I posted the other day about Quiznos’ awesome Million Sub Giveaway. You were to go to their website and print a counpon for a free sub, redeemable within five days of printing.
Husband and I each printed a coupon, and the ink wasn’t dry before I began hearing rumblings about problems redeeming them. Some franchisees were refusing to redeem them at all while others were insisting on an additional purchase or only allowing them to be redeemed for $1 or $2 off the regular price.
Apparently Quiznos corporate was telling franchisees that they were not going to be reimbursed anything for their costs for this promotion and many franchisees were…displeased. Then Quiznos said they’d reimburse $.75 for up to 300 coupons per store, raised it to 500, then said they’d reimburse with no limit.
So although I did have a bad taste in my mouth from the shaft Quiznos was giving their franchisees and from the franchisees’ response, that wasn’t enough to stop me from trying for some free subs.
Yeah, you already know this didn’t end well. In fact, it ended with me sending this e-mail to Quiznos:
To Whom It May Concern:
My husband and I attempted to redeem the properly executed coupons we printed from your giveaway site and were refused service.
The Quiznos at (one of a million strip malls in) Florida had a copy of the coupon taped to the counter with a sign that said something to the effect of “Not Accepted Here”. The proprietor was unapologetic, saying that you were only going to reimburse $.75 per sub and that was not enough.
What puzzles me most is how short-sighted both Quiznos corporate and these franchisees are. We’d not ever been to a Quiznos before, so we were using this giveaway as an opportunity to try your food. We walked into that store at 7:10 pm and there was not a single other person there. On a Friday night. And the Italian restaurant next door was packed. With people waiting to get in. Your franchisee refused to accept these coupons, perhaps thinking he would have made no money at all. We could have been planning to order one or two or five more subs in addition to the free ones, not to mention drinks and perhaps chips. So he lost all THAT potential business today, too.
But that’s not all. What that franchisee – and you – are now left with is two people who will likely never enter Quiznos again – certainly one thousand percent sure never enter THAT Quiznos again. And one of us has a fairly popular (okay, I’m reaching) blog where our experience will be posted for many more to see.
We are very curious to see your response to this e-mail, and if you’ve learned anything from your penny-wise and pound foolish decisions.
Be This Way
Honestly, I could care less about the free sub. I can’t help but think that Quiznos would have had a much better return on their promotion dollars by being mensches.
Are You Going To Be This Way The Rest of The Time I Know You? 
February 28, 2009 at 3:02 pm
We tried a Quiznos when were in Phoenix years ago and I was so unimpressed that we’ve never been in one again. (To be fair, I think my 18 year old goes to them, but the family doesn’t.) It was clear to me then (and your experience now confirms it) that they are under the impression that we’re lucky to be in their stores and they don’t need our business. Okay, well, good, ’cause you don’t have ours. Thus, I didn’t even try to redeem the coupon. I’ll be interested to see what the corporate response is to your letter.
March 1, 2009 at 10:04 pm
I my wife and and some of our friends went
to Quiznos for our first time yesterday and
needless to say I our first experience was very bad
with foul customer service.
Here is a quiznos post I posted yesterday.
Quiznos One Million Free Sub Giveaway “Consumers Beware”
March 4, 2009 at 2:20 pm
Dear Be This Way,
The store you visited did not accept the coupon because they cannot afford to accept it. It is as simple as that. The store cannot think in the long term because they are barely getting through the short term (as are many different stores in the current economic atmosphere).
March 9, 2009 at 10:32 am
My fiance and I went to use our coupons on March 1st. They were both valid coupons (until 3/5) and we were given crap about it saying that the coupons were no good and Quiznos are going to be sending out 1 Million more (lie) and after arguing with the 2 bitchy employees I insisted on talking to a manager. They told me to come back the next day. Wrong. I said no, I want to speak with one now. They called the franchisee owner and she told them to try to run them first to see if they were valid. Well, surprise, surprise, they were valid!!! We did finally get our free subs and while there purchased a 3rd. But never again. That was my first and last time at Quiznos. I had banned Subway years ago because of coupon debacles (too many stores not participating). Now Quiznos. I’d rather eat at the local pizza shop (their subs are better anyway) then either of those places now. Forget it. They lost my business from the get-go. The owner called me and ranted and raved for about 10 minutes on the phone on how the corporate is screwing the franchises. You know what? Not my problem. I’m the consumer. I’m the one that suffered.
BTW, when I ban a chain, I ban it. I haven’t been back to Subway in over 10 years. I’d rather starve first.
December 8, 2010 at 4:05 pm
[…] was no doubt put out of business due to being situated next to several homeless shelters during last year’s Million Subs promotion. Anything’s gotta be better than a Quiznos, right? Except for a Subway, I […]