Reader Kristina was hungry and ready to make use of her Subway $20 gift card, however, when she tried to redeem it at the Subway store at Water and Wall St. in Manhattan, the transaction unfolded like this:
Me: *offers gift card as payment*
Employee: “Nope.”
Me: “I’m sorry?”
Employee: “No gift cards.”
Me: “But this is a Subway gift card. And I am in Subway.”
Employee: “No gift cards.”
Me: “It says on the gift card that this is used like cash in a Subway.”
Employee: “Machine’s down. You want your sandwich or not?”
This might seem like a routine glitch, but over a month later, “the machine” is still inoperative. Kristina’s letter, inside…
Over a month ago, I went to the Subway at Water and Wall in Manhattan with the intention of using a gift card a friend had given me as payment. I ordered my sandwich, but when I went to give the employee the gift card, I was informed very rudely that the gift card processing system was down and as such it could not be accepted. Dialogue:
Me: *offers gift card as payment*
Employee: “Nope.”
Me: “I’m sorry?”
Employee: “No gift cards.”
Me: “But this is a Subway gift card. And I am in Subway.”
Employee: “No gift cards.”
Me: “It says on the gift card that this is used like cash in a Subway.”
Employee: “Machine’s down. You want your sandwich or not?”I could have paid cash, but the employee was so unpleasant in his response (bad tone, sounded very impatient and trying to rush me out despite there being no other customers there, no apologies offered) that I just left and went to another Subway on John Street (they are every other block in my area). The other Subway was having the same problem (you’d think the employee in the first Subway would have mentioned that the issue was not isolated), but the manager there was very apologetic and even gave me a free sandwich for my trouble.
I filed a complaint for the Water Street Subway on the company’s website and received a letter thanking me for my comments, but it was just a generic response. This past Wednesday night I decided to give the Water Street location another chance, and they *still* hadn’t fixed the gift card issue.
Kristina
We did some research and called the store at 122 Water St. and found out, not surprisingly, that the gift card machine still doesn’t work. The employee we spoke to did not know why it had been broken for so long and when we asked when it would be fixed he simply hung up.
We found this number for Subway Global HQ: (800) 888-4848. If you hit 85 for customer service you are able to leave information regarding specific store complaints which, according to the recording, will be forwarded to a regional office and store owner. If you would like to escalate your complaint via snail mail their address is: Subway Global HQ, Customer Care, 325 Bic Drive, Milford, CT 06460. Good luck, and keep us updated.
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That’s subway. I tried to use a coupon that was listed on this site for free chips and they wouldn’t honor it. The Subway I went to said it was up to the individual store to decide what coupons they would honor. There was a sign posted that also said “We don’t honor the free cookie coupon printed at the end of your receipt. Sorry.” Another subway I went to had limits as to which footlong subs for $5 they would honor. Corporate and the individuals stores are clearly not on the same page.
@Skankingmike: What is that, 6, 7 catches? You got a veritable trolling feast on your hands.
It seems that the closer you are to NYC, the more likely you are to find a store run by some scumbag jackass with no concern whatsoever for his clients.
I love those camera stores downtown (you know, the ones that now advertise products on the web at ridiculously low prices and then have no intention of actually selling you said product at said price) where they treat you like a long-lost brother when you’re buying something but like a cash-thieving leper when you try to return it.
Subway stopped the stamp program because of theft. (That is, employees would give bundles of them to their friends.)
The stamp program is still alive and well on the Subway at W. 41st St. in Manhattan.
Had this same problem at the Subway on Bedford avenue about 6 months ago.
@Skankingmike: I love the comments where people assume that every town has the same wide variety of restaurants that they do. I just spent three years living in a crappy college town that had nearly nothing but national chain restaurants, and the only place to get a sandwich was Subway. This town also had four Subways, which seemed rather excessive for a town of around 50k people.
We spent a lot of time at the few good local restaurants- I’m gonna miss that Greek place.
I had this same problem at this same Subway. I used to go to this subway three times a week until my mom gave me a gift card to use and after they made my sandwich they mentioned the problem with the gift card machine. (I work at an office building at Water & Wall.)
The “sandwich n*zi” that Kristi encountered was the franchisee’s owner, who refused, REFUSED to take my gift card. I guess he was nice in that he offered to let me pay on the next Thursday when I got my paycheck (which I used as my excuse as to why I couldn’t pay in cash), but I said I wanted the sandwich for free on my gift card (the whole point of a gift card) and walked out.
I wrote into Subway’s site — they responded back nicely — but I told them don’t bother with a gift card, because I couldn’t even use it.
@toddvm: Hahaha, they don’t honor their own coupons. Classic. Although the 5$ promotion never was for every sub, at least not in any Subway I went to.
@JMH: Counterfeits, actually. Sell a brick on ebay, make loads of cash.
@Skankingmike: She wouldn’t have been there if she hadn’t had a gift card to use up in the first place. Telling her off for not having cash to make a purchase she only made due to having a gift card to spend is assinine.
Like you.
Anyway, this article illustrates Good CS v Bad – look what the other store did when confronted with a problem with the gift cards. I know which I’d be going to next time (I don’t get why she didn’t go there again to begin with)
My boyfriend and I tried to use a $10 gift card we had at one of their locations. When the cashier went to swipe it, the card wouldn’t run. I checked the balance by calling the number, just to verify that we hadn’t used it and forgotten about it. The automatic woman’s voice said “Ten dollars” and the cashier said he had no way to manually run the card. Miffed, we paid and left.
The next week we went to the next closest one, card wouldn’t run and.. hey! they manually entered it without a hitch!
Lazy employees blow. I don’t care that they “only make minimum wage”. They accepted that job. They need to do it right or get fired.
- I like Subway.
- But Subway corporate is poor at following up with complaints about franchisees. I complained a couple of times about a Subway that was convenient to me, but always dirty. The location never changed and Subway corporate kind of gave a corporate “shrug” about it. Also, where most chains will always send you a coupon or something to say “sorry” I notice Subway sends nadda.
@lordkaio: I work at a subway, and we are actually not allowed to manually enter subway cards. They are afraid that we will steal people’s points by writing down the numbers on their card… It actually says in big letters when you are supposed to swipe the card “NO MANUAL ENTRY ALLOWED”
@Skankingmike: Agreed! Subway is the stank.
Where I work there are two Subways right around the corner from each other, and in between a Deli/Convenience store with some amazing subs and loads of choice in meat. Unfortunately though that Deli had to close. Hmm wonder why? Subway offers little variety in meat types and uses different variants of subs with the same meat. In my opinion that’s just cheap and lazy business. Hence why I strongly agree with supporting your local community. Kinda reminds of that south park episode about Walmart.
From the “mysterious random sandwiches are not eligible for the $5 footlong, and we won’t tell you exactly which ones until you reach the register and don’t have time on your lunch/break/whatever to tell us to piss off and go somewhere else to eat”, to this, to the mysterious non-cheese-tesselation, to the “meticulously counting every ingredient on your sandwich down to individual shreds of lettuce,” I’ve sworn never to eat at any Subway for the rest of my life, and I’ve asked everyone I know to join me in the boycott.