Now Tea — Restaurant in Waterloo

On September 8 at approximately 9:28 my boyfriend and I visited nowtea for drinks. He ordered a strawberry slush and I got a passionfruit green tea. After we ordered and paid, the employee, Hannah, neglected to give us a receipt. This caused confusion when our order was ready especially because Hannah punched in an orange slush rather than a strawberry slush. When my boyfriend alerted them to the mistake the staff working at this time began gaslighting us, saying that we said orange slush. We pushed back confirming that we did say strawberry slush and did not want to orange slush. The employee Aaron said he could provide us with a refund and would process the order correctly. Without providing a receipt or inserting my card he claimed the refund was processed and tried to get me to pay for the strawberry slush. I checked my banking records and still there is no evidence that the refund was processed. We requested a receipt to confirm the refund but Aaron was unable to provide it and the staff were trying to get us to double pay for their mistake. After refusing to pay for their error the staff turned around and began talking amongst themselves in their native tongue. Eventually the staff conceded and corrected the error without us repaying. We still have not received the refund which confirms my suspicions that the staff wanted us to pay for their mistake.

Between the gaslighting, the deliberate use of another language to exclude us from the conversation as well as the attempt to have us double pay has tarnished our trust in this establishment and has made us feel unwelcome.

We have been frequenting this establishment for the past year but this experience is too unsettling to ignore. We will likely not be returning and will be active detractors for this establishment. No one should be treated this way by any staff, ever.

Edit - after reading some other bad reviews, the girl with the round glasses was also working and was encouraging Aaron’s and Hannah’s attitude. This is not the first time that the lady with the round glasses has been incredibly rude to me. This event has simply confirmed my initial impression of this staff member. Seeing as this has already been mentioned in previous reviews I am surprised that management has allowed this...

I live around the area so I always come here, at least once a week. The drinks are great and most of the staff are nice but I'm taking off one star because one of the employees really likes to make a big deal out of his own mistakes and makes a scene with customers who want it righted. All the ladies are so sweet and friendly but I and many friends have had multiple instances with the short asian guy with glasses.

Two of my friends ordered the peach drink but somehow he misheard both of them and cashed them out for the strawberry drinks. When we went up to request for the correct drink, he would keep pushing that we were the ones who made the incorrect order since the label said strawberry....one of them is mildly allergic to strawberry and would never order it. They didn't want to make a bigger scene so we were going to leave with the incorrect drinks when one of the nice ladies offered to switch it for the correct ones thankfully.

On another instance, I requested for a lid on my milk foam drink with another employee at the register, and it says so on the label but he sealed it. I just asked for a lid since it's not a big deal and I can switch it out when I'm at home but he was very demeaning "it's already sealed so what difference would the lid make, it won't do anything." I was simply asking for a lid as I ordered, but I was berated instead.

I'm not one to write negative comments since everyone has their bad days and I know how difficult it can be working in food industry, as well as the impact that online reviews can make. However, multiple instances over such trivial matters should not be happening this often. These had very simple solutions that the other employees were happy to fix, but this guy just has to be right. It's not a bad enough experience that I won't come anymore, but it does leave a bad taste in my mouth considering that we have been regulars here for the...

I think I echo other low reviews here by saying that customer service is a major issue at this place, just abysmally bad.

Their pure tea menu is confusingly placed at the very top. Unfortunately, I was confused by this and assumed it was milk tea. Upon getting my order I realized it was just tea and not milk tea. I told them I was sorry but actually wanted milk tea and didn’t realize that what I ordered was JUST tea. I asked if they could add milk/cream to my UNOPENED order, and all three of the workers vehemently refused to help, telling me it’s impossible to do it because the recipe is different and that it was my mistake to begin with. Imagine my confusion.. is it that hard to add some milk/cream for me?!?! The tea was good, but the service is just not accommodating at all. At any other milk tea place, they were always happy to remake something whether it was my or their mistake! Moreover, I felt it was the cashier’s responsibility to at least mention that the tea is just tea and not milk tea when I was placing order. I feel like this has definitely happened before to...