I try to keep rants to a minimum, because I believe that life is too short to obsess over bad experiences. However, I was so disillusioned by my friend’s experience today at Subway, that I thought that I would post it to see if others have had similar experiences. It is the busy holiday season, so I am sure retail and fast food workers are very stressed out over the longer business hours and the busier workdays. Accidents happen with restaurant orders, and a simple apology is all that is needed to make it right in my book.



My friend’s "sandwich artist" made a small mistake when making his sandwich, which would usually be no big deal. I used to work in the restaurant industry, and when a mistake was made or if there was a misunderstanding, I would quickly fix the mistake and apologize profusely. I rarely had a customer that was anything but pleased with this response. The Subway worker that my friend had an encounter with today obviously learned her customer service skills elsewhere. Here is what happened:

My friend ordered a meatball sub. Simple enough. They made the sandwich base and proceeded to ask him what toppings he would like. Nothing but the usual Subway experience so far. When it came to the choice of cheeses, he asked for his usual provolone. The Subway worker proceeded to place Monterey cheddar on the sub. He politely told her that she must have misheard him and that he wanted provolone instead. If I was her, I would have apologized for the mistake and asked him if he wanted me to add the provolone on top of the cheddar or if he wanted me to take off the cheddar and replace it with provolone. Simple enough. The worker proceeded to not apologize, but slap a slice of provolone on top of the cheddar and wrap the sandwich. Not a big deal, just not great customer service. Oh well, still not too much harm done.



When he proceeded to the register to pay for his sub, the Subway worker who made a mistake decided that my friend should be charged for not only his sub, but for extra cheese as well! When he said that he did not think he should have to pay for the extra cheese, because it was her mistake, after all, she proceeded to tell him that he had to pay for it! He became a little angry at this point and told her that the sub was not made how he wanted it, since it was not, and to make a new sub with only provolone like he had first asked. She then said that she would "let it slide" this one time and not charge him for extra cheese! He politely paid and left, but said he would have left the sub and filed a complaint if he was not so darn hungry! We are going to contact corporate about this experience, and I will fill everyone in next week on how they decide to handle this issue. Customer service is not what it used to be.