Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Take the Subway, Please

Sometimes the stupidity of human endeavors takes the form of small transactions in a fast food restaurant. Case in point, my experience in a local Subway last night.

We had called in an order of five sandwiches for the family. I went to pick them up. I got to the counter and pulled out my debit card. The girl at the register told me their credit card reader wasn’t working. I looked in my wallet and pulled out the only money I had – a $20 bill. She rang up the order and it came to $21.86. I was $1.86 short.

Now, this is how it should have gone down: the girl should have taken my $20 and called it even. They would have been out only $1.86 and a customer would have been happy. After all, I didn’t come in to rip them off (there was plenty of money in my account), there was a problem with the their debit card machine. (Alternate scenario: I leave, go to an ATM to get more cash and came back. I just didn’t think it was worth it.)

Instead, she had to void one of the sandwiches (mine, I’m the dad) reducing the total to $17 and some change. I gave her my $20 and she gave me my $2 and coins. She put what was once going to be my sandwich behind her on a counter. I looked at her and said, “You’re just going to throw that out, aren’t you?” She told me that was right. I thought, how stupid. If she gave me the sandwich and charged me the full $20, they would be dollars ahead of juast tossing the sandwich and I would have gotten my dinner. But no. The rules are the rules. Let me get away with that and, well, something bad would happen, I guess. It was just silly.

5 comments:

gotshoo.com said...

Dave, you cheat Subway out of $1.86 and the terrorists win.

I have had the same thing happen to me at a Subway where their credit card machine didn't work and I was just a buck or so short. So, to make it convenient for them I walked a half mile to an ATM.

Didn't even get a free cookie.

In other Subway news, I believe the one off Macarthur has a Thursday special 3 foot long subs for $13.

Anonymous said...

Dave,

The other day, I was only $2000 short on paying my income taxes. I mean, what the heck is $2000 compared to a $4 trillion budget. I had the money tied up in stock, so I was good for it. But the IRS would not allow me to short pay my tax bill. I figured they were being prejudice against me since I am of mid-european descent. I think I might sue them for discrimination.

BlogFreeSpringfield said...

Does Jared know about this? Something tells me he wouldn't be pleased.

I had a similar experience once, only we came out money ahead.

We came home from Walgreen's one day and discovered that my eldest daughter had purloined a designer lollipop. The next morning before school, we returned to the store so she could pay for it. The cashier wouldn't take her dollar because the cash drawer from the previous day had already been closed out. I appreciated the bookkeeping dilemna, but I wish she would have just taken the dollar so we could have completed the lesson. Now my daughter shoplifts all the time because she doens't think the store workers mind.*

*That last sentence was for comedic value only. The rest of the story is true.

Anonymous said...

Dear isxkes....

Your point?

Anonymous said...

Dave getting some press on the jim leach show this morning!!!!