One day on my way to the airport, I stopped at Starbucks to get a cappuccino. I like them to be dry (as in mostly coffee and foam) with 3 shots of espresso. This is not a particularly complicated drink to make, especially since the Starbucks automated machines do not require any skills beyond pushing a button. So I see the employee put the coffee into the cup, and top it off with the foam. All is normal, the lid should go on and I should receive my beverage, right?
Nope. She stands there with the spoon in my coffee, and starts to … stir it. She’s stirring it around with the spoon, slowly taking the spoon almost all the way out and then putting it back in, mixing the espresso with the foam and making the foam become something quite a bit less than foamy.
Cappuccino is not meant to be stirred. The foam is supposed to be on top of the coffee. That’s the way it works. And what the hell would make this person think that I wanted to stand there and watch her play with my coffee? She never looked up or noticed that I was standing there watching her pull the spoon out to see little bits of foamy milk make tiny foam mountains and then stir them back into the coffee.
After a couple of minutes I had to speak up and ask that my drink be made properly and not played with. And I got a bunch of attitude in return about how ‘It’s supposed to be stirred.’ and that I would have to pay for another one.
What the fuck?
At least the manager agreed with me that playing ‘make mountains out of foam’ in a customer’s drink is … not the correct way to make a cappuccino.
If I’m the kind of business owner you’re talking about, any part of your argument not printed in red is just a lot of foamy hot froth to me.
If the hourly workers are treating customers this way when the place is less than mobbed, it’s very likely because the boss demands it.
Rule 1 thru 1,000,000 of Good Business for many merchants is TAKE THE MONEY. Everything else is the other guy’s problem, and $5 in hand is to be preferred to repeat business “on the come.”
The look on my face must have been priceless. I was actually slack-jawed with disbelief that she was standing there, oblivious to everything, playing with the espresso and foam, twirling and stirring with the spoon as if she was in some mystical other world.
It was rather like watching a five year-old child play with ice cream in a bowl – stirring it up and then lifting the spoon to watch the ice cream stretch upward and then separate into a curled peak. It was so blatant that she was playing with the foam that other customers actually watched it too.
A couple of weeks ago we went to a restaurant that is literally around the corner from our house, where we eat several times a year (because they have the best crabcakes in the world). Their service normally takes 30 minutes, so we weren’t expecting our food in a big rush.
But nevertheless, it took a full hour for the food to arrive. And I know it was a full hour because I knew what time we arrived (4:00), our order was taken within a few minutes, and our food didn’t arrive until 5:10. In fact, two other tables came in, ordered, got served, ate, and left before our food arrived! While our server was nowhere to be seen; we had to finally someone else to get her for us. And when we asked her politely what the problem that caused such a long delay was? We promptly got attitude and nastiness: “Our menu tells you all food is cooked to order! It’s not MY problem what happens in the kitchen!”
Rather than get into it with her, we asked for a manager, and when the manager was unavailable, left our name and phone number. The manager actually called a couple hours later, and agreed with us that an hour wait was indeed too long (especially since the restaurant wasn’t particularly busy – there was only one other table in the dining room when we got there), that the server was in the wrong in the way she treated us, and then insisted on sending us a couple of coupons so we’d come back and not say nasty things about the restaurant around the neighborhood. It’s a local, family-owned business, and I really appreciated the effort she made to resolve the problem. But it did help our cause to be civil in explaining the difficulties to her, and express our frustration at the poor customer service without yelling and screaming at anybody (which apparently the server had led her to believe I would, assuming that I was as nasty a bitch as she was).
Sometimes complaining up the ladder is the only thing to do. And there’s nothing wrong with complaining if your food or beverage takes much, much longer than it should in arriving. If nobody complains, how does management learn that its servers are causing problems for customers, or that there’s a problem with the kitchen, or whatever else is causing the delays?
Hey, she’s a BARISTA! Not some button-pushing, cuppa joe-pouring monkey.
And still (barely) on-topic, the longest “15 minute wait” has to be for a table at a North End restaurant in Boston on a Saturday night. Even with “reservations” you’d better be prepared to stand on the sidewalk for at least an hour. Next time, I’m bringing a flask so I’ll at least be happily drunk while I peer through the windows mentally willing the people inside to eat fast and get the fuck out. I’ll chat with my fellow dining hopefuls about Einstein’s thoughts on time spent kissing girls and hot stoves, and periodically pull out my outrage journal to jot notes which I can then post to the most current pit “mini rants” thread.
This was in a no seating area, Evil Coffee Empire store inside of Macy*s in The Lenox Mall.
I stood directly across from the barrista and she handed me the first cup, then stopped me, took it back, and explained that is was the wrong drink.
I was directly across from the same barrista when she smiled and handed me the caramelly gunk instead of my Mocha Truffle Crack in a Cup. There were only 2 other people in the store by this time.
I don’t think I was a crappy customer for feeling that the creation of a beverage shouldn’t take 15 minutes. I didn’t complain at all and I was pleased with myself that I didn’t. I’ve had the drink a few times this month and it’s usually a 5 minute wait if there’s a line ahead of me.
I’m sticking my nose in here, but I read that as a comment on the hypothetical impatient fellow customer who hypothetically took the coffee that YOU ordered, not a comment on you.
“If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too”?
If so, Kipling’s been getting a lot of play lately.
Funny you should mention it, but I actually have a gift card from the Evil Coffee Empire that I got last Christmas. I’ve never used it because every single time I walk past the ECE stand there is a line out the door. I figure they’re slipping heroin in there or something. Waddever, I refuse to wait 1/2 hour for a cuppa joe.
Wow, I’d never be a big asshole to anyone who is preparing or serving me food. These days you never know when you’re going to get a surreptitious present.
To me, this sounds like a surefire way to get yourself some complimentary saliva along with your coffee. As an occasional retail worker, I can guarantee you that the best way to get good service is to act the exact opposite of what Alessan suggests.
The proper thing to do is after 5 Minutes, ask where you coffee was. When they then said “it’s be another 10 minutes” then (repeat after me, this is important) “That is unacceptable, I’d like to speak to the Manager” Then “I’d like a refund please and the number of your head office”.
