Was the Subway Sandwich Artist being unreasonable?

[SandwichArtist]

Okay yes i’m an over thinker and do have the time to spend mulling this over as kids are at a club and I’ve got another 30mins to kill - before anyone makes fun of me for making a pointless thread.

Anyway I Think I’ve just been gaslighted by the Subway sandwich artist guy so thought i’d check here who was being unreasonable.

Name changed in case his wife or other relative is on here and he goes home and moans about me!

Ordered on the app three sandwich meals for a 3.30 pick up. Arrived and there was a queue of about 7 people. Two staff, one looked to be new and being fed instructions by the stressed looking other member.

Caught the stressed out one in a free moment while he was waiting for the toaster to go. Said i’d ordered on the app and was just here for a collection when he had a moment. He then said okay i’ll make that for you in a minute. I said Oh i was expecting it to be made already as i’d ordered online. He didn’t answer so I returned to my spot in the queue thinking he was just super stressed and must have got caught up in an unexpected rush so hadn’t had chance to make my order yet. A little annoying but no harm done.

The trainee then tries to make my order from the receipt and seemed to be getting stressed out as well. I said to him not to worry and i’d just tell him the order if it was easier. So basically i ended up having to order everything in person anyway.

Got all my sandwiches sorted then arrived at the till. Second staff member starts to ring it through so I stopped him and said I’ve ordered and paid for it all online. He then bagged up the sandwiches and says thank you then moved on to the next customer. I said it was meals i ordered and could i have three cookies and bottles. Again not a word to me. He just silently puts them into the bag.

By now i’m getting annoyed at his poor customer service skills so i ask him (exact words): Can i just check - is the app working or is it just that you were really busy that my order wasn’t ready for click and collect? He then says we don’t make the order until the customer arrives so it doesn’t go soggy waiting for them. I said the last three times i’ve ordered (same shop, different staff) it was ready to collect right away from the till. He said well they’ve been doing it wrong. So then i asked him what is the point of ordering on the app then if I still have to queue and order as I normally would had i just came in and ordered in person. He said he wasn’t sure but some people prefer ordering that way???

I said look i hope this doesn’t sound rude but I can see you’ve been really busy, so if that’s actually the reason the order wasn’t ready for immediate collection then that’s fine and understandable. He then insisted that it was procedure not to begin making the sandwich until the customer had notified them on arrival that they’d ordered online.

I again said this hadn’t been the case the last few times so if that’s the new procedure, they need to make that clearer on the app. At the most this was a 30 second exchange, if that. He then looks even more stressed and says Can i get you anything else as i’ve got a customer waiting.

So i left. Pissed off that i think he’s lied to me (but why would he do that??) and also annoyed at his shocking customer service. Subway was my first job as a 16yo and I was far nicer to my customers than he was today.

You sound like an absolute weapon, cut the guy some slack. Min wage, shit conditions and high pressure at times. Hospitality really is a shit industry to work in at times and you are exactly the kind of customer that makes it so.

You are the customer, Subway is not cheep, and their customer service was terrible, you had every right to complain. So sick of this idea that we should be grateful for rude service.

How much is minimum wage in the UK? I expect it’s not shockingly bad?

It is in a meaningful sense. Living on minimum wage is incredibly difficult. Many minimum wage workers in the UK are also on benefits to top up their income so they can stay above water.

It’s more than waiting staff get in the US, yet I’ve never had poor or rude service there funnily enough.

Because they're forced to act like performing monkeys in the hope of getting tips to top up their meagre wage!

Still better experience than the last time I willingly ate at subway… as the person was wrapping my sandwich it sort of exploded onto the prep counter. I then watched her try to scoop all the fixings back into the bread.

Yeah, I wasn’t interested in paying for or eating a sandwich with fixings that contained sandwich droppings from a counter that was not exactly clean. Oh and I waited in line for about 30 minutes

There really was no need to keep going on at the poor guy OP. You got your sandwiches made fresh, just take them and leave! Yabu.

I agree with this. It’s also extremely annoying the way some almost burst out singing or keep asking questions when you just want a quiet meal. For tip. Just pay them properly.

Yes I am sure it is, I was just asking how much it actually is.

I hope my tone didn't come across as hostile, wasn't meant to. It's £11.44 an hour, apparently.

Well, their system is absolute crap an the rest of the world knows it is absolute crap tbf. We don’t want that.

Oh not at all, sorry if mine did. Ours is about the same, maybe even a little bit less.

Put your teenage kids in their place.
Would you want someone as rude as you being antagonistic towards them.
My 19 year old ASD Grandson works in fast food ( PT ..he's at uni).. the stories he tells me about customers like you .. make me feel so sorry for him.

Who would order online if they still had to stand in the queue like everyone else?

ME!!!

I'm on the spectrum and the idea of getting to the front of the queue in Subway and having to go through the litany of different choices, bread, type of bread, length of bread, sunflower seeds or not, what you want in it, is it vegetarian??? gives me the absolute horrors. And what order do you even do it in?

It's a running joke in my family that one of the things I've resigned myself to never being able to do is have a Subway.

OK so there's no chance I'll lie on my deathbed and wish I had just once gone and ordered a Subway. It's not that big a deal.

But thanks to the OP's thread I've realised there's even an option available for terminally awkward gits like me.

A smile and polite service is hardly a performing monkey, it’s just called doing your job, like everyone else does.

But that’s not my point, it’s an awful system, the point is they still manage to give good service. There’s no reason why we can’t expect the same here,

Too right, the unwritten judgement is evident.

I'm sure it makes her feel good to be better than others

If you order ahead at our subway you def don't stand in the queue you go straight to the till and they go get your ready made order from the back bit behind the main kitchen area.

For all those saying it needs to be made fresh - it is - fresh to the time you select as your pickup time on the app.

YABU for using the word gaslighting .

Christ almighty. I can tell exactly what kind of person/customer you are from this description, and this is presumably you putting yourself in the best light. I dread to imagine what it was actually like.

Are you for some reason under the impression that this guy is in charge of Subway's company policies and web design?

That’s only if they’re over 21.
18-20 (which a lot will be) is £8.60
Under 18 is £6.40.

So yes, it is shockingly bad.

So you can order and pick up via drivethrough, and not have to deal with the faff of ordering and paying and people! I always park up and order on the app, then go through the drivethrough - much less stressful, especially for people with anxiety (like me!)

The customer service issue aside (he should have been more polite about forgetting you'd already paid and including the rest of your meal), ywbu to keep going on about it. I've no idea if he was right, wrong, or lying about in-app orders, but it does make sense to not make them too far in advance. Besides, you could more easily check the policy online afterwards than get someone to admit they'd lied (if he had).

Try having a little empathy.
The subway staff are low paid and worked hard.
The universe doesnt revolve round you.
Everyone has a off day.