(Marike79)
When is “dinner?” Josh had a Subway coupon with the words “Dinner Time” on it, but no time restrictions in the fine print. He went to use the coupon around 1:00 PM at a local Subway franchise, and their cash register wouldn’t accept it. He feels that Subway owes him a dollar, and now refuses to go back. Is he overreacting, or does Subway need to define when “dinner” starts?
[From Wikipedia:] “Dinner is usually the name of the main meal of the day. Depending upon culture, dinner may be the second, third or fourth meal of the day. Originally, though, it referred to the first meal of the day, eaten around noon, and is still occasionally used for a noontime meal, if it is a large or main meal.”
Now that we have that cleared up; my father and I attempted to utilize a coupon for two combo meals at a local subway (according to mint.com I’ve spent over $490 at this subway in the past 3 years). The coupon said “Dinner Time”. It was 1:00PM. No where on the coupon did they define what time dinner was. Nor in the store, any where in writing. The owner told me the computer would not allow him to use the coupon (which doesn’t actually scan), so he could not accept it.
I work IT for a living, if you can’t override or outsmart a computer, then you need to examine your life. In any case, we used other coupons that were “allowed” with a difference of $1.00 I still feel that as a loyal customer of almost $500 worth, who works with 100+ people close to this location, he should have just ate the $1.00.
I called subway corporate who was of no help since they do not own the stores, they have no power or legal obligations over them (quite convenient) and since the local owner did not produce the coupon, they also have no liability nor are required to accept them. I’m just glad I live in 2012, where no company anywhere has any liability and confusing coupons rule the land.
All I want is my $1.00 back. I’d have left if my father had not wanted subway… I’ll never go back. They just lost $150/year. It’s not much, but it’s all I can do.
That’s the nature of franchised businesses. Avoiding all Subways everywhere is an overreaction, but avoiding just that one is understandable.
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$490 over the past 3 years. That’s $13.61 per month, which is around two visits. You are not a customer they should make exceptions for.
I wouldn’t say 5pm (maybe 4pm) but it sure as heck isn’t 1pm.
So after consulting Wikipedia, researching purchases over three years (ooh…a Subway every two weeks), and berating Subway corporate, it appears the Sandwich Artist still has the IT Guru’s dollar.
Sounds like Josh needs a course in history, to wit, King Pyrrhus of Epirus.
“according to mint.com I’ve spent over $490 at this subway in the past 3 years”
$490/3years = $163/yr
$163/52weeks = $3.14
$3.14/week
Assuming a foot long sandwich is $6 and constitutes one meal, he eats at subways about once every other week.
Also assuming that a person has 3 meals a day…
That means he eats a subway sammich about once out of every 40 meals.
big spender.
As noted by many, OP does seem to be a dick.
However, it has been my general understanding that “lunch” is essentially a slang word for “midday meal.” I have always felt that the formal definition of “dinner” was meant to be the midday meal, and “supper” was the evening meal. I am told that in many parts of the country, particularly the south, “dinner” and “supper” are still commonly in use that way.
How “dinner” migrated to the “supper” slot I don’t know…or why “supper” isn’t used anymore in many areas – outside of a “supper club.” At any rate, I don’t see how (in lieu of any actual notice of what Subway considered to be “dinner time”) Subway, franchisee or not, really had grounds to deny the coupon – but once again it certainly seems that OP is, verily, a dick.
Is today the day that we start looking towards the South for eloquence and propriety in language? I’m starting to think that there might be something to this 2012 thing after all…
Sorry. Bad customer tag required. OP is a dick and being overly literal. Popular usage in the area he’s in? Dinner is the evening meal, generally after 5 pm.
I’m not going to slam the OP, however he is simply overreacting in this case. Not going back to that specific Subway is one thing and would understand that, but banning them all, that is going way overboard and will only effect that OP.
Now when it comes to the coupon:
First, Dinner time is normally after 5pm.
Second, I have to wonder if there is really a time restriction on this coupon or since there was NO signs up on this particular deal that maybe that specific Subway (since they are privately owned) doesn’t accept that coupon period. Coupons that work at one location, might not work at another location.
Bottom line, the OP should give another Subway a chance, but bring another coupon in case that specific Subway also doesn’t accept that coupon.
Again, the OP is overreacting, its not worth getting so mad over.
