Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Subway: Strike Three

Human beings make mistakes all the time, although at a certain point it gets a little bit ridiculous. Take, for example, the Subway restaurant on 12391 Bridgeport rd. in Richmond, BC. Since it's the closest to where I work, they have gotten the vast majority of my business as of late, although I'm really starting to rethink that.

Since I often go there, I offer to pick stuff up on behalf of my coworkers. First time I went, I was able to fill an order for 8 people without any problems and they even gave me a whole whack of coupons before I left. But that Monday, I re-eally don't know what happened.

It's fine up until I get past the veggie topping station and I'm about to complete my order. I add on the bag of chips and I ask for cookies instead. I want "double chocolate" and "chocolate chip M&M." I know that I've been known to talk too fast on occasion, but even still, one would think that a fast food worker who hears the same orders all the time is familiar enough with the product that they can easily distinguish between "double chocolate", "chocolate chip M&M", and "Oatmeal Raisin." It takes her three tries to get it right. I let this one slide.

Then the girl at the veggie station, given the directive to "put everything on it," proceeds to wrap the sandwich after all the veggies are placed, but without additional seasoning, or without even ASKING what I wanted. Being that they fix this right away, I too let this slide.

Then it gets weird. I'm paying by both credit card and gift card ($10 balance), which SHOULD be relatively simple for most people. Considering what stuff costs these days, multiple forms of payment should be expected. However, the cashier doesn't know how to do multiple forms of payment, so I still have a $10 gift card and $10 is charged to my credit card. There had BETTER still be a balance on my gift card. But to their credit, they allow me to have a free bag of chips. STRIKE ONE.

Then it gets stupid. After I fill my medium drink cups, I reach over to the drink station and notice that not only are there drink trays (requisite for carrying multiple beverages in the car), there are no medium cup lids. Maybe if I was eating in, that wouldn't be a problem. But in a moving vehicle, a passenger wouldn't be holding an open cup in a moving vehicle, let alone the driver with one in each hand. After about five minutes of trying to locate medium cup lids (and even attempting to fit the coffee cup lids on the medium drink cups), they relent and allow me to upgrade to bottled drinks instead. STRIKE TWO.

Then I get back to work and bite into my Subway Club. The meat is a lot saltier than I remember and it tastes a little bit funny. Turns out that they put grated carrot in it. I know I asked for everything, but since when do they put grated carrot in a sandwich? STRIKE THREE. You're OUT!

Even though they tried to compensate me with free meal upgrades, this is not how you do business, and is very unsustainable. In the middle of a lunch rush, these guys were completely unprepared to do just the basics.

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