Me vs Subway

Let me tell you, I'm a pretty easygoing guy.  I can take a lot.  And indeed, it takes a lot to make me complain publicly about a store or company.

But Subway's kind of taken me to a different place on how to complain about a business which has wronged me, and refuses to rectify it on my terms.  Allow me to explain.

The following is the complaint that I've attempted time and time again, like a minimum of a dozen times, to send to THIS SITE  with absolutely no success.  I would fill out the form, with all the necessary info,  jump through all the hoops, only to be screwed over in the end because there are problems with the site.  How convenient.  Look... if I'm running a business, I want to hear all of the nice things people are saying about what I'm selling.  But perhaps more importantly, I want to hear what people think is wrong with it so I can make them happy too.  This doesn't seem to be what Subway restaurants gives a shit about though.  That's okay.  I'll just keep shouting till they hear me.

I did post my complaint on their Subway Canada facebook page, only to have my complaints removed, with an answer from them telling me I should call their customer service hotline and place it formally.  I explained to them I'm not comfortable doing that.  If I'm the customer who's complaining, I would think I would be able to choose the medium in which I want to complain, no?  The thing here is, they're playing against themselves.  They're only making me angrier by worsening their customer service by telling me how to complain.  I mean, what the hell???

Anyway, here is the aforementioned complaint:

It is with regret that I complain to you about the service from the location of your Subway chain at 630 Pinewood Road, Riverview, NB.
I arrived at this location shortly after 12:50pm on Monday, July 9, 2012.  After placing my order at the counter to a younger group of staff (no issues with them), I proceeded to the cash to pay for my sandwich, a 6" cold cut on Italian bread.  The total came to, let's say approxiamately $3.94.  That actually may be the accurate amount, at least within ten cents, but I didn't keep my receipt because I shortsightedly left it on the counter after my experience.  The older lady at cash, somewhat abruptly, told me the amount, I handed her a $10 bill, and she passed me back $5.  For some reason, I took the $5 and my purchase and began walking out the door, I guess entrusting she gave me the right change minus six cents.  But when I walked out and approached my car, I realized I was shorted at least a dollar.  Going back into the restaurant, I approached the cashier, and there were three to four customers placing orders.  In between her serving one of these people, I asked if she might have shortchanged me, because I only got a $5 from a $10.  She asked me if I took my change from the dispensary cup, to which I said no, because I hadn't even noticed it.  I'd never seen a store that gave change both via cashier AND an automated dispensary cup.  She says, "well, the person after you must have gotten your change then."  I didn't even know, and she never told me about the change dispensing machine, because I assumed she gave me all of my change.  Nor did she say 'Thank you' when I got my change.  When I asked if I was going to get my extra change, she said "for what, six cents?"  To which I told her, forget it, keep it, and you won't ever see me in this store again.  I'm completely done here.  
If this is how this store does business, I will continue to inform others via viral social media to avoid this store and spend their money at a place who will actually appreciate it.  It is to my own admission that I mistook what my change was due to me, but that mistake was not avoided in any way by this incredibly rude cashier and not rectified at all by her ignorant behavior.  Is this really worth it over a dollar?  It is to me.  I didn't pay $5 to be served and treated like this, and I assure you, I never will again!
I don't want an apology from this cashier, because I know it won't be sincere.  I don't even care if I get my money back.  What I care about is that you'll do something about this abhorrent customer service, something I did not expect coming out of a great town like Riverview.  I should add that I'm not looking to get the cashier in question here fired, rather, educate her how to serve customers properly.
And by the way... I don't care if this cashier was 'having a bad day' or whatever her excuse was.  I had a relative pass away two days ago and I also serve the public.  But I assure you I don't take out my misgivings in my life on those who support the business I work for!
I appreciate you giving me your time to read this.  Sorry for the length of this, but this made me quite angry and spoiled my day.

Sincerely,
Mike Cook

That's the gist of it.  As it turns out, their nationwide customer service is just as lousy as their service at the Riverview, NB, Canada location that I've mentioned.  This doesn't even include the lousy service that I got at a Mountain Road location here in Moncton a couple of years ago when staff were laughing at me throughout my order.  In hindsight I should have complained then too.  Why were they laughing?  God only knows what were in their ingredients that day.

Well, I've had it with Subway, in any case.  Sandwich artists my ass.  At least you don't see burger joints calling themselves ground beef expressionists or something just as silly.

