Entitlement Mom

[Getoutofmylobby]

I disagree. This was pure line-cutting. It would have been one thing if the ones ordering had said "and my mom's coming with some more orders, so can we hold the place in line?" But to storm up during a busy period and place multiple extra orders with no forewarning is sucky and cutty.

And really, if you're going to send LITTLE KIDS to order food by themselves on a busy day without you even there, you need to take a parenting class.

[mariamousie1]

If the woman couldn't join her kids in line for some reason, she should have told the kids to order six subs, not three. They ordered three subs, and if more are to be ordered, one would have to wait in line for it. What a total bitch. I feel sorry for her children.

[csever01]

I think the worst/saddest part of this whole situation is that now, all these kids that were with her are going to grow up thinking that this is how they should act whenever they don't get their way. How many children were with her in total? Five? Well, the population of soon-to-be SCs has now grown by five.

[Mazthoril]

Happens at our Subway all the time.

What is it about Subway that turns people into the biggest entitlement whores in the universe? Soccer moms are the biggest culprits of it as well. We have had many a SC outburst at mine but none regarding line jumping as of yet. (suprisingly)

And you are spot on about the college girls getting turkeys on wheat.

I think a big part of it is how you order at a Subway. It makes people care about things that they wouldn't care about anywhere else.

For example you go into a sit-down restaurant, you order a steak with mashed potatoes and steamed veggies. If the mix of carrots/broccoli isn't the perfect ratio, you aren't going to send the meal back. In fact, you were never questioned as to what is the proper carrot/broccoli ratio, to a degree you're expected to accept what the kitchen sends out as long as it is in line with what you ordered.

I.e., if you order an 8 oz. steak cooked medium, most people aren't going to complain about the "shape" of the cut, or et cetera, as long as it is in fact a medium steak in the right ballpark of the 8 oz. size.

At most other fast food places (or "Quick service restaurants"--QSR), you order a burger or something, you may ask for no tomato or no pickles or et cetera--and you hope like hell you get it. But ultimately 99% of people who go through a place like that realize they don't get to customize their sandwich down to exact specifications. So as long as the sandwich comes out roughly as you ordered, there's no problem.

A lot of times, if the staff forgets to take off the tomato, the customer is just going to take the tomato off and eat the sandwich. I'm not a fan of tomatoes, I'll sometimes ask for no tomato at other fast food places--but I honestly don't care if I have to spend half a second removing a tomato from a burger.

At Subway, you are encouraged to build the sub "your way." People become incredibly specific and picky to a degree that most of these people never are at other places. There are some rare people who are incredibly picky/specific everywhere they eat--most people realize however that you order food, staff makes the food, and that you eat what is made for you as long as it isn't objectionable.

This doesn't mean you are normally going to decide the exact number of onions or banana peppers that comes on your sandwich.

At Subway though, both because of the fact that customers are integral throughout the ordering process, and because Subway emphasizes that you can have your sandwich "your way"--people come in with an attitude of entitlement much more noticeable than when they go into other places.

This reminds me of another regular customer who comes in frequently. This was a few months before I became assistant manager. Me and the former assistant manager were in the back dealing with a walk-in refrigerator that had broken over night (whole other story) and this guy comes in.

He's a guy who is incredibly picky and specific about how much of each vegetable he gets. He's also incredibly reactionary. For example, when I get banana peppers, I typically grab a "wad" with one hand and then quickly drop several peppers across the sub (usually somewhat close to the 6 peppers suggested by Subway corporate for a footlong) if someone asks for light or heavy banana peppers, I will modify this. This guy, when he sees me pick up the wad of banana peppers, he's like "HEY!! NOT SO MANY" One day I even explained to him, "this is just how many peppers I pick up, I have no intentions of putting them all on your sub, I'm just going to drop a few of them on in the amount that you like."

Well, this guy, this particular day, is getting a sub made by one of our trainees.

Me and the assistant manager are moving product from the walk-in refrigerator in the back to the smaller refrigerator/cabinets we have up front (since the walk-in was broken.)

This guy is ordering a sub, and I hear him being ultra-picky as usual. Well, it gets time for mayo (sauces are generally three passes, that is how Subway advises you put sauces on and that is generally how we do it.) About halfway through the third pass, the mayo bottle sputters and squirts out a small amount more mayo than would normally come out. The customer flips out, so the trainee gets a knife and removes part of the mayo glob and then spreads the remainder out in the same direction that the third pass would have been going (the sputter happened about halfway through the third pass, so half the sub didn't get hit by the third pass--the trainee just used the knife to spread it in that direction.)

The guy instantly says, "Alright, I'm going to need a whole new sub."

The trainee, being new, goes down to get the new sub started.

I watch the whole thing, his original sub was a BMT, he orders a steak and cheese as his second sub. This just seems ridiculous to me.

I mention what has happened to the assistant manager, and he comes up and tells the customer that nothing happened to the sandwich in question that justifies giving him a second sub for free--if he wants both subs he will have to pay for both subs. The guy storms out angrily.

He continues to come back every other day, though, and aside from this one blow up we've never really had a problem with him as a customer.

But it just shows how people act in a Subway. At a Burger King, this guy would order a burger--have no say over the specifics of how it is made, and probably walk away just fine--like most people do.

