Patrick Balfour will NOT be ignored. And he’s willing to pay money to make sure he isn’t.
After the sandwich chain dragged its feet in responding to his complaint about finding a cockroach in his sandwich, Sudbury, Ontario resident Balfour bought two promoted tweets, slamming the company for its poor customer service.
Subway had apparently responded to his first complaint when the incident happened 11 months ago by taking down his contact information. However Balfour says the company never followed up, despite his repeated attempts to contact them. The final straw was when @SubwayCanada eventually responded with a number to call, which went straight to a 24-hour voicemail.
@SUBWAYCanada @SubwayOntario a Why are you ignoring my tweets? You’d think that if I found a cockroach in my sub you might want to reach out
— Patrick Balfour (@patrickbalfour) February 28, 2014
Fed up with being ignored, Balfour took advantage of Twitter’s promoted tweets feature, paying $90 for two tweets aimed at shaming the company for its less-than-hygienic offerings.
I found a dead cockroach in my sub which I bought in Ontario. This tweet is being promoted! Do you care now @SubwayCanada? #Subway
— Patrick Balfour (@patrickbalfour) February 28, 2014
It managed to get him 124 retweets, and plenty of social media attention. No word yet on whether Subway has responded, but its a clear example of social media customer service failing and turning into a bigger mess than it had to be. Brands need to remember that paid media is now accessible to regular customers as well, and it doesn’t pay to ignore someone with a bee in their bonnet about a bug in their sandwich.
