Local Firehouse Gets Backlash After Heated Interaction With Veterans

POOLER, Ga. (WTOC) – Public outrage against Firehouse Subs in Pooler is growing after a Veterans Day incident went viral, prompting calls to close the popular franchise.

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

Aimee Eisensmith, who shared the post, said the experience made her and her daughter feel unwelcome.

“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 from that moment on, she says, it only goes downhill.

“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 expressed. “He had lost all these winnings, he started worrying about how much money it was costing him, and he hadn’t made any winnings that day. And it became more and more uncomfortable.”

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 about how they felt they were entitled to their free sandwich, he didn’t even want to take part 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 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.

That’s when she says she decided to post on a small neighborhood Facebook page to warn other veterans in the area about what they might encounter if they went there.

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

This is when the mail started to increase.

The Facebook post attracted hundreds of comments and was shared thousands of times, with most expressing support for the veterans.

By Monday, the restaurant’s Facebook rating had dropped from 4 stars and fewer than 100 reviews to 1 star and nearly 500 reviews.

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

WTOC contacted Firehouse Subs in Pooler and spoke with an on-site manager, who was not present during the incident but relayed the owner’s response.

The owner claimed the Facebook post “didn’t paint the whole picture,” claiming Eisensmith and her daughter had used profanity toward him. He also stated that his comment about the promotion was intended to explain the situation and not to convey aggression.

When asked to speak directly to WTOC, the owner declined, citing the need to consult with the company before making any statement.

The manager added that the store was inundated with calls from across the country, often involving profanity and threats.

WTOC received the following statement from Firehouse Subs headquarters on Thursday: “We thanked Ms. Lancaster for taking the time to speak with us Tuesday morning and express 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 generously offered to provide meals for the family, but Eisensmith graciously returned these gestures and encouraged supporters to channel their contributions to local veteran-focused organizations.

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