From the mouth of an underpaid barista

so today at work i had the moment where i thought “i cannot wait to submit this to barristababble” lol. i work at a starbucks inside a target, where it’s not as busy at 1pm on a wednesday where it might be at a regular starbucks. but we make the same drinks and such. my coworker was on lunch so it was just me when one of my old starbucks coworkers, ruth, (who got promoted to a guest service team lead) walked up to my register and asked me for a cup of ice. then, this woman, obviously in a huge rush, walked up right next to her in front of my register trying to order a drink (in a REALLY rude way)… as i’m grabbing the grande iced cup for ruth, the woman started ordering “write my drink on the cup. grande nonfat chai..” and ruth interrupted before i could hear anything else with “grande ice please” and the woman snapped and said “i’m the customer and you work here so you should wait behind me” and ruth said “i’m on lunch so technically i’m a customer too” and while this is going on i put the chai and hot water in the cup just trying to not cause drama, and at this point i wasn’t saying anything because i didn’t want to get involved, as they argued and the woman yells at me “FORGET IT! i don’t want the drink! you didn’t even write my order down” and i show her the cup and she said “yeah i was GOING to say ‘no water, extra hot’ until i was rudely interrupted by your friend here. what’s your name?” and ruth answers and the woman says “well ruth i’m going to have a nice long talk with your manager so good luck keeping this job” …. it was crazy LOL. i swear. coffee drinkers need to get some more patience. >.<

// Thanks!!!

http://christayyhugs.tumblr.com/

I work for a franchise, and some man and wife comes in, orders their coffee and sits down. A few minutes later they start shouting at me, complaining about the 10% surcharge due to the Public Holiday (Australia day). Please note that Public Holidays are always busier than normal and most customers understand this and are prepared to wait for a little longer for their cup of coffee.. Not this couple. They start to hassle me, claiming that they’ve been timing their order and they have been waiting for 4.34 seconds which is ‘too long’ for their coffee, and claim that they are experts in coffee and customer service. I bring over their coffee and present their Flat white and Cappuccino, the man says “where’s the chocolate on my latte?”, 

“Lattes don’t normally come with chocolate powder, and you ordered a Flat white”

“Well, I disagree! I’m calling your Franchise head office, what’s your name? Who is your Manager?” 

The wife says “You tell him! We’re bound to get a few free vouchers for this one!”

Which brings me to the conclusion that these people just wanted free shit. 

I hate people.

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Thanks http://channelchu.tumblr.com/ !!!

People suck sometimes.

One of the many reasons I HATE Starbucks.

I work for a coffee chain in Scotland; sort of second to Starbucks in the UK. There is always confusion when a loyal Starbucks customer can only find one of our stores and tries to order a ‘grande chai tea latte with fucking extra shit sauce’ or whatever they sell. I know fine well what ‘tall’, ‘grande’ and ‘venti’ mean but I insist on quizzing them on the topic, they look at me like I’m scum for not being familiar with Starbucks. I take a lot of pride in the coffee I make and feel like Starbucks’ customers just don’t appreciate it.

So, a guy comes in, looks like a twat (my customer service skills are second to none, ha!). Swaggers confidently up to the counter and orders a caramel machiatto. Here we go.

Me: Ehh…I think that’s a Starbucks drink, pal.

Twat: Can you not make it? Coffee’s coffee.

Me: I don’t know what’s in it, so no. (I do know).

Twat: Ach, it’s just milk and coffee and caramel and that.

Me: Oh right! Caramel machiatto, aye!

I proceed to make him what a caramel machiatto is to me; a double machiatto with a dod of caramel syrup. His face when I carried over the espresso-sized cup was priceless. He paid and drank it.

Teaching Starbucks’ customers a lesson one-by-one.

Manager Conversations.

A convo with a manager-wannabe

• Manager wannabe : Can you give me your availability next week so I can arrange the schedule
• Me : *write down on a piece of paper my preference work time and give it to him* So when will the schedule be published?
• Manager wannabe : As soon as tonight
• Me : As late as…?
• Manager wannabe : I’ll need to call another 2 baristas and ask them their availability then only I can make it.
• Me : *thats not answering the question so I rephrase the question* Ok…you can get it done as fast as tonight if those guys give their availability soon. But may I know, you can get it done by what day? Maybe Friday or Saturday?
• Manager wannabe : I’ll do it asap.I’ll let you know soon.
• Me : *does he not understand the question or just don’t wanna admit he can’t give any date line?*So, does that mean, you are not sure? If you are not sure, say so.
• Manager wannabe : I say, I’ll call the guys tonight and let you know. (he gets annoyed)
• Me : I just ask you, by when can you get the schedule arranged? I know you will do it asap..but I need a dateline…
• Manager wannabe : Don’t act like a manager. *Boss name* ask me to do the schedule, so I’ll do it and let you know (which actually he the one who volunteered to do it at first when he said “If you want to, I can make the schedule, you don’t need to worry”. and the Boss said “Great,so you do it then”)
• Me : I just need you to name the day or give the that. Thats all. (Don’t want to point out that actually Boss never ask him to do it…I just need the dateline so I can arrange my own social life)
• Manager wannabe : I’ll let you know
• Me : So you don’t really know when you can get it done
• Manager wannabe : I’ll try to do it tonight
• Me : Which depends on the guys if they can give it to you tonight. But I need a date or day…can you get it done by Saturday? or Friday? or Sunday before the week started?
• Manager wannabe : Friday (which he answer so quickly)
• Me : That was easy. Okey, Friday then.
• But afterall, I don’t think he want to give answer such as I’m not sure, I don’t know…Coz that will make him look pretty bad. Even he is not sure. He keep pointing the same point…and I’m not pretty sure he understand the question afterall…

So, today, after asking me a billion questions, and changing her order three times, a lady asks me to put half the mocha in her peppermint mocha frappucino because the last time she got it, it was too chocolately.  Then she ordered a decaf one, and then changed it to a vanilla bean (which she ordered by asking me what the “white one” was). 

Of course I make her drinks just like she wants them, and an hour later she calls to complain about them.  Apparently, she waited that long to even drink them, and the peppermint mocha was not chocolately enough, and both of them tasted watery.  Gee, I wonder why waiting an hour to drink a beverage made with ice would make it watery?   

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Thanks

http://kitenarie.tumblr.com/ !!

is double strength hot chai tea with a sweetener and soy milk. i use a 16 oz cup (grande hot cup at starbucks) and put three packets of truvia (a natural sweetener but sugar or classic syrup would work) in my cup. i then add two chai tea bags, hot water, and steep the tea for four minutes. after the tea is steeped, i take the tea bags out and am left with about an inch of room to add milk. i use cold vanilla soy milk but any milk or cream wold work, and then presto! i have hot chai that tastes very similar to chai from india, but it’s not nearly as good. the sweetener and the milk help tone down the bold and spicy flavor of chai tea, so if tea drinkers like those aspects of chai tea, i would not use sweetener or milk. it’s a great drink though, and i’ve made it everyday i go into starbucks for work! 

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Sounds delicious! Unfortunately, where I work we only have the chai concentrate!

Thanks

http://kelseyfoster.tumblr.com/ !!

A girl orders a mocha and proceeds to the pick-up counter to wait for her drink.

In the meantime, a green tea freddo sits on the counter waiting to be claimed by the guy talking on the cell phone, not paying attention.

The girl points to it and asks “is this my drink?”

I, on bar, ask, “What did you order?”

She replies, “a small mocha”

I say “seriously? it’s green and blended…”

She replies,”but I didn’t want it green.”

I almost slapped her.

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I always have people walk off with the wrong drinks - if you ordered an americano it isn’t frozen, and blended with whipped cream on top.

Thanks

http://iamcanvas.tumblr.com/ !!

you know what gets a little annoying?

when you have to explain to a guest, the difference between a Latte and a Mocha.. sigh

you would think that they would know the difference by now.

/

I agree!

Thanks

http://ngociie.tumblr.com/ !!!

Hey, LOVE your BLOG! ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS!

just picked up these barista things recently and I learn quite a lot from your blog. 

Hope we can share experiences in the future… 

Lovin’ your blog, like TOTALLY! :) 

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Why thank you!

Sumbit any stories you have!

This is a conversation that always no matter how many times I’ve experienced it, baffles me.

Me: Hi there, what can i get for you?

Customer: -looking at the menu- Is your hot chocolate hot?

Me: -looks at the customer- umm….yes out hot chocolate is…hot…

Customer: Ok, I would like one please.

Me: Sure.

Don’t know if any of you fellow barista experienced that kind of conversation before or not, but I have plenty hahah. It’s either that or “What’s the difference between a hot chocolate and a chocolate milk?” Hahah