The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf — Restaurant in California

Bad coffee and strange tipping practice.

I got some flavored coffee and bakery item. Nothing great, I wanted to see if they are better than other drive thru coffee chains, but no such luck.

Before I got handed my coffee they asked for a payment and handed me a terminal... A credit card terminal with a long wire attached that ran between the building and my car.

Now I've never seen this before, usually you either hand them the card or they hold the terminal while you swipe the card or the terminal is attached somewhere within reach.

The reason they hand you the terminal, the only reason, is because you are prompted to enter a tip. You can do 20% or 100% or the entirety of your 401k balance.

The problem with this is that:

1. it really holds up the line since each person now has to decline to tip or select a tip. Generally you go through the drive thru to save time, purposefully adding a delay is kind of defeating the purpose

2. this terminal gets handled by every single customer and I doubt that it's getting disinfected between uses.

Please get rid of that, we have touch less ways to pay for a reason. Get a tip jar, or a QR code that lets people tip or an app.

This way people can eat their food without touching something that thousand of handled without an opportunity to wash their hands.

Management, hope you enjoyed my review.

How much would you like to tip me?

1. $5
2. $10
3. $250
4. other

After you've selected an option, go lick a...

Every single time I have ever come into coffee bean the iced water has been free OR they NEVER told me they charged extra. Plus I have come in before to pick up an app order and asked for an iced water. They have never charged me. The other day I added an iced water in the notes for my app order and it was included, no charge at all when I came in. I told the girl tonight I ordered in the app the other day and I was not charged. She said “oh we have always charged but we were just nice enough to make it for you before you came in”. Maybe for as long as she knows. I’m not putting $0.25 on my debit card. I said “ok well still. I wasn’t charged the other day” while I was walking over to pick up my drink. She turned around and walked off. Usually the straws are next to the pick up shelf but they weren’t so I asked for a straw. Twice. No response. She kept her back to me the entire time. She had her back to me. Plus she shouldn’t have said “oh well we were just nice”. Really? That’s a response? Could have handled it better. I have been coming to this location 5-6 days a week for months now. I even go out of my way to come here while passing at least 3 Starbucks. I highly doubt customer service will do anything about this let alone even care. That’s why I didn’t even bother with...

Expensive. And BTW you should know , if you don't wear a mask while in the drive through they won't give you your order. Meanwhile I spent several minutes looking for a mask in my vehicle sitting at the window. Oh yeh I've been fully vaccinated for months. I'm removing one more star for the last couple of poor experiences in the drive through. I'll look for a new place that is more understanding of EVERYONE'S needs. Update you can go inside now . It's been awhile so I'm giving them another try. Inside is ok but needs cleaning attention in the morning. The bathrooms are filthy, I just hate washing up in a dirty sink. The hot drinks are pretty good as are the snacks. The service is mostly ok but seriously dry. I'm going to come back a couple more times to see if I can improve my rating. Yeah been back several more times , I really need to find another place . It's still dirty the staff hasn't improved at all. Oh yeah there's no napkins anywhere, you have to ask. Now when they spill part of your drink what the what are you supposed to do? I had to stand there waiting for someone to bring...