Can I have bacon on that sandwich please?

Peter and I went to Quiznos the other day to buy sandwiches. While waiting in line Peter pointed out a sign which said “add bacon to any sub for an extra 99c”. I hadn’t been thinking about bacon when I walked into the shop, but after seeing the sign I thought “yeah, I do want bacon on my sub”.

I ordered the sub and asked for bacon to be added. I noticed that the person who started making the sandwich did not put bacon on. I assumed that she just hadn’t heard me, so I spoke up and again asked for bacon. She looked at me and then ignored my request and handed the sub off the person who puts the salad on.

I asked the salad guy for bacon and he stared at me blankly and then added lettuce. I like lettuce. I think it’s a good addition to any sandwich, but I still wanted bacon. So I asked again, “excuse me, could I please have bacon on my sub”. Again he started at me blankly. So again I asked for bacon. He continued to stare at me like he had no idea what I was talking about. I told him that there was a sign on the counter advertising that bacon could be added to any sub for a small extra charge. He pretty much didn’t believe me and seemed to be saying that I could not have bacon on my sub.

I felt like saying “do you know the meaning of customer service??” But instead I again pointed out the bacon advert on the counter. He still wouldn’t put bacon on my sandwich. By this point I was quite annoyed and decided that I wasn’t leaving until they added bacon to my sandwich!

It wasn’t that they didn’t have bacon. If this had been the case and they’d said “I’m sorry but we’ve run out of bacon today” then I wouldn’t have worried about it. If the person making the sandwich was a trainee and didn’t know if they were allowed to add bacon to the sandwich and said they needed to check with someone else – this would also have been fine. But instead they’d just stare at me blankly and ignore me (as if I’d asked for hippopotamus to be added to the sandwich!), or they'd tell me that I can’t have bacon.

Even if they didn’t have a bacon advertisement, how complicated can it be? If you’re running a sandwich shop and a customer asks if they could please have a particular topping on their sandwich, how is it good business sense to refuse? Especially if I was happy to pay extra for it. If they’d just given me the sandwich I’d asked for, then I’d probably go back there many times and buy many more sandwiches in the future, but now I’m never going back. There are plenty of places around here that make good sandwiches and have significantly better customer service!