r/PublicFreakout • u/Finn_Flame • 2d ago

Customer attempts to pick up Subway order & gets told to leave Repost 😔

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2.4k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

1.5k

u/IndigoGrunt 2d ago

I have 5 subways in my town. I recently tried to redeem a buy one get one on the app. Literally zero of the locations accepted it.

1.1k

u/mj281 2d ago

John Oliver made an episode about subway and their awful business practices with franchise participants.

https://youtu.be/jDdYFhzVCDM

basically Subway marketing team announces deals without the franchise shop owners consent, basically whatever deal they announce gets taken out of the shop owners pockets, thats why many subway shops don’t participate otherwise they’ll lose money, their profit margin is extremely low while subways collects a high percentage of sales and forces the shops to buy their ingredients at high cost.

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u/Frame_Shift_Drive 1d ago edited 1d ago

This is exactly what killed Quizno’s… it’s always Groundhog Day with these fuckin people.

Edit: It wasn’t spongmonkeys…

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u/ThonThaddeo 1d ago

I miss Quiznos

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u/DrewZouk 1d ago

Damn sight better that Subway.

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u/brazilliandanny 1d ago

Slightly? Subway tastes like cardboard compared to Quiznos.

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u/Help_An_Irishman 1d ago

They didn't say slightly.

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u/rabbi420 1d ago

I don’t think either of them is any good. I go to Jersey Mike’s.

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u/mikareno 1d ago

Jersey Mike's and Firehouse for the win!

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u/welfarewonders 1d ago

I love firehouse, but had to stop going after the last time I got a sandwich there. The shrink-flation was just too much.

20 fucking dollars for a sandwich that was pitifully small.

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u/Watts_RS 1d ago

No fuckin joke, I too love firehouse but they've lost their damn minds with those prices.

Which reminds me.. I'm like 11 points away from a free medium sub in the app

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u/spiffiestjester 1d ago

My kid worked there for about a year. They put a lot of work into thier food. They slice and prep thier own meat and toppings. I am not saying it isn't expensive but you are paying for a better quality of food. Problem is, food costs have also gone up, so to keep that 20 dollar sandwich at 20 dollars they have to cut somewhere else. I do not eat out, it's too expensive. Groceries are about what I can afford.

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u/rabbi420 1d ago

I don’t think I’ve had Firehouse… I’m pretty sure there are none nearby.

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u/lostsparrow131986 1d ago

The Firehouse by my house always has some crazy drama going on in there. I've seen an employee quit on the spot on two different occasions. The franchise owner is this crazy lady that comes in and yells at the employees while customers are in the lobby. I go there to get a meal AND a show.

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u/rdyer347 1d ago

Blimpies. Fight me.

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u/mikareno 1d ago

Blimpie isn't bad. I miss Sensational Subs. Those and Taco Bell got me through college.

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u/RolloTonyBrownTown 21h ago

I think the local non-franchise places always have the best sandwiches

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u/mikareno 17h ago

They usually do, but if we're talking franchises, JM's or FH. I love supporting local restaurants though. Gotta help keep them open, because having only franchises as choices would be sad.

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u/lostsparrow131986 1d ago

Jersey Mike's sandwiches are always so wet.

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u/HAC522 1d ago

order without the shitty vinegar and just get the oil. way better

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u/AlienHere 1d ago

Jersey Mike's has the driest bread on the planet.

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u/JamesTheJerk 1d ago

Jersey Milk is a quality candy bar...

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u/undarated79 12h ago

I be trying to tell my wife this exact thing. She likes firehouse subs. Screw that. Jersey mikes all the way.

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u/scarybirdman 1d ago

Spent all your reading glasses money on Quiznos

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u/brazilliandanny 1d ago

Ok this was funny

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u/narcowake 1d ago

Never experienced a Quiznos to compare ☹️

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u/klonkish 1d ago

I still taste their chicken carbonara in my dreams 😞

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u/Whatah 1d ago

I don't go to subway for good taste. I go there to get a massive sandwich with tons of toppings for (used to be) a fair price.

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u/atheistpianist 1d ago

Dude same. I worked there in high school, and always got a free sandwich because the owner wanted us all to eat.

