Starbucks — Restaurant in South Euclid

I’m writing to share my recent experience at your store on September 12th around 3:26 PM, which was unfortunately very negative.

From the start, the interaction felt off. At the drive-thru, the employee taking my order was not customer-friendly. When I arrived at the window, I greeted her with “Hi, how are you?” twice. The only response I received was “huh,” followed by silence as she closed the window.

When I handed her payment, there was confusion about the total. I thought she said $10.01, so I gave her $20.01. My change came back as $9 and some change, which suggested I had misheard her. I politely asked what the total was, but instead of answering, she closed the window again. About 30 seconds later, she returned with a receipt, still saying nothing.

Another employee brought my drink, and I asked to speak with the manager. She identified herself as the shift manager, Tiana. I explained the situation and shared how rude the first employee had been. Tiana looked confused and wasn’t able to provide me with the store manager’s name.

For reference, the employee at the window was named Essence (if I heard correctly). She had red hair and a nose ring.

This experience was frustrating because basic courtesy was missing at every step. No greeting, no communication, no clarity about my order or change. If Tiana was in fact the manager on duty, she didn’t handle the complaint professionally either.

At that point, I did not even trust the drink I had been given and chose not to drink it. Instead, I went to 7 Brew on Mayfield, less than five minutes away, where the service was polite, professional, and welcoming. The drink was also less expensive and excellent in quality. The difference in service between the two locations was stark.

I’ve always associated Starbucks with good customer service, but this visit was the opposite. I hope this feedback is taken seriously so that employees are trained to show respect and communicate with customers, even during busy shifts. Needless to say, I won't be...

Say what you want about Sbux but I really do love treating myself to it on occasion, and having this here is great.

Edit: It’s weird how angry employees can get here over things you did wrong. Apparently there is a correct way to order and a correct order in which to do things at the window. I am told that it says it in the app what to do. This is technically true, but it is hidden on a page not used in the checkout process. Further all it says is “Tell your barista when you want to use stars…” and does not tell you that the employees will get nasty with you if they haphazardly scan your payment before you can utter a syllable of any sort of question. However, you won’t be able to get even into the realm of a full sentence of star usage before their rushed scanning somehow creates a system issue that won’t allow them to function in any sense, semblance or fashion of the idea of an even neutral response. Look, I don’t even ask for basic politeness. I just ask not to be harassed when buying coffee about a protocol that I could only know about if I was told. Sure, now I know so I guess I was told eventually. It just seems like it could have been done without being such a jerk about it.

There is something strange about the east vs west side, in that I am never berated when buying coffee, and I dunno… that seems to be indicative of a larger issue...

EDITED to say that I haven't had any more issues with this Starbucks location. They were too new and must not have realized that they should have just filled my drink order but corporate refunded me and so all is good. I've order from this location at least for times since this incident and have not had any issues since.

I was so disappointed today. I will admit that I accidentally sent my order to a different location but usually when that happens (and I talked to several ppl who said the same thing) that the location you're at will confirm your order and give it to you there. While we were getting my niece's order I asked them what do I need to do to get a refund. Not sure if he was a manager but he told me to call the store I placed the order with and they'll issue a refund. He told me that they're not able to give a refund. I wasn't looking for them to call, my question was what do I do to get my money back. He then repeated himself and at this point I felt that he was trying to start an argument so I just drove off. I did contact the other store and they were unable to issue a refund but told me to contact corporate. My refund was issued by corporate but this morning's experience at this South Euclid location left a bad taste with me. I'm hesitant to go back after this but I'll just...