"Why did you rinse my personal cup?!! It was pre-creamed!"

"Do you mind if I rinse your Thermos?" a barista at the Wilmette, Ill. Starbucks asked me over the weekend after I ordered drip coffee. "Of course not; go ahead," I replied.

"I have to ask now," she explained, "because one customer got upset when I did it; she said that her Thermos had already been prepared for cream."

Huh? Already prepared for cream? Isn't that the quirkiest?! Probably not, I'm guessing. Do you have customers with equally odd (or more) rituals? Feel free to share. || Jump to the third page of comments.

Comments

[Aces of Eight]

I had one customer go freaky about the rim of his paper cup being touched. My SM was on till and poured his coffee. He watched nervously the whole time, and said in a voice reminiscent of borat "If you touch the rim, I think that I will scream!!!"

Thankfully my manager didn't touch the rim, and the man left without having a nervous breakdown.

[yukonluvr]

i've had some customers get the cup first, then fill it up, and then have coffee poured into it so that there's no waste.

and one time there was a customer who had some rare tea in a thermos and asked for hot water. well, the barista rinsed it out first because it looked gross inside, and figured the customer would want it rinsed first. LOL

[me myself and I]

I always ask, because sometimes people "spice it up" a little. If you rinse out their liquor by accident they will get REALLY mad. I even once had two ladies asking me if I could add their mini bailey's to their drink.

People can be funny.

At least they are not stealing. ;-)

[embean]

no one should have a problem with their cup being rinsed. how bad does it look for the company if people have their coffee "spiced up?"

when I worked for sbux, I remember refusing to add herbal tinctures and such to lattes. I don't think that's okay. if you want to add that stuff, do it when you leave.

[KGS]

Beck in the days, i rinsed the cup for a middle aged lady on her way to work, and right after that, she got really mad and started throwing a fit. when she calmed down, i realized i had just thrown out her "morning" two shot of baileys.

I can only imagine the bad day she was going to have, sober.

[LP47]

People may not like it but last time I checked it was a standard in the BRM that a barista must rinse a personal cup before putting the drink in it.
Although I would be pretty mad if that were my Bailey's being rinsed down the drain :)

[SPORK]

Absolutely is in our training manual that all personal cups are to be rinsed with hot water.

I have a customer that insists I rinse his paper cup three (yes... three) times before I put his coffee in. One time I asked him why and he explained that the paper is treated with chemicals and he doesn't want them in his body. Don't know how much I believe him, but I suggested he gets a metal container so he doesn't have to worry and can save some trees. He stared at me, payed and left without speaking.

I actually love the weirdos that come in. They make my job exciting.

[Batista Ben]

How silly of me to think I was the only one who had the morning booze customer issue! I once accidently dumped someones cup out and cleaned it. They were angy and left without saying anything. Later on we could smell the liquor on the sink! Crazy drunk customers.

[Valerie Verona]

it is in the training manual that we HAVE to rinse it

[Chelsea]

I'm lactose intolerant, but I like the texture/flavor of dairy milk in my coffee better than soy milk. Not to mention, my Starbucks doesn't offer the free soy with a registered card, so it's also cheaper to add some Lactaid milk to my cup before leaving home. Prior to this post, I've never felt weird about this.

[baroosta]

I always ask if it's okay for me to rinse a customer's personal cup first because this exact thing happened to me...

[SBUCKS DRONE LOS ANGELES]

I ALWAYS ask to rinse a thermos, no matter what. You never know when you're about to run into Little Miss Attitude (sorry ladies, in my 4 years of experience, I've noticed that women are more touchy about this). These people need to worry about other crap in life other than "pre-creaming" their coffee. Pathetic.

[brown dot]

I have had a customer bring me a container of their own SF Mocha and asked me to make their drink with it. I also have someone that brings me their special liquid sweetener because it is nature and sugar free. she adds it and then we make her drink. There was also the person who would bring in her own soy and want us to steam it, i kept telling her no but my SM at the time told me "just say yes..."

[spence]

We used to have a lady with some serious issues. She would ask for a mocha but would we mind washing our hands first. We washed and made the drink. But it "tasted wrong." Would we mind making it again and of course, wash our hands first. Woops. It still was wrong. Repeat the washing and the making.
Anyway, it was always 3 times.
Fortunately, she only came in about once a month. Then one day, the barista said, "yes. I do mind. Your drink is perfectly fine." She never came back.

