It sounds like the manager of this restaurant needs to read "Give them the Pickle" by Bob Farrell. Short recap - giving the customer what they want creates happy customers and repeat business. Whether it's an extra pickle, or CUTTING A SANDWICH. (in a sandwich shop!! go figure!)
Seriously, people eat sandwiches cut in half. Or quarters. It's pretty standard practice in the normal sandwich eating world.
They lost a $50+ dollar sandwich order over a perfectly reasonable request. It's not like you wanted the crusts cut off or something crazy. Though, again, they should do that as well.
At a restaurant recently, my daughter requested a grilled cheese cut in quarters, and our server asked her if she wanted SQUARES or TRIANGLES. Triangles were requested. When the plate was put infront of my daughter (not by our server), the sandwich was squares. Oops. We said nothing (because who cares, it's the same sandwich!) When the server came back to the table, she noticed that the sandwich was cut wrong. She immediately took the sandwich, had a new one made AND took it off the bill.
Another good reference for the owner/manager - the Zappo's Pizza Story. Short recap - the owner of Zappos was with friends and they wanted pizza, so they called Zappos (an online SHOE store) and asked for pizza. The person who answered (who sells SHOES) helped them get a PIZZA delivered to them.
This is called customer service, and that level of customer service is why Bob Farrell and Tony Hsieh became muti-millionaires.
Good luck with your sandwich shop. Your sandwiches might be amazing, but your customer service is seriously lacking. read more