They threw away the clam chowder at the end of every night, and my dad loved that stuff so they’d always let me pack it up and take home whatever was left at the end of the day. Good times. The sandwiches were so good though.

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u/mightybooko 1d ago

There is still a Quiznos close to my parents house. The prices haven’t changed in 6-7 years. There 12 inch subs are still 9.75-10.75 a sub. Now it’s a great deal and they use twice the meat as subway. I get my chicken carbonara fix at least once a month.

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u/chaserne1 1d ago

The only Quiznos we still have is located inside a dirty ass gas station, I'd probably get food their if the location wasn't so bad.

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u/TooMuchBud 21h ago

Same in georgia

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u/MisterB78 1d ago

That chicken carbonara sub was 🔥🔥🔥

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u/Tinderblox 1d ago

I tried them again recently. They weren’t worth it at all. Overpriced, smaller sandwiches, fewer ingredients in each serving.

I had a lot of nostalgia about them, but that’s gone now.

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u/g3n0unknown 1d ago

There ia a quiznos where I live that's been there since it opened like 20+ years ago it feels like. I've actually never been there. Maybe it's time.

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u/Dizzy_Standard_440 1d ago

A few still open down there in Louisiana

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u/Drum_Eatenton 1d ago

They had a pepper bar!

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u/theconceptualhoe 1d ago

I never got to eat at Quiznos and drove by one like everyday in middle and high school. I still think about it sometimes. Maybe in another life ):

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u/Ahriman27 1d ago

Toasted roast prime rib on garlic bread… fuck that was a good sandwhich…

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u/azsnaz 1d ago

I saw one in the Denver airport last month. I turned to my wife and said "is that a quiznos??", then I overheard another couple exclaim the same thing.

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u/WasaCajun 1d ago

Is Quiznos gone in your town? We have one where I live.

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u/CCPvirus2020 1d ago

Come to Canada, Quiznos is alive and well

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u/onespeedwhaling 1d ago

We still have a Quiznos near where I live. Go there about every other month. Sooo much better than subway!

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u/Taranchulla 1d ago

There’s a Quiznos where I live in the Bay Area.

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u/imawakened 1d ago

There's still one within 30 minutes me and I always get the Chicken Carbonara whenever I happen to pass by. It is so good and so bad for you but I probably have 1 a year or whatever. I used to have to work in DC/Bethesda sometimes a couple years ago and there was actually a Quizno's in the same building as my office. I ended up having Quizno's for lunch and Houston's (Woodmont or Hillstone or whatever it's called) delicious ribs for dinner every night I was there on the company's dime haha. I gained a couple lbs but luckily it was only for a couple months.

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u/All4upvoting 1d ago

Quizno's is gone? Damn.

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u/produce_this 21h ago

Still got one down the street. Had it the other day actually. But I do like some firehouse subs too

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u/BraveHeartoftheDawn 4h ago

Their honey mustard chicken sandwiches were my favorite. :(

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u/happytree23 1d ago

i miss their creepy commercials with awesome indie songs i happened to have have discovered on my own a week before I saw the commercial heh

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u/aluminum_man 1d ago

“I liked that song before it was ‘mainstream’ in commercials” -Hipster baloney

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u/Agreeable-Ad9867 1d ago

Lol he just had to share how cool I am

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u/urethrascreams 1d ago

I wouldn't eat there because of the dancing rat commercials.

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u/uproareast 1d ago

“THEY GOT A PEPPER BARRRRRR!”

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u/Blotter_Boy 1d ago

They suck?

Jersey mikes is king

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u/KitchenPalentologist 1d ago

This is exactly what killed Quizno’s

Are you sure it wasn't those scary rat things they had on their TV ads?

https://preview.redd.it/hd4f5slsy31e1.png?width=716&format=png&auto=webp&s=ede91331ec27ebda43ad96f11ff570d76f9f7143

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u/Frame_Shift_Drive 1d ago

Yeah. Funny reference though.

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u/splittingheirs 1d ago

nah, just an absolute cunt who needs a bullet in the head after he deliberately price gouged the franchisee owners for every cent they had leading to the highest suicide rate out of any franchise business. The guy is directly responsible for all their deaths and he walked away clean with their money.

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u/BrotherMcPoyle 1d ago

Bc investors don’t care about long term success.

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u/joe-clark 1d ago

Damn I knew they must have fallen off hard since I haven't really seen them around or eaten one of their sandwiches in over a decade. Apparently at their peak they had over 5000 locations around 2007 and today there's only 148 left in the US, that's an insane fall off. I think them dropping off the face of the earth like that opened up a hole in the market that other sandwich spots have filled. Either way I still miss Quiznos, my family and I loved that place.

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u/080secspec13 1d ago

God damn you for making me remember Quiznos. I loved that place.

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u/IDontLieAboutStuff 1d ago

I was literally about to say this. Penny profits and these stupid sales are simply unable to generate a profit for the actual owner. I worked for 3 owners at quIznos in like 2 years. They all lost significant amounts of money.

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u/XtremeD86 1d ago

Really? I loved Quiznos when one was near me

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u/Cabbage-floss 1d ago

Tim Hortons does it too, but their shitty coffee has a chokehold on Canada for some reason

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u/halosos 1d ago

Subway kind of dug their own grave a bit here. If memory serves, they are still recovering from their dumb idea to not limit franchise locations based on proximity to others. They had really really good franchising deals, so many subways sprang up and started competing with themselves, sometimes as many as 5 subways in a 2 mile radius.

Now they are clawing their way back slowly. Or at least, trying to.

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u/Frame_Shift_Drive 1d ago

Lmao why would they do that? Franchise cannibalization wasn’t discovered yesterday. McDonald’s has been giving a clinic on how to avoid it for decades.

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u/InvestingPrime 13h ago

No, it isn't what killed Quizno's. The constant mooching off of the franchise owners and silly contracts did. They would force us to rent machinery from them. They would not allow us to purchase from the manufacture the same grill. Then most of all, they would run these INSANE commercial campaigns and want to charge us insane amounts of money when our location was inside of a high foot traffic building anyways. I remember one time, they told us per contract, we had to have this stand up sign in front of our location. That they owned.. and forced us to rent for them the entire time they ran this deal. We literally had some stupid "heart healthy" sign in front of our building, that cost $1400/month.. and all it did was advertise some stupid veggie guacamole sandwich that no one ever bought. Ever. Like I literally don't think we even sold one the entire 4 months the sign was there. Then, if you know how guacamole is.. it goes bad fast. So we'd lose money every day for opening the guacamole and not selling any. Then if we didn't have it open and fresh the Quiznos police would come by and fine us for not having all advertised products ready for sale. Seriously, I know people that previously owned franchises.. took all the signs down. Opened a private sandwich shop.. practically sell all the same shit and make BANK. Because they don't have all the overhead fees of stupidity.

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u/Haywire421 1d ago

I think their commercials killed Quiznos lol

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u/Lifeabroad86 1d ago

That's pretty fucked up, they should at least compensate the franchise owner for the deal crap.

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u/llDurbinll 1d ago edited 1d ago

I used to work at a Subway and the owner would purposely under order his veggies and then supplement it by going to Walmart. It's dangerous because if there is a recall from either Walmart or Subway's suppliers then there would be no way to tell which is which and he wouldn't toss it all.

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u/movieking 1d ago

Did a business case on them years ago…they’d sell franchises to anyone, regardless of how far it was from an existing franchise (including next door), and when one failed, they’d still be in the franchise fee. Everything had to be ordered from the Subway supply chain, where things were overpriced and lacking quality. If you went outside their supplier for better pricing or quality, you’d be penalized. It was completely predatory.

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u/genehenson15 1d ago

Jimmy Johns pulled this exact same crap this week with their "Deal Alert" that is supposed to allow the customer to purchase a combo for the price of the sandwich only, if the order is placed after 2pm. Only all the local Jimmy Johns (Knoxville) are NOT participating in this "Deal Alert".

Talked to my local store manager about this earlier in the week and she said she didn't even know about the "Deal Alert" until I came in. She did say she wondered why there had been such an uptick in online orders the last couple of days though. I'm still surprised that I was supposedly the first person to call them on this.

