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Original poster

Strange Chain Coffee Shop Experienve

90 replies

rocketman84 · 10/05/2025 18:52

Went into a very popular coffee shop chain today and ordered a medium iced latte, (clearly said medium, twice). The server said £4.35 please and I tapped my card before the price on the wall behind him stated a medium iced latte was £4.00. I questioned this and the server looked nervous and stumbles over his words, at which point the barista jumps in and said “oh we’ve had price increases that haven’t been updated yet”. I thought this was bizarre as the prices were shown on tv type screens. She started making my MEDIUM latte (in a medium size cup), at which point I glanced at my receipt to see the server had rung through a large (which in fact was priced at £4.35). I immediately said “hang on you’ve charged me for a large”. Both the till sever and the baristas faces seems to drop and the barista started rambling about price rises, miscommunications (all of what she was saying didn’t make sense), then shouted to the till server “ok give her a refund, GIVE HER A REFUND”. I had paid by card so expected to be refunded this way, but instead a very panicked and guilty looking server dived into the tip jar to pick out 35p refund. I again questioned that there weren’t any price rises… as the price on the screens was, in fact, correct. To which I got bombarded with loads of verbal diarrhoea which didn’t make sense. So I left with my coffee and my 35p.
It was all very very bizarre, and from the reactions and behaviour of the staff I’m pretty sure it was some type of scam (I’m not sure how but I am convinced that it was), and that they probably get away with it all the time.
Edit: apologies about the typo in the heading, it was obviously an experience

OP posts:
Original poster
rocketman84 · 10/05/2025 23:40

Vodkamartini3olives · 10/05/2025 23:36

Did you stop off at the shop for picky bits on the way to the coffee shop?

I don’t get it 🤔

OP posts:
Vodkamartini3olives · 10/05/2025 23:36

Did you stop off at the shop for picky bits on the way to the coffee shop?

Original poster
rocketman84 · 10/05/2025 23:20

Whooowhooohoo · 10/05/2025 23:12

I’m thinking … there are no medium sized cups. There is some sort of inventory control & checking on sales vs cup sizes.

Rather than saying - no medium cups, so we give you medium drink in a large cup …. they say nothing but charge & give you large

Because if the end of the day, if there are 200 medium drinks sold but no cups and 100 large drinks sold but 300 large cups used … the computer will say there are theft problems at coffee chain.

Makes sense, expect she made my medium drink in a medium cup

OP posts:
ReadingSoManyThreads · 10/05/2025 23:15

Report it to Head Office.

Whooowhooohoo · 10/05/2025 23:12

I’m thinking … there are no medium sized cups. There is some sort of inventory control & checking on sales vs cup sizes.

Rather than saying - no medium cups, so we give you medium drink in a large cup …. they say nothing but charge & give you large

Because if the end of the day, if there are 200 medium drinks sold but no cups and 100 large drinks sold but 300 large cups used … the computer will say there are theft problems at coffee chain.

Lovelysummerdays · 10/05/2025 22:48

I don’t really know how it could be a scam. It’s not like they can refund all the 35ps at the end of the day. I guess if they did it enough times they could take home a jar of espresso coffee and a carton of milk, I’d suspect they get free coffee on shift though and how much coffee can you drink.

Original poster
rocketman84 · 10/05/2025 22:43

Eldermillennialmum · 10/05/2025 22:37

OP that is odd. I would assume it's because they have targets for selling upgrades but I'm never asked to upgrade at Dtarbucks or Mero

It was the other big one. Yes it has got to be something like that. Initially I thought it was the staff themselves trying something, but probably more likely the store putting them up to it to reach targets as you say. Very strange situation and I couldn’t believe the cover story about price rises, very silly of them to handle it how they did I thought.

OP posts:
Seamond · 10/05/2025 22:42

Isn't the tip jar for staff tips, not customer refunds.

Eldermillennialmum · 10/05/2025 22:37

OP that is odd. I would assume it's because they have targets for selling upgrades but I'm never asked to upgrade at Dtarbucks or Mero

Eldermillennialmum · 10/05/2025 22:36

Fruitbat99 · 10/05/2025 22:29

A 35p scam? It was just a mistake.

Well it was 35p to OP but if they do they to 100 people
a day every day it adds up obviously

Eldermillennialmum · 10/05/2025 22:35

Tbrh · 10/05/2025 22:15

I'm guessing they made a mistake, and instead of saying that tried to pretend they didn't. I don"t think giving you the refund from the til is that unsual, especially as it was a small amount. I think you're putting too much energy into thinking about it.

Edited

It wasn't from the till. It was from the tip jar.

Original poster
rocketman84 · 10/05/2025 22:35

Fruitbat99 · 10/05/2025 22:29

A 35p scam? It was just a mistake.

Nope. It wasn’t.

OP posts:
Fruitbat99 · 10/05/2025 22:29

A 35p scam? It was just a mistake.

Lovelysummerdays · 10/05/2025 22:15

DinoLil · 10/05/2025 18:57

Have you seen the online videos where people buy a small drink and pour it into a medium and a large cup and it's all the same amount? No idea how true they are, but wouldn't be surprised.

There’s not that much in it. I get a coffee from costa machines. There’s a big visual difference when you look at cups as the large is much taller (but narrower). I have no idea what a fluid ounce is but apparently the difference is two, if you put a regular in a large cup it’s a bit less than an inch off the top.

