Subway

August 18, 2017

Dear Suzanne Greco,

My name is Ret. Staff SGgT David Tyler Harmon and I am writing you today to not only express genuine concern with food quality issues such as the “hard as rock” chocolate cookies and less than fresh, tough, stale bread being served at your Subway store #48251-0, located at 1509 Dorothy Nichols Lane, Smithville, TX, 78957, but also of my wife’s and my feelings concerning the disgusting manner in which she, a University Professor and I, a decorated war veteran were treated by your employee, Maria who is the manager of your #48251-0 location on August 18, 2017 at 1:52:17pm. As individuals who have Subway franchise owners as close friends and family members, these issues are very near and dear to our hearts and the Subway Corporation needs to address and rectify these matters with the utmost swiftness and haste. Our bad experience started from the very moment we approached the counter to receive the un-warm and unfriendly welcome of your manager, Maria. Now, you may ask yourself, “Why would we eat there if our greeter was so rude and unwelcoming?” The answer to that would be simple. Not only are we longtime customers, but my wife is diabetic, and we had no choice but to let Maria’s unfriendliness slide in the moment out of concern for my wife’s health. Had we waited to drive to another location, it very well could have ended our vacation with my wife and I taking a trip to the ER in an ambulance. My biggest regret is you not being able to be there with us to view for yourselves Maria’s mannerisms and body language which were just as insulting, demeaning and hurtful as her sarcastic, smart mouth remarks. I do not know what possessed Maria to act in the manner in which she chose to act towards us. That’s none of our business. What is our business, however, is that the impression she left was that Subway cares nothing for their loyal patrons of 4 decades. Now, before we get ahead of ourselves, let us go back to the beginning and discuss Maria’s rude behavior starting with her rude welcoming. We will then move on to the problems we encountered with the inedible food which was served to us and our courteously addressing these food quality issues with Maria. Following that, we will discuss Maria’s inability to hear and professionally handle the constructive and helpful criticism of your valued customers as well as her inability follow proper managerial protocol when dealing with dissatisfied customers. We will then end by discussing the abusive and violating behavior she delivered towards us (your customers) and her actually calling the police to have us removed for attempting to provide the invaluable feedback which allows your empire to improve and grow. If you are in shock over that last detail, believe me, my wife and I are still just as dumbfounded and perplexed as you are at this very moment. The police themselves couldn’t even figure why they were being molested by this matter. That decision on her part to call them with no provocation from us defies all logic, ESPECIALLY when we were only attempting to discuss a food quality issue in such a calm, cool, and respectful Christ-like manner. We are Latter-Day Saints, “Mormons” if you will, we are military, and we believe in treating all people with kindness, love, and charity, regardless of how they treat us. We do not use vulgarity, nor do we use hostility, and that is what makes the following episode so very bizarre. The only reason she could have possible had, was to maliciously humiliate us. I’m going to be brief in describing the offenses made by your manager, Maria (as they are many) as I want to avoid creating a 20 page letter. I am also 100% sure that you are going to want to call us after reading this. I also would like you to understand that nothing in this letter is being exaggerated or magnified. If anything, the offenses against my wife and I in this letter are highly understated as they can only be presented by the written word in a heavily abridged format, and they contain no real-time visuals other than those picked up by your surveillance cameras. Given the time, I could write a book on my negative experience in your store. That being said, let us begin.

It started when my wife and I stepped up to the counter and I asked for Honey oat bread. The manager dropped her head and shook it while simultaneously letting out an exaggerated exhale of exasperation and stated rather aggressively, “We don’t HAVE honey oat. THESE are the breads we have!” Yes. That’s an exclamation point. She literally used exclamation in her statement. However, I let it slide because my wife and I hadn’t eaten for 5 hours, and possible health risks were involved. After that exchange, however, I didn’t say anything to her about only giving me 1 1/2 portions of teriyaki chicken on my sandwich instead of a double portion. I let that one slide.

The second offense is when the trainee, Harley gave me a half portion of avocado and I told him, “I'm sorry, that’s only a half portion. I eat at subway all the time and I’m supposed to receive a full portion.” This made Maria FURIOUS! She actually physically pushed Harley out of the way and aggressively snatched my sandwich. She then in a state of exasperation said, “What else?” I was so confused as to what was happening at this point. Why the aggression, exasperation, and abusive manner? I was asking myself, “If this woman Maria hates making sandwiches so much, why is she here? Also, why does she feel such an intense need to make me feel like I’m inconveniencing her with my requests, and why does she want to make me feel bad for buying lunch from them?” I bit my tongue because I am thinking about my wife. I responded with a kind, “Yes ma’am. I’d like some spinach, please.” She then placed only 3 leaves on my sandwich.

