Speak English, Please!
Let me recount my experience at Subway today:
Me: "I'd like a 12 inch turkey on wheat, no cheese, please."
SE (Subway Employee in fractured English): "Did you want that on wheat?"
Me: "Yes."
SE: "Six inch or one foot?"
Me: "One foot."
She then started to put tuna on it.
Me: "No, I wanted turkey, not tuna."
She started over with a new piece of bread.
SE: "Do you want cheese on that?"
I believe it's an English as a Second Language issue and not indicative of Subway employees' intelligence. The other woman there (native English speaker) has no trouble with my order. It's not just Subway, either. Try any fast food place (or Wal-Mart or Target or Sears...) and you can have a similar experience. I empathize with the employers - they need employees and, at those wages, the pickings are slim. And, I appreciate that the employees are doing their best. But, come on! How much business do they lose when frustrated customers figure it's not worth it and stop frequenting their establishments? Or, maybe we're just used to it and accept it.
I read a while back about a fast food place that was routing its drive thru window ordering to a call center in the Mid-West because of the language issues. I think it's a genius idea (until they decided to route the calls through India).
I realize I sound like a crotchety conservative and not the gentle liberal I try to be but I just want to be able to get a turkey sandwich without popping a vein - is that too much to ask?
Me: "I'd like a 12 inch turkey on wheat, no cheese, please."
SE (Subway Employee in fractured English): "Did you want that on wheat?"
Me: "Yes."
SE: "Six inch or one foot?"
Me: "One foot."
She then started to put tuna on it.
Me: "No, I wanted turkey, not tuna."
She started over with a new piece of bread.
SE: "Do you want cheese on that?"
I believe it's an English as a Second Language issue and not indicative of Subway employees' intelligence. The other woman there (native English speaker) has no trouble with my order. It's not just Subway, either. Try any fast food place (or Wal-Mart or Target or Sears...) and you can have a similar experience. I empathize with the employers - they need employees and, at those wages, the pickings are slim. And, I appreciate that the employees are doing their best. But, come on! How much business do they lose when frustrated customers figure it's not worth it and stop frequenting their establishments? Or, maybe we're just used to it and accept it.
I read a while back about a fast food place that was routing its drive thru window ordering to a call center in the Mid-West because of the language issues. I think it's a genius idea (until they decided to route the calls through India).
I realize I sound like a crotchety conservative and not the gentle liberal I try to be but I just want to be able to get a turkey sandwich without popping a vein - is that too much to ask?
Comments
But still bitter he gave it to me.