To feel a bit annoyed this is why I got rejected?

This is absolute rubbish and didn’t happen.

Christ I think you’re lucky you didn’t get the job!!! There’s no way in hell I would be prepared to complete FIVE ROUNDS of interviews and then cross country travel unless the salary was millions of pounds. Or it was to be Prime Minister. Who on earth do they think they are! It says a lot about the team.. never mind the coffee!!! I’d never pay that back. And id leave an honest review on Glassdoor.

You obviously di dnot get rejected fo rnot buying your own coffee, that would be ridiculous.

5 rounds?! What was it for, Queen of the Universe?!

Don't whatever you do pay them! You don't owe them anything!
They're nuts.
It's totally reasonable to expect the company interviewing you to pay for your coffee. I expect free coffee at interviews and in work.
It's also totally reasonable to expect reimbursement of travel expenses, but you probably should have clarified that before wasting your time on these ridiculous tightwads.

This with bells on!

They offered you a drink so the correct assumption is they pay for it.

Reading all the time and effort you put into the hiring process and they have the audacity to charge you for a drink they offered you!

I would reply with;

That's fine, deduct the amount from the cost of my travel. I look forward to receiving my funds imminently.

Sounds like you dodged a bullet by not getting hired.

This!!

This

Have you responded OP? Id be tempted to say "Sure, deduct it from the £240 you owe me for travel. Can you send me a form for expenses?"

Ludicrous. It would be funny if it wasn't so insulting.

I came here to say this exact thing. This is just plain weird. Please review them and name them. They should be embarrassed. You’ve dodged a bullet working for them!

Well its plainly not the norm for professionals on this thread. What industry/type of organisation are you talking about?

Any headhunter suggesting that many rounds of interviews to me would be dismissed as time wasters.

None of my blue chip clients across different industries have processes like this any more than my Big does - its a stupid waste of our own time as well as the candidates. Even my public sector clients with their panel interviews don’t go to 5-7 rounds.

So where are you working that the processes are so poor that they need multiple rounds of interviews?

I wouldn’t work for a company that needed 5 interviews to make a decision

I’d review their interview process on Glassdoor.

Tbh I think they should pay the travel expenses

Tell them they will get the money for the coffee when you get the £240 for a wasted journey.

Oh yes, it's a thing. For all interviewees not just women.

Never heard of that!
I'm curious if that is only done with female applicants.

HRTFT but I assume it was a test planned all along. Would you really want to work for such a company?
Not quite the same, but DH is on the committee of an organisation that before even considering a new member will take them out to socialise for the evening. The prospective candidate last week has no idea that his behaviour that night means his application will not progress. I have no sympathy for him. He made a racist comment, one he was very unlikely to have made under interview conditions.

It is completely inappropriate to expect a job candidate to spend their own money during a directed part of the interview process. If they'd set you free for an hour to get your own lunch, or told you your were welcome to get yourself a coffee, that's one thing (though also pretty tight), taking you to a coffee shop and getting coffee in a group, asking you what you want and paying for it - that's on them.

I would respond telling them the request is inappropriate, you were unaware you'd be expected to cover the cost of something they offered to you and you will not be paying. I can think of a lot more I'd want to say, but it wouldn't be very professional and even though you aren't going to be working there, it's best not to blow off at people in your industry, even if they behave badly.

that is so offputting. I wouldn’t want to work anywhere near that hiring manager. If they didn’t want to buy you a coffee they shouldn’t have offered.

Sounds like some awful trap to test if you are a team player. Reminds me of an interview I had where we were put in a windowless room they called "the cell" to complete an unexpected written assignment to test how we coped under pressure. This was interviewing for an admin job at a charity not to join MI5!

I'd ignore the email and be glad I don't have to work for them.

Absoloutely agree.

Them making this request signals a nasty, predatory workplace culture. Be very glad that you aren't working there!

No-one seriously thinks the OP should be invoicing for train tickets? How silly 🙄 Unless paid travel is specified in your interview emails, don’t do this.

Just ignore the request for the £3.70. Most of the suggestions on here are childish and you don’t want to be seen like that in the professional world where people talk to one another.

As above, surely the manager who paid for the coffees would be expensing it anyway?

I'd be seething. Ignore the request for coffee money and move on. Don't reply at all.

Did they give you any actual feedback on why you didn't get the role? They damn well should have after all that faff around.

Post it, but don’t pay for postage. The tight fisted gits will need to pay the fine for no postage when they collect it. Preferably the hiring manager.