Tonight, while shopping for a gourmet menu, we became so overwhelmed with the task of figuring out what to eat, that we went to go get a sandwich. It was simpler.
Perhaps you’ve eaten at the Quiznos chain before; I actually like their Italian sandwich. It’s well-proportioned, tasty, and even their dressing/sauce is good. I remember going to one that had opened in Avon Lake years ago, next to a new Tops supermarket.
At that franchise, it was always smokey. They did something wrong with their “toasty” oven that it was always burning something, and spewing out smoke. Weeks later it had been tamed, but the smell and smoke still stayed, despite both being reduced considerably.
Move ahead several years. I’ve eaten at Quiznos here and abroad, from an Alaska mall food court, to another franchise here in Virginia, just off Parham Rd. From San Diego to Roanoke. No matter, I always seem to find fault with which ever franchise I visit.
So, might there be something wrong with the corporation that trains these franchise owners? I compare my experience to another well-known sub shop, Subway. I have had mostly great experiences in those stores, by comparison.
Quiznos? It takes forever for the guy to take the order. He wasn’t making any sandwiches when we walked in. Then, I wanted to pay. There’s a girl sitting at the computer surfing the net. She doesn’t budge. The guy is working on more sandwiches. I figure out this girl is the owner’s daugther, maybe she doesn’t work there; well, get her out from behind the counter like she does. Mom is filling dressing bottles. She can’t be bothered to check us out, either. The poor sandwich maker has to do the whole shtick.
And this was a good experience. Go to another one in town, and you have to repeat your order no less than three times (on a good day). That’s right, you’ll be asked what you want, and I’m not kidding, I’ve had to repeat myself three times. Four on one visit; five on another. But mostly it’s three. Is there any reason for this (save for the fact that the kids working there have the short-term memory of a flea)??
The concept of Good or Quality customer service is not part of their training, I can certify that. Another one in town is atrocious. The guy who owned it hired his own kids. They spent the entire time talking on the phone; you couldn’t be bothered to get a word-in for anything. And in the one I visited tonight, they actually posted that “talking on your cell phone while ordering was prohibited.” Prohibited? Yeah, customers, that is rude, but not necessarily more so than the sign.
And what’s with so many of them being dirty? I mean, the places look nasty. All of them I’m recalling here have been nasty dirty. Tonight, the one we visited (at 6:30 PM) had both trash bins chock full. So chock full, in fact, that there was no place to put your garbage or the plastic tray they want you to not put into the trash. We sat ours on top there, crowning the heap of trash. Four employees (or three, if the girl didn’t count), all too busy to really help you a whole lot, and certainly, they couldn’t be bothered to clean the refuse area.
MMMmmmm toasty, sure. But there’s got to be a limit to what we can tolerate with mediocre to poor service, dirty dining rooms, and super-long wait times. And how many times do you need to be asked it you want lettuce on the sandwich when you already told them three times “I want everything on it?”
Evidently in Quiznosland, lettuce isn’t a part of everything.