Thanks for reading.

Random Thoughts 12

It's a good day to post some random thoughts.

The TomKat has been spayed and neutered.  Bob Barker would be proud.  Seriously though, is anyone else surprised that the Tom Cruise/Katie Holmes marriage lasted THIS long?  Just how long did she endure being creeped out by His Highness of Scientology?  Don't get me wrong, I love Cruise's work.  But something just doesn't quite ring true with this scientology nonesense.  Starting with everything. 

'The Amazing Spider Man' is out tomorrow from the time I type this.  I hear I'm not the only Spider Man die-hard that's shrugging his shoulders over seeing it.  I really wanted a 'Spider Man 4', not this, another origin story with a guy pushing 30 playing a high school teenager.  I will see it though.  Maybe it's a good thing my expectations are low.

On the other hand, the buzz is all good for 'The Dark Knight Rises'.  Of course there will be detractors, like I am for TASM, but there's only one director named Chris Nolan out there, and he hasn't misfired yet.  His weakest movie was 'Insomnia', a movie he had no real creative control over.  All the rest kicked some serious tail.

Heard the new KISS song, 'Hell or Hallelujah'.  Good riff, though it reminds me an awful lot of 'Danger Us' from 'Sonic Boom'.  I don't think KISS should shun outside writers for material so quickly and maybe get with Bob Ezrin for one more album.  My dream team for a writing partner for Paul Stanley would be with Moe Berg from TPOH or Lenny Kravitz, but there are no snowflakes in hell either.  I would LOVE to see Kravitz produce a KISS album.

On the upcoming U.S. election... there are worse Republicans than Romney, that's for sure.  I would prefer him over either of the Bush's or Reagan.  But, seriously, Obama has done far more for that country than anyone else could have following the extremely crooked regime of Dubya.  Honestly, who would want the task of cleaning up the mess that jackass left behind?

Really looking forward to season 3 of 'Game of Thrones'.  My nephew Chris and his wife Jana told me I should take a look at that show a year ago, and I've been stuck on it ever since.  It takes balls to have a show so full of stuff that 'GoT' has.  And it challenges its viewers to pay attention and go back and watch again.  'The Walking Dead' is another one I'm waiting to come back.  The most watched show on cable ever is going to break its own records when it comes back this fall with a rip-roaring season with promises of more zombie-riffic tension and thrills, with real characters and real storytelling.  Some don't know that TWD is adapted from a comic book.  Comics are real literature in this day and age.  Don't believe me though.  Time Magazine lists 'Watchmen' as one of the top 100 novels of all time for good reason. 

It's hot enough to make an egg explode like a popcorn kernel outside, let alone fry one.  Not complaining though, until it's bedtime when the heat is too stifling to sleep.  The fan blowing is good, except that it's blowing hot air, which is not so good.  It's almost like a hair dryer.

I haven't had pop in something like almost a week now.  I didn't set out to not have it, but it just turned out that way.  Not saying I never will again either.  I didn't stop drinking it because of the aspartame, because it's a complete and utter load of nonsense that it's as evil as it's made out to be.  You want evil?  Try regular pop.  It's not even real sugar in that stuff anymore.  It's concentrated sugar in the form of HFCS.  You won't see people getting diabetes from drinking diet pop.  In fact, my blood sugar was borderline, around 7, when I last checked it when I was drinking regular Pepsi many years ago.  I switched to diet and it's been in the 3-4 range ever since.  I don't need lectures on aspartame consumption either... not until you've punched it in at snopes.com and done credible research on it.  Trans fats, high sodium and salt, and nitrites have all gotten a lot of dubious press in recent times, legitimately, in the news.  All with real experts telling people to cut them down or out.  I've yet to see Lloyd Robertson or Lisa LaFlamme tell me anything similar about aspartame.  And no, I haven't experienced headaches or any kind of withdrawal from drinking Diet Pepsi.  None of it.  In fact, my weight's gone up since I started drinking water!