[Chirp]

LOL a bunch of fekking robots listing the "written" policy to rince the cup before filling.

Just ask and do what the customer wants.

IMHO the biggest problem with the company is too many baristas are just mindless policy drones. Do the right thing, not the written thing.

[mess in a hoop skirt]

If we lost all the weird, high maintenance, uptight, or pain in the butt customers we would only have about 20% of our customers left. So don’t rinse the stupid cup-who cares. Let the drunks and the picky pains in the butt have it their way. But I won’t ask them if the manual tells me to do it-I’ll just do it. So they better ask me. That probably won’t be a problem because the extremely controlling nature of this particular group. They expect more attention than others and usually get it because they’re so obnoxious.

[klbarista]

we have one lady who wears really bright red lipstick who leaves her lid on her reuseable cup... one of our shift supervisors used to just look at her to remove it as she refused to touch the cup as the lipstick on the black lid is pretty gross to look at!!! The stare down was pretty funny, as the staff had asked several days in a row... and the lady has always loosened it ever since, even though the staff has moved on!!!

[tall guy]

HEY CHRIP!

Partners follow the "written policy" as to provide a consistent experience at 15,000+ Starbucks locations! When each partner does what they want instead of what is written, customers get confused and angry as to what they should expect from Starbucks. This leads to most of our customer complaints from store to store.

Policy is to rinse any personal cup prior to filling and customers cannot add anything to any cup prior to a drink being put in the cup for partner safety and security reasons.

The "written policy" is there for a reason...mainly to increase customer service believe it or not.

[Fred Frappuccino]

Nowhere is it written that partners must rinse a cup. Let's not argue about policies that don't exist.

[Coffee Soldier]

How about customers coming to the DT with a personal cup/tumbler but not having the lid? I was always under the impression ALL drinks unless a for here mug supplied by our store were to have a lid. I don;t think it's very safe to drive around with a cup of coffee with no lid on it!

[Nacho]

Well in that case, we should outlaw all coffee vending machines, as none of them provide lids! I think people can judge for themselves whether or not they are competent enough to drive without a lid.

[exbuckaroo]

I had a customer that came in daily with his personal mug. In the winter he would forget to bring it inside. Each morning we would have to put hot water to melt the frozen coffee. It was pretty amusing, and he was good natured about it, as his coffee usually took a few longer since it had to thaw out!

[Mrs. Tillinghamshackles]

Fred Frapuccino, I assure you that it does exist. If you'd like I can find the exact manual and page number tomorrow while I work.

[aeiou]

I always thought we weren't supposed to put the lid back on the personal cup in case it isn't put on correctly and the customer spills coffee or gets burned.

On driving with a coffee with no lid, it's only dangerous if the space above the level of the coffee isn't enough that it can slosh around in the cup a bit without spilling. I used to take a huge ceramic mug 2/3 full of coffee with me to school in the morning because I liked drinking out of the mug rather than the travel cup and it would slosh around a bit but never spilled. I guess it would only really be dangerous if I actually dropped the cup on myself...

[J-Kizzo]

The customers are the one's who pay us. And if they aren't complete Dicks about it, I will gladly rinse, or not rinse their cup. I always ask if they want a rinse, even if there is remnants of cream, old coffee, or white flakes in the cup.

[Melody]

Wow. I always ask baristas to rinse my tumbler. If I have to wait for coffee to brew, I ask for my cup to sit with hot water in it for the pre-warming effect.

Back in the old days all for-here ware was served pre-warmed for the coffee (because the porcelain cups sat on the manual espresso machine). I always thought that was good coffee house charm: Pre-heated cups.

I honestly thought that part of a hot-water rinse was to at least try and get it a little pre-warmed. I had no idea the huge situations that the personal tumblers create. (And yes the lipstick on the lid is so gross!)

[harmaa]

Which Wilmette store was this?

[Sedg]

Melody: Absolutely. Coffee tastes much better out of a pre-warmed cup. And yes, the amount of people I've had wherever I've been who have obviously 'spiced' their personal cup beforehand is amazing. Guess those London mornings really are depressing...

[javajohn]

Starbucks bends so far backwards for their customers that they ultimately take advantage and now the customers are running the stores.

