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!

I couldn;t get to the end bnut I think it is appalling service.

When I worked in a shop the closing time was the time we closed the doors and stopped letting anyone else in. We remained until the last customer was served.

I don't know what has happened to customer service these days. I used to be grateful that I had a job, I would have thought in these times staff were even more so.

i think it was a bit silly of you to stay there to drink with children when you were told they shut in 2 mins. However you are quite within your rights to expect a refund of the cost of the drink in charge as they should not have offered you the chance to drink in as they shut so soon.

yabu.

never go in a shop/restaurant/cafe that is about to shut, regardless of what you are told.
it will not be a relaxing experience. staff shouldn't have served you really though. everyone u!

Argh, bloody Starbucks! I went in the Epsom one recently and ordered a small tea, which was HUGE and boiling! By the time I'd done all the admin - milk, sugar, fishing out tea bag, they were muscling me out - even though my drink was too hot to drink and it was in a mug. I had no idea I was on a time limit, they only mentioned it once I sat down.

Complain, definitely. I won't be going to Starbucks again. Plus their coffee is horrid and comes in a bucket.

YANBU.

The shop closed earlier than you'd expected. Something you weren't made aware of until you'd waiting a long time in the queue.

Sometimes things happen and you have to close early, unexpectedly, and you might not want everyone to know why (someone's had an accident behind the scenes, the loos are hideously blocked, you've been tipped off that the health inspector is en route).

When that happens you manage the situation. You tell people waiting that you will have to close - before they've been waiting for an age already. That's the biggie for me. It sounds chaotic.

I would complain.

Do people really think its acceptable/professional customer service for the staff member to point out that they were not getting paid for their time?

I would complain, they sound unnecessarily rude.

they should have stopped serving eat in ood about half an hour before and only served take out. So yes I would take it up especially as you couldn't resolve it there and that was their advice.

However Yabu for even going as their coffee is foul. MacDonalds coffee is far superior and cheaper so you should have gone there

Also this is not a company that is known for being "nice". Did you know that they were the only place to charge the new york firefighters for water on 9/11? I think that speaks volumes about the sort of company they are.

YABU!!

You were told that they were closing at 6pm so at that point you should have left and gone somewhere else. There's always a queue in Starbucks, nothing unusual there. Bit silly of you imo to still persevere knowing what your son is like. Sorry but you did ask.

But dancer (and others) how were the OP and her DH to know that they were closing at six?

What the staff should have done - had they an iota of common sense - is to have informed people waiting that they were closing. It's not difficult.

They did tell her dh that they were closing at 6pm and they still chose to order!

Hope this won't put you off OP but tbh I would never have expected a cafe to be still serving that late. Shops presumably all shut at the same time or before. Maybe I have been out of London too long....

And in any case there are benches right across from the Starbucks in question where you could have sat to finish your drinks....

StarkAndWitchesWillFindYou come and see me next time, I live in St Albans, I will let you stay and drink as long as you like! I could even rustle up a really good milkshake, not so good on the coffee though!

YANBU and some of the extraordinarly ungracious posters on this thread need to learn to read properly.

Her DH ASKED if they had time to sit down, he was told yes.

What part of that don't you get?

Complain, OP. They need to understand that if they're not giving drinking up time then they need to tell the customers waiting in the queue. If they're happy to take your money then they should be happy to wait til you're done.

Use the complaints line.

My dh runs a restaurant. The kitchen shuts at 11pm and the restaurant shuts when the last customer leaves. I think that's normal.

Perhaps you shouldn't have bothered with the drinks knowing that they were closing shortly but equaly you'd have thought they are shutting the serving area and will be around much longer to clear up etc before actually locking up.

Not nice the way you were treated.

Maybe they don't bother cleaning the coffee machines properly. Doing the frothers alone take enough time to drink up, surely?

The skanks.

Lovecat - there are 2 types of people who use coffee shops - first type swigs down a quick coffee in a few mins and leaves. Second type - takes their time with their coffee, may be with family and want to spend a bit longer etc. How was the assistant to know her dh was of the latter type?

By saying that they close at 6pm (even if different from the published time), that means there isn't time for a long leisurely coffee. At which point it would have been sensible to say thank you very much we'll find somewhere else.

