Tim Hortons — Restaurant in Marmora and Lake

Complaining about poor service is not my style, but when a person who is at work manages to be rude to a person who is on vacation, well, that deserves a review. My wife and I were on a long-awaited road trip across Canada, and a stop at Tim Horton's was a must on our list. We excitedly arrived at this location, placed our order, paid, and patiently waited. Unfortunately, fate had other plans with us. We were not meant to eat. And we were meant to waste a lot of precious time here. Just as my wife's order and our coffees were ready, I was informed that my order wasn't available. Oh well, I thought, time to get creative with substitutes.

To my dismay, it seemed this particular Tim Horton's had a special affinity for the least healthy options on their menu. I get it, fast food isn't exactly a health paradise, but there are degrees in things. And a little moderation in unhealthiness wouldn't hurt. Alas, there was nothing that aligned with my moderately (un)healthy preferences. So, with utmost politeness, we kindly requested a refund and hoped that the next Tim Horton's, just 10 minutes away, would have better luck in their stock department. This all on June 2, 2023, in the evening hours.

But there is more to this review. The cashier pointed out that our coffees and my wife's order had already been prepared, with a subtle suggestion that we should consider paying for those. The issue, as I saw it, was that coffee is more enjoyable after a meal, not before, and my wife and I prefer to dine together, at least when eating out and paying for it. So, a refund it was. However, processing a simple refund turned into a task beyond the poor cashier's training, leading to a prolonged phone call ordeal.

After about 10 minutes of futile waiting, I suggested that maybe we could receive a gift card instead. But alas, the return had to go back to the same card used for payment, and so the technical glitch had to be solved while we wait. A few more minutes ticked by, and I couldn't help but mention the inconvenience of the wait, considering our tight road trip schedule. Surprisingly, the concern shifted back to the coffees that were already made. (This shows how philosophies vary across humans: At this point, I started contemplating if free coffees were a reasonable compensation for the wait!)

In the end, we did receive our $17.30 refund on a gift card. I thanked the lady, identified on the receipt as the illustrious "SHIFT", but couldn't help but express my disappointment with the overall experience. To my surprise, the response was a casual "WHATEVER," and we bid farewell. No big deal, but if one of my employees ever responded that way to a customer, well, let's just say she wouldn't be my employee.

We left hungry, but felt like something else than...

There is no other coffee shop on my route to work. Most days I cannot stop for a coffee because of my hours. This was the first time in a month I was able to stop and grab a coffee, I was excited. Instead of ordering 5 large coffees, I decided my best interest was to order a Take Twelve. What I did not need was to be berated by the employee at the window. I apologize that I "didn't call in advance" and ordered it at the window, it was a last second choice and I thought it better thank ordering all large drinks. As the cashier explained that it would take all her coffee, I still had to wait for it to be made, which was expected as it's a full pot. But to explain that it's a small town and I'm supposed to call, I've never received those instructions from an employee. To tell me that you don't have old coffee, was unnecessary. So please apologize to the employee that I ordered for multiple people and did not ask her for many custom orders as the results would have been the same. If it is that difficult to make, please remove the item from your menu. But as not another customer came through at 5 am, I don't think I was in the wrong for ordering what was on the menu and waiting as it was not expected to be on hand. That was poor customer service and being the only coffee shop in a 35 kilometer stretch, I'm sorry that she was asked to make one more pot on top of how many may...

In store, take-out purchase. Coffee, steeped tea, bottle of water and pumpkin spice muffin. Four customers in line ahead of me. One staff working store front, four in drive-thru (no customers yo be served), one at the sandwich station, baker and a supervisor(?). No one helped the gentleman serving in store customers until over 8 people in line (very poor team work!). My order was placed on one register, but then had to be keyed into another one as the scanner didn't work. Hot drinks were made, and then we had to wait until the next 6-8 customers were served to flag down a staff member to request the rest of the order (bottle of water and a pumpkin spice muffin). By this time (12 minutes later) the pumpkin spice muffins were now sold out, and was offered a replacement flavour. When I asked for a receipt, the staff members response was "I'll try" (all staff should know how to do this), he did figure it out in the end. More training on team work is needed! Drive-thru staff could have assisted in making drinks, getting pastry items and brewing coffee and tea (between their orders) for the one staff member serving 10 plus customers. All register equipment should ne working properly, to avoid items in orders being missed. Staff should check in with customers waiting an extended period of time to if...