Starbucks — Restaurant in Huntington Beach

I’m disappointed to be writing this review and fully expected to be coming to a five-star (or at least four-star) Yelp listing to write this. Not surprisingly, the overall review rating for this location matches the experience(s) I’ve had here. This Starbucks is far from that, “first sip feeling, customer service is everything,” vibe you’d expect from a Starbucks. Full details below.

What has consistently surprised me for so many years as a Starbucks enthusiast was their ability to replicate their quality customer service in every. single. location! Unfortunately, it seems like those core values of Starbucks franchise have dwindled along with the rest of the world at this location, because honestly, I live right next to this place and choose to drive upwards of 5-7 mins down the road (10-15 min round trip) to use another branch rather than this one. Every few trips that I come to this location (like 2 times out of 6 - AKA twice a week), I’m honestly triggered by the terrible customer service I experience; it’s just not worth it for convenience anymore, I’ll make the trip elsewhere.

What prompted this review was my disgusting experience I had last week here. Everyone knows mornings can be hectic, and yes, I’m sure we could all do a little bit better to plan out our day, but guess what … sometimes with kids, that just doesn’t happen. Time is of the essence! I was taking my niece to school and stopped at this location’s drive thru. Normally, depending on business flow, they have one entrance blocked off, and occasionally, a person standing outside to take orders. Even though this isn’t my favorite location, I’ve come here enough times to know the policies and try my best to adhere to them. On this particular morning, there was no cones blocking the drive thru and I did not see anyone outside. There were also no cars waiting in line behind me, only two in front of me. Definitely double checked as I always do. I pulled into the drive thru behind the two cars and waited 5-10 mins to place my order. When I got to the drive thru order screen, I was informed that I missed the person outside and would have to go all the way around the line again (mind you, with tons of cars now behind me)!!! Are you serious?!?? I just waited more than five minutes, have my niece in the car to go to school, + your cones weren’t placed properly and your outside order person was clearly not visible, yet I’m the one who has to go around?!?!? I very politely explained the situation and the drive thru person insisted she could not take my order. Instead of taking into account my customer experience and allowing me to place my order, this young barista on a power trip (who wouldn’t know customer service if it hit her in the face), tells me I have to go around and wait what looked like 20 more minutes. Can you even imagine?!? I get it if I had cut off some cars or purposely skipped the order person outside, but that fact that it was an HONEST mistake, and this little entitled person wanted to punish me for it, is downright disgusting. I will never be using this location again.

At this point in my review, I would typically call out the manager to please take action - but I can see from the plethora of other terrible reviews, customer service and care for the customer has long died and rotted at this location. I can only hope Starbucks Corporate sees this review and does something about this tarnish/degradation to...

We drove thru on 10-07-2021 at approximately 4:30pm. I ordered two coffees, a hot mocha size grande with coconut milk, and a hot pumpkin spice latte size grande. I also ordered 2 slices of pumpkin bread. After we drove away, we discovered that the pumpkin spice latte was actually a plain latte made with oat milk. My friend then realized, upon inspection, the lid had someone's lipstick on it, and it was not his. He does not wear lipstick. It is too late now, because he noticed after he already drank out of the cup. We are thoroughly disgusted. Probably what happened is that the guy at the window picked up one of the employees' drinks by accident, and gave it to us. We are now scared of getting sick. This kind of mistake could literally be deadly for someone in this world of Covid-19. We want a full refund. The manager needs to make sure this does not happen again, or I am calling the health department. Maybe the employee drinks need a different color lid so that this does not ever...

Came here on a rainy day and as a walk-up (they do not have an inside area), the customer service started off sub-par, but the drive thru had at least 7 cars waiting and three walk-ins, including myself, so I cut her some slack. I hope the staff was not discriminating against me, as a person of color, but they served the entire drive thru line and all the walk-ins, including an older White gentleman that came in AFTER me.

I waited about a minute before I realized the parking lot was empty and all the other walk-ins had left. I approached the window soaking wet and when the girl noticed me, she shouted across the room "can I help you?" at which point I merely replied, "my drinks?" to which she looked at her coworker almost in confusion (I was red in the face), after this - they made my drink and it was ready less than 2 minutes.

TLDR; received terrible customer service and drive thru preferred for...