there's a reason why coffee shop workers have an attitude... (long)

[technical.angel]

Did this guy take lessons from a murloc or what?

He also seemed to take as much effort to deal with as a murloc.

I can't STAND that noise!

I soo need to create a WoW thread.

[Broomjockey]

ANOTHER Foamy cartoon! Two in the same day! *glee*
This one addresses the "small/medium/large" thing.
http://www.illwillpress.com/sml.html (nsfw)

Anyway, sorry about the suck you have to put up being in a combination of what's probably two of the most SC-ed places.

[MMATM]

This effectively (or not effectively? you decide) combines the atrocities of fast food with the psychotic atmosphere of coffee-vending...why they thought this was a good idea, I will never know.

Mmmmmmoonnnneeeeyyyyyyyy. That's it. Someone came up with an idea where they wouldn't have to deal with reality (customers) and could rake in some serious green at the same time. People are stupid. If it has a drive thru, people will buy stuff there. Even if it's $6-a-cup coffee.

He somehow finds it and manages to finish the transaction. J takes the drink back and makes a point of pouring it out on the ground next to their car, and goes away to walk it off. I've never seen her more furious.

I wish I could have witnessed more of the conversation...although I'm convinced they were messing with J out of pure malice. Most people are just not paying attention and then want to blame us for it, it's expected, but these people were in their 40s and acting like 16 year olds.

Sounds to me more like they expected that you'd just give them one or both of the drinks free as "compensation" for their "hassle" and "wasted time". Also known as the classic "we didn't get what we wanted so we want it for free!" scammers.

Also, hello!

[Gravekeeper]

Did this guy take lessons from a murloc or what?

I've never killed a customer for soup ingredients before.... ( yet? ). >.>

[Eric the Grey]

Am I being sucky when I walk into Starbucks and order a "large", instead of whatever of the three Italian words for "big" means the biggest they've got?
/OT

No: everyone knows exactly what you're talking about when you say "large." I've always thought the way the drinks were labeled and listed was a bit pretentious and that what they sell is vastly overpriced. Fortunately I'm not a coffee-drinker, so unless I really need a hot-chocolate (and they do make them well at Starbucks) I never go in there.

Of course my girlfriend can't get enough of the venti cafe latte mocha carmel chives vanilla dolce cinamon coffee , so she blows a fair bit there. We all have our little indulgences though...

A while back, I walked into a coffee place (don't remember the name) and they offered Small, Medium and Large.

I read them off and asked the guy behind the counter if they were allowed to do that. He got a giggle out of it.


Eric the Grey

[Snowbird]

I've never killed a customer for soup ingredients before.... ( yet? ). >.>

Give it time. Though when you do? It will take two hours and a bazillion corpses just to get two eyes.

[Eric the Grey]

Give it time. Though when you do? It will take two hours and a bazillion corpses just to get two eyes.

Someone yelled in the Barrens one day:

"My gawd when will it end? All these poor Striders without beaks!"




Eric the Grey

[Gravekeeper]

Someone yelled in the Barrens one day:

"My gawd when will it end? All these poor Striders without beaks!"

Liar. That sentence is properly spelled, capitalized and has some semblance of punctuation. NONE of which exists in the Barrens.

[HavingAWonderfulTime]

I made the transition from loyal Starbucks customer to barista earlier this week, and it's pretty staggering how a few drinks can mess up the entire system. Such as the Americano, which is more or less coffee+foam, but made in the most complicated way imaginable.

That and the fact they have "Short" and "Venti Iced" sizes that are different than what's on the menu. Good thing the girl who's training me has more patience than anyone I've ever known and didn't mind the fact that I goofed up a drink four times in a row. Or tried to make a hot Frap after my co-worker suggested it (I seriously contemplated how to do it for like 15 seconds).

[air914]

Oh the horrible horrible memories....

So have they talked to you all yet about closing for 3 hours next week so they can "train" the employees.... what a novel idea... training I think it was getting better by the time I left, but 90% of the people I met while working there said "no one trained me". I read the manuals they had......and it was obvious no one was training anyone.... I try to avoid the place as much as possible. (Plus now I hate coffee... I don't know if its all the bad memories, or it just makes me nauseous b/c my body doesn't like it)

[Tutorgal]

Oh, the memories! I worked there for several summers and about half a year at the end of HS/beginning of college. You couldn't pay me any amount of money to go back.

Some things never change. I wasn't officially trained, either, but I had been a long time customer and figured things out fairly quickly.

