The following is a letter I have tried to sent to Firehouse Subs headquarters but I don’t know if I succeeded as companies do not make it easy to sent them letters-
Today, February 9, 2026, I stopped at the local Firehouse Subs at 625 Medford Center in Medford, Oregon. I have been going there for years and I really enjoyed the subs and sweet tea. I went up to the counter to place my order. One of the staff was standing directly at the cash register. He did not say anything but stood there so I assumed he was ready to take my order. I stated my order and he said he would have someone take my order. I apologized for thinking he was the person to take orders. I said “I’m sorry” and he walked away he said " I know you are." A strange comment I thought but just shrugged it off. Someone else took my order and I sat down and waited. About 5 minutes later one of the other employees came up to me with my sub, handed it to me and said I was to leave and never come back. I was confused and asked him why. He replied “Don’t make me say it.” Still confused, I again asked why and he slowly and very quietly said that I had done something to the manager’s daughter and I was not to ever come back. Now very confused I asked him to get the manager and he said “They do not want to talk to you.” I was still very confused about what he was talking about and what someone was accusing me of because I don’t know who the manager is or any one of the people working there. I left there upset and confused. I have been going there since they opened at that location and have been to other Firehouse Subs in other parts of the country and have always enjoyed the food and service. I got home to write this and was very much was no longer hungry and decided I was definitely not going to eat the sub as I was very suspicious and did not trust that my sub had been tampered with due to the attitude that I had received. I thought about giving the sub away but if I did not trust it for myself I could not in good faith give it to someone else.
The intent of this letter is to inform you of my recent experience with one of your restaurants and that I will never visit that location or any other Firehouse Subs. The experience has left me distrustful of what service I would get and the food would only serve to remind me of what happened today. I do wish I had asked for my money back before I left as the meal was thrown away for the above reasons. I will ask you if you would refund me the total amount of $16.28. I do not expect to receive it but I am asking none the less. I do not know what happened today but this has to be my last visit to a Firehouse Subs.
IIRC, Firehouse is mainly a franchised business. You’ll probably have better luck contacting the local franchise owner than corporate HQ, who probably won’t be able to comment on HR issues.
That being said, please share any responses you get. I’m curious as to where this goes.
I assume you have not had any uh, bad relationship experiences recently? So there is no way that you could know “the manager’s daughter” without realizing it?
I’d be very tempted to have a friend return there on my behalf and try to find out what the hell they were on about. This seems to be a case of mistaken identity and rush to judgment, so they sure as heck owe you an apology upon proof that you are not the (jerk, cad, two-timer, whatever) that they’re all so mad at.
I have a feeling there will be no follow up to this story, but if there is, please please please share.
Wow, I stopped going there because it was hard to get them to stop shoving mayo all over every sub. Mayo only really belongs on one sub, and I find anyone buying a tuna fish sub somewhat suspicious.
What you describe is way more fucked up. No matter what the response is, I’d just find a better sub shop. You deserve to be treated better, and you deserve better sandwiches. Maybe try Jersey Mike’s?
It is clear that either you did treat someone horribly and are unaware, or that you look like the person who did.
This is also clearly a result of the specific individuals involved- you and the manager. It is not a reflection on, or the business of corporate. Writing them letting them know you are never visiting a location again is a little unhinged.
You were served a sandwich in a timely manner. In your shoes, I too might be skeptical of eating it, but in no world are you owed a refund, either at the time or after the fact.
You’re welcome to avoid any restaurant for any reason. That said, I don’t see how a conflict with one employee one time at one location merits avoiding all similarly-branded restaurants in perpetuity.
Contacting the franchise owner is fine, but if that doesn’t get anywhere, it’s corporate HQ that’s most likely to take action*, especially if bad publicity (i.e. reviews, social media postings) is in the offing.
This tale reminds me of a long-ago incident at an upscale seafood restaurant which has branches in a few large cities in the southern and central U.S. Mrs. J. and I went there for lunch and had a pleasant conversation after ordering our food, before I made a trip to the men’s room. While I was gone, our waiter came up to Mrs. J. and asked her if we had been laughing about him (note that he waited until I was gone to approach her). Startled, she told him no, we were just having a conversation that had nothing to do with him.
We didn’t pursue the matter further, the food turned out fine (I think) and there’ve been no further incidents in our subsequent, infrequent trips to dine out there. But definitely weird.
Maybe the manager’s daughter in the OP’s case had a similar delusion about being insulted?
*even if it’s nothing more than an apology and a coupon for a free sub.
This has all the signs of a AITA post. Did it even happen? And if it did, are we to just accept the OP’s version of events? And if so, since the OP already took action, is this thread about venting? About sharing a cool story? About asking for advice? For the most part, it looks designed to elicit response, and it has certainly succeeded at that.
What’s the bad publicity, in this case? There are one of two reasonable explanations here, either the OP did something untoward to a relative of the manager on duty and was told to not return, or he looks like someone who did.
Either way, it’s a one-off, specific to this customer, and “manager tells [rapist?] to pound sand” is not bad publicity.
My initial gut response was, as @Great_Antibob says, that this is basically a made-up story. I answered in good faith, but am pretty skeptical that anything like this actually happened.
OP: ”Why am I being asked to never come back?”
Employee: ”Don’t make me say it!”
OP: “But sir, I am confused and have been nothing but polite!”
Employee (in hushed tones): “You did something to the manager’s daughter.”
OP: “But I am so confused, as I have done many somethings to many people, but I don’t even know who the manager is! Let me speak to this person so I can clear things up.”
Employee: “That is not possible. It is my job to run interference for the manager- that’s why they pay me the big bucks.”
OP: “Very well. I am so confused, but will go home and write a strongly worded letter detailing every aspect of this interaction to the corporate office, and with god as my witness will never dine at this or any other Firehouse Subs anywhere across the United States!”
There is nothing to be confused about. The OP drips with feigned ignorance of basic human to human communication at every sentence.
Have been going here since they first opened. Always a good experience until today.
Stood at the counter to place my order. There was an employee directly behind the counter to my right, facing in my direction. She did not acknowledge my presence or make any move to take my order or even say”hello “ or “ I’ll be right with you”.
I would have waited to order if I had even been acknowledged.
There was no effort by either of the other employees to acknowledge my presence either
First time ever going here. Walked in no greeting but that’s cool. Sat at the counter for 10 minutes with a guy sitting directly infront of me. Made eye contact multiple times considering he’s 2 feet infront of me. But doesn’t say a word, we continue to wait and still not a single word was spoken to us.
We went in for dinner and the chick that took our order and checked us out was rude, didn’t greet us, didn’t bother asking if we wanted the combo option and when I asked for no mayo, she had attitude. The next customer she served she was extremely nice to. They called our name for our order, didn’t say goodbye, didn’t say have a nice day. Terrible customer service.
