Starbucks — Restaurant in Elizabeth City

On October 18, 2024 I stopped in with my mother for a cup of coffee. The drive thru was busy but there was no one in line at the counter, so we chose that route. I ordered an iced coffee, my mother a hot latte and we each chose a pastry. 10 minutes later I watched the person who was behind us receive their items. 15 minutes later I received my coffee and my mother received her pastry. When we had been waiting 29 minutes and I had saw others who arrived after we did receive their orders, I was concerned. I asked a barista if the other part of our order was coming and her response and mine were as followed:

Her: Do you not see that we’re only three people here? Me: I’m aware you’re short staffed, but people who arrived after we did are receiving their orders and half of ours is missing. It’s been over 20 minutes since we placed our order. Her: Well I am the only person on hot stuff (she said as she set down two frappes for more people behind us).

I’d put the rest of the conversation down, but you get the drift. Zero acknowledgment of the team bypassing my paid order for others and nothing but rudeness and defensive towards my very gracious question.

At that point, I threw my coffee in the trash and told her not to bother making the rest of my order — she could continue serving everyone else who’d arrived after we did. I took my mom and made my way to our locally owned coffee shop, Muddy’s, which always earns 5 stars from me and will receive my 2-3x weekly business.

This is HIGHLY disappointing. As a military spouse and nonprofit owner, Starbucks has always been a go to for their mission and support of those in need and our military community. While I was excited at the prospect of having another Starbucks in our small community; it seems as though your staff have no knowledge of customer service practice nor do they care if they harm your reputation. I would encourage you to fix this,...

I ordered 4 drinks on the mobile app. I did an inside pick up. Upon getting all 4 drinks I noticed one was half whip cream and mentioned this to the worker they turned away and mumbled something along the line it’s cream based which i understand but not half the drink ( wish I took a picture before I walked over to the register) the ask the other lady about this and she said no worries I’ll fix it and took the drink after waiting about 6 or 7 minutes she came back and gave me something totally different and I told her it didn’t look right and she looked and said sorry I’ll fix that again and I had to wait another 5 minutes or more for her to re do it since the other person wouldn’t fix it from the start. Then when i got to the car my husband notice his drink wasn’t right either and he went in to get it fix. The same lady had a very bad attitude and acted like she didn’t want to fix his. Crazy the prices you pay at Starbucks to only get bad service at this location and drinks that taste like blended...

Stopped here to reward my daughter. Did the drive thru, asked the lady, what is popular for children with no caffeine. Lady recommended a tall white chocolate chip frappuccino. My daughter loves it and does not want to throw it away because she wants to get every little bit out of the cup. My daughter has been asking to go here, it was her first time and she said she wants to go there again.

So glad we were able to stop here. I've seen this Starbucks during construction and when they put their name on and around the building. Drive thru was nice, modern, high tech, beautiful new landscaping and fast! Lady that helped me to decide what to get for my daughter was really nice to talk to and the young man that handed the frappuccino to me was nice as well. Contactless payment (Google Pay, Apple Pay)...