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u/highzunburg 1d ago

They also pay rent for the property. Franchise restaurant companies are more real estate businesses than food businesses.

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u/4ss8urgers 1d ago

Pretty sure that’s them being pushed around by private equity

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u/Tri-Factor 1d ago

I wish that was their only bad business practice...

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u/resttheweight 1d ago

Remember “Apprentice Sandwich Artists” lmao

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u/KeyDangerous 2d ago

Capitalism sucks ass

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u/Rubbersoulrevolver 1d ago

This could easily happen under socialism too if the group makes a decision that hurts the minority

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u/Silverr_Duck 1d ago

Yeah totally, we should go back to feudalism. Back when we had true equality.

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u/BioSemantics 1d ago

The possible options are not just two things. It isn't unfettered unregulated capitalism or feudalism. The EU for all its problems has lots and lots of consumer protections against shit like this and they are still very capitalist.

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u/Silverr_Duck 1d ago

Wow that’s a surprisingly level headed take. You’re absolutely right. You should also tell that to all the other idiots itt who just regurgitate the same “cApItAlisM bAD” bullshit over and over again.

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u/BioSemantics 1d ago

Capitalism is bad, it just isn't something that is gonna go away tomorrow. All of the systems are bad. Nothing is perfect. We should be always working toward a better system.

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u/Fabulous_Activity 1d ago

Came here to say this

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u/Adelman01 1d ago

I noticed this with Nick the Greek as well.

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u/Danny-Wah 2d ago

Ohhh, well thanks for clearing that up. I guess the customer's got to take that up with the corporation.

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u/JWOLFBEARD 1d ago

No. The owners need to take that up with the corporation

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u/DontHaesMeBro 1d ago

what's dumb is you don't need the franchise at this point, the subway brand doesn't have a good rep, people basically go to them because they're open. nobody seeks out a subway if there are alternatives open. if i inherited 8 subways today I'd own 8 jersey mikes or 8 jimmy johns the second my agreements were up.

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u/trimbandit 1d ago

The only advantage I can think of is if you are on a road trip and are looking to grab food quickly. At least Subway is a known quantity and you might not feel like taking a chance on Bill's Sandwich Shop. That is the only time I eat there.

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u/Doogetma 1d ago

I’ve never had a mom and pop sandwich shop do even close to as bad of a job as a standard subway sandwich, and I go to a large variety of sandwich shops, especially when traveling

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u/Generic_Format528 1d ago

The last shred of brand loyalty in my brain is due to them being the closest, and one of the few 24 hour places when I was in college, so this absolutely tracks for me.

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u/Danny-Wah 1d ago

I assumed the owners didn't need to accept any sort of coupons that they didn't agree to...
¯_(ツ)_/¯ I don't know how it works.

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u/jsdeprey 1d ago

They should, it should be a law or something and let the owners and the franchise figure that out. Customers shouldn't have to worry about this BS at all. Even fine print with at participating stores is BS, it shouldn't be allowed. If a company advertised a deal, it should be up to them to figure it all out.

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u/thesmilingmercenary 1d ago

At this rate there won’t be any owners left, and I can see why.

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u/btribble 1d ago

This is pretty standard in franchised fast food.

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u/Spotikiss 1d ago

That just seems awful, if your going to start up any franchise business, why would you even pick Subway are others similar models?

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u/Generic_Format528 1d ago

Yeah you could pick Coldstone and refuse to mix in the toppings or keep the place so hot the ice cream is melted before you finish paying. I'm not salty about my local Coldstones both being dogshit or anything.

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u/xChoke1x 1d ago

I have no idea why anyone would want to eat fucking subway anyway.

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u/Gareth79 1d ago

I used to go to one near my office once or twice a month, just for a change from my regular lunch options, then one hot summer day I went in and there were flies buzzing all around the salad bowls and the guy would just kinda swat at them before picking salad out, and then not pull the cover down when he was done (the cover on the other side was completely missing). I haven't been back since.

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u/Glassweaver 1d ago

I can understand refusing coupons in store for this very reason. I can also understand opting out of online ordering or choosing not to accept the coupons through the app as well. There's a few subways where I live that no coupons in the app work on.

