Not so loyal anymore!

You know those so-called "loyalty cards" that your local chain sandwich shop, coffee house, ice cream joint, etc. have planted by the cash register? I'd venture a guess, from a business standpoint that is, that their existence is assumably to entice you to keep coming back and become a regular customer at their store in exchange for some free sandwich, ice cream, or coffee.

Well it's really easy for the businesses to hand out the cards, and even for them to punch or stamp away at the cards...but they sometimes seem to have difficulty actually holding up their end of the bargain.

I recently have had-- on two separate occasions, I might add, and at two different businesses--problems with my so-called completed "loyalty cards". As a frequent business traveler, I can rack up stamps fairly quickly at certain establishments, and hence, become a fast regular. And of course, I save my cards for when I would have to pay the bill instead of my company! I think of it as a travel perk.

I love Quizno's toasty subs. Er, at least I did, until they treated Janelle and I like thieves a about a month ago. So, I had completed two whole cards at Quizno's, which meant Janelle and I could each get a free sub for lunch one Saturday. We strolled down to our local Greeley Quizno's, ordered our favorite subs, and when the lady at the cash register rung us up and read us our total, I grinned and gave her our 2 cards. She frowned, staring at the cards like they were counterfeit, flipping them over and squinting her eyes to read the fine print, and finally told us that there was no way she could possibly accept them. When we asked why, she stated that they couldn't be valid, because there was no restaurant stamp on them. Supposedly the issuing restaurant has a stamp with their location information on them to "validate" the coupon. She promptly showed us her stamp. When I told her that I had procured both cards at different Quizno's restaurants in two different states, and had never seen one with a validation stamp, she simply stated that she was "the manager, and it's not our policy to take unvalidated loyalty cards, so [we] would just have to pay for our subs." I couldn't stand it. After telling her that we were not paying for our subs, nor that we would ever eat there again--we left, upset and hungry.

I guess lightning does strike twice. Last night, after a long, hard day of spring cleaning, I told Janelle I'd take her out to Coldstone for ice cream. I knew that I had a free one coming to me, and it seemed like a great time to use it. I mean, you have to buy nine ice cream dishes there before you get the free one, which at Coldstone takes at least $50! So anyway, after we finally figured out which concoction to have made before our eyes, we were handed our Strawberry Cheesecake delicacy in a waffle bowl just before making it down to the cash register. As Janelle went to find us a table, again I smiled as I pulled out my special card. It took so long to fill up, but now I can prove I'm loyal enough for my free $5.47 frozen delight, I thought to myself. So I handed my card to the cashier guy, and waited for my "thanks for comin' in!" But that's not quite what I got. He said, "Yeah, man, we don't take these anymore...yeah, in fact, we just had a meeting today and we were told that we couldn't redeem anymore of these loyalty cards...so sorry...I don't know why." I attempted to control my rage. I knew that it wasn't this guy's fault, and that it was very possible that there were hundreds of other people out there that had faked these little things, so as to change the manager's mind about them. I don't know. But I paid my $5.47 for the ice cream that Janelle was already enjoying, and I cringed at the fact that I was paying into the lie. What kind of loyalty is that? How can they expect their clientele to be loyal to them, without them being loyal back?? What is this world coming to?