Don't take my money and make me wait 20 minutes for a coffee!

The BBQ Pit
1

I went out for a coffee this afternoon- it wasn’t nearly as busy as I thought it was, and decided to treat myself to a decent cafe-made coffee.

So, I went to the coffee bar and stood behind the other three people in the queue and ordered my cappuccino, paid for it, received an order number, and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited.

For 15 minutes.

“Excuse me” I asked one of the staff over the edge of the counter, “I’ve been waiting 15 minutes for my coffee. Will it be ready soon?”

“Which number are you?” the barista asked. I told her. “Oh, there’s still a few people ahead of yours. Maybe another 5 minutes or so.”

There was no point getting mad at her, but when my coffee showed up- 20 minutes after I’d first ordered it- I was less than happy with the way they were doing business.

Had they said “Just to let you know, it could be 20 minutes before we can get your coffee to you”, I would have said “Thank you for letting me know, I’ll pass on that today” and gone to McDonalds and gotten a cup of drinkable coffee in maybe 3 minutes. But I would have remembered how that particular coffee place realised my time was valuable and I’d patronise them again in the future.

Instead, they took my money and made me wait for an unacceptably long time- remember, there were only three people ahead of me in the queue and a few people sitting at nearby tables- and now I am displeased with that particular coffee place and shan’t be patronising them again- all over $5 worth of coffee, which they decided was more important than letting me know there would be a 20 minute wait and allowing me to decide if I wanted to wait or go elsewhere.

The thing is, this isn’t the first time a business has done this- taken my order and money, and then told me “It’s going to be a while”. I don’t mean sit-down restaurants (which usually have the decency to provide a complimentary drink or something), but cafes and foodcourt places seem especially prone to this sort of thing. It’s bad enough when someone doesn’t have anywhere urgently to be, but lots of people are on their lunchbreaks or whatever and it’s simply inexcusable to keep them waiting that long, IMHO.

You aren’t doing anyone any favours by doing the “Bwahaha, we’ve got your money and now you have to WAIT FOR AGES!” thing. It’s very, very simple- if there’s a lot of orders ahead of someone, let them know upfront before you take their money.

Thus concludes my minor rant. Coming up next on Martini Enfield Presents…, something else no-one will agree with me about. Stay tuned.:wink: :slight_smile:

2

It takes no more than 60 seconds to make a cappuccino. You waited for 15 minutes before asking?

I would have been in their face after 5, and I would have stayed there. Just stood at the counter asking “where’s my coffee?” every 30 seconds. I assure you they would have given it to you sooner, if only to get rid of you.

You’re problem is that you were the annoyed party, instead of the annoying one. The only way to beat assholes is to be a bigger asshole.

3

I hate waiting. Rather than wait for 20 mins and then not enjoy my coffee due to the bad mood I would just have asked for my money back. Oh? Five more minutes? Sorry, can’t wait. Can I please have my money back?

4

I’ve worked in retail long enough not to want to become one of those people who annoys staff and acts like an unreasonable dick about things. I didn’t have any other major plans for the day- it’s not like I had to be anywhere in a hurry or anything- but it was still annoying nonetheless.

5

I didn’t say that you should be an *unreasonable *dick. You had a perfectly good reason.

6

I know a bakers and confectionary shop where some staff, upon seeing a queue develop, suddenly have an irresistible urge to start rearranging the little jelly shapes on the iced buns, or finding anything else to do BUT serve a customer.

I suppose you can get away with it if you are the only bakers for at least a mile in any direction.

7

Are you printing off a more detailed version of your rant and sending it to them so they know there’s a problem with their service, or are you just going to hope others join your silent, invisible protest?

8

Neither. I told the manager that I was extremely unhappy with the whole thing and that it wasn’t appropriate, and got a sheepish “sorry” out of them. In the grand scheme of things it’s really not that important, but it still irritated me.

9

That’s really weird. Is this literally 20 minutes, like you were looking at your watch, or is it an estimate of how long it took, based on what it felt like?

If it’s the former, I agree: lousy service. At a minimum, they should’ve comped you the coffee, or explained what the problem was.

Daniel

10

Ahh well, as long as you brought it to their attention.

11

It was near enough to 20 minutes to make no real difference, FWIW. Maybe a shade over 15 but certainly not longer than 20. It’s not like I keep an Outrage Diary on me or anything*: Ordered coffee from coffee place 14:52. Coffee not delivered until 15:09. This is an outrage! Must rush back home to post of incident on SDMB.

