Starbucks St Albans SHAME ON YOU!

[StarkAndWitchesWillFindYou]

After dragging my two preschoolers (one with asd) all over town house hunting we take them into your cafe for a promised drink and marshmellow lollipop.

DH has to queue for ages as you only have one member of staff serving. My children sit quitely, well-behaved and expectantly.

You tell my DH as he is ordering that you close at 6pm (earlier than published time)but that he is welcome to sit down. It is 5:58pm. He orders.

As SOON as the children receive their consumables one of your staff members comes around saying that you are closed. We say politely 'okay'. A minute later we are told that you really need to close and can we now leave.

We point out that we were sold our items and told we could sit down. You tell us that you have already let us stay there for 5 minutes and that we were told that you were closing. You tell us that there was obviously some mis-communication but it wasn't from you because you were very clear.

We mention to our autistic ds that he needs to finish his drink but he gets distressed at the implication that the promised milkshake is about to be taken off him. This results in a meltdown making it difficult for us to get his coat on. All the while one of your member of staff is arguing with us and telling us to hurry up making ds (And now dd) more distressed.

Your member of staff tells us that she is now not being paid for the time. I tell her to take it up with her managers.

And I'm taking it up with you here!

so Guacamole - do you never get a drink at "last orders" at the pub

I dunno what the people in front was doing but they were all single people. The person directly in front of dh put in a massive order for take-away though.

And yes, actually we were served in takeaway cups. I didn't notice at the time but it was pointed out by the staff later on as some kind of justification.

I personally would not have ordered in a shop that is going to close in 2 mins, even though they told you to sit down. As your dh was ordering, he was told that the shop closed at 6pm, therefore he should have said forget the order we will go somewhere else. Instead he continued to order and go and sit down bearing in mind it is now 6pm and closing time . I dont want to sound harsh op, but you know your son has ASD, and needs time to drink his drink and feel comfortable, how the heck is that going to happen in this situation

Sadly nope, I'm too boring... I'd already be curled up in bed before last orders.

When there is pressure to drink up quickly and exit the shop.

He needs time to drink his drink, but more importantly than that he needs to do what we say we are going to do.

We can't tell him he is going into a cafe to have a milkshake, sit him down on the sofa, repeat over and over to be a good boy, sit still, sit quietly, in a minute milkshake, to suddenly say 'oops sorry, put your coat on we are going somewhere else'.

At least if we had, we'd have kept the staff there for another couple of hours clearing up the damage.

I think there was a bit of a misunderstanding. If they served you in takeaway cups they probably thought you were going to go but didn't tell you that this was the plan.

you boring fecker Guacamole

you should have got a take-out or gone somewhere else. YABU.
I wouldn't have ordered in the first place knowing it was going to close. The staff weren't to know that your son is autistic.

No the staff weren't. I'm mentioning it here to explain why their idiotic treatment of us was a problem. I am not accusing them of idiotic treatement to an autistic child.

I would have assumed that they stopped serving at 6pm and then closed once everyone left!! Tesco shuts at 4pm on sunday but dont refuse to let people pay at 4pm!!

There is a lovely cafe under the townhall in St albans, go there next time.

As for DS being Autistic, I would have refused to leave until he finished, my girls would have kicked off too ;)

yabu

TBH they dont know your ds has ASD, they should have said to you that you can order but as they are shutting in a few mins, you will have to take them away and not get you to sit down. However being aware your son has ASD, it would have been better at the point of ordering being told that the shop closed at 6pm to just go somewhere else, as you have said i think that there are other places to drink in the area.

Alexisfaith, your understanding knows bounds. Life goes on even with a child on the spectrum and when you have another child as well, as the OP does, you can't just sit at home for ever.

I would definitely have asked for a refund. There's no point paying for coffees and muffins if you have to hoover them up and run on the hoof.

He needs time to drink his drink, but more importantly than that he needs to do what we say we are going to do.

Gosh, I really don't want to sound heartless, but maybe then you should have got there earlier or not told him he was going to go for a milkshake.

Seriously though, I will repeat... you were the customer (not me) and you feel you have been treated badly, so complain.

yes, I've been there Lisad. I met my doula there for our feedback session, so it must have been a good two years now. Wow how time flies.

Have to say, never been much of a Starbucks fan really but my DH was trying to get me into it and takes visitors to his work there plenty. Even he was disgusted and said he'll not use them again.

the ops dh was told that the shop shut at 6pm not stopped serving, so this indicates that they would have to exit pretty quickly with their drinks.

see not telling him is worse than telling him and not doing it IME!!

how would she have known in advance that the cafe would shut early and then insist on kicking them out!

Actually I'm with the OP - nothing to do with autism - but if someone serves me drinks 'to drink in' (ie with VAT paid) I would expect to be able to drink them in.

If they say at the till 'take out only because we are about to close' that's another thing. (I tell mine 'ooh dear they are out of whatever, let's go next door to other generic coffee chain').

Because honestly, what are we to think happens at 6pm. Do they really just lock up and go home. No, of course not, they strip down and clean the machines, empty the bins, clean the floors.

Perhaps the barrista had a hot date and wanted to bugger off early, I don't know, but she was rude.

Gua

Autistic children 'often' need preparation for everything. So I would have to have told him we were doing something. They 'often' need predictibility. You can't just go from one thing to the next without a plan that is given to them and not deviated from.

Now, actually, this is fairly irrelevant because our distress was not caused by ds' issues about us having to follow through. It was caused by a shop closing early, who informed us of this after the children were already sitting down expectantly and had been waiting a good long while.

'....but they were all single people'
Do shops have different rules for single people? 'we are closing for single people but the family can stay untill 7'

OP YABU. You 've made a silly decision and now you blame others.

Do you reckon the Starbucks staffer thought the clocks going back meant s/he could nick off early and get paid for the extra hour?

I have been in coffee shops which have closed and they spend a good twenty minutes cleaning up. I've chatted to the staff, they are all quite friendly, not rushing you out the door.

I don't like Starbucks anyway but now they are just a teeny bit more tarnished in my estimation.

I was explaining why they were unnotable and that because they none of them had company might not have been interested in drinking in.

We PAID to. No-one can drink their drinks and eat in 2 minutes, especially not those with preschoolers. DH should have been told that they are only doing take-away.

Better still, it should have been on the door or the till person should have mentioned it to anyone who joined the queue.

Instead he told DH that he 'could sit down'. I don't think his bottom was even on the seat yet when we were told to leave.

What time should they have closed?

Did you ask why they were closing early?