2010-01-26

Computer says no.

Hi Adrian,

I’m not sure if you do “guest rants” on your Blog but if you do I have a classic you’re welcome to use…..

A colleague of mine was going to Subway for his lunch and asked if I wanted anything bringing back. As I had some nice smoked salmon in the fridge at work I asked him to simply bring me back a foot long bread role so I could make my own sanwich. When he got there and asked for it they wanted to charge £4 as the only way they could put it through the till was as the cheapest foot long sandwich from the menu.

He then noticed that you could buy soup for 99p or soup and a roll for £1.50 so he asked if he could buy a roll for 50p but they wouldn’t even do that…. FFS, I’m starting to think that maybe the Little Britain sketch is not so funny after all…… Computer Says No

Nick.

5 comments:

  1. HAHA thats absolutely amazing, i have wanted to go in there and ask for just a bread roll for ages but never really bothered as i suspected they just wouldn't let me but the computer not allowing them to is even better, just makes me want to go and try it even more now

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  2. What annoys me even more is that the excuse is that "it will mess up the stock levels" or something like that. But, they don't complain about that if you decline to have salad or any of the other extra's which would mean that they have more stock than is accounted for.....

    I urge everyone that is reading this and indeed the whole world to go to Subway and ask for a bread roll!!

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  3. Well, I'm not sure you're so different... For example you sell broadband with a minimum of 2 units usage. What if I wanted to buy 0.5 units only? There is no technical reason you won't sell me that and I suspect that the ordering web page will "say no" too... Not really that different :)

    It's just a business decision that they are in the sandwich business not the bread roll business. You wouldn't go to a Ford cars and ask to buy sheet metal from them to make a car.... And yet clearly they probably have some they could sell, but it's not their business to do so.

    Perhaps you might think subway have a flawed business model, but I don't think it's particularly uncommon as a principle.

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  4. Hey, it was not actually my rant in the first place :-)

    But yeh, some times things really are silly. Did I post on a burger one. "Burger" plus "the funky cheese with peppers" in - "computer says no" - even offering to pay more. But "burger that has lots of onions and funky cheese" less "the onions", i.e. the same as I asked for, they can do, and its only a few pence more...

    What is interesting in this issue is they would sell the roll for £4 but something including a roll for £1.50. Now that is silly.

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  5. John, I agree with you for the most part however, the problem with Subway as opposed to Ford cars is that they did agree to sell me the bread roll at the same cost as a sandwich. I'm almost certain that Ford would never agree to selling some sheet metal for the same price as a car..... or would they?

    Additionally think of the repercussions and cost to all of this....

    I felt the need to post the article and put it on Facebook too (20 minutes x my hourly rate = £A COST)

    Adrian read it and then posted it (10 minutes x his hourly rate = £ANOTHER COST)

    Several people commented on my Facebook status (??? x their hourly rate = £MORE COST)

    Added to that Subway lost a sale and any future business from me....

    When you add it all up I suspect it amounts to quite a bit...

    ReplyDelete

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