It was Saturday the 4th of November 2006 and my fiance and I were having a coffee at a well know coffee house not far from were we live. Starbucks is world famous for coffee and new shop had opened up and we were keen to give it a try.

Now before I go on and tell you why we will never go back there again, please let me explain that the staff themselves gave us the sort of service we wanted, smiles and hello’s is what we expected and thats exactly what we got.

Lisa and I visit coffee shops regularly and we both regard ourselves as yuppies or toffs just because we like a great cup of coffee. No we are both addicted to the buzz and enjoyment you get from a delicious cuppa.

Starbucks, you would expect would have a decor well researched to give their clients the atmosphere of culture, sufictication and a lay back modern mood. Extremely clean and mood enhacing by a better than plain selection of piped music. 10/10 for the decor, but 3/10 for the cleanliness and 3/10 for the music.

It wasn’t until I had gone up and retrieved our prepared coffee, which brings up another gripe. I paid $7 for 2 Capucinos, expensive when you consider you had to get the coffee yourself and take it back to your table. However that was small criticism compared to the cleanliness issue. We sat in a corner near an open window, beside us were 2 salesmen discussing the closure on a sale they had made that day. Opposite them was an empty table with cups, napkins and half finished pastries. On the floor was pieces of another cake that some child had dropped on the floor and then stepped on. Behind us was 3 tables with left over empty coffee cups, half eaten biscuits and and empty bottle of Coke. On the floor were about 20 McDonald chips and two slices of gurkin, obviously take from a hamburger.

I have to tell, you this place looked like a burger joint after a kids birthday. The place was nearly empty, so there was no rush of customers to stop the staff from cleaning up. Infact 2 male staff members were discussing what they had got up to the night before while one female staff member giggled and proceeded to make an ordered Capucino.

I don’t like bad customer service and I have been know to tell a frowning staff member to lift their game while they serve me and cleanliness is number one on my list, especially if I am paying top dollar for my coffee. You do expect bad service in some fish and chip shop, but not in a franchised American corporation.

I don’t know if all the Starbucks Coffee Shops are the same. I don’t intend to find out. We didn’t like our first visit and first impression are important, so no Mr starbuck, you have just lost 2 coffee drinkers who would have been willing to pay another 7 bucks for coffee if the floors and tables had of been clean.

Of course I can be pursuaded to go back again if you entice me Anyone esle had a bad or good experience at your local Starbuck? Tell us by filling out the Poll below or leaving a comment.

Authors Note: This article contains spelling errors, read at own risk.

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This entry was posted on Monday, November 6th, 2006 at 10:55 pm and is filed under Bad Customer Service. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.