Espresso Elevado — Restaurant in Plymouth

TLDR: Estimated wait time provided before ordering - 15mins; Wait time provided after order was placed 55mins; No text message or alert received when order was ready; Coffee was good, but establishment shows 0 respect for people's time - full story below:

I walked up to Espresso Elevado to place an order and used the QR scanner to do so - there was a warning that wait times can be "long" on Saturdays (they don't give any indication what "long" means), but when their site loaded on my phone, it showed an estimate of 15mins.

I went through and placed my order using Apple Pay (ordered just a 12oz Black Sheep black coffee), and was greeted with an estimated order ready time of 55mins. This much of a gap from the 15mins provided prior to placing the order is not acceptable. I double checked their site by going through the order process again, and the only estimate provided was still 15mins prior to ordering, so clearly they don't care to be accurate here. I also double checked their storefront while I was standing there and did not see any more accurate wait time on display anywhere.

This shows a massive lack of appreciation for people's time on behalf of the business. Maybe a 5-10min difference in estimate between prior to order and actual time received would be acceptable, 40 mins difference is just incompetence / lack of care from owners of the establishment.

To top it off, I never received an alert that my order was ready as the site said would be provided, I was lucky to be paying attention to my watch and made sure to be there at the time that was given to me after I placed the order. To the store's credit, my coffee was there at exactly the time I was given on my order receipt - and it was still hot. But what would have happened if I lost track of time and the alert never came as what happened with my order? Again, very bad business.

The coffee was good, but I'll never be going back here again. This coffee shop needs to put a lot more effort into providing accurate expectations as to your wait time PRIOR to placing an order, and when the wait time is close to an hour - put in extra effort that the customer sees and recognizes this. How is it their system gives me the accurate time after the order is placed and they have my money, but not before? Unacceptable.

EDIT:

Thanks to the owner for supplying a refund as noted in their reply, however entirely blaming their POS system is exactly where the issue lies. You can't write expected wait times on the chalkboard where people walk up to order? You can't give better idea what "long" means somewhere at the store? How about remove estimated wait times from your website if they can't be expected to be accurate, instead of setting a low wait expectation and then supplying a very long one?

You may not have control over your POS system at all times, but you have full control of your storefront. Do more than make excuses, please.

EDIT EDIT:

Also I should note, in your reply you state "The 15 minute estimate provided upon entry to our online store never reflects our actual wait time when things get backed up." This is admitting you knew this happens and have done nothing about it prior to my review. How does this show respect for people's time? I stand by my statement in my review as it...

I have been coming to Espresso Elevado for the past ~4 years now, and at one time I probably would have written a 5-star review. However, over the past year or so I have felt there has been a decline in the quality of coffee here. The service has always been solid, but maybe just a little withdrawn. There are some great baristas though, and I've had great conversations with a couple about their ratios, brew methods, the coffee, etc. The big thing knocking a star off for me is the roast quality of the coffee. I initially started coming to EE because they are a local roaster and had some really good coffees. I've probably never had GREAT coffee, but definitely some really, really good ones. The problem is that lately I find the roast to be consistently inconsistent, and the rotation of coffee selections lacking. I think they only offered one light roast from Rwanda for what seemed like a year. Then finally got an Ethiopian Yirgacheffe in stock, but when I bought a bag and brewed with the "light roast" beans they certainly did not seem like a light roast. It feels more like the roaster took them too far. Still a decent cup of coffee, but not what you would hope for from a high-quality bean.

It's probably a bit nitpicky to knock a star off for this (I even considered going down to 3-star review), but when you charge ~$5.00 for a 12oz black coffee, and some bags of beans are up to $32/lb ($24 for 12oz bag), I think it is fair to have high standards.

I will continue to buy from EE on a less regular basis to support a local business, but the truth is you can get better roasted, high quality coffees mail ordered these days for cheaper. For instance, I have a monthly subscription from a great roaster for $22/bag. I hope EE will continue to work on offering new coffees on a semi-regular basis, and the roasting returns to the quality and consistency I remember from...

The coffee was delicious and the shop is cute. But the service was subpar. When I go to a coffee shop I expect a pleasent experience and friendly atmosphere. We were not met with a "welcome" or "how can I help you?" and I know not everyone is super friendly, but these are basic customer service manners. We also asked the cashier "how are you?" and the answer we got was "I'm fine", no return of "thanks, how are you?" and maybe they were having a bad day, ok I'll let it slide. But as we sat and waited for our drinks, we were never told they were done...they just sat on the counter for who knows how long as the baristas just had their own conversation; we just happened to look over because we were here for work and needed to get going. There was also no one in front of us in line. Ok, maybe the norm here is the customer needs to pay more attention for their own order.. But when I asked if they had a straw (because I am clumsy and have spilled my coffee on my work clothes before) I was met with the answer from the barista "no it's a sippy cup top", which was obvious but again, a polite answer would have been along the lines of "no we don't carry those". We are in this area a lot for work and and this was our first experience here and are not eager to come back because of the atmosphere. We have always had great experiences at coffee shops around this area and it's a shame that this was the case here because the coffee was tasty, but we will be going back to those other places and recommending those to...