Subway — Restaurant in Gainesville

I will never again darken the doors of a Subway shop in Gainesville TX. My experience last Saturday evening: Ordered for pick-up. Paid with credit card. Went to get order -- was at the mini strip of stores off hiway 82. Doors locked, lights all on in store. Waited about five minutes. While I was there two other people came to order food and left after trying locked doors. After five minutes I called the store. No one answered. Another five minutes and a girl comes out from back, unlocks door, and says "we are closed." I said, "but I paid for an order and need the food I paid for." She explained that she had only a bit of training, didn't expect to work solo, and was unable to prepare the food. She stated that she was waiting for a co-worker to come and help her, but that he "was walking" and it might be quite awhile before he would arrive. She said I could wait for him and get my refund or I could call the next day and get the payment refunded. Not typically a quitter, I went to the subway in Walmart. No one was behind the counter. I waited several minutes. No one showed. I called out and no one responded from the back of the shop. Two guys were finishing their sandwiches, so I asked, "is there someone here working?". They said, "yes, but she left." So. I left.

Next day I called and asked for refund. The store manager was very confrontational, took all my observations as personal criticism (basically I was simply saying that my experience was unacceptable customer service) and she kept saying it wasn't her fault, wanted to blame the employee (who either had no business being hired in the first place, or I suspect, had been thrown to the wolves with a totally unacceptable amount of training.). She refused to let me tell my story, kept interrupting me. I have a background in CS and know that it's important to let the dissatisfied person "state their case". She was very defensive --I suspect because she knew she was ultimately responsible for what went on in "her" store.

I called the Walmart store to ask about no one at their counter. That guy was incredibly defensive also...talked about working 50 some days straight, that the workers are solo and need to go to the bathroom....that all may be accurate.

BUT: Suggestions: it seems almost impossible to do a good job of running a subway during mealtime hours with only one worker responding to phone orders, online orders, and in store orders.It seems that if an employee has to go to the bathroom, at minimum it might be nice to post sign saying, "worker left at XX time and will be back in five minutes. It seems important to validate customer concerns after a unquestionably bad experience. (NO one every apologized for my bad time -- it was all protests and explanations of how it wasn't their fault and how dare I complain?)

I know hiring is challenging. At some point, if you can't hire and train adequate staff, the damage done to the shop may be greater than the short term gain in revenue. I know personally I will never go back to these two subway shops. Life is too short to deal with their problems.

Interestingly I still do not have my refund. The store manager said I had to come into the store to get cash. When I called there yesterday to confirm that the manager was in the shop, no one...

I placed an online order for pick up at this location and it will be the last time I do. While it was the lunch rush and I understand that they were a bit backed up, half of them showed no urgency to get the food made. As I walked in there were three dine-in patrons and the rest of us were pick up/doordash orders. For some reason only the manager could handle the register while the older gentleman crept down the line making sandwiches for those dining in-store. Once he finished, he decided to check bread then ran outside to his car leaving the rest of us standing there frustrated. Why not help those waiting for their online orders? I was initially told by the manager that she would make the food in order of how it was printed out. You would think that a persons actual presence would take precedence over the time the ticket was printed but critical thinking skills seem to be a foreign concept nowadays. So I've already been waiting well over 20min for my online order that should have been done before I arrived when I noticed another woman had arrived and was standing behind me. I let her know that I was waiting for an online order and she said she was as well. Okay cool, well the woman that was there before me finally got her food and I'm thinking I'm up next but no, the manager turns and asks the woman who arrived 20min after I did, what her name was then proceeded to make her order. Again, I arrived well before her, also had an online order, yet my order was the last to be made of everyone there...suspiciously prejudice don't you think. Surprisingly, the whole time this was going on a third employee was just hanging out in the back instead of lending a hand and helping this entire cluster of a sandwich making line get through it's orders with some efficiency. Oh well. Won't get my...

Upon arrival we were not greeted with a hello. The employee stated “I have a catering order to do it’s going to be awhile”. My daughter and I sat down with the daily paper that was provided in store. I took the crossword puzzle out and and proceeded to wait for 25 minutes while doing the puzzle with my daughter. She “the employee” then said she was ready for us. When I started to order they were out of every kind of chicken, she stated “it’s all frozen you’ll have to get something else”. I decided to not order because I do not eat lunch meat or beef, but my daughter was in mid order when I was going to put the crossword in my purse. Not the entire paper please keep in mind. When the employee turned and looked at me to say “ is that our paper?” I said “ yes ma’am it is”, then she proceeded to tell me “to put it back because we read that”. I then said “ it’s not your whole paper, it is just the crossword section I’ve left the rest.” She proceeded to tell me “you can’t take that, we read that, you NEED to put it back!”

This employee was very rude. I am surprised this level of “customer service” still exists. We left mid order and I said “thank you ma’am”. I then proceeded to place the crossword portion on the top of the receptacle by the door. I am writing hopefully to inform the owner of this poor behavior from its employee. Perhaps you will not lose another customer from...