[Mark]

Spork and Spence,

You are dealing with obsessive/compulsive individuals. The 3 times ritual is part of their compulsion. Any deviation in the routine will drive them bonkers.

Having to re-make a perfectly good cup of coffee three times is beyond the call of duty.

[green_cup]

Starbucks bends so far backwards for their customers that they ultimately take advantage and now the customers are running the stores.

Posted by: javajohn | August 11, 2009 at 03:15 AM

As it should be, since, you know, without the customers, there'd be no store.

Just a little tip from me to you.

Without your customers, you'd have no store to run.

Remember, a customer can pretty much find coffee anywhere absent a Starbucks. A Starbucks cannot (as much as you'd like to believe) find a customer anywhere.

Pro-tip: Don't piss of your customers. They pay your paycheck. Thanks!

[Valerie Verona]

well Chirp this robot follows the policy to protect my health, and my partners health.

personal cups with unknown substances in it? should baristas continue to make the drink. NO

adding someones personal protein powder to their vivanno instead of ours? NO

steaming unknown dairy/soy (oh yes and some want breastmilk steamed)? NO

some robots like to follow these standards. because it protects us and allows us to uphold our health standards.

[Melody]

@Valerie Verona - I'm shocked to hear that anyone would steam some random milk brought in from OUTSIDE the store. I remember years ago, I really wanted a Caramel Apple Cider (or whatever it was called then) and the store was out of apple juice, and in pinch a barista grabbed cardboard cartons of apple juice from the refrigerated case, and steamed it. I think you can play around with what is already INSIDE the store, but not something from home!

I'd rinse out a dirty cup too.

[Iowa Bumpkin]

Rinsing out the customer cup obviously removes the chance the customer will come in next shift and say "There was a spider in my cup!" Probably protects the barista from whatever nastiness might have been in the cup besides coffee. And I'm sure legal opinion varies from state to state, but if you handle a cup with alcohol in it, even if the customer gave you that cup without telling you what's inside, you have just "served" an alcoholic beverage without a license. The rinsing rule sounds pretty fair to me as a customer who doesn't want to see crime scene tape in front of a store.

[milkwhiz]

We have a guy who gets a venti soy latte with absolutely no foam!! He comes in and expresses how he wants his drink made, and after the barista takes his order he'll say something like, "You seem pretty confident there..." and then he will stand and stare while the barista makes his drink.
As many baristas know, when you steam soy it tends to get very very foamy, and there are usually some residual bubbles. If even one bubble is on the top of his drink he pushes is back over and demands you remake the entire thing.
One day I got so sick of his games (after remaking his drink 3 times) so I told him he would have to wait 5 minutes for the milk to settle and separate. He got used to that. Now we steam his soy extra extra hot and wait several minutes for the foam and milk to separate, and he expects it done this way every single time.

[ex-sbuxmanager]

My first store as an SM (Leo Burnett, Chicago loop)- we had this customer that everyone thought was really mean. There was good reason to think so - she could be pretty terrible if you didn't follow exactly what she said to do (and sometimes, even if you did).

She would come in a couple of times a week for a venti half caf in a double cup. No big deal, right? Except she wanted steamed skim milk and 4 "pink sugars" at the bottom. Still no big deal, right? She would go to the condo bar grab the Sweet N Lows and bring them to the counter.

I didn't like that. It's not that I objected to adding sugar for someone - I didn't. I knew that my hands were clean because I wash a lot. If I had hand to hand contact with this person, I felt like I had to wash my hands again - a little germophobic, but that's how I roll.

More importantly, I thought it was easier for us to have the sugars behind the counter and do it ourselves - less disruptive to the process. We had a sticker machine for bar drinks and I would call down the line for drip coffees, but when I saw her, I couldn't get her coffee to the register before she got there because she wanted her sugar at the bottom. Of course, she would get mad because everyone else's drip coffees were ready.

So, like I said, I started keeping sugar behind the counter. When I saw her, I would grab a venti double cup, add steamed milk and 4 Sweet N Lows and steamed milk. At first, she liked that even less. She would try to hand me the packets, and I would refuse saying that I already added them. She insisted that I do it over because apparently, she didn't trust me to do it right without her watching me.

And so began the game - I would try to both have her drink ready for her before she got to the counter AND have her watch me do it. It took a few months, but eventually she began to trust me without watching - but she would still have the packets in hand "just in case." By the time I left that store, I had killed her with kindness - she stopped being so mean.

