Starbucks — Restaurant in Wakefield

It has long been a mystery to me why people were fooled in Hans Christian Andersen's folktale The Emperor's New Clothes, to actually believe they COULD see his new clothes!!!! Well today I met the equivalent of this well-loved tale. My husband and I were asked to join some friends to have coffee at Starbucks on Heath Common. We both had reservations about this as we had only experienced coffee in Starbucks a good few years ago and were so under impressed by the tasteless coffee that this is the first time we have crossed a Starbucks threshold since then. We really do wish we could understand how so many people can bear to drink what can only be described as flavoured water and be happy to pay £3.34 for a small Americano. We both adore coffee and it is the only hot drink I have. We like it strong with no milk or sugar and know our coffee beans. To say we were appalled by what Starbucks serve is an understatement-how have they managed to garner such a following? Is it a fact, just as in Andersen's tale, that no one dare admit that they actually can't see what is good about it? To add to the ghastly coffee there is absolutely no atmosphere in the place-it resembles an aircraft hanger. The din from the scraping chairs and the volume of people's conversations (including ours because we had to raise our own voices to make ourselves heard between the four of us) and a young couple with an extremely loud barking dog which they obviously had no control over but seemed to find amusing, all added to a most unpleasant experience. I paid by card but was most surprised that my friend couldn't pay with cash. What on earth is that all about?I suppose Starbucks will say it's for staff safety because no cash is kept on the premises. In conclusion, Starbucks should get to the Greggs school of coffee making and anyone who doubts this should give it a whirl. You'll be most surprised if you actually are brave enough to taste...

This is one of the places I usually run to, and seem to always enjoy but not today. Today was the first time I’ve been unhappy with the customer service. One of the employed seemed to have an attitude towards me, not sure why?

Time 09:23:18. I ordered a “Venti Strawberry Acia Refresher” she didn’t warn me that they’d run out of the actual strawberries 🍓, I had my own Starbs cup, so I handed it to her, of which she gave me half of the drink claiming it’s a Venti, complete filled it with just ICE! For £5+ so I told her to remove the ice and top it up, removing the ice, it wasn’t even a full small cup.

I asked her to top it up to the full Venti (there’d still be room for ice with my own cup) but guess what! She literally offered to just add more lemon instead. so I basically paid £5+ for pink lemonade.. it was awful but I pretended, left it and sat down like it was all okay.

I then decided to order the same drink, but another employee served me this time. That one too didn’t have the actual strawberries 🍓 (I was already aware of this but they’d just had a delivery,) or at least charged less if some of the ingredients are out of stock.

The whole point of ordering another drink, was to see what they do differently. I got no apologies, and neither did they think to offer a different/ similar drink.

Even though I’ve had good experiences in the past, today’s customer service involved two different employees with just one worse than the other.

First of all she could have given me a full drink to make up for the missing ingredients, apologised for not telling me in advance and mainly her (first CS)’s attitude made the whole experience worse.

Imagine I’d only gone there to make my day better it made...

Saturday morning. Excellent service and a friendly welcome from all the staff. Although there were two people in the queue in front of me in store and a queue of cars at the drive through, I was served very quickly and my drinks were ready in a matter of minutes. Store was very clean and tidy. Will definitely return

Subsequent early morning visits since my initial review (above) have been mixed, which is why I've downgraded from 5 stars to 3.

Some mornings the staff have been amazing, remembering my order and having a bit of a pleasant chat.

Others, not so much. Recently they had issues with the tills, which I appreciate can't be helped. Nevertheless, they insisted on prioritising drive thru customers that had arrived after me, keeping me waiting for 20 minutes, despite only one couple in front of me in store. By that stage was running late, so left without placing an order.

Despite a banner by the main road advising that they open at 05:00, a member of staff informed me that they now open at 06:00, so I will no longer be able to get a drink from this outlet on...