Costa Coffee Elm Park — Restaurant in London

I have to say, over the last few months the quality of the service, and in some cases the product has deteriorated.

This morning when I walked through the door the staff member serving me was stood behind the counter by the till on his phone. I approached the till and he carried on texting on his phone for a good 30-40 seconds without so much as a lift of the head to acknowledge me or an actual greeting. He then finished texting, put his phone into his pocket, picked up the receipt off the counter and started to make the drinks for the person who had ordered in front of me, still without acknowledging that I was there.

Whilst he was making the drinks, 3 more people arrived and were in the queue behind me. After about 2-3 minutes he came over greeted me and took my order.

I understand that he may have been texting for work reasons, however, it would not have taken a lot of effort to acknowledge me, say good morning and explain that he would have been with me in a few minutes. Customer service can be extremely hard at times, but small things like saying hello and making the customer feel acknowledged and valued goes along way.

What I will say is that the coffees he made were perfect and tasted lovely. It’s just such a shame that what once was a very good store for both customer service and quality of product, has taken such a dramatic turn for the worst. Being based in Elm Park, the staff at my pace of work would go to Costa daily if not a couple of times a day for food and coffees. Sadly now this is not the case due to the long wait times, lack of trained and experienced staff, lack of atmosphere and above all else, lack of general care and service for the customers....

Please do not visit this place if you have children or don’t want to waste your money. I’ve been visiting here countless times and spent a lot of money and just had a drink spill all over the table where I assume the lid wasn’t on properly. Just asked politely if I could have a replacement. The lady has refused and then said something along the lines of “no this isn’t the first time”, when I questioned this she then told an outright lie how my son has left the tap on in the toilets in here 5 times!! I am disgusted and how she’s blamed my 5 year old son!! I paid £4.80 for a drink I never had any of, and might I add me and my Aunt cleaned up ourselves despite it not being our mistake, we alerted the ladies a mop would be needed and moved seats so the children with us didn’t get in a mess etc. Also to add I always take my children to the toilet and make sure they leave places how they found them so I know this is clearly not true. And also if this has haiku Ed why hadnt it been brought up at the time? Anyone who knows me also knows since the kids were babies I clean up after us if we ever did make a mess (like when toddlers and they dropped lots). Maybe a case of mistaken identity but her attitude and approach was so extremely rude and confrontational. She’s also since tried to comment on this post and post a photo of a dirty seat which is nothing to do with us! Disappointing as she’d always been quite nice in there but whether she was having a bad day who knows - but quite frankly makes no difference you do not speak to customers and particularly good customers and innocent parties like that! #costacoffee #appallingservice...

Very disappointed with the stuff, just because I've tried to go to the toilet without requesting permission doesn't mean that you need to act unprofessional, remember you're working in customer service. And I was extremely nice to the employee. I've been trying to write this review since one month ago, I thought it will pass, but it didn't. What make me write the review today was one lady that she was trying to understand the barista behind the bar but her English was extremely bad. Not to mention that the lady speak in Romanian at the time so the other people could not understand the fact that she was very rude. I did turn and ask her what's the problem and she told me..."yes you can go because you're a queen". There were people after me in the same position as me but she didn't have the courage to say anything to them, but you could see the hatred in her eyes. That is not the way you treat your customers, you want quality not quantity... Actually, I love Costa, I am a regular customer but I'll not go back to that place. I would like to make this review go to the right people, not the manager, who's also Romanian and I can see that he is making reviews about his employees, totally...