Just searched online for and found “Subway Dinner Time Special” and the ad says “Everyday after 4pm and all day Sunday”…there’s part of it.
I call lunch dinner. Drives my wife batshit crazy. I blame my British parents. Supper is the last meal of the day.
“I work IT for a living, if you can’t override or outsmart a computer, then you need to examine your life”
No I don’t, I pay you people to do these things. Granted, I can probably do it, but if I couldn’t I would never feel the need to examine my life. Now this horrible case fo the crabs? I should probably examine something.
Here’s how I weigh in on this.
1) Restaurant owner should’ve eaten the dollar, if only to keep a happy customer happy and prevent a scene like this. It’s definitely worth $1 not to have to deal with a complainer.
2) 1:00 is not dinner, and both the OP and the restaurant owner knows this. OP automatically gets my “dick of the week” award for blatantly trying to exploit a loophole and then acting self-righteous about it and pretending like he isn’t.
3) Regardless of what Wikipedia says dinner used to refer to, in modern day America, dinner is what we eat at night as our last meal of the day. Again, OP knows this and is acting like a self-righteous asshole.
4) OP is also a presumptious asshole who clearly has never worked in food service. You can’t just “reprogram” a computer to do what you want. Many chain restaurants (including subway) use software that spoon-feeds an order to you step-by-step. You can’t just ‘hack the system’ to make it accept a coupon – if it doesn’t accept it, it doesn’t accept it. Tough cookies for everyone involved, and there’s usually nothing anyone can do about it.
5) OP implies there is shady business by referring to Subway Corporate’s lack of authority as “convenient.” To this I merely remind him that Subway is a franchise, and that he is an idiot. A self-righteous, entitled, asshole, idiot.
This guy is a dick.
I don’t care what Wikipedia says – in North America, dinner is the third meal of the day, and it’s in the late afternoon/early evening.
Tough cookies.
My Dinner Time coupons from subway had a stated timeframe where I could use them. I believe it was after 5pm. It was a little shady in that it was only mentioned on the header of the coupon sheet, not individually on the coupons themselves. This is all from memory though.
I’m just glad your time is so cheap that you could spend it phoning Subway corporate and then posting to Consumerist over A DOLLAR.
A DOLLAR.
To be fair though, how many hours do people put in reading the Consumerist or other web sites and don’t even have the prospect of getting a dollar out of it?
I’m assuming not everyone is doing it at work on company time.
We recently tried to use a Restaurant.com certificate.
The waitress told us it was only valid after 4pm. We asked where on the certificate it said this.
She pointed to the mouse print that read “valid for dinner only.”
The menu did not have any hours listed differentiating between dinner/lunch. We told her we were there for dinner, just at 3pm.
Even the manager wouldn’t take the certificate until after 4.
wth!!!
Dinner is 11:00am till 1:00 pm
Supper is 5:30 pm Sharp. You’re either there or you don’t eat..
has he written to Congress? retained legal representation? cried to his mommy?
did his dad think he was a big man for putting up a fight over a dollar?
i work in IT for a living, i’ve got more important things to concern myself with than discounted sandwiches.
Josh doesn’t say that Subway refused the coupon because it wasn’t “dinner time”. Maybe there’s another reason why it wouldn’t work.
But, if Josh really wants his dollar I’m sure he could outsmart and override an ATM. It’s a just a computer, right?
Josh works IT, but obviously never retail or fast food. Those systems are designed to prevent coupon fraud, so no one can override them. A manager might be able to override it, but they’ll have to eat the cost. If Josh was being as much of a douche in the store as he is in this post, I wouldn’t override it either.
This guy is a dick.
I don’t care what Wikipedia says – in North America, dinner is the third meal of the day, and it’s in the late afternoon/early evening.
Tough cookies.
This guy is a dick.
I don’t care what Wikipedia says – in North America, dinner is the third meal of the day, and it’s in the late afternoon/early evening.
Tough cookies.
The coupon-maker and coupon-taker obviously interpreted “Dinner” as a night-time meal. This doesn’t sound like something meant to deceive the guy out of a buck. Completely irrational to demand that Your interpretation of dinner is the correct one, and to insult some cashier for not being able to “outsmart” his computer. The guy sounds rude and like a pain in the ass.
That is a lot of butthurt for $1.
Especially when you need to quote Wikipedia to justify ‘dinner’ at 1 PM.
“I still feel that as a loyal customer of almost $500 worth”
Well I’m sure the owner is going to go out of business without your $3 a week
There are bigger things in life to get this worked up about than $1 off a couple subway sandwiches.
1. “Dinner” is the main meal of the day. If you’re eating your main meal of the day at Subway, you need to examine your life.
2. It’s amazing that there’s an educated person who seems to have no concept in how franchises work. They don’t all have the same price, they don’t all have to honor the same coupons.
3. Mom & pop sub shops very often have far better subs and sandwiches, and for less money. The “footlong” marketing was amazing – I’m stunned at how people suddenly regarded $5 to be a great price for a 12″ sub with a miniscule amount of meat and cheese on it.
Where did you get these coupons? Was it online, through the newspaper, something in the mail? Because I’ve never seen a coupon that was for a time frame (i.e. Dinner Time) that didn’t include a specific time frame as to when you can use the coupon.
Two, you’re an “IT guy”. Shut up. Go work for Subway’s IT department and fix their coupon system, because to enter in a coupon it really does suck. They may have had a button in their discount section, but the system could have been set up so that there is a specific time the deal is good for. Or it might not be set up nearly as conveniently and so you get to pull up a big huge long list of discount codes, most of which don’t work anymore due to it expiring or not being the right market, or whatever. Either way most of the codes don’t work and the average Subway worker isn’t able to do anything about it.. or even the owner, because all of that information is downloaded onto the computer from a central location.
Could he have eaten the dollar? Maybe. But one thing I’ve learned from fast food is that you start giving people exceptions, and they’ll expect them all the time, because people have entitlement issues that mean that in the case of other Subway employees at other franchisees, they end up suffering.
Going by the “Lunch Special” portion of the take-out menus I just polled… lunch is from 11-4. So I guess after that is dinnertime. Though I think 4-5 is the dead space where lunch specials can still be negotiated (just ask nicely, they’ll sometimes still let you have them).
That said, sometimes computerized registers cannot be outsmarted because they limit access to employees. Although it is possible the owner was not being truthful. But it is also possible that Josh is not a very pleasant person. $150 per year, at $5 per sandwich, means you go to that Subway 30 times a year, so you go there, at most, 3 times on some months (unless your cheap a$$ got in on those $2 5-inch deals, and you use coupons but go often, in which case you’re the cheap and possibly rude coupon guy). Going by those numbers, you’re not a regular customer.
In plenty parts of the south and Texas, “dinner” is the mid-day meal and “supper” is the evening meal.
Y’know, I’d be in the camp of comping the guy a dollar due to the confusion, but if the guy called corporate over a dollar, I can’t imagine things going particularly well at the store itself.
I’ve seen many an example of a franchise not honoring a corporate deal, and I frequently see disclaimers on the corporate advertising itself saying that it might not be available at all locations. Similarly, I’ve seen many corporate locations be unable to accept franchisee deals (though they often will to support their franchisees).
Furthermore, possession of a coupon, even within its “terms”, isn’t some inalienable right. Businesses can refuse them for whatever reason they see fit. Businesses regularly stop honoring printable coupons if they go viral, for example. Sure, there might sometimes be some consequences to that (if they refused them only for black customers, or used them as some sort of bait-and-switch nonsense). But if a coupon isn’t recognized by the register? I’d love to see a lawsuit over that.
If he truly got this worked up over the dollar, then I’d agree with his decision to not patronize Subway any more, but only for his own mental health, not fiduciary punishment towards Subway.
And if Josh here works in IT, he should be very concerned if his IT policy is something that can be “outsmarted” by virtually anyone, or “overridden” by the lowest on the totem pole.
Josh claimed to ‘work IT for a living’. Much like Coke, he is IT!
I work in IT also but I tend to use a preposition when stating it – you know, like normal people. I don’t think doctors go around saying ‘I work Hospital for a living’
When I read the OP I kept thinking ‘Yeah, Subway should have specified a time when the coupon would be valid.’ but then an overriding thought kept creeping in.
And that was ‘Josh is a twat.’
My solution:
* Pay the dollar this one time.
* Quit visiting this particular Subway location.
If this franchisee treats his business as the Sub Nazi, he won’t stay in business.