That's the happy ending.

At my store in NYC, my partners kept complaining about an old woman who wanted them to add splenda and cold milk to her coffee and then stir it. My response to them was to JSY. What's the big deal? Apparently, she didn't like the way we stirred her coffee. She would complain (loudly) that we stirred her coffee incorrectly and it didn't taste right. We tried. We really did. We did exactly as we were told. Still, we would get the same complaint "It doesn't taste right" or "it doesn't taste like when I do it."

Now, I'm all for making the customer happy, but I never had patience for those who complain just for the sake of complaining. So finally one day, I said, "If we can't do it the way you like it, do it yourself."

No more complaints.

[is it so hard to be civil]

Hey Green Cup

There are a lot of people in the world. Sbux doesn't have to put up with BS. Try to pull the BS that people pull at Sbux anywhere else. The reason these crazy rude people go to Sbux is because anywhere else wouldn't put up with it.

The pathetic people are lucky Sbux is out there to put up with them.

There is no excuse for an adult to act like a spoiled child. Why do we have to put up with tantrums?

[Deadtiredinla]

This tops them all. I had a customer order a misto. When I handed her the cup she asked if I could put more steamed milk in the cup. When I asked how much, she handed me a paint chip and asked if I could match that color. I kid you not

[spence]

Green Cup, Where are you getting your coffee these days?

[milkwhiz]

Deadtiredinla-- After working at Starbucks for 6 years, I can say enthusiastically that I believe you, paint chip and all!!

[CRF]

I love to T-off spoiled customers. This makes my Starbucks experience worth the trouble. I wish you were in my store green_cup, you'd get nothing your way.

Starbucks would run much better with only civilized customers. That means we would only have to replace about 10% of the trash with nice people. We'd probably get at least that many new customers if we didn't need to spend so much time babysitting the creeps.

[mark]

ex-sbuxmanager & others,

sounds like these people are trying to take their control issues out on you. Customer service is one thing, but unreasonable is quite another. This is why there are signs in most places that state:

"WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO REFUSE SERVICE TO ANYONE"

If I had to put up with that crap, I'd say to take it elswhere. As a customer, I have been behind some anal people that took 5 minutes to order a simple drink.

[Meag]

I once had a customer come in with a personal thermos, I absentmindedly took it and rinsed it only to be told as I turned on the faucet, "waait- oh never mind."

There was something odd in his thermos, I realised the smell. It was whiskey. lol.

[NormalInWA]

I seriously must be the only normal customer left in the Starbucks universe.

I walk into the store, smile and greet the person manning the register and order my coffee (or tea, depending on the morning). I occasionally get a pastry. I thank that person and throw my change into the tip jar. I then step over to the bar and wait patiently for the barista to make my drink. I thank the barista when they hand me my drink and leave the store quietly. I sometimes even tell them to have a nice day.

I admire folks who work @ SB...I wouldn't last a shift without killing someone or getting arrested for trying.

[The Game]

Question: Whose the maniac in the picture?? And why is her mouth open like that? It's a bit strange? Let's play a game...Who can put the best caption on that picture, Ahh this should be interesting!! :)

[BaristaDude]

Melody;

If it is under my control (stuff I sell) I will steam it, blend it or whatever. If you bring it in, you are more than welcome to add it after the fact, but I won't handle it behind the counter. More a food safety/health code/liability issue more than anything else.

[chicago sm]

Hi Lee from leo burnett who moved to nyc

[seriously]

Bit off the subject, but weird none-the-less;) I hand off a latte for a customer who brings it back five minutes later to complain there is lipstick on the lid and it just so happens to be the same color she is wearing! LOL Can anyone imagine a Barista taking a sip to test it before it is served? LOL

[yukonluvr]

seriously,

i've often wanted to have a mock cup around, and taste it in front of the customer to see their reaction. LOL i bet it would be priceless.

[ex-sbuxmanager]

Mark -

I don't think the first customer I wrote about was necessarily unreasonable - she wanted it done right and she had every right to expect that it was done so. I always felt that way because the coffee isn't cheap. I just had to train that lady to trust us that we could do it right.

On the other hand, when we would do it right and the customer would be complaining from the minute s/he walked in, I had no problem telling him/her that if we were so terrible, to please go somewhere else.