Using staff tips to refund customer.

[tryagainsardines]

Ok, so I went to my local Costa today and the man infront of me ordered two drinks with cream and marshmellows. The barrista explained they were out of cream, reached into the tip jar and handed the man 90p.
As I was next, I asked a different barrista if that was a tip jar and he said yes. I then explained that money was taken from there to refund a customer. I went on to say that I often tip or leave some small change, as I do in the charity box, too (which is right next to the tip jar). I said I wasn't happy that tips I and other people had left for staff would profit Costa/balance their tils.
He laughed at me and said that they did it all the time and it was only 90p.
Was I unreasonable to point out what they are doing was wrong? It didn't sit well with me.

Barista is Italian, it means person who works behind a counter/serves drinks. The name spread to the rest of the world after all the big coffee chains emerged.

OP, I thought this was going to be about a restaurant.

If a restaurant manager took 30 quid out of staff tips to refund somebody's meal then I would say that it totally unreasonable.

But at Costa, I know they have a tip jar but I reckon the amount that gets put in it must be so small that it doesn't make any difference to their pay packet. I have never tipped in Costa/Starbucks etc and I don't know anyone else who does either, whereas we all tip as standard in a restaurant.

If it bothers you, put it in the charity box next time.

newgrandad most people's jobs could be described by those who don't actually know what they consist of as "only" doing something - yours included, probably. No need to be so condescending.

If it was anything like the Costa I worked in then it's likely that it was taken from the tips for quickness due to a large line of customers and then corrected later on by a team leader who would have replaced the tips - the person taking the payments doesn't always have the authorization to put through refunds on the computer and there may have not been a Team Leader free to do so?

Sometimes we do this then sort the till out later when there's no queue. People can be real twats about waiting an extra 2 mins for a coffee while a refund is sorted.

If it bothers you, put it in the charity box next time.

Now I know they actively take it from the tip jar, I certainly won't be putting it in their charity box.

Be it £30 or 90p, I just don't think it's right.
Thanks to pp explaining why they have to do it sometimes, though.

It doesn't describe anything! They're coffee makers. They use a machine (doesn't look that complicated) to make coffee.

It does describe what they do, in the same way restaurateur describes that job.

Are you saying these workers don't deserve a specific title because their job is easy and you think foreign words are fancy?

It’s a pain in the arse but we get around it with the tip jar

To be honest the worst one is when people change their mind when you’ve already put their order into the till - we get penalised for error corrects. Not just refunds, error corrects. Obviously not really the customers fault, but we can’t help giving a silent groan when they do.

I feel your pain with the uniform also op

always tip your barista folks! and don’t be a grumpy sod who comments on a public forum complaining about how you don’t agree with the job title and doesn’t tip “coffee pourers”

SomebodysNotInBedYet and LeeRoar

There wasn't a queue behind me. Sorry to hear some people can be asses when waiting for their coffee fix.

‘Only 90p’

How much are people tipping fgs?! Like 10p at a time. Cheeky bastards. Puts me right off going there now.

So a cleaner could just be a 'floor mopper', a bank teller could be a 'money counter', a receptionist could be a 'telephone answerer'....

How rude are you newgrandad, I own a coffee shop and there is a lot more to it than pouring coffee!

WhiteCoyote

and don’t be a grumpy sod You missed out old!

So the rest of the staff are being penalised for the server's (minor) error, whether or not Costa would have a refund policy for cream or not.

Not necessarily. They may have rung the refund through the till afterwards and replaced the 90p.

Most people are lovely but you never know who's going to be unreasonable. Another reason might be they weren't authorised on the till to put it through and would get a supervisor to do it later. Although in this case it does sound like they were doing it to save themselves a fuss.

I work in a shop.. if people tell us to keep the change (it happens lots, 5p/10p here and there) it goes in a pot. If the next customer is missing 5p/10p it comes out of the pot.
Make of that what you will...

From experience baristas don't just make and pour coffee from a machine 😂. It's bloody hard work and lots more to it than that!.

It is outrageous, [embarrassing] and sad that baristas feel that doing themselves out of their tips is a better option than going through the hassle of issuing a refund on the till or calling for a supervisor/manager if they don't have permission to issue one themselves.

With my process and performance head on this is a work around - if staff are measured (bolloxed) on refunds and customers changing their minds, then they find a way around to meet targets. Albeit by funding it themselves..Costa should be ashamed they are driving this behaviour.

This happened to me. I had paid and was waiting for a drink at a railway station but the batista was taking absolutely ages so I asked for a refund as I would've missed my train. The refund came from the tip jar.

SomebodysNotInBedYet
It's unfortunate that it looks like the barrista can't win in either situation. They are wrong for taking from the tip jar and wrong if they don't. They need to change their procedure.

If we're ditching the job-title 'barista', why stop there? I mean, who needs a fancy term like 'grandad' for someone who just impregnated a woman, resulting in a child who went on to have a child?

When ever i order a hot chocolate in our local costa they take payment then ask after if i want cream/ marshmallows, sometimes i say yes other times no but the price is the same either way ie if i say no they don't refund me any money so i am confused?!

Honestly, as a retail worker, my first thought on reading your OP wasn't that they intended to fund the refund through the tip jar but that they were just "fudging" the refund through the system until it could be fixed properly later on.

I work in a supermarket in customer services and we often do similar things if we have customers waiting; if someone has borrowed our till key/access card so that we physically can't complete the process correctly in that specific moment; or if someone is covering that doesn't have the necessary override code so they can't process the correct action. If that happens we will fudge the process through the system however possible and then later on, either when it's quiet or we have the till key/access card, will fix it properly through the correct

Taking money from the tip jar is unethical.

What are fast-food workers called btw?

In Subway they are called 'sandwich artists' and at KFC 'team members'.