Besides, I thought it might be a nice change of pace to have a non- Christmas/Family related pitting. :slight_smile:

*No, really, I don’t. The only reason I even remember to show up to work on time is because I program my shifts into my phone’s calendar and set alarms.

12

Time does seem to stretch when I’m in the queue of that bakery I mentioned above. I think Einstein explained it best when he said that a minute kissing a pretty girl goes a lot quicker than a minute with your hand on a hot stove.

13

I’ve been in retail a long time and it’s funny how waiting seems to turn 5 minutes into 15. If you checked and it was around 15 minutes you were more patient than I would have been. As you say, no big deal. I try to be patient when I’m the customer because I’ve been on the other side of the counter a bunch but I’ll let someone know when something is unacceptable.

It’s good that you told them. Bad that they only said “sorry” rather than taking action.

14

Strangely, a minute with your hand in a pretty girl* also goes a lot quicker than a minute kissing a hot stove…
*Or so I’ve heard, anyway…

15

Note to self:[ul][]Start Outrage Diary immediately.[]Pick up milk.[/ul]

16

A few days ago, I stopped at The Evil Coffee Empire for one of their holiday special concotions: Mocha Truffle Crack in a Cup.

I paid for my hot beverage, dropped a small donation into the tip box and waited.
And waited.
And waited.
And waited.

The barrista was very polite in explaining that she created the wrong specialty beverage for me and in asking me to wait a little longer.

I did, and smiled as I left the building. I was proud of my self control in not getting at all upset with the very long wait.

I got back to my office, ready to enjoy my treat - Nooooooo! It was the wrong thing - It was some caramelly gunk in a cup. When I want Mocha Truffle Crack in a Cup, some caramelly gunk just will not do.

I suppose I could have taken time off from work and walked back down the hill to The Evil Coffee Empire to ask for a replacement, but I didn’t. I held a self-intervention instead and have been off the stuff for about four days.

17

Fair enough–as long as we’re not talking about your waiting for three minutes and expanding it to twenty for effect. That would be AWFUL :(.

Daniel

18

I have got to start keeping one of those.:slight_smile:
So many forgotten outrages…

Agree that it is bad buisness to make people wait for unreasonably long times.
And of course 20 minutes is too long (Unless there was one harried person inside the shop who was making coffee, cleaning up, etc)

19

I’m beginning to see a business idea here. :smiley:

20

You know, having worked at the Evil Coffee Empire, the first thought that occurred to me was that someone else got your drink. Now, I’m not saying that’s what happened in your case or that *ECE *baristas are infallible (they are not, of course), but it’s one of the more annoying aspects of waiting on impatient people. Holiday times tend to be the worst because people are fixated on the many tasks they need to accomplish while dodging hundreds of other people on their own missions. They just aren’t paying much attention, I guess.

So, the cafe is busy; there’s a queue at the registers and a queue at the bar waiting for the beverages paid for. Behind the counter, employees are rushing around, looking slightly stressed as they try to avoid eye contact with the more outraged of the inconvenienced. The hiss of milk steaming and the hum of the grinder means the espresso bar is working overtime and the baristas are making drinks as fast as the coffee will pour and the milk will steam. As drinks are being finished, the barista calls out the drink loudly and some happy patron is out the door, crack-in-a-cup in hand. In the middle of this controlled chaos, Ms. Oblivious finishes her transaction, moves over to the bar making sure to put herself between the others and hand-off plane, and without listening swipes the first drink that lands in front of her. As she waltzes out of the cafe, the waiting patrons, shuffle their weight to the other foot, look at their watches, and glare harder at the busy baristas.

Ten minutes minutes later, someone realizing that he’s surrounded by unrecognizable people who haven’t been waiting as long as he has, walks up to the bar and grabs the one drink that’s still sitting there. He can rationalize that he didn’t hear his drink called over the din of the cafe and this must be his. A quick “This mine?” and a nod of the distracted barista seals the deal. It’s not, of course. It’s the special (read complicated) 13 modifier concoction ordered by Ms. Oblivious, who snatched someone else’s less complicated drink awhile back. The offending drink makes it way back to the office and it is discovered that it’s not a drink at all, but some unrecognizable ice-cold sludge that you can’t imagine anyone drinking, let alone paying good money for.

I’ve often wondered if anyone realizes that sometimes it’s a few crappy customers that make it painful for everybody involved in the process on both sides of the counter. Get the Oblivious family on a busy shift and it’s enough to make the spittle of patrons fly and send baristas weeping to the backroom. I’ve seen it.