Starbucks Maidstone — Restaurant in Melbourne

It's such a letdown to see poor customer service from such a worldwide brand like Starbucks. Me and my friends came in around 2:30 pm today (27/11/2023). We got served by an Asian guy, he didn't have his name badge on but I believe he was the only male staff around that shift. Then, the hour we went in, the store was quiet. I'm not sure what's going on with his day, but we're indeed a bit slow and tired today, so we took a little bit more time to order. Therefore, speaking of professionalism in customer service, he shows his irritating attitude and sighs visibly at his customers. I believe those aren't the values that our Starbucks Team heading for, aren't you? As a retail staff myself, I know undoubtedly making customers feel uncomfortable and not welcoming aren't parts of the service that they deserve and pay for. As in then, while waiting for our drinks, I was upset because seeing not just me but also, my close friends being treated like that, so I purposely chatted with my friends that I was going to complain about this issue on Google but I wasn't about to, as I said I was just upset that time. Subsequently, when our drinks were finally made, he gave us a provoking look while passing the drinks to us, which further demonstrates that he is unapologetic about his actions and the inadequacy of the new staff training system. Besides, I am one of the regulars there and it was my first time seeing him working at the Starbucks Maidstone. From those I and my friends experienced, we don't think it's completely his fault, but it should also be part of the HR Team's responsibility. Hopefully from this honest review, me and my friends can receive a pertinent and worthy...

This review has been brewing (no pun intended) for a long time, but I think I've finally reached the tipping point myself.

I’m a regular customer here. I mostly come in the evenings, though I sometimes visit in the mornings as well, so I get to see this place at different times of the day. I'll start with the pros—the people. The staff, especially those who are part of the "regular roster," are fantastic. They’re always smiling, incredibly friendly, and without fail, they brighten up my day. Honestly, 90% of the time, I keep coming back just for them and the little moments of chit-chat.

Now, onto the cons—and this is a big one. The place is constantly and consistently understaffed in the evenings. I’ll watch an avalanche of customers arrive less than an hour before closing, bringing their entire extended families and ordering frappuccinos, all while the drive-through queue builds up. The poor staff are left to handle this chaos with no extra support. I have zero complaints about them—they’re doing their best. But I do have a lot of questions for management.

Dear management, you clearly have access to data and feedback from your employees. Yet, this ongoing issue, which has been happening for months, remains unaddressed—negatively impacting the customer experience every single day. Is this a case of sheer incompetence, or do you simply not care?

In other cons, getting utensils that look like this is not fun either.

To sum up - fix your scheduling. Because of your inability to do your job correctly, many people (including myself) are receiving a very subpar experience due to poor overworked night shift staff. And we would happily take our...

Something is wrong with some of the staff in this place. This is the forth time I I got something I didn’t ask for. They give you what they want , not what we order. The other day I ordered a white chocolate mocha and I didn’t say anything about the milk they didn’t ask either. They gave me a mocha with soy milk which I really don’t like and I said I didn’t order soy milk, the girl at the counter didn’t care and forced me to take it. The next day we went to buy an iced americano( which we buy every single day) and we didn’t ask milk in it, I mean iced americano is iced americano, we asked for less ice and she kept saying they don’t put milk in americano, we know what an americano is, duh! She even started to teach us how americano is made, that was a girl wearing a pair of glasses, most staff members are really nice, but some have a very bad attitude. And yesterday for the third time, I received an iced latte instead vanilla sweet cream cold brew. And today when I ordered food I received something completely different. I have never experienced these kind of things in any other Starbucks, which I used to go...