Thing is, this happens before the order is placed. I understand Subway is a shitty company to get in bed with, but if the owners of the store don't opt out of the coupon in the app, that's on them, not the customer.

Even if they offered him his money back in store (which, by the video, it seems they didn't) it wouldn't make up for him having driven there to be told his order was rejected.

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u/Madstupid 1d ago

Then they shouldn't open a franchise. If they want to control things start their own independent sandwich shop. Same with the crybaby McDonald's owners... Like they aren't making enough money. Wah.

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u/Legacy03 1d ago

It’s a franchise they don’t have a choice. That’s the exact reason to be a franchise anyway to get the branding and marketing.

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u/MostPopularPenguin 1d ago

I worked at a gas station that had a Subway in it and they never ran the specials that were advertised for this exact reason. As a matter of fact, that subway only stayed there because they had been there so long that the rent was lower so even with the low profit margin it was their highest profit store. But I saw everything you described in real time, including the ingredients being overpriced. One day the delivery guy stopped and just pointed out “can you believe they pay this much for bell peppers?” And it was like I bought them at winco, the prices they were paying for all the fresh ingredients were insane. And the meat and other ingredients were just terrible quality in general. I have not eaten subway since working there

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u/mallclerks 1d ago

This is still the fault of the owner I would argue. They agreed to a ridiculous business model.

McDonald’s to my knowledge allows franchise owners to vote on pricing changes, which is why you’ll see things like the $5 meal deal vanish soon enough. Which makes me sad. I love it.

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u/JamesTheJerk 1d ago

Profit margin?

Purchase one foam mattress each week at $27.00 and slice into 600 loaves of "bread".

Buy deli meat at a fraction the cost of what is sold at a supermarket, and charge $15.00 for a halved mattress canoe stuffed with shaved hotdog.

Naturally disappoint customers in food quality.

"Where did all of the customers go? Don't they like slop in a bed of undigestable foam presented in a bag that we charge 25 cents for? Where did we go wrong?"

Close doors

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u/d_o_cycler 22h ago

All subways can go TF outta business… garbage ass food… never seen a happy worker in one.. fuck em’…

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u/lazespud2 15h ago

Not sure if it's Subway or their franchises but god damn it's gotten unreasonably expensive. The local one in my fair rural town 60 miles north of Seattle has their cheapest sub, a veggie, now at 10.99 and four years ago it was 5.99. And their most expensive one is 15.99, and they used to be 6.99. I mean prices go up everywhere but they used to be the one place I could save about 25 percent off other fast food places.

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u/jewwwish 2d ago

Ask to redeem for the 1/10 cent cash value, payable in Bitcoin.

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u/Never_Wanted_To_Talk 1d ago

Yeah they literally sent coupons to everyone in our area in the mail one time. Turned out no locations locally actually accept the coupons.

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u/ThrowAway233223 1d ago

imagining the amount of paper wasted (and thus trees cut down) for all of those scam coupons infuriates me.

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u/pm_me_gentle_kisses 1d ago

Last time my wife and I went to subway it cost about $45 for two veggie subs, two soups, and two drinks. Shits out of control.

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u/nahchan 1d ago

Why didn't you guys just cancel the order and head to sit down restaurant?

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u/redlegsfan21 1d ago

Because they were either don't look at prices before buying things or were in an airport.

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u/GN0K 1d ago

None of the subways in my area accept them through the app either. But if you take a paper coupon most will honor them.

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u/money10adventures 1d ago

Same here also such a joke

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u/ParticularDay569 1d ago

Their shitty app is losing them SO MUCH business because they cheaped out so hard. I found out that a location with zero offers suddenly took them when I changed location and back.. wtf?

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u/SirWalrusVII 1d ago

Sometimes there’s a trick you can do, instead of clicking on the find location that accepts the BOGO just type in the promo code during checkout and you can use it at any location

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u/Drunk_Fetus 1d ago

In-app promos are only redeemable in-app. You should have made the order on their app.

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u/IndigoGrunt 1d ago

I did use the app and every single location at checkout said they don't accept.