Firehouse Subs restaurant is facing criticism for rudely treating veterans on vacation

POOLER, Georgia (WTOC/Gray News) – Public outrage is growing against a Firehouse Subs restaurant in Georgia.

The Pooler restaurant location has come under fire after a Veterans Day incident went viral, sparking calls to close the location.

The controversy started with a Facebook post accusing the owner of being rude to veteran customers who came into the store for the company’s Veterans Day promotion.

Amiee Eisensmith, who shared the post, said the experience left her and her daughter devastated not feeling welcome in the restaurant.

“We felt unwelcome from the beginning,” Eisensmith said. “I went in and asked: are you participating in the Veterans Day campaign? And he said very meanly: ‘Unfortunately yes.’

And according to her, the interaction only went downhill from there.

“We wanted to let it go, we wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, but as we sat there and he put the place down, he was talking about how inconvenient this was and how his store had been destroyed,” the spokesperson said. Eisensmith said. ‘He started worrying about how much money it was costing him, and how he hadn’t made any profit that day. It just got more awkward.”

Eisensmith and her daughter decided to leave, but before they left, she said the situation escalated.

“He was whining about how four people had called the company because they felt entitled to their free sandwich. He didn’t even want to participate in this. My daughter lost her patience,” Eisensmith said. “We didn’t respond in the best way, and we know that, but something inside us snapped.”

After words were reportedly exchanged, the two veterans said they left the restaurant unable to believe what had just happened.

“We got in the car, I’m in tears and my daughter is shaking with anger,” she said.

Eisensmith said she then decided to post what happened on a small neighborhood’s Facebook page. warn other veterans near what they encounter in the restaurant.

“I didn’t want anyone else to go there and have a bad experience like we did,” she said.

And the post began to take off, receiving hundreds of comments and thousands of shares, most expressing support for the veterans.

By Monday, the restaurant’s Facebook rating had dropped from four stars and fewer than 100 reviews to a single star and nearly 500 reviews.

Some commenters even claimed that this was not the first incident involving the owner.

The owner of the Firehouse Subs location in question said the Facebook post “didn’t paint the whole picture” and that Eisensmith and her daughter had used profanity toward him that day.

The owner also stated that his comment about the action was intended to explain the situation and not to convey aggression.

The restaurant manager said the location was flooded with calls from across the country, often involving profanity and threats about what had happened.

Firehouse Subs headquarters released the following statement regarding the situation:

“We thanked Ms. Lancaster for taking the time to speak with us Tuesday morning and for allowing us to offer our deepest apologies for the unacceptable experience her family had at this franchise location in Pooler, Georgia.

We take our history of supporting veterans and first responders seriously, and we are taking immediate action to address this matter with the franchisee.

This experience is not representative of the proud work of our brand, our franchisees and thousands of team members across the country who collectively served nearly 150,000 meals this Veterans Day as a show of gratitude to our local heroes. As an apology and to show our support for the Pooler veteran community, the Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation has pledged to donate $25,000 to a local veterans organization that Ms. Lancaster recommended.

Community members have since offered to provide meals for the veteran family, but they declined and encouraged these supporters to channel their contributions to veteran-focused organizations in the area.