This past Tuesday, Lindsey and I were jonesing for some sandwiches. We had a coupon book that came in the mail for Subway, so we grabbed it and headed over. We went to our favorite Subway location, which is only a couple of blocks from our apartment, at Willow and Herndon. It’s clean, convenient, and next door to a GameStop, Target, and Best Buy. Generally, they’re very nice people, but we were in for a surprise on this particular trip.
We decided to use two coupons. The first coupon was for a six-inch meal deal (six-inch sandwich, chips, and a 21 ounce drink for $5). The second coupon was a buy one get one free (free six-inch with purchase of any sub of equal or greater value and a 32 ounce drink). We went in thinking that these coupons were fairly straightforward. $5 meal deal, and free six-inch with the purchase of any sub of equal or greater value. Notice that I placed emphasis on the word “any”.
We started ordering our sandwiches. I ordered a footlong B.L.T., and she ordered two six-inch Turkeys. The owner was working the register when we had our sandwiches ready. I explained (twice, since he wasn’t paying much attention to us) what we wanted to do and how we wanted to apply the coupons. We were going to use the $5 meal deal for one of her six-inch Turkeys, and the buy one get one free for her other six-inch Turkey from the purchase of my footlong B.L.T. It was very clearly explained to him. He started ringing things up, and applied the buy one get one free coupon first. When he finished with that order, he asked if we wanted any chips or a drink with my footlong. We were understandably surprised, as we were under the impression that he had just charged me for my footlong and free six-inch. We looked over the coupon, and noticed that he had actually charged us for one Turkey, and made the other Turkey free, meaning our $5 meal deal coupon would not be useful. We brought this to his attention, explaining a third time how we wanted the coupons used, and he began claiming, rather belligerently, that the coupon was buy one six-inch and get one six-inch free. He claimed it was written right there on the coupon. We took the coupon, and showed him that it said any sub, and did not, in fact, specify that it had to be a six-inch. This exchange continued for two or three minutes, getting more heated as time passed. Eventually, out of exasperation on his part, he reversed the original order and did it correctly, if grudgingly.
The coupon’s text was perfectly clear that any sub of greater or equal value would get you a free six-inch sub. The only thing his temper tantrum was able to achieve was the loss of two customers.
Fuck you, Subway dude.
-Because I said so
