Tim Hortons — Restaurant in Barrie

Tim Hortons, “Invisible Customers Welcome” Edition

If you’ve ever dreamed of starring in your own Where’s Waldo?—except Waldo is basic customer service—you’ll love this place. Eleven teammates on shift, ten glued to the drive-thru, and the lone ranger supposedly assigned to counter duty is busy making kiddie drinks. Translation: Grab a coffee somewhere else, champ.

The Comedy of Errors — Play-by-Play

0:00 Walk in. Dining-room silence so thick you could spread it on a bagel. Eleven uniforms in sight, zero eye contact.

+5:00 Still no greeting. Tried waving like I was flagging a cab in a blizzard. Apparently I’m auditioning for Cirque du “Please Serve Me.”

+5:01 Finally snag an employee’s attention. Ask, “Do I need to drive around the block to get coffee?” Reasonable question, right?

+5:02 Reply: “Yeah, one of the 11 employees is… but she’s making drinks for little kids.” Passive aggression level: grande. Also—eleven staff, one barista for everyone? Math is hard.

+5:03 Realized I’d get served faster if I printed my order on a paper airplane and launched it through the drive-thru window. Considered it. Decided my dignity was worth more than a double-double.

Hard-Hitting Truth Bombs

Drive-Thru Tunnel Vision

Prioritizing car windows over human beings at the counter is like a lifeguard ignoring swimmers to polish the pool floaties.

Eleven-Person Echo Chamber

Staffing ratio: 10 : 1 (drive-thru vs. in-store). Service ratio: 0 : 1 (the customer vs. thin air).

Quote of the Year (“She’s making drinks for little kids”)

• Intended meaning: “You can wait. Our drive-thru clients can’t.” • Actual meaning: “Your coffee isn’t worth our time.” • Takeaway: Nothing says “family-friendly” like using kids as a shield for poor workflow.

Customer Experience = Vaporware Five minutes without acknowledgment? Even a five-year-old Android phone’s face-ID greets me faster.

Pro-Tips for Management (Free Consulting!)

• Rotate Roles. If the counter staffer is buried, peel one or two teammates off headset duty. • Acknowledge Walk-Ins Immediately. “Hi, we’ll be right with you” costs zero seconds. • Train Out the Snark. “Making drinks for little kids” is not the mic-drop you think it is. • Mystery-Shop Yourselves. Experience that five-minute purgatory firsthand—then fix it.

Verdict

If your caffeine fix depends on wheels and a speaker box, roll on through—you’ll be royalty. If you dare step inside on foot, prepare to feel like the human equivalent of a spam email: ignored, then deleted.

BOTTOM LINE: Next time I’ll brew at home. It’s faster, cheaper, and - crucially - comes without the side order...

Dear Stephanie, I was a customer in the store watching you have your temper tantrum over a cookie, yelling at minimum wage workers. I saw later in the week that you went as far to complain about that cookie online as well which I thought was funny and also knowing you'd be the kind of person to go and check your reviews everyday (Which I was clearly right) I decided to poke fun at you and call you a silly name because you were acting quite goofy. Reading comprehension is not my problem, it's people who think that screaming at someone for a mistake over a cookie is justified in any way, which certainly shows your level of maturity. Also commenting on the competence of the workers in your review and then getting mad when someone questions yours is very ironic, I'm sure that flew over your head though didn't it? So before you go back and have another temper tantrum, I'd like to clear up that no, a friend does not work in that store and that almost 90% of bad reviews are people like you who are minorly inconvenienced and feel the need to complain about it online because they have nothing better to do, like yourself. You just had the luck of me seeing your review and wanting to have some fun. I hope this response was an adequate response for you and I will work on my maturity as I get older, you on the other hand clearly haven't. I hope you have a wonderful day and don't feel the need to yell at anymore workers today :) Also the fact that you made a whole new account to write another review...

Stopped in for a java & doughnought. Java was nasty(& kaRAYzee HOT!) BUT my server(Evan) did everything right in making it right.

2nd cup/mug wasn't much better than 1st BUT Esther(presumably Shift-Super. or Manager) did a taste-test herself, concurred with my opinion, cleaned the brewer and made me another cup/mug.

This one tasted like the Timmy's java I've come to know & love. AND Esther also vouchered me for my next java "on the house" to boot.

I hope both Evan & Esther get really good marks on their next Performance Reviews from their respective superiors. Customer Service & Customer Satisfaction are both so very key in the (food)service industry; some places have forgotten this(& I would not have taken the tyme -- or aggravation with my new-to-me smart@$$phone -- if I didn't believe this and felt so strongly about good turns being acknowledged & rewarded when so deserved).

Bravo Zulu to Evan & Esther at the Duckworth Timmy's in Barrie! Keep up the good work(& maybe I'll see you again the next tyme I'm in your neck of the woods).

~KP("charlie") 31 X 2K17

P.S. It's snowing/raining/sleeting SIDEWAYS wildly as I attempt to take a foto to accompany this...