel your pain! I too have a teenage son (age 14) who doesn't
listen to half of what I say & we both suffer the consequences of that
on a regular basis. In addition, he also has ADHD, which means of the
50% he hears, only half of that stays with him for more than 3
minutes!

I do agree with the other posters that it was your son's fault &
Subway had no obligation to make it right for you. HOWEVER, in the
interest of customer service, I think that the manager on duty should
have opted to make another 6" sandwich of the same kind as the
original order & let you pay the difference (if any additional amount
was due.) Having worked in retail (thankfully never in food service),
that's what I would have done. It's kind of like taking a coupon
after you have already completed the sale because the customer had
forgotten they had one. It's not required, but it is good customer
service & promotes brand or store loyalty.

I think I would be on the fence about this as some of the others were,
however your son is 13. If he were younger, I might be able to see
how this mistake happened. But, 13 is plenty old enough to read signs
and listen to one's mother. At the Subway's that I have driven by,
there are rather large signs advertising the $5 footlongs. So, unless
you were unclear when you conveyed to your son what to order, I don't
understand how this mistake occurred at all.

If I had to guess why the employee didn't speak up and say something
to the boy, it would be that they are told not to. What would the
advantage be to Subway be if they spoke up every time someone ordered
a 6" and told them for the same price they could order a footlong?
Subway is making money by bringing people in their door with the $5
deal and then selling them not only footlongs but 6" subs as well.

Here in Kalamazoo, A majority of the local Subways are owned by Indian
families who have very thick accents and are not able to fully
understand what you say. They know how to give good "service", because
they are trained robots. (Hi how are you, CHIPS AND DRINK!!!!, Thank
you very much). But they what they fail to provide is hospitality, and
going above and beyond for the guest to make them feel special and
appreciated. I think that these people's command of English simply
isnt good enough to go this far.

This lady could have very well been the owner of the franchise.

However, you got what you ordered, therefore there is no complaint. It
would be like going to the grocery store, and buying a 1/2 gallon of
milk, then realizing the gallon was on sale, then demanding another
1/2 gallon for the price difference.

The special was for a $5 FOOTLONG. Not a $2.50 6-inch. Therefore, you
got what you ordered and nothing is owed, however they could have
explained it to you.

It was not the employees fault that he ordered the wrong sandwich. I
would think you would have to pay for another sandwich? Maybe next
time, he should have a note with what to order; this would help him
and the staff out. Good Luck!

I agree with most here about your son paying attention and taking
responsibility. On the flip side though one more 6 inch sandwich
would not break the company. Your throwing out the would've,
should've did not help the situation nor taking her ethnicity into the
equation.

For the person that had an issue with my bringing up the woman's
descent, that was only to try to help identify her to corporate and
for no other reason. There was a younger caucasion guy with black
hair working there as well at the time who was not involved, but if he
had been I would have said "Younger caucasion guy with black hair".
Nuff said. Now, to most all of you other folks. Yes, it was my son's
fault for ordering wrong and yes, they didn't HAVE to do a thing to
help us out, and just as you believe was the right response, they
didn't. Instead the lady dished us up some rudeness with major
attitude when we asked for help because we made a mistake. She
actually appeared to derive some kind of twisted pleasure out of
refusing! They wouldn't have had to discard the sandwich, just throw
another 6 inch our way to make it the footlong special. Man, where
did all the nice people go?

Oh, and to the guy who used to manage a grocery store, you think like
me.

Maybe you should have given him a note...then there would have been no
excuse for the incorrect ordering.

Also, this would have been a good time to remind him that he must pay
attention, but instead you are turning this around and blaming Subway
for his error.

You instructed your 13 year old son to order a footlong for $5 and
instead he ordered a 6 inch sandwich. I honestly don't see why the
Subway employee ("eastern Indian decent" or not) should take the loss
on this order and replace it with what your son was instructed to
order but didn't.

There was no complaint about the quality of the ingredients, the way
it was made, the attitude of the CSR or the time it took to make it.
The attitude of the CSR became a problem when they failed to correct
your child's mistake.

So, you can't call this "Awful Treatment", or the opposite of
"friendly and helpful." It was kind of neutral. They produced the
product as requested. Could they have gone out of their way to make
up for your child's mistake? Of course, and that would have been
excellent customer service.

I think that failing to make an exception isn't awful service.
Exceptions aren't advertised on the menu. To me the message to the
child is "be careful when you order, so that you get what you want."

Why not let this situation be an example of what happens when your son
doesn't listen to his parents. Yes Subway could have had better
customer service but they made the sandwich that was ordered. This is
one of those situations where the "Customer is not always right". The
customer made a mistake in ordering the sandwich by not realizing the
special deal, but the business made the sandwich that was requested.

If the $5.00 footlong deal meant so much to the mother she should have
stayed with her son instead of running off to another store while the
son placed the order.

If the son felt like he could not remember what to order, then the
mother could have written down the order so the son could have gotten
it correctly.

On a side note I had witnessed a smiliar situation at McDonald's once.
A grandmother took her grand daughter to McDonald's. The grand
daughter placed an order got it and brought it back to the table. The
grand mother said this is not what the grand daughter ordered. The
grand daughter took it back and McDonald's fixed it. However when the
grand daughter got back to the table, the order was still not correct.
This went on for another two times before the order was correct.

Why should the restaurant suffer when kids don't know how to place an
order. If kids can't order correctly, then they should be stuck with
what they get.

I see your point.

However, on the other side of this, if you just wanted a 6-inch sub,
would you want to be reminded of the footlong special every time you
went in to order? Yeah, it would be nice for some, but others would
become annoyed and let you know they were annoyed.

I wonder if Subway has a system where they can void a transaction and
redo it. That would have been the best possibility.

Did you order another 6-inch? I just hope your son doesn't feel guilty
about causing this "problem".

Your complaint is valid, but this taints it. It doesn't mention the
simple solution you offered to Red (give another 6 inch), but I hope
you suggested it at the time.

Is it possible that you son's favorite sandwich was not part of the
$5.00 special so in your absence he decided to get what he wanted?
I'm not familiar with Subways sandwiches or the special, but it's
strange that they would be selling a six inch and twelve inch at the
same price, even taking into consideration that they're running a
special.

There was no harm in asking them to make it right, but when you were
told it couldn't be done, I don't think you should have pressed the
issue. Certainly you're not going to let this one experience stop
you from continuing to enjoy the Subway you know and love. Are you?

I don't think what the OP is asking for is a big deal. To take care of
a customer it would be nice if Subway made the kid another 6 inch
sandwich for his mom.

It's generally not worth getting a complaint letter in your file for
something as dumb as this.

The kid made a mistake by not paying attention to his mother. I
manage a grocery store and sometimes you take a small loss on
something to keep your customers happy.

Good Day

Your words "awful treatment" are absurd. It's not like they can do
anything with the sandwich they made for your kid -- they'd have to
throw it away. And even as you describe the words and actions, I see
absolutely no rudeness, except on you, for continuing to press them on
this.