The third offense was when I had the nerve to ask for additional spinach. Once again, she let out a sharp, agitated exhale, snatched additional spinach and smashed it into the bread! I couldn’t help but ask myself, “What is this girl’s problem? Why is she acting like a 13 year-old teenage brat who’s being forced to clean their room? And why is she abusing my sandwich?” I couldn’t for the life of me make heads or tales of it because out of my 4 decades of coming to Subway, no one had ever behaved so outlandishly.

The forth offense (which lead to the far bigger problems) was when I asked for salt. She turned the shaker completely upside-down and very aggressively shook it twice which caused an enormous amount of salt to pour out. I cringed and thought to myself, “Man, that is so much salt! I don’t know if that’s even going to be edible, but there is no way I’m going to ask this unpleasant, unfriendly woman to start over.” I let it go in hopes that it wouldn’t be so bad because I just wanted to get as far away from this individual as possible. After all, I’m just trying to focus on my wife’s health at the moment and she needs me to eat with her.

The fifth offense was when I asked for cilantro. Now, forgive me if I got cilantro mixed up with oregano. I am a retired military linguist who has up to a PhD level of mastery and understanding in 7 languages and have a university level of reading comprehension in 15. Sometimes, words get crossed and confused. She then proceeded to mock me with her bratty, sarcastic, “know-it-all” tone and mannerisms (if you’ve ever worked with troubled teenage girls, you know the behaviors of which I speak) and said, “UHH, we don’t HAVE cilantro.” Then she looked at Harley and scoffed while stating, “I don’t know ANY Subway that has cilantro.” So, I said, “I’m sorry. I’m a military linguist and have a lot of languages going on in my head right now. I meant oregano, ma’am. Do you have oregano, please?” Then she made a full display of my mistake by saying loudly, “Ohhhhhhh, you meant O-RE-GA-NO! Ya, he meant O-RE-GA-NO guys.” She then gave me two light shakes, and without inquiring as to whether or not that was enough, she in great haste, wrapped up my sandwich. I then asked if I could please have a little more oregano. She once again gave out her exasperated, bratty pout, “Uhhh!” while looking down and shaking her head. She angrily yanked the sandwich from Harley who was at the cash register, viciously unwrapped it, violently shook the oregano shaker 4 times, then slammed both of her hands on the counter and said in what could only be described as an adult temper-tantrum, “Is there anything ELSE you want on your sandwich?” Forgive me guys for wanting oregano on a sandwich that I am paying for, in your store which possesses your good name, from an individual whom you are paying to make sandwiches the way your customers would like them. I kindly responded with a smile, “No ma’am, that will be fine.” I paid for our meals and eagerly sat down. Now, I before I move onto talking about the sandwiches, the bread, and the cookies, all of which were far below Subway’s well established, high-quality standards, my wife has grievances with Maria’s rough, callous, rude, and bratty behavior as well. She will be more than happy to go into lengthy detail during the phone call which we are most certainly expecting from the offices of Subway’s highest officials, most preferably your C.E.O. Now, onto the food quality.

