Quiznos Million Sub Giveaway Fiasco Makes Them Penny-Wise and Pound-Foolish

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.

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Saving Us From Those Troublemaking Hot Wheels

Today Son was very good at school (after a new trend of misbehavior), so I decided to really acknowledge said good  behavior in an attempt to show that listening and following rules was much more fun than the alternative. We did the hugs and kisses and calls to Daddy, and frequent discussion.  Earlier I had to return something at Target, so while there I allowed Son to choose a Hot Wheels car  (on sale for $.92, by the way).  This wasn’t a reward, per se, but to show that boys that behave have lots more fun.

After returning home we chose to take advantage of the gorgeous weather, so Son, Dog and I went for a walk around  our complex.  As we passed the pool I noticed a (relatively?) new sign posted by the entrance:

“Dogs?  Check.  Cats?  Check.  Skateboards and roller skates?  Check.  And don’t forget those damn toy cars!”

Why Hot Wheels? Are Matchbox cars allowed?  The Barbie Corvette?  What did Hot Wheels ever do to them?

Then I thought that perhaps the Association had become more hip than I, so I checked the Urban Dictionary to see if  “Hot Wheels” had a meaning other than die-cast metal toy cars.  There are apparently a few other meanings, but since I don’t think the Association would be banning hot girls in wheelchairs nor annoying paraplegics, I can’t think of anything they could mean besides these toys.

I’d love to hear your ideas, however creative, as to why they may have been banned.

i’m not even Mentioning the interesting Capitalization Choices.

Whoops.

WPLG Channel 10 Shows What Yellow Journalism is All About

I went on the Sun-Sentinel (our local newspaper) message boards to read what people were saying about State Farm’s decision to pull out of the Florida Homeowners Insurance market and was very dismayed to see an entry by a WPLG Channel 10 reporter.  He posted:

hey, any state farm property policy holders want to express your disgust on the local10 6pm news?? i’m a reporter looking for someone to talk to. email me with your contact info. rlohse@wplg.com

Posted by: roger | January 27, 2009 12:41 PM

Let’s forget a moment the lack of proper punctuation and capitalization from a journalist.  How disappointing that WPLG is looking for someone to support a specific point of view instead of simply asking for those who would  like to comment, whether they would like to express disgust or not.

I’m not happy with State Farm, either, but this is yellow journalism at its worst – deciding on a point of view and collecting only that evidence which supports it.

Whatever happened to objectivity?  I’m certainly not happy about State Farm’s action, but there were people who weren’t angry and understood State Farm’s position.  It doesn’t seem that this reporter was interested in hearing from THEM.

Shame on you, Roger Lohse.

Fail, WPLG.  A big, fat FAIL.

I tried to send an e-mail to the station’s general manager via the General Manager contact link on the WPLG website, but the address errored out.  Another FAIL for WPLG…