Strange Chain Coffee Shop Experienve

[rocketman84]

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

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.

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.

A 35p scam? It was just a mistake.

Nope. It wasn’t.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

Report it to Head Office.

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

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

I don’t get it 🤔

This is the 3rd or 4th post In last last couple days where the op is insinuating the staff at the shop/ coffee shop is running a scam.The last one involved picky bits & scratch cards.

I was thinking maybe scam, but if they actually put it through the payment system, you can’t hide the sale. So, more likely to be pressure from the chain to sell upgrades,

A long time ago I was a barista in a coffee shop and when I was new I accidentally charged someone the wrong price.

We could refund to card but only if our manager was in to come and put their authorisation code in, and at certain times of day they would have to do till floats and be undisturbed.

When I did this, it was during one of those times and I also fumbled and had to offer change out of the tip jar.

It definitely wasn't a scam, it was just an awkward moment where I realised I had fucked up, and didn't have the tools to remedy it in the way the customer would have preferred.

Those are fake. There is already some coffee in the medium and large cups so when they pour the coffee in, it goes to the top. Do they ever show you an empty cup or pour them the opposite way?

Remember that many branches are franchises, it could be a franchisee issue - definitely contact the area manager if you suspect a scam

Likely they just cocked-up, flapped and couldn't be bothered to stand and figure out what had actually happened, so refunded you with tips cash to save messing about further with the till.

It could be that I’m naive, but my instinct is always to assume cock up rather than conspiracy.

Hmmm it’s a puzzle

Seriously don't, such an overreaction 😑

Yeah sounds like a scam to me. They have targets about upselling and they are getting in trouble for not meeting those. (I can remember that as a teenager working for a cinema chain, and always having to upsell the popcorn and soft drinks!) But they still give you a medium drink in the hope that you won’t notice.

Pure stupidity though on their part that they didn’t say “oh sorry I made a mistake” when you asked about it, and instead tried to double down and make up excuses about price increases.