I immediately sat down at our table with my wife and asked her, “Should I go and talk to that girl about the horribly rude and disrespectful manner in which she treated us right now, or do want me to wait until after we’ve finished eating?” My wife requested that we please eat first as her sugar levels were very low. So I took 1 bite of my sandwich and absolutely could not bear it! It was so incredibly salty that I wasn’t even able to swallow it. My wife took one bite out of her sandwich, and being a Subway connoisseur herself, could tell immediately that the bread was not up to Subway’s standards of freshness, and while it may have been toasted, that does not provide explanation as to it’s extremely hard, almost wood-like texture. It was somewhere between a brown UPS box, and particle board. We wrapped the sandwiches back up and I proceeded to take them up to the counter to talk to the manager about the quality issues. However, before I was even 10 from the counter, she exclaimed, “UGH! What is it now?” How dare she talk to me this way! What could she even mean, “What is it now?” when there wasn’t even a before? I want you to check the security camera’s to witness this for yourselves. I remained kind and polite the entire way through. I said, “Ma’am, this sandwich is so unbelievably salty. I couldn’t even swallow one bite of it and my wife wasn’t able to eat her’s either. She immediately grabbed her phone and said, “I’m calling the owner.” I’m thinking, “Why in the world does this individual need to disturb the owner over something like this?” I was tremendously puzzled as to why she didn’t first offer to remake our sandwiches if we were dissatisfied. She then, in front of me, proceeds to loudly tell the owner how I’ve been incredibly difficult, complicated, and impossible to please. She paints this terribly false image of me and the entire situation, turning me into a raging psychopath. Maria returns and says, “I can refund you the money for this sandwich, PER OWNER!” while slamming the sandwich onto the counter. She then violently smashes my wife’s sandwich onto the counter, opens it up, and says very rudely and aggressively, “I can’t give refunds on sandwiches that are more than half eaten, PER OWNER! So, I can’t do anything about your wife’s sandwich!” I then proceeded to respectfully and compassionately (yet sternly) chastise and correct her for her disrespectful tone, and manner. She wouldn’t even do me the courtesy of looking at me. She looked at the floor with her hands firmly pressed against the countertop. Then, mid sentence, she interrupted me and barked, “Sir, I’ve already agreed to refund you for your sandwich, now I’m going to have to ask you to leave!” What? I was stunned and speechless! I was one of our nations top military linguists and translators who has a solid mastery of numerous languages and at that moment I was at a complete and total loss for words! I gathered my thoughts and reminded her that the owner said if a sandwich was more than half eaten, then we couldn’t receive a refund. I then pulled out a ruler and showed her that my wife’s sandwich was still 5 inches long and that 5 inches is more than half of six inches. (Photo attached below with measurement) It was at that moment that Maria said, “I’m calling the police!” I asked calmly and respectfully, “Call the police? I haven’t broken any laws, I haven’t raised my voice, I have not used profanity, I have not made threats, nor have I behaved in a threatening, aggressive manner, I have done nothing to warrant calling the police, nor have I done anything to merit asking me to leave the premises.” It was then that I pulled out my phone and told Maria that I was going to record her, not to post on the internet, but for her to be able to see just how terribly she was treating us. Maria, without giving us an option, called the owner and the police and fathomed up all manner of falsehoods concerning us. She lied, plain and simple. When the police arrived, they were puzzled as to why they had been called into this store to remove us because we were behaving like the calm, cool, and professional individuals which we are. The owner, however, came in with guns blazing on the defensive because she had been given a villainous image of the us and situation. It was then, in front of police, owner, and all that I pulled out my ruler and showed the owner that my wife’s sandwich met the criteria for a refund as it was still 5 inches long. I don’t understand why these individuals were so unwilling to listen to their customers, receive constructive feedback, offer to remake the sandwiches, listen to reason, observe the facts, or do anything whatsoever to try to provide minimally unpleasant customer service, much less good or even outstanding customer service. They couldn’t even do minimally unpleasant customer service. It was shameful! My wife, Diana then proceeded to attempt to get the owner and manager to understand that calling the police was 100% unnecessary, that law enforcement has better things to do, that the people at subway were wasting tax payers’ resources as well as the Sheriff’s valuable time, and that she also could not eat her sandwich not only because the bread was inedible, but because now it had also been violently man-handled and tossed around by Maria. Thus, my wife was not able to eat her meal. She also stated that them not even giving us an option to leave before the police were called was nothing more than an attempt to humiliate a decent, kind, law abiding retired war veteran and his university professor wife. The officers finally asked, “Did you receive a refund for your sandwich, sir?” I told him that I did, but not my wife. The officer then told us that if I received a refund for my sandwich that we had to leave and were thus escorted out of Subway like 2 criminals. We then walked with the sheriff, who softened up after our departure, and we continued our conversation outside. He offered his apologies concerning this occurrence and asked us to please not allow that experience to ruin our vacation or taint our opinions of Smithville. He made it clear that the Subway owner and manager were not willing to listen and he just wanted to keep the peace.