[edible_hat]

Heaven help me if I ever end up behind one of them in the store now that I'm not a store employee. "See, Baby, this is why we learn patience, so we don't look like idiots in public."

I'm imagining myself saying that, followed by.

"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME!?! I'LL SHOW YOU..."
*thump crack crash*
"And that is why we learn taekwondo, so we can defend ourselves against people who think they're better than us."

[poofy_puff]

BK is "Have it your way" too. That was one of their earliest slogans.

[Mazthoril]

BK is "Have it your way" too. That was one of their earliest slogans.

Yeah, almost any QSR you can get somewhat specific about your order--the difference is, it is the exception not the rule that the customer is there making on-the-fly changes and modifications to the order.

The customer can ask for extra pickle or no tomato, but by and large, since the burger is prepared out of sight and delivered to the customer all wrapped up, in general there is not an environment like there is in Subway where a customer is more or less "directing" an employee piece-by-piece in the construction of their sandwich.

[Becks]

This was pure line-cutting. It would have been one thing if the ones ordering had said "and my mom's coming with some more orders, so can we hold the place in line?" But to storm up during a busy period and place multiple extra orders with no forewarning is sucky and cutty.

Broomjockey's got it right.

[depechemodefan]

I remember one entitlement mom at a 1/2 Price Books. There was a sale out in teh parking lot with a tent. There were books on tables, and books in box under the tables. So this mom, with her 2 teenage kids standing behind her (I guess the kids didn't want any books...or else mom is a control freak) squats down to get some boxes. These were haevy boxes so one staff member asks her not to get the box. Then he says something like, "never mind" or "sorry" and she is railing after him when he walks of, saying something like "I'm just getting some books! Jeez! Why are you bothering me" I guess 1/2 Price Books doesn't want a customer get a hernia or something, but no doubt they dealt with this woman before. Her kids were just standing there, and they seem aware that mom is a piece of work. They might turn out ok, knowing that the way mom acts is wrong.

though another time I was at a cafetera and the dad was saying, "Kids eat for free!" and the cashier was telling him they eat from free from the kids menu. He was saying, "your sign didn't say that!" and to be honest, I don't think it did. But anyway, he's bitching, and his daughter (who looked a little old to be a kid, though there are 10 year-olds who do look older than their age) was also talking back to the cashier, "Yeah, you're wrong. You're trying to cheat me out of a free meal." Ugh.

[XCashier]

If I were responsible for paying for five kids' sandwiches, I'd have them all in line with me, not half of the kids several people before me. No confusion, no line-jumping, no split bill.

though another time I was at a cafetera and the dad was saying, "Kids eat for free!" and the cashier was telling him they eat from free from the kids menu. He was saying, "your sign didn't say that!" and to be honest, I don't think it did. But anyway, he's bitching, and his daughter (who looked a little old to be a kid, though there are 10 year-olds who do look older than their age) was also talking back to the cashier, "Yeah, you're wrong. You're trying to cheat me out of a free meal." Ugh.

Ugh indeed. Yet another SC in the making. I hope she has to work in Customer Service when she's older, so she can see what it's like to be treated like her dad treats employees.

[LifeCarnie]

I love reading stories where someone asks for the manager and is pointed towards the very person they want to complain about. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside...

Unfortunately, it doesn't work as well on the phone.

Although, I've actually transferred a call from myself to myself, because the customer wanted a supervisor and I was the only lead or supervisor around.

The customer didn't even realize that they were still speaking to the same person.

[Primer]

The guy instantly says, "Alright, I'm going to need a whole new sub."

The trainee, being new, goes down to get the new sub started.

I watch the whole thing, his original sub was a BMT, he orders a steak and cheese as his second sub. This just seems ridiculous to me.

I mention what has happened to the assistant manager, and he comes up and tells the customer that nothing happened to the sandwich in question that justifies giving him a second sub for free--if he wants both subs he will have to pay for both subs. The guy storms out angrily.

Once the customer demanded a new sub, the first one should have been tossed in the waste bin...before the second one was started.

[AdminAssistant]

A check on my own level of suckiness....

when I go to Subway, and it's veggie time, sometimes I'll ask, "Could I have some more xxx?" Sucky? I mean, I just like lots of pickles. Anyway.

The only problem I regularly have at Subway..sometimes my sandwiches are REALLY messy. I mean, I get that there's a line and we're all in a hurry, but geez!

[auntiem]

I don't know why Subway brings in those super picky/ hover while you make the sandwich people. I worked at a Blimpies and never - not once did I have anyone do that to me, nor have I ever seen anyone do that at the local sub shop. It is essentially the same exact layout as a Subway - well, except we had and they have a slicer - maybe people are better behaved when someone has access to a whirling blade?

[Bagga]

I just love the idiots who can't just grin and bear it when they are forced to wait a short while, and use the Hara-kiri threat on the salesperson:

"That's it! I have had it up to here with this store!! If you are going to force me to wait another 3 minutes I am going to walk to somewhere else that is 5 minutes away and wait in line for another 10 minutes, just to PUNISH YOU!! There, hurts, doesn't it!!"

I but the kids in the OP were thinking "WTF ma, you just delayed our snack by another 10 minutes... Why?"