Starbucks — Restaurant in Los Angeles

This Starbucks engages in the unethical practice of charging more for coffee than their posted price. I’m guessing that they get away with it because of its airport location; a great deal of their customers are not local to LA, and those who get cheated are hard-pressed to come back to complain. Many times customers are in a hurry to catch their next flight (or their hotel shuttle or Uber), and just let the issue go since they have bigger plans that cannot be disrupted. And they have no real means of efficiently (or economically) returning to address the issue at the store. This particular Starbucks seems to be taking advantage of these factors, and are cheating airport customers.

I ordered a grande vanilla latté. The attached photo of the overhead menu above the register indicates the cost as $5.25. But if you look at the attached photo of my receipt, it indicates that I was charged $5.60 PLUS an extra 90 cents for vanilla syrup, costing a total of $6.50. I was overcharged $1.25 for my drink (which, if you do the math, is an additional 24% over their posted price for a vanilla latté — and my employee discount is only 10%).

While waiting for my drink, I looked over the receipt and noticed the overcharge, so I addressed it with the cashier. She said “That’s just how it is on the receipt, we HAVE to charge you separately for the vanilla on the receipt.” I challenged this, noting that I was overcharged for the coffee itself, which was more than the advertised $5.25 WITHOUT vanilla. Both she AND her coworker insisted that my order was rung up 100% correctly — and they insisted that the pricing on the menu above was INCORRECT, and that the wrongly published price was something beyond their control as employees. They didn’t seem any bit concerned about the discrepancy between the posted price and what they were actually charging.

Next, I chatted with Starbucks customer support on the app. The agent credited my account $6.41; I informed him that my GREATER concern, however, was the unethical practice the store was engaging in to overcharge their customers. I asked if my concern would be forwarded on to company administration — and it was at that point when the agent stopped responding to me. Every two minutes the chat gave a warning message that our session was about to time out, and asked if I was still there. I stayed online for another 20 minutes (repeating every two minutes) before I allowed the session to time out.

Next I talked with a customer service agent via phone support. After explaining the situation to the agent, I indicated my GREATER concern of corporate investigating the practices of the airport store. As a paying customer I told him I needed ASSURANCE that my concern was addressed, requesting that I be contacted with the outcome of the investigation. The agent said he could not do that. He insisted that there was no one who could follow-up with me.

Frustrated, I agreed that I did not need to know any details or EVEN the outcome; I simply needed to know ONLY that “Ms. X of Starbucks corporate” contacted “Mr. Z of the Airport store” on “(date)” — assuring me that someone had taken measures to address the situation. I pointed out if he could not do it himself, he could at least refer me to the appropriate person. He said that sadly he could not do that for me. In response, I said that if he could not provide me with any assurances that my concern was addressed, I would be left with no other option than to warn others on review sites about my experience, and notifying them that the store was unethically misinforming the public of their prices — and that Starbucks corporate may OR may not have addressed the situation. I mentioned that issuing a warning on review sites could be perceived as bad publicity for the company, and that it could be avoided SIMPLY by giving me an assurance that my concern was being addressed (not too much to ask, in my opinion). The service agent did not seem to care about the issue, and at that point we ended the call as there was nothing more that...

ZERO STARS!! The women working at this Starbucks don’t emulate the company motto in the slightest, they’re the rudest biatches I’ve EVER encountered ANYWHERE. I bought a coffee cake and kindly asked for our water bottles to be filled, which is allowed and welcomed at ANY OTHER STARBUCKS (to reduce waste) except this one. They wouldn’t even let us GET venti ice waters, basically refusing to serve us, stating company policy which is a flat out lie. I’m a business traveler who has traveled all around the US and have NEVER been met with such hostility at a Starbucks EVER. My daughter and I were kind, polite and prepared to tip well (as we usually do) so don’t think for a second we must’ve done something to deserve this kind of treatment. We’re just 2 white woman trying to get a treat and some water at an airport. The snooty cashier conceded to “letting us” get grande ice waters but the black woman with long orange hair at the bar deliberately snubbed us and made everyone else’s drinks instead. It was so obvious the way we were being mistreated that 2 other women traveling noticed and began talking to us about it. One of them said we were clearly being discriminated against while the other said “you’d think you just pissed in their coffee instead of asking for some damn water”, it was that bad. We finally walked away after standing there empty handed for over 15 mins when there was only one patron ahead of us when we arrived. Just to test our discrimination theory, I asked my Mexican son in law to go back and ask for a water to see if they’d treat him the same. Guess who came back with ice water in hand in less than 7 mins later and he said they were totally nice to him!! Shame on whoever is managing this location, let alone the franchise owner, who allows these women to treat ANYBODY in such a manner. I’ve been a Gold Card member since 2003 and just threw away my beloved gold card in the airport trash, free lattes be damned. Starbucks will NEVER get another dime from me again. EVER. It just takes ONE incident and/or ONE bad experience to turn someone off forever. I...

After waiting 17 minutes for my order, with only 3 people ahead of me, I asked if my drink was still in que. Many drinks had gone out before me (who ordered after me) and my flight boarding was coming up. I was told "sorry the machine's broke". I asked if there was anything they could do because my flight boarded soon and the barista said "you'll have to call the 1-800 number." What 800 number? Can I just get a refund? I have to go. "I don't know." She then turned to another barista and started talking about me like I wasn't there. "I don't know this guy wants his drink and there's nothing I can do the machine is broke and I was nice." A) she wasn't nice, she was dismissive and B) she was not helpful or informative nor did she offer to make it right for me. I asked several baristas for help and they all ignored me and talked about me like I wasn't there. An airport manager, standing in line, overhead me asking for help, as there was no 800 number I could find in the app, stepped in and offered a refund. The baristas kept saying they couldn't do that but he proceeded and helped me. The baristas here need retraining in customer service. I was the opposite of surprised and delighted. Thank you to the airport manager...