I do not know why Maria chose to be so unbelievably cruel and heartless towards us. I don’t know what is going on in her life or mind. That is none of my business. What is my business, is that she is a manager and has no ability to manage the most simple of managerial tasks, such as: 1) Service with a smile, 2) Receiving customer feedback 3) Care for the concerns of a dissatisfied customer 4) Deescalate tensions as opposed to creating them 5) Don't throw customers out as opposed to receiving constructive criticism ESPECIALLY when it pertains to quality control, and 6) Don’t call the police on customers who are doing absolutely nothing to justify calling the police, and don’t call the police on customers without warning the customers first and giving them the option to leave voluntarily. These are not difficult things to ask of a manager. In fact, they really do fall under the categories of common sense and compassion.

Like I’ve stated before, I don’t know what’s going on inside of Maria, but I do know a couple of very important things. The first, is that Maria absolutely does not belong in a management position at Subway or anyplace else for that matter. In fact, I would strongly question after our experience as to whether she belongs at Subway at all. The second, is that the freshness and texture of the cookies, the bread, and the amount of salt being put on their food all need a serious inspection. We were appalled at how far below standards our food fell, and then much more so appalled at how we were thrown out and had the cops called on us for bringing the food quality to Maria’s attention. Please, have Harley trained by someone else. It is urgent that he be rehabilitated from Maria’s poor example before further damage is done. Now, let me talk about the impression that was left with us due to this incident, and the future impression that will be left with us if swift, disciplinary action is not taken against Maria for her abusive, unjust, and unjustifiable treatment to your beloved, long-time customers.

This incident left us with the impression that subway cares nothing for their customers/family members, and make no mistake about it, my wife and I are your family. I have accurately calculated that my meals purchased from Subway over the last 40 years are enough to buy a brand new 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom house here in Houston, TX as well as put a downpayment on a new car. That makes us your family, and I strongly feel that you are obligated to discipline those who are abusive to your loyal, and beloved family members. We were treated like trash, and discarded like trash. My wife has blood pressure issues due to her having been born with a weakened flap between her heart valves. She did not need this upsetting event to be inflicted upon her which has proven to be quite a violent assault on her blood pressure and overall physical, mental, and emotional health. You have no idea the level of concern we experienced Friday, and the worry that we might have to end our vacation by going to the ER to stabilize her condition. I am a war veteran, and I do have to go to the hospital to receive care and additional medication as a result of this traumatic event. I have to go through enough in this world having served in combat, and I don’t need my issues exacerbated by such hostility, abuse, toxicity and injustice. Has no one ever told this child, Maria that she is to respect her elders, ESPECIALLY her elders who are also our nations defenders? What in the world is wrong with her? There is no greater form of disrespect on Earth, nor in Heaven than to spit on those who sacrifice their own lives to protect you. I laid down my life and personal ambitions for her, and my wife sacrificed her life and alternate dreams and ambitions by supporting me in that fight. Maria was not ignorant to our being military, neither was she ignorant to our sacrifices. She did not unknowingly spit on them. Details of our service were brought to her attention numerous times throughout our visit, and she persisted with her abusive behavior. And as if the disrespect wasn't enough, we war veterans suffer from all sorts of emotional, mental, and anxiety disorders as a direct result of our sacrifice by fighting in military combat. We have a tremendous struggle finding small moments of peace within ourselves and we do not need, nor do we deserve having whatever peace we manage to find robbed from us by a 30 year-old, overgrown teenage brat who is not only supposed to treat us kindly out of gratitude and respect, but who is PAID to treat us kindly by you, her employer. It is absolute betrayal to do anything other than thank us for our service and then demonstrate that thanks through your actions. How is that asking too much? I am not going to continue on as I feel you have enough information in this letter to take decisive action concerning both Maria’s behavior, and the quality control issues of your food in store #48251-0.

Finally, as far as our future impression of Subway is concerned; if disciplinary action is not swiftly taken against Maria, the future impression that will be forever left with us, is that it is actually Subway (and not just Maria) who cares nothing for their beloved customers and family, or their nation’s military heroes. Thank you for your concern and we will be looking forward to you swiftly contacting us concerning this matter.

Sincerely,

Ret. SSgT David T. Harmon and Professor Diana Patricia Harmon
2303 Mid Lane, Apt 617
Houston, TX 77027
[protected]@me.com
[protected]

P.S. I have to ask you, "Is this sandwich in the attached photo less than half of 6 inches?" Lastly, I have a video of this egregious atrocity. I haven't posted it because I am not vengeful, malicious, self centered individual, and hurting your company would hit too close to home. There are those very close to me who own Subways.