Folks are writing to ask me what happened with the Subway sandwich folks. I wrote about it here but basically: A week ago Saturday, I decided to order two Subway sandwiches via their app, then walk down to the store and pick them up. The app said the store closed at 9 PM. Shortly after 8, I ordered. My order was accepted, my credit card was charged $18.35 and it said my order would be waiting for me at 8:30. Ah, but when I got to the shop, it was closed. The app thought it closed at 9 but it closed at 8 so I paid for two sandwiches I never got and I walked about a mile to pick up nothing.
Because it was a weekend — and a holiday weekend, to boot — their Subway Care phone line for Customer Support was closed and I thought I wouldn't be able to straighten things out until the following Tuesday. In the previous post, I told the story up to this point.
Soon after I posted it, I got a message from a nice gent who manages a different Subway outlet. I gather he was unsurprised by incompetence at the company for which he works. He gave me a phone number that, he said, would get me through to someone at Subway Care on Sunday. Thank you very much, sir.
On Sunday, I called and did get to someone who apologized profusely. She said that while it might take until Tuesday when the full office was open, three things would be done. The $18.35 would be charged back to my credit card. I would be sent a Subway gift card as an apology for the error and inconvenience. And the app would be corrected with the proper hours. As of more than a week later, none of these things has been done.
(The gift card, by the way, she said would be $5.00. That didn't sound like much of an apology to me, especially from a company that often discounts an order of two sandwiches like mine by that much. But, hey, you take what you can get…which perhaps should be the slogan for Subway.)
Yesterday afternoon, I called again and spent way too much of my life on the phone, explaining to a different nice lady what I'd been promised and how none of it was done. She apologized even more profusely and assured me she would make it all happen…and that's where we are. These people can make a foot-long Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki sandwich on 9-Grain Honey Oat bread in thirty seconds but refunding my money takes forever. Further details, if any, will follow.