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In Detroit, an employee working at a Subway store inside the Gulf gas station on Jefferson Avenue and Alter Road refused to serve a male customer after accusing him of being rude. The man had stopped by to grab lunch for his daughter before school. But when he stepped up to the counter and asked for a BLT sandwich, the employee insisted that he pay for his food before she even made it. This didn’t sit right with the customer, and he decided to begin recording their exchange immediately.
The Man Refused to Comply
In the video, which the customer later uploaded on TikTok, he asked the employee why she was making him prepay when it is usually done afterward, and she responded that each “Subway is different.” The man, clearly not convinced, challenged her explanation, telling her that he had visited multiple Subways before and had never once been told to pay upfront.
The woman backed away from the register and faced him directly, looking like she was completely done with the argument. She then told him that she had been working there for five years and that this was simply how she handled her morning shift. But this still did not ease the man’s concerns one bit because he kept questioning her on why the branch she worked at handled things differently “than all other Subways in this great earth.”
Even when she cut him off mid-complaint to ask about his order, he answered her quickly and went back to talking about how she always got upset whenever he tried to get her attention. The woman denied being upset and fired back that he was the one being rude. When she couldn’t continue with their back-and-forth any longer, she walked away from the register again and dragged a piece of equipment across the floor toward the back room. As she moved away, she muttered, “I have every right to not serve you if this is how you’re going to be.”
More on What Happened
Although she was no longer in the room, the customer kept talking, trying to explain himself. “I understand, but I’m not doing anything wrong… Are you having a bad day? I’m sorry that you’re having this bad day, but I just wanted to defend myself because I haven’t done anything wrong,” he said.
He continued, saying he was simply trying to buy lunch for his daughter and couldn’t understand why something as simple as getting her attention had turned into such an uncomfortable moment. “Is that me being rude? Or is that you being rude?” he asked, letting the question hang in the air.
Eventually, he realized he would not receive any service from her at all. So he decided to leave, but not without giving one final warning. “When I send this [footage] to corporate and you lose your job, you’re going to have a great day,” he said.
