Food: 4
Followed directions from their app when preparing my…read moreorder: 2
On my quest for the perfect Italian sub, I ordered a BMT footlong from this nearby Subway. The ordering process was easy -- I was able to customize it and request curbside pickup and place my order in just a few minutes. So far, so good. My only disappointment was that there was no way to request that it be toasted. But since I was trying to avoid people and crowds, I decided going into the store to do that wasn't worth it.
I drove the less than five minutes to the store, and parked in one of the curbside pickup spaces, arriving about three minutes before my sandwich was to be ready.
And then I sat. I watched several customers go in, order, get their sandwich, and leave.
Ten minutes after the scheduled pickup time, I called the restaurant, knowing there must be a disconnect somewhere. There were no customers in the store, yet the phone rang, and rang, and rang, with no pickup.
After over 20 rings, I gave up and hung up. I finally realized I was going to have to go in. I'd gotten in the car in my favorite work-from-home outfit, a long black caftan -- not something I'd usually wear out in public except in and out of the car. But it looked like I had no choice.
I climbed out and walked to the door, opened it, and stuck my head in. "My curbside pickup order?" I said. He replied jovially, "Your sandwich is right there," pointing to a rack near the counter. "It's curbside pickup," I responded, and went back and climbed in the car.
He came right out after me, and to his credit, he did apologize over and over. But he also re-read the receipt, where it clearly said "curbside pickup," as if to verify that I was telling the truth.
I asked him why this confusion happened, and he said he just hadn't noticed that it was curbside. Hmmm ... I'd think, during a surge in the pandemic, that it might be kind of important to check that.
He started to hand me my sandwich through the window, but stopped and pulled it back and studied the receipt again, then he shoved the sandwich toward me with the receipt facing me, pointed to one item, and said, "MVP - what is this?" It was all I could do to control my impatience. I calmly said, "That's MVP Parmesan Vinaigrette, the topping you were supposed to put on my sandwich. Are you saying you didn't do that?"
"No," he replied. "I don't know what that is."
I looked at him, speechless. "Here, I remake," he said. I told him no, that wasn't necessary, but that he needed to learn what toppings were and weren't available at his restaurant, and let corporate know if they didn't have that one.
I thought I was pretty civil, but by now I was 15 minutes late leaving the restaurant, and had a work meeting I was supposed to be calling into at home at right about that time. I made sure I mentioned that to him, too. He kept apologizing profusely, but by then the damage had been done.
The sandwich was okay, not great. I'd ordered double meat, and that made it pretty good, but the bread would have been much better toasted. I saved half of the sandwich for the next day, when I put some butter and garlic powder on it and toasted it under the broiler before re-adding the meat, onions, and pickles, and that made it much better. Too bad I can't request toasted from the app. That's a definite minus for me.
But the real minus was the guy in the store who just didn't seem to care, and didn't bother to find out what he didn't know.
Will I go back? With Jersey Mike's just a few doors down, and Penn Station at the other end of the shopping center, it's doubtful I will. If there wasn't so much good competition nearby, then maybe. The sandwich was fine, but the overall experience was a definite downer.