- Letitia Bishop was charged $1,021.50 for a Subway order. She finally received a refund after 7 weeks.
- Bishop told BI the situation has left her with credit-card debt and unsettled bills.
- She deposited the money with her bank but has been unable to access the funds.
A woman who was massively overcharged for a Subway order says she has finally received a refund almost two months after the incident in the form of a wad of cash.
However, she said she’s had issues depositing the cash, meaning her financial woes aren’t over yet.
Letitia Bishop went to Subway Thornton Oil store in Columbus, Ohio, on January 5 to order subs for her family, only to find herself with a bewilderingly high charge on her debit card. A receipt obtained by WSYC ABC 6’s “On Your Side” showed that Bishop’s debit card was charged $1,021.50.
Bishop told ABC 6 that she had made several failed attempts to get hold of Subway’s corporate office and to visit the inexplicably closed store but could not speak to anyone who could resolve the issue.
She told the local news outlet that things got so bad she couldn’t pay for groceries at one point.
In an interview with Business Insider, Bishop said she was already in a financially precarious situation, raising two young children on a social worker’s salary.
Living off credit cards for two months, she said, she was forced to prioritize which bills to pay.
“It was very difficult. I have never had to feel like we’re going to have just to get spaghetti, and that’s going to be that,” Bishop told BI.
She added: “I had to make sacrifices during these two months.”
After media coverage of the incident, and after Bishop filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau in Connecticut, where Subway’s HQ is based, she told BI that she finally received a refund over the weekend.
She said that Subway contacted her, connecting her with the regional manager for Thorntons, a company that owns the gas station and seemingly the Subway franchise.
According to Bishop, the regional manager said there was a portal online to arrange the refund, but they had never used it before, so they would prefer to give her the cash in person at the gas station.
“She basically counted all this money,” Bishop said of the regional manager, adding: “She gave us this cash and made us sign a copy of this receipt.”
Bishop said she was also offered free dinners once a week for eight weeks at a new restaurant being opened by the Thorntons chain as an apology.
Despite the resolution, Bishop faced another hurdle when depositing the cash at her local Huntington Bank branch. She said the funds were placed on hold, meaning she cannot access them to settle her outstanding bills.
“I just honestly don’t have the emotional space to deal with this because literally it’s stressing me out so much,” Bishop said.
Thorntons, Subway, and Huntington Bank did not immediately respond to BI’s requests for comment.