IME, country folk have breakfast, dinner and supper. City folk have breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Country folk get up early, do a few urgent chores before daylight, then come in for breakfast. They then go out and work until the middle of the day when they come in and have their largest meal of the day, then rest a little, especially when it’s hot outside. Then they go back out and work until can’t (see.) They come in and have a light supper and go to bed after it’s cleaned up after and they’ve had a little down time. The population has shifted to more city (and country) folk with regular jobs, but the names have stayed in the language for the people who were raised hearing it.
City folk may have breakfast, go to work, have a short lunch period where they wolf something down quickly so they can get back to work on time. Then after work they go home and have their largest meal of the day. My parents both had regular jobs and we ate our big meal at night but I notice now that they are both retired, they usually have their largest meal around noon. They both grew up in the country doing farm chores.
Dinner in some countries is lunch and supper is their dinner time so otherwise, who cares?
“Dinner” at 1pm is acceptable only on Christmas and Thanksgiving.
The correct list of meals is as follows -
1st Breakfast
2nd Breakfast
Elevenses
Luncheon
Tea
Dinner
Supper
So, while I agree that Subway should be more specific on when that coupon can be used, my guess is that he acted as obnoxious and douchey at Subway as he sounds in his letter. Just speculation, of course. If that is the case, then while they likely COULD help him get his sacred dollar off, they opted to not bend over backwards to do it. Maybe it’s just the snow making me bitchy, but Josh really comes off as a dick, and an entitled one at that.
And, based on what I have seen for Subway coupons, there’s a good chance that somewhere on that coupon it probably states a time. To reiterate, Josh may be utterly and completely wrong.
It’s whenever the participating franchise says it is.
Remember,
Any individual store can choose to not participate in coupon deals.
Hell, any store can choose whether or not it wants to do business with someone.
And besides, did Josh even bother to ASK, before he got his panties in such a bunch?
Your real mistake is spending over $500 for Jared’s place food.
Dear Josh,
“I work IT for a living, if you can’t override or outsmart a computer, then you need to examine your life.”
False logic.
As an IT worker, sure… if YOU “can’t override or outsmart a computer, then you need to examine your life”, but they work at SUBWAY pushing fast-faux-food … sandwiches, salads and pizzas. Computers aren’t going to be a large part of their work.
Now an IT worker that can’t handle that simple logic…
that’s someone who needs to re-examine their life.
I’d sympathise with this person if he wasn’t such a condescending, pedantic dick.
It would seem that 1 P.M. is not commonly accepted as dinner time, at least where I live…it’s lunch time. Come back late in the afternoon and at least you can make an argument. 1 P.M.? Forget it.
It would seem that 1 P.M. is not commonly accepted as dinner time, at least where I live…it’s lunch time. Come back late in the afternoon and at least you can make an argument. 1 P.M.? Forget it.
He spends 45 cents there a day (averaged over the past three years). I’m sure they don’t give a shit.
Avoiding all Subways isn’t over reacting because no matter how you sugar coat it the corporate office does have the power to take a franchise away.
I haven’t stepped foot in a KFC over their Fraudulent offer a few yrs ago & have made sure nothing I am involved in with business even considers KFC for a group event.
Don’t let a Franchise hide behind we don’t control our Franchises when they really do. I have looked at a few over the years & they always have a little clause where they can take your business away from you with very biased reasons.
Not for nothing but the day before yesterday I was at Subway with a coupon that clearly said buy one get one free for non-premium 6 inch or footlongs. The employee told us they do not honor the coupon for footlongs, only 6 inch sandwiches. I said okay and just used it for the six inch sandwiches. Had I known about the plight of Josh I’d be on hour 48 of my letter, e-mail, telephone call campaign to get a free footlong instead. I have a better case to bitch than the op, but I have, you know, a life.
for crying out loud. Its not dinner at 1pm. Get over it, you dick.
In some areas, the midday meal is dinner and the evening meal supper.
This could very will be dinner. I work on a 24/7 schedule, so when I work nights, this could very well be dinner. If it doesn’t have a time on there, then Dinner should be any time.
Oh God, get over it! It’s a frickin’ dollar, you cheap bastard.
As a matter of customer service, he should have received a dollar off. As a matter of principle, everyone knows 1pm meals are “lunch,” not “dinner.”