Freaky Fast Delivery = Bad Customer Service

I learned over the weekend that if a company prides themselves on being fast at delivery it most likely means that their customer service sucks.

Saturday night Hutch and I decided that we'd like to have Jimmy Johns for dinner. A new location just opened off of State Street which is about 8 blocks or so away. Also, our neighbors next to us had them delivered the other day so we thought, why not. We went on their website and picked what we wanted and saw we could order online as well. We put in our information and a notice popped up saying that we are out of their delivery area. We thought that was weird since it's so close and our neighbors (who are south so technically a few yards further away) had a delivery. So Hutch decided to call them. Here's how the conversation went:

 JJ: Hello Jimmy Johns
H: Hi, I'd like to do an order for delivery
JJ: What's your address
H: 1234 Same Street (fake street name for the blog)
JJ: That's out of our delivery area.
CLICK!
H: Do you...hello?...They hung up!

They didn't suggest coming in and picking it up or saying if there is another location that can deliver or anything. Not any politeness at all.

I went to the "Contact Us" section of their website and sent an email about it. I told them about the phone conversation and how it wasn't very good customer service how the person on the phone didn't provide any other information and how they rudely hung up in the middle of Hutch speaking then I mentioned (didn't go too much into it) how it was strange that they don't deliver 8 blocks away but will deliver 8 blocks + one house away (I phrased it better). I received a response that stated:

"Thank you for your feedback concerning the delivery area of the Jimmy John's in Salt Lake City.

Jimmy John’s was built around fast delivery.   If the store near you won’t deliver to you, you are out of our designated delivery area.  This is not a personal thing, it’s a strategic decision.  We have a very disciplined strategy with delivery and have found this to be successful in the past.  Going out of our area makes those in the area get delayed.  I apologize.  Hopefully you will still consider Jimmy John’s in the future.

Aimee"

I did write back letting them know it's not the delivery area that was the problem, it was being hung up on. (her email proved to me that she didn't really read my email - I hate it when people do that). They pride themselves so much on being speedy that customer service seems to be the furthest thing from their minds.

I'm big on customer service. Maybe it's because of the work I do but I'm on both ends of the customer service all the time. We won't be ordering from them in the future. We ended up driving to Subway, spending less money, getting more veggies on our sandwiches and talking with very friendly and helpful employees.