The people were insane. Seriously. Violently insane. Once about 10 min after close a regular came by for coffee, which we actually would have given him for free had we not dumped the last of it out. He flew into an absolute rage and grabbed the head and hands of one of the pre-teens who had been there that night and were waiting for the parental pickup and bashed them violently into the marble siding of the building. Kid had to go to the hospital and the guy got arrested. Because we were closed and wouldn't reopen to brew him coffee.

I also got attacked many times, and I know that a long time ago on here I read about someone else who had gotten attacked by customers. I was lucky that I only ever had iced drinks hit me full in the face when thrown by customers, a few of my coworkers got hit with hot coffee and had some bad burns. Somehow I managed to duck the hot ones. Yes, it did happen to each of us at least once or twice a month. Really. I also got hit twice and tripped more than once. Corporate was less than impressed by this and just never bothered to get back to us about our complaints.

So many people would come in, order a coffee, then freak out that they didn't get a super customized espresso drink. Or grunt and expect us to translate perfectly. Or come in, see a new person or two, and get super offended that we didn't think to inform the newbie of their regular drink. HOW DARE WE FORGET THEM????? Never mind the fact that on average any of us saw 300 to 400 transactions during one shift (so at least 400 to 500 customers in 8 hours). There is so much anger over coffee. I've never understood that. I like the luxury of buying my coffee now (from dunkin donuts) and I think of it as my happy place. My happy caffienating place filled with wonderful people who give me my fix.

And that caramel thing, we lost so much money over the caramel it was pathetic. We had hordes, just hordes of tween girls come in, all dressed alike and talking about how they hadn't eaten in so long and how they were so good. Every single one of them would order a tall nonfat caramel latte with sugar free vanilla syrup and extra extra extra caramel. We also started just handing them the bottle to squeeze out because they were never satisfied.

Our new manager put a stop to that and made us put the right amount on, charge extra for any extra, and use only a reasonable amount of extra caramel in that case. Corporate had been leaning on the store for so much loss. Well, wouldn't you know, all the customers started bitching to corporate, which then started leaning on us to make the customers happy, threatening writeups, demotions and terminations. So, the caramel flowed freely. Then we got in trouble for caramel loss again, but were expressly prohibited from refusing to give customers their weight in caramel.

Sure, I'll just find my old magic caramel wand and start using that to refill the bottles.

[chainedbarista]

Or tried to make a hot Frap after my co-worker suggested it (I seriously contemplated how to do it for like 15 seconds).

ah, having; he was messing with you, and not in a nice way.

while i'm not the nicest person on their books, i do have patience; small, medium and large, use them, i don't care, it's all the same to me. i just want the size, drink type and any modifier. extra caramel means an extra charge; don't like it? tough, pay it or go without, i don't give a rat's ass. greedy people should pay for their greed, end of story.

acting like an ass? don't be surprised when i treat you like one; i don't know you, and if you act like someone who i don't want to know, it will stay that way.

an ex coworker (great guy; he still comes by for a drink now and then and we chat while he's there) put it best: 'i SWEAR they put crack in this stuff!'

[marasbaras]

Every time I pass a Starbuck's and see people lined up to pay so much for fancy coffee ... I just think "lemmings".

[Bandit]

an ex coworker (great guy; he still comes by for a drink now and then and we chat while he's there) put it best: 'i SWEAR they put crack in this stuff!'

Sounds like the average Timmy's Double-Double.

B

[Whyme]

I also got attacked many times, and I know that a long time ago on here I read about someone else who had gotten attacked by customers. I was lucky that I only ever had iced drinks hit me full in the face when thrown by customers, a few of my coworkers got hit with hot coffee and had some bad burns. Somehow I managed to duck the hot ones. Yes, it did happen to each of us at least once or twice a month. Really. I also got hit twice and tripped more than once. Corporate was less than impressed by this and just never bothered to get back to us about our complaints.


.

Thankfully that only happened once in the 4 years I worked at the Siren. We still don't even know what really brought it on. My coworker gave the woman a grande dark roast she asked for, she asked if there was extra room for cream, my coworker replied "there is some room for cream but I can make more room in there if you like." and BLAM! She threw the entire cup at his face! Then she quite calmly walked out the door. The rest of us were in a panic trying to make sure he wasn't getting third degree burns we never did see what car she got into or anything. We had a description of her but it really wasn't much help for the cops.

I don't think corporate likes to believe Starbucks customers could behave in such a fashion which is why they won't acknowledge the fact many customers take advantage of the caramel or attack the baristas.