Last week we got home kind of late and we didn’t have much to make for dinner so we decided to go to Subway. The Subway by our house is fine if they don’t have to make more than one sandwich. They always have new people who don’t know what they’re doing, managers and regular employees. Neither of us have ever worked at a Subway so I don’t really know why this is but it makes going there super risky, you might get that really great girl from last week but more than likely it’s some new girl who doesn’t understand that if you put onions on my sandwich I will literally vomit.
We decided to risk it, this whole summer the same girl has been closing and she makes bomb sandwiches. Guess what, neither the great girl nor her manager are there and that leaves us with two new employees. There’s one customer in front of us and they order one sandwich. We order two sandwiches.
The first lady gets her sandwich toasted so they move our first one to the front and ask what I want on it. I’m a super picky eater and I don’t mind too much when the ingredients are kind of mixed up because I’ll just make a mental note and pick it off, but these toppings were all kinds of jacked. Banana peppers and onions and green peppers and cucumbers were in the lettuce bin and there were no olives (usually not a problem, at all, they go get more, I don’t mind waiting, this girl asked me if I would be okay just not having them because it would take her too long to make a new bin. What.)
So the lady in front of us gets her sandwich and the new girl rings her up and the lady walks out, taking the sandwich out of the bag. I watch the lady open the sandwich and start picking at the stuff. With her bare hands. She comes back inside, at this point we’re being rung up, two people have come in behind us. She hands me the sandwich and says, “This must be yours, it has pickles on it. Can I have mine?” The girl who’s just rung us up looks horrified but she doesn’t offer to either of us to fix the situation and keeps looking at her manager to make sure he doesn’t notice there’s a confrontation going on.
I give the lady her sub, which is toasted, so it’s warm. How do you mix up a toasted sandwich with my untoasted sandwich? Maybe she just wasn’t paying attention but seriously? I look at the sandwich the lady gave us and it’s unwrapped and the lady had her hands all up in it and I don’t know the last time she washed her hands. I don’t know what she touched before she walked in that store. It’s not my fault she got the wrong order but I won’t eat this sandwich.
At Chick-Fil-A, if someone says there’s a problem we don’t even ask them what the problem is, we just replace the food. I tell the girl behind the register what happened and ask if I can get it replaced, and I’m quiet because there are three other people behind us now. She asks me to repeat myself and says she doesn’t know what the problem is, it seems fine. And I’m like, “okay well, can I just get this remade, I won’t eat it.” And she says that she’s not a manager so she’ll have to ask the other guy.
The other guy is down at the cutting station and I’m trying not to be loud because I hate when people come in yelling about their salty fries or cold sandwich, it poorly reflects the company, and the girl won’t go trade spots with him so I have to be loud. The other customers make faces and I tell them I’m so sorry but that’s gross and I can’t eat it. He says fine, and remakes the sandwich, telling the other customers, “I’m sorry I’ll help you in a minute, they had a problem and it’s holding up the line.” The girl is still just standing at the register.
And these are the experiences that make me never want to complain when a company gets my order wrong or something happens that they caused. I don’t want the snotty looks and mean comments. But you know what, it’s not your fault if they give your order to someone else and you get the short end of the stick. Go and ask for a replacement. Or ask for a refund. You are paying for a product, or for a service, and you deserve what you pay for.
Team Santana 