Nickelback is going to be playing the Magnetic Hill concert site soon.  I'm not a hater.  I'm not a liker either, though.  I guess people assume you hate them if you don't like them.  But I have a feeling that they're going to be a Bomb Jovi type thing, where they'll probably have one of the smallest crowds at the concert site yet.  BJ drew 25,000, which is a lot, but consider that tickets were 2 for 1 in the final week leading up to the show and they just let people in for free on show day, mostly women.  A real act will draw people from all ages and both genders, at least for a concert of the magnitude of the 90,000 capacity Magnetic Hill site.  We got 40,000 for a weekend festival thing that started it off with Lynyrd Skynyrd (sp?), Pat Benatar, Peter Frampton, Foreigner, etc.; 40-50,000 for a couple of big name country acts like Alan Jackson and Faith Hill, 50,000-ish for The Eagles, 55,000 for AC/DC, 80,000 for the Rolling Stones and 75-80,000 for U2 last year.  I think Nickelback should have been at the new stadium on the University grounds, which is open for concert business now.  Maybe even the coliseum would have been more appropriate.  But, I hope it does well.  They are rock and roll after all.  I'm interested in seeing what kind of numbers Springsteen will pull in this year.  After that, who could come?  I'm guessing Eric Clapton, Bob Seger, Coldplay, or some kind of package deal.  There aren't a whole lot of monster bands left to come to these parts for a first time show.

My Boston Red Sox look like they might've finally found their mojo, after a rocky start to a season that saw an injury riddled team struggle to reach .500 with a brand new coach and general manager.  My feeling from what I've been hearing, though, is that things are less than harmonious in the clubhouse.  When you've got someone like David Ortiz, who gets along with everybody, talking about leaving when his contract's up at the end of the season, and cornerstones like Kevin Youkilis getting shipped off along with Jonathan Papelbon and guys like Dustin Pedroia calling out team management for less than orderly conduct, you have to wonder.  One remedy to right the ship, if it needs it.... get Terry Francona back.  I bet the team would behave a lot better now that they've seen how it is since he's been gone. 

I guess that's about it for the time being.  For a more personal blog, or 'log', see my facebook page, where I post one every day about mine and the families typical goings-on. 

A mighty 'thank you' to Tim Churchill for being the lone commenter on my last blog here on Ragnar.  Always good to hear from you sir, especially since I have a faulty e-mail address of yours!  Ditched Rogers, did you? 

Thanks for dropping by.

Food for thought

Restaurants.

You know, just saying that word kind of makes my skin crawl a little bit.  I'm aware I'm a notoriously antisocial kind of person.  I'm not a fan of big gatherings of any sort, especially at places I'm not familiar with, and I'm always suspicious.

Suspicious of what?  Good question.  For a semi-paranoid person like me, there's lots to be suspicious of.  But let me talk a little about restaurants to start with.

First of all, there are a gazillion restaurants in existence everywhere.  I'm aware it's a driving force in the economy because it provides jobs, blah blah freakin' blah.  That doesn't mean it's necessarily for everybody, yours truly included.  But I have my own reasons for my dislike of them.

Let me start off, though, by saying I love fast food joints.  I don't go to them often these days.  But, by and large, you can see what's going on in the kitchens of most of them.  That provides a certain level of security and comfort, not that I think everything's on the up and up because of this.  But I like having a look at what I'm about to put into my mouth being prepared.  At fast food joints, it's... well, fast, for the most part.  Most of the time it's fresh, because of the demonization in past years of heat lamps, so establishments are feeling the pressure to not have to use them quite as much, especially if they're pointing fingers.  I'm aware of the nutritional value of fast food too.  I know Big Macs and Baconators and Double Downs will kill you, if you eat them every friggin' day anyway.  We choose to have something like that maybe once a month, if even that.  But the fact of the matter is, something like that should be a treat, not a staple.

And don't even get me started on drive-thrus.  The damn things shouldn't even exist.  In a day and age where global warming and obesity are such huge deals, the same people making cases against them are at a Micky D's ordering their supersized meals in a lineup of a dozen or more idling cars in a drive-thru.  I think that we in Canada are taxed to death as a country, kind of literally.  But there is room for just one more tax, of which monies should go straight to a fund strictly monitored by the country's auditor general:  a drive-thru tax.  Twenty five cents or more ought to be charged on every order made at a drive-thru window, no matter how small the order, with the proceeds going toward fitness programs for kids, free YMCA memberships and/or lowered fees, and subsidizations for health care programs, seeing as this stuff is a large part of the creation of health problems to begin with.  Why not make the problem itself accountable for its own outcomes?  The people who would be most vehemently averse to a suggestion like this are those who it might actually help the most.

