Costa Coffee — Restaurant in Scotland

My husband and I stopped here for some take-away coffees and sandwiches to continue our road-trip with and it wasn't a great experience. When I first went in, I could see there was a long queue and the place in general was fairly busy (expected for one of very few coffee places in the middle of Gretna!). The sandwich area was very messy and jumbled up; paninis dropped in amongst prepacked sandwiches, etc. which made it difficult to find two of the same thing! When it FINALLY came to my order being taken, the member of staff on the till wasn't exactly friendly or welcoming and instead made me feel like she just needed me moved on. Order made (nothing excessive - 2 drinks, 2 paninis to heat up, a sandwich and a cup of water), I moved on to the waiting area where trays and drinks were basically being stacked and crashed into one another, which caused quite a bit of confusion amongst customers. Two of our drinks arrived in front of us and we continued to wait. I noticed the sandwich we ordered (the prepacked one) had been placed in a bag and kept aside and, when we were given an odd look from a member of staff, I reminded her that we were still waiting on our paninis. She then grabbed these, placed them in a separate bag and when I told her the other bag belonged to us too, she denied it and said "that's for someone else". I said our cold sandwich had been put in it and she - quite literally - grabbed it and checked then asked another member of staff if it was mine! Eventually, we were given the second bag and then as we waited again, we got given another odd look and asked if we needed something. I said we were still waiting on a cup of water and again, it was inconvenient for them, so they whipped one up and pushed it across to us, without so much as an apology or a "thanks for waiting" or even a "goodbye". I can quite honestly say, I've been in more mainstream, busier Costas and had a much better experience, so I was disappointed and it did wind us up a little. Like I said...

Understaffed. Tables dirty. 1 young man serving clearing & taking the flak! We ordered two breakfasts & they were cold we complained. Young man took them back & returned later they were still cold. They were frying crusts for fried bread too & were as tough as old boots. If we were not hungry, we wouldn't have eaten any, but as we were, we ate some. Went to customer services complained and asked where the manager was & said he should be in the cafe helping as the young man serving was taking all the flak so unfair! The managers explanation was that he had just come on shift & he couldn't get staff. I did sympathise but told him he should be in there leading by example. After working in catering for years, starting at the bottom & working my way up ladder to the top. I know from experience that if you carry the staff that are not up to the job, you lose the good staff because you're expecting the good staff to carry the bad ones. If you open your doors as a cafe & you can not fulfil the remitt, your reputation goes down the pan. It's the worst meal we have had anywhere. The manager did offer us a full refund, which was gratefully accepted, but we would rather have had a nice meal & experience. It was so cold too how the staff worked in the cold I'm presuming by chasing their tail all day. I'm not sure if staff would even get a break as no one to substitute for them. Please do some restructuring recruiting & staff training & support. If staff are treated this way, you will be closing café soon. That may be a good idea if management is not able or prepared to put in the effort to sort this. Someone will end up with food poisoning soon! Shut up cafe now & sort the issues & try again if you can not do this close permanently. Sorry. 10 yrs ago, this was a good cafe. Sorry for the bad review, but people deserve to know. My partner wouldn't eat...

Honestly! Stopped for coffee on Tuesday.just before lunch. Was greeted by a very personable young man. If I had a business I would seriously consider offering him a job. The problem with my visit was who I assume the woman in charge (the barista). The way she treated the two young men behind the counter boarded on abuse. Although one of the staff gave her the order she was too busy making merriment with two other customers who I assumed she knew well so she never took notice although he did tell her twice of our order. She then proceeded to make out he had lied by saying he’d never passed the order on. I then told her she was in the wrong and in fact he had twice. At that point she looked at me with utter disgust and then proceeded to give me the wrong coffee. I decided against complaining as I felt the young man would get the backlash later. Surely in this day and age treatment of young members of staff in this way is completely unacceptable. Regular visitor to Costa at Gretna or should I now say...