Customer stupidity gets RHUer in trouble

Here's a what would you have done scenario:

So I'm on my break and a woman comes into the store and asks us if we had her phone order ready. Myself and my two coworkers were confused, until we discover that she went to the wrong Subway, a Subway that my company doesn't own.

As she's sitting there having her daughter tell her again what all the sandwiches were (and this was about 5 or 6 sandwiches), I find out the other store's number and call to see if her order was ready. They said they had just about completed it, so I tell the customer this and she gets mad at me, but leaves, grumbling about having to drive "all the way back to town". It's a 10-15 minute drive to that restaurant.

I later tell the grocery side manager this, and he gets mad at me too, for sending a customer to another store not owned by the company for sandwiches.

Honestly, I was thinking Golden Rule here, because I know if I was at that other Subway, I'd be pissed at having to throw away that many sandwiches because a customer was stupid and went to the wrong Subway.

So I guess it's this. Would you have sent the customer to the other store, or just made all of her sandwiches at your store?

-qygibo

 

Comments

[danny b]

I didn't know Subway did phone orders, not that I care since I stopped eating there when they named Michael Vick Sportsman of the Year.

[Ilia]

Uhfff... You were being a great employee, and you just had the bad luck of being snarked at by two people.

Hell when i worked at Borders, we used to check at other Borders int he area and even Barnes & Noble in an effort to find the precious object a custy was looking for.

[CoG]

Grocery Side Manager has his bottom line on his mind and nothing else. You were helping out the customer (even if they didn't realize it) by sending them to the place that already had their sandwiches made so they wouldn't have to relay the info and have more made; and you were helping out the other store by not forcing them to throw away a lot of good sandwiches.
Golden Rule FTW, Qygibo.

[The Last Archimedean]

Your manager should be written up for being a disgrace to humanity. You did EXACTLY the right thing.

[Mollywobbles]

Hell yeah, I would have sent her to the other store. If she bitched about having to go to the other store, she would have bitched about how long you guys were taking and how her order should have been almost finished by the time she got there (y'know, the whole entire point of calling an order in in the first place). Tell your manager to suck it up.

[Miss Red]

I would have called the other store and confirmed that the order was ready. Then, turned to the customer and said, "Ma'am, I called the store that you actually ordered from and they told me that your order was finished and waiting for pickup. Would you prefer to go get the finished order, or would you like me to remake them all here? If you choose to have them remade, it will be approximately (insert generous time estimate here) for us to make them all."
Let the customer make the choice, then it's all out of your hands.

[Bored at the Bookstore]

Good call (no pun intended, really). I might've tried Miss Red's method... But think of it this way - maybe, just maybe, the lady will remember you as "the store that found my order for me" and tell people how nice you were. After she gets over her grouch, that is...

[Kel]

I would have sent her too. You did the right thing.

@danny b

Subway does phone orders they also require 24 hours notice for large orders or party subs.

Hated making party subs 4 loafs of braided bread for a foot and a half.

[Skittles]

You were right it's pretty dishonest of your manager to try to steal business on that level from another franchise, and I imagine if corporate found out he did that kind of thing they would be pretty pissed off.

[Not Perfect]

You were damned if you do, damned if you don't. Neither one was the wrong answer.

[Jason Thorn]

Millions of people in the world are starving, and the manager wants to add to it?

You did the right thing. Leave it to a manager to come up with a "First-World" solution.