Not sure why you're picking on me, Dancergirl - do you consider yourself extraordinarily ungracious? :)

The assistant would not know which type of drinker her DH was (although I've yet to see anyone of the first type sitting in a Starbucks, ever), which WAS WHY HE ASKED IF HE HAD TIME TO SIT DOWN - and as he was ordering more than one drink, unless the cashier was exceptionally stupid, he or she should have gathered that he was with a family group and answered accordingly.

And it wasn't 2 minutes to when they entered the shop, so one of the 3 people serving should really have informed the long queue that there was no drinking up time, so that the queue-ers could make their decision before wasting their time waiting to order.

Your point makes no sense whatsoever.

cal or email the watchdog, if they had more complains for them, they might do something about it, call the local press too.

if they let you order at 5.58, surely they cannot expect you to finish eating in with children by 6. did they say they close at 6 and you can sit down, or did they make clear you need to be out the door by 6? i don't think she was chosing her words carefully...

re: her pay, you paid full eat in price, so that it was you should be able to do, eat in...
did they explain why did they close early?

'The assistant would not know which type of drinker her DH was (although I've yet to see anyone of the first type sitting in a Starbucks, ever)'

No, you wouldn't - they're not in there long enough!

But Lovecat I take your point. It wasn't the best customer service in the world but hey working in a coffee shop is probably bloody hard work, on your feet on all day and who knows just how long she had been on duty. Maybe the OP just caught her on a bad day - she's only human.

But if it was me, annoying though it is queueing all that time and then be told they're nearly closing, I would have left it and gone somewhere else especially with a special needs child in tow.

I am the sort of starbucks user who likes to have one of the armchairs and take my time over my drink and have a read of the paper, my book or sort out my diary as it is a bit of me time.

Went to knightsbridge took kids to the museums and Harrods then thought I would go for a well deserved coffee, only to find both starbucks full to bursting.

What really pissed me off was some dirty homeless bloke asleep on one of their sofas, I ask you, opposite Harrods, the world has lost all standerds

I reckon this kind of attitude from the staff is a symptom of it being a big chain. If you go to an indepedent cafe there's probably more leeway for closing time and if my experience of working at an independent is anything to go by they'd be a lot more understanding about individual needs- like that of your son.

Horrible experience for you- sorry it happened.

Ring the local press or report them to watchdog - genius, let's hope it's a slow week for actual news.

Email them. You'll get a free coffee out of them and hopefully feel vindicated.

You weren't treated well but then again I doubt if the person shoving you out of the door had any idea of your personal circumstances - they prob just wanted to get on with cleaning and shutting up.

rainbow- i feel aluded at the genious remark, sometimes big programs pay attention if they have lots of complains, it's worth a try.
local news often pay attention to people with difficulties treated badly, and at local level, often there aren't many dramatic news, my locals have covered not very different stories...
what do you suggest, keep quiet and just thank god they didn't kick you too?

Wouldliketoknow - I don't believe I suggested to 'keep quiet and thank god they didn't kick me'

What actually happened here? OP went into a coffee shop just before closing, got a coffee and got booted out before she'd finished. Shabby treatment? without a doubt. Awful to go through after a long day bearing in mind your personal circumstances? Absolutely. Worthy of Watchdog? No, i don't think so.

In our local press this week:

Local sports centre future uncertain
Elderly services cut
High speed local rail proposals
Sex offender getting away with caution

Apologies if i've caused offence, my personal opinion is that a one off incident of being asked to drink your coffee quickly isn't local news.

rainbow- it is a matter of opinion and how pressingly you were asked to have your coffee quicky, sadly, none of us know that...

i only suggested that as the op seems really worked up, and a normal lucid mother of disable child wouldn't be without good reason, or maybe yes...

my last sentence was a bit out of order, but felt ofended at the genious remark, apologies.

not long ago in my local press was the case of a disabled young man who was asked to leave the council managed cafe, because he was to loud and couldn't stop shouting, i can't remeber the name of his condition, the mother complaint and the management said suck it up, your own fault, the local news disagree, they had to aplogized and best of all they better make sure not to do it again... worth it? well, only the op can say...