I just hafta share a story of my dinner break tonight and its aftermath.
Instead of taking advantage of "Triple Punch Thursday" at Charly's Subs, I opted to "Eat Fresh" and have a foot-long BLT next door. ($5 by the way!) In case you're wondering, triple punch refers to a buy six and the seventh one is free 'frequent diner' program. But noooooo, I made, what was to be, a fateful change of mind. Next time I'm sticking to the bargains, but I digress!
The first half of my BLT sub went as expected. The first bite of the second half was not to follow suit. I tasted something not quite right. Thinking at that moment that it was possibly a tomato slice with a green center, or maybe a green pepper slice that was not quite right, or a bad onion chunk, I went for the second bite of the second half.
That's when I saw something. It was a darkish looking chunk of something. Sooooooo, I put it down, opened up the sub and saw what the darkish chunk was.....
......it was the head of a decently large cockroach!!! Immediately I realized that the head of a cockroach of that size comprises a somewhat small percentage of its whole. Didn't take too much higher brain functioning to know where the rest of the cockroach ended up.
You know it!!!
Now I am not all that too unreasonable of a guy so I wrapped up the remains and beat feet back to the foodcourt.
When I arrived I asked for the manager-on-duty and got a very nice lady. She was pretty shocked at what I showed her and immediately called the franchise owner, a man introduced to me as "Ali" when I asked to speak with him. Once on the phone with "Ali" I realized that he may have been a desk clerk/owner at any given Super 8 motel in the south, or the counter help at a 7-11, as a younger man.
I explained my side of the situation to him in short order being that his manager had already explained a synopsis. "Ali" said to me that he would refund my money and have his staff make me a new BLT sub.
At this point I stated to "Ali" that the remedy he suggested may have been perfectly plausible had I simply detected the offending insect visually instead of by taste and a refund/replacement was not the remedy I had in mind. He then asked me what I thought was a suitable solution. I told him that I was a frequent diner at his "Eat Fresh" establishment, and thought that this occurrence was a significant oversight on the part of the "Sandwich Artist" and possibly illustrated a severe quality control situation that would be addressed after this incident.
Sooooo, my solution suggestion was a refund, a new BLT sub (that I would watch being made with keen interest) and coupons for the next five visits for free BLTs as they are my favorites. Without so much as a pause for a breath, "Ali" said that was not a solution he could accomodate. I repeated, very directly this time so that there was no cause for him to misunderstand in any way, that my ingestion of the better percentage of the interloping insect placed a sort of significance way above and beyond simply finding that sorta thing any other way. Like said, SEEING IT BEFORE I ATE THE NASTY CRITTER!
"Ali" repeated that my suggestion was not something he was willing to accomodate. Sooooo, I countered that I was an employee of an anchor in the mall and asked him if he had any idea of the power of word-of-mouth advertising has in a retail environment. Especially when such a thing originates from a long-term, respected employee that has associations with not only the security staff of the rather large mall, but also the other three anchor stores in the mall, their securtiy staffs and management. I suggested that accepting my remedy offer would be quite a bit less problematic than refusing to settle this disgustingly disturbing incident amongst ourselves. I told him that after all I was still of the belief that this incident was possibly an islotated occurrence.
His response to that was that "....you are threatening me....". I told, or rather tried to tell, him that (at the risk of repitition) that had I not ate the bug's bigger body mass, then I would be a bit more ameanable to a simpler solution. "Ali" was having none of it and repeated a few more times that I was threatening him. After coming to the realization that his perception of threat, and my perception of proposing a reasonable solution, were rapidly approaching an impasse, I wished him a nice evening and that it was he who was forcing me to seek remedy at the "Eat Fresh" corporate level and terminated my phone conversation with him at that point.
As I handed the phone back to the manager she attempted to take possession of the BLT half I had laid on the counter when I initially approached to show her the remains of the cockoach. I made it very clear that it was mine and that it's status had changed to evidence simply due to "Ali" not wanting to arrive at an amicable solution.
I then returned to the store, fired up my droid, and completed a very detailed explanation (with all of my contact info) on the "Contact Us" part of the "Eat Fresh" website. I also explained that "Ali" very rudely stated at one point that his establishments were physically incapable of any form of infestions due to the fact that they take pest control measures every day. (almost forgot that he had reiterated the "...you're threatening me..." again on that aspect of the phone conversation)
I then walked back out to the foodcourt and talked with the (still very cordial) manager and expressed that she may want to contact "Ali" and inform him that I had accomplished an online complaint with the "Eat Fresh" corporate contact section of their website. I told her to express my sentiment that was not the course of action I had anticipated when I first returned and attempted to arrive at an agreeable resolution.
On my way back to the store I stopped by another foodcourt eatery that I also frequent (they whip up awesome deluxe cheesebugers) and generically asked the counter help, then the manager when he walked up, of what they would do if faced with a situation wherein an insect not only ended up in the burger, but was consumed. The (rather surprising response, based on them seeing me walk from the establishment in question) was, and I quote; "Oh no! Not again!". The manager then said that his solution would have been a refund, a new burger (that I could watch being prepared) and quite a few in a row complimentary cheeseburgers.
After talking with them for a few more minutes, I submitted a formal online complaint with the county health department when I returned to my office.
Shortly after that I warned associates during the evening store meeting that if they choose to visit the "Eat Fresh" eatery that they may wanna watch the construction of their order in order to preclude ending up with something other than "Fresh Ingredients" in their sub sandwich.
I'm also contemplating contacting some of the local 'on-your-side' departments of a couple of local TV stations.
THANX FOR TAKING THE TIME TO READ THIS!I appreciate it! Lastly, I would like to ask; What would you have done if in this sort of situation?