But fast food is, in the end, affordable, quick, and devoid of the obligation of tipping.  Which leads me into the next phase of my critique on restaurants, though this is where it gets personal for me.

I'm pretty edgy when it comes to going to restaurants or even pubs, but at least in a pub the chances are you won't get scalped too bad, and you don't have to know the cutlery arrangements on the tables and all that nonsense.  And why in God's name should I need to get dressed up to eat anyway.  The kind of guy I am when I eat, the food always, always finds its way onto my shirt or pants.  I could be wearing a hazmat suit and it would STILL find its way onto my clothes.  So if it's going to happen, why not just on my jeans and t-shirt.  I don't like the stuffiness of a lot of these places, that you have to be on your best behavior or whatever.  The wait times for the food to get to the table, visits by God knows how many people to get it all together.... one for the greeting, one for the table seating, another for a menu, another for the drinks, another for the food, I mean come on.  At a pub at least most of the time one person does it all, but then again I haven't been to a pub in a dog's age at least.

My last experience at a restaurant was at Montana's here in the city.  My previous visit there was six years ago for my 40th birthday, and it was disastrous service.  It must have been at least a half hour before they even took anyone's order, another hour for anyone to get their food, and the food was sub-par to be generous.  It was one of the biggest spikes in the coffin for me going to restaurants there ever was, and I didn't even pay that day!  But I digress... I thought in six years, something must have changed.

I went with my family there a couple of months ago, as my wife was awarded a gift card from her work for her outstanding performance.  The atmosphere was pleasant enough.  We got to the greeter, then the person to seat us, then the menus, etc.  Ugh, just going through it annoys me.  But we hear from some people how awesome it is at this place.  Long story short... the service was just okay, the food ranged from okay to downright awful, and the prices were distressingly high even with a gift card.  To me, little to nothing changed.  Consider this coffin sealed for good.

Mind you, in contrast, we've been to Jungle Jim's just down the road from Montana's right around that same time frame, and going there always reassures my faith in the restaurant industry.  I've never had a bad experience there.  The waitresses are always down to earth, the food reasonably priced, and by no means do you need to dress a certain way.  However... there are still the nagging issues of tipping, waiting, and figuring out how the hell you're going to pay.  Do we wait for the waitress and pay her with the bill?  Do we bring the bill to the cash?  Do we leave a tip at the table?  If we do, what do we do when the debit machine asks us for that 15% at the counter?  Awk.  Ward.  Ness.

These are all issues that don't bother most people who actually frequent restaurants, but Mr. Paranoid Android here like myself... it all doesn't sit well with me.  Whatever.  It's who I am and I'm fine with it.  If someone else isn't fine with it, that's okay too.  I would appreciate the invitation to that next restaurant gathering, even if I don't go.  But I'll go wherever the post-restaurant thing is.

And thus, I prefer to cook myself at home for my wife and daughter, and guests if we have them.  I'm not terribly comfortable eating at restaurants, because I just don't like people seeing me eat in general.  I remember my dad used to be like that.  He'd wait until everyone ate supper, the table was cleared, and then he'd sit down and have his own.  I must have inherited some of that.  Even when we used to go to the cottage when there were big feeds, I'd elect to go after the eating was done.  Unless there was a chicken wing thing or pizza or whatever that you'd just grab and eat as you walked around or whatever.  I hate to be rude with my friends when they ask us to supper at their places, and sometimes I'll just go because Janice and Lexy aren't like me in that way.  Best if we're invited somewhere where food isn't the reason to go.  I don't mind going somewhere and then somebody says "hey, I'm gonna cook pizza!" or whatever.  Do I sound like a wet blanket?

This is the way I've always been.  I know there are people who know me who read my blogs from time to time, and I thought this is one of the best ways to explain one of my tics.  I went to see a friend of mine last week at his and his wife's house, and it was a sit down, talk and joke and reminisce visit, and that's how I like those.  My ultimate comfort zone, of course, is something like a jam session or whatever, where I'm in my element.  Nothing like beating the crap out of something like my drums and it being perfectly legal, unless of course I'm too loud, which has happened before and we were served notice for it by police.

Maybe if this new band thing of ours takes off, you can come to a pub and have a drink and hear us one day, and a lot of what I just said above will be rendered null and void.

And that wouldn't be so bad.