Starbucks — Restaurant in Reading

Mobile ordered in advance . App tells me Approx 5 min wait. I make the journey to the store as I’m 5 minutes away.

I arrive on time & make my way to the “Mobile Order” area to await the order.

I’m stood for 10-15 mins at the Mobile Collect area. It’s now 15 minutes past the pre-advised collection time. The three members of staff all watching me stand there waiting…

After waiting Approx 15 mins I ask “just checking you have my mobile order?” As I’ve noticed literally everyone in the regular and drive thru queues being served before me with no sign of my drinks…

Manager advises the following:

“We didn’t know you had arrived” “We only make the drinks on mobile orders once we know you are here” “The system doesn’t tell us when to make your order”

It became clear that my mobile order ticket had been sat at the printer the whole time I was stood at the mobile collect area without being worked on.

Manager proceeds to finally make the drinks but gets the order wrong. Makes the drinks hot instead of iced. Again, no acknowledgement for time wasted/taken. The ticket/order stated Iced so attention to detail was missed.

This whole process makes NO sense. I’ve mobile ordered for speed/convenience, why would I then alert the store when arrived to only then start making the order?!

Nobody thought to ask me if I’m waiting on something? (Having just appeared at the mobile order area).

Nowhere states that after ordering and arriving in store I need to make my arrival known..

Manager acknowledged it makes no sense but offered no real apology or service rescue. Instead it was just “how it is”.

I’m a loyal customer and use mobile ordering worldwide (incl U.K.) so I know this isn’t right. Never has it ever been this way. You order on the App. It tells you the Approx wait time, it’s your responsibly to then arrive by at least that time. Drinks should automatically be at mobile collect or shortly after (if busy!).

The store are not operating per Starbucks standards.

Food was also dry.

Such a shame as a brand new store with a drive thru was...

Today marked my second visit to this particular Starbucks, a decision motivated by the hope that my initial bad experience was a one-off situation. Regrettably, this visit only solidified my previous impressions, with the service quality showing no signs of improvement.

The first major issue was the unavailability of eggnog at 11:30 AM. Being told that its popularity led to early depletion is unacceptable and indicates poor planning. One would expect a well-run establishment to adequately stock seasonal favorites, especially during peak hours.

Furthermore, I encountered a significant problem with my order. I paid for a venti drink, yet the quantity I received was comparable to a grande. This not only raises questions about the value for money but also reflects a concerning lack of attention to detail in service.

Given these consistent issues, I am compelled to state that this will likely be my last visit to this Starbucks location. The subpar service and failure to meet basic customer expectations are disappointing. I strongly suggest that management considers additional training for the staff to rectify these...

Really wanted to like this place and so have given it many more tries than it deserves. It's always a really long wait, in store or drive thru, they constantly get our drink orders wrong, unless it's one particular guy who is really good. We resorted to ordering on the app from their car park in the hope they might get it right but yet they still can't and I always have to ask them to remake the drinks. Today was the final straw, ordered two drinks, they made them both incorrectly. When I asked them to remake them they told us to park in the waiting bay so we couldn't see what they were doing and then only remade one of the drinks and handed us the same incorrect drink as if they had remade it. It's iced, it had melted, same container with no label on, daughter drinks it regularly and knows exactly what it should taste like, after a wait it was the same incorrect, now melted, drink. Give it a miss unless you really like the surprise of not knowing what drink you'll get despite ordering the same thing each time. Costa drive thru...