And this is why I’ve had 4 interviews this week alone!!! I’m done, I’m done with them treating us like this. You didn’t do anything, she needed something to be mad about.

I have a guy come through dt and order a raspberry white mocha. We were down to one bar so I make it and it’s handed off. 3 minutes later a guy comes storming in and slams down the drink on the counter saying it isn’t right. Couldn’t give me anything descriptive, just it wasn’t right. He off handedly made a comment that I should give him a free drink coupon for the trouble and I point blank said no. I’m remaking his drink and those coupons are for more serious issues. (This was back like 7 years ago before we started bowing down to every customer)

He takes the drink and leaves. 1 minute this time he is back fuming. Running his mouth that I can’t seem to do my job correctly and it’s not that hard of a drink to make. Again he can’t give me anything specific. Too sweet, not sweet enough, too hot? Give me something to work with! So once again I make the drink the same way as the prior 2 times. I hand it to him and he’s super snarky and says ‘I’m gonna check it right now since can’t seem to get it right and I expect a free drink coupon if it’s wrong again’ He takes the lid back off and looks into it. Que anger again. Im thinking ‘wtf is his problem?! He didn’t even drink it!’ I ask what is wrong with it. He thrusts it in my face and says ‘LOOK! ITS OBVIOUSLY NOT RIGHT AGAIN!’

He screams ‘It’s not pink!!’ That’s when I realized the issue.

‘Sir we reformulated our Raspberry syrup and it’s no longer red. It’s clear now.’

He just shuts down right in front of my eyes. Like he realized he was flipping his shit over nothing. He tries to put the blame back on me and say ‘well you should have told me that earlier.’ To which I responded ‘Normally people actually taste the drink before telling me its wrong’

I just stand there and look at him not saying another word. He puts the lid on, diverts eye contact and just turns around and leaves hopefully feeling like shit.

having to remake drinks because people say they don’t look right is the ABSOLUTE worst. i once had to remake a green tea frappuccino TWICE because the idiot in the drive through said that it wasn’t green enough (and obviously i was just making it with the standard 4 scoops for a venti).

I really plan on quitting soon, Starbucks has decent benefits but what you receive from customers and management is pathetic and does not suffice for the benefits. Fuck Starbucks

It's probably all the green beans not knowing how to correctly make her drink and never asking how to actually make it so they just guess and she likes that better. It's happened often at my store to the point where I haven't put any green beans on bar unless I'm standing with them because they don't care to ask for help no matter how many times I've told them to.

honestly see if they are stirring the strawberry açaí juice in the pitcher… a lot of times if CS isn’t doing that the drinks come out watery regardless

I'm sorry you had to deal with idiots again today.

Yeah that was me towards the end of my barista tenure. We hired so many people at once and a lot of them were high school kids looking for easy money before they graduated. I've always been a homie and felt more at home in the later shifts (even though I did my time with constant morning shifts) because I know it always needs help and with all these kids joining I know the shifts and few experience baristas were not going to