Tbrh · 10/05/2025 22:15

I'm guessing they made a mistake, and instead of saying that tried to pretend they didn't. I don"t think giving you the refund from the til is that unsual, especially as it was a small amount. I think you're putting too much energy into thinking about it.

Bitteralmond · 10/05/2025 21:58

I am a retailer and I prefer to give small refunds in cash because my card machine provider charges 50p to process a refund. Maybe the staff get told off if too many card refunds are processed.

SallyDraperGetInHere · 10/05/2025 21:42

malmi · 10/05/2025 21:06

They may earn incentives for persuading customers to upgrade. So they push medium and the till prompts them to ask “would you like to upgrade to large for 35p?”. They are incentivised to hit the “upgrade” button.

Yes, I imagine it’s a branch target, where everyone gets rewarded, so dipping into the tip jar occasionally is a cost they make up in overall sales

WiddlinDiddlin · 10/05/2025 21:31

I agree that making it look like they've sold more large drinks is probably it.

I just have in the back of my mind a time in the dim and distant past when one of my friend group worked for a big chain fast food outlet that rhymes with Kurger Bing...

They managed to give away sooooooo much stock (not just as cooked food items but uncooked, to cook at home, we ate soooo many and invented our own burgers... ) that there was a horrible day hurtling towards them when the rarely present manager was actually going to notice the huge discrepancy in expected stock vs actual stock vs takings.

I mean the guy was feeding pretty much a streets worth of people on burgers to be fair, it was a ridiculous situation to get into!

This is less likely with coffees/milks/creams/syrups... but folks do some daft things!

Original poster
rocketman84 · 10/05/2025 21:12

WhatsTheEffingPoint · 10/05/2025 20:53

Sounds like they cocked up every which way and panicked. The refund from the tip jar was probably the quickest and easiest way for them to deal with it as they would most likely have needed a supervisor to process a refund, which would have notified them of the server messing up. Maybe this server was new or on a warning notice, when there's a queue of people waiting to be served and it's a busy environment it can be quite daunting and let's face a lot of younger people work in these places who haven't quite got the hang of saying yup I effed up, I'm sorry let me fix that for you.

Yeah, I do get that mistakes happen. And if he had said “oh sorry yeah I’ve accidentally charged you for a large” I probably would have thought nothing more of the situation. It’s the fact that the lady barista jumped in to make up lies about price rises etc. which told me it wasn’t a genuine mistake

OP posts:
malmi · 10/05/2025 21:06

They may earn incentives for persuading customers to upgrade. So they push medium and the till prompts them to ask “would you like to upgrade to large for 35p?”. They are incentivised to hit the “upgrade” button.

WhatsTheEffingPoint · 10/05/2025 20:53

Sounds like they cocked up every which way and panicked. The refund from the tip jar was probably the quickest and easiest way for them to deal with it as they would most likely have needed a supervisor to process a refund, which would have notified them of the server messing up. Maybe this server was new or on a warning notice, when there's a queue of people waiting to be served and it's a busy environment it can be quite daunting and let's face a lot of younger people work in these places who haven't quite got the hang of saying yup I effed up, I'm sorry let me fix that for you.

Original poster
rocketman84 · 10/05/2025 20:18

MILLYmo0se · 10/05/2025 20:11

The price list was 4.35, did you ask how much the large is now given their excuse was not-updated price increase. I'd have asked them to punch in a large on the till to show me the 'new' price. Either it now comes up as over 4.35 or they are lying

Show quote history

I did try and she started ranting on about prices making absolutely no sense. My receipt was for a large @ £4.35, and a medium was £4.00 so by issuing the 35p refund they agreed with this, and therefore the prices shown on the screen were exactly correct ( the price rise thing was BS, I could tell by the way she was saying it - you know when you just know that someone is lying?). Kind of wishing I had pressed a bit more on it but there was a queue of people forming behind me and I seemed to be getting nowhere with it so I left

OP posts:
MILLYmo0se · 10/05/2025 20:11

rocketman84 · 10/05/2025 20:06

a medium was £4.00 and a large £4.35. I double checked

Show quote history

The price list was 4.35, did you ask how much the large is now given their excuse was not-updated price increase. I'd have asked them to punch in a large on the till to show me the 'new' price. Either it now comes up as over 4.35 or they are lying

evtheria · 10/05/2025 20:09

DoItLikeAWoman · 10/05/2025 19:31

I don’t think the cup stock is counted anywhere. Many times I’ve been served with one cup inside the other when my drink is too hot. Sometimes I have asked for a spare cup and been handed one with no problem.

at an ice cream parlour once they turned down a request for an extra cup as they said their cups were counted.

Edited

CN chain does (or used to) do a packaging stock take, once a month, where approx. numbers for things like paper cups were counted. Wouldn’t be an issue if customers wanted an extra cup or a different cup size to the drink (eg a regular Americano in a large takeout cup) though.

OP: to me I think it’s one of two things. Either they honestly just got your order wrong, and were flustered enough/reluctant to get a supervisor over who could authorise a refund on the till (in some cases no. refunds are tracked and questioned), or they were going about upselling in a very weird way, that probably takes advantage of most people not questioning it.

Original poster
rocketman84 · 10/05/2025 20:06

HunnyPot · 10/05/2025 19:50

It sounds unusual but if they are charging you for a large, putting it through the till as a large, and giving you a receipt I can’t figure out what they would be doing.

Usually drinks have more than a 35p increase between sizes.

Maybe they make a mistake and couldn’t be bothered or didn’t know how to correct it on the till?

a medium was £4.00 and a large £4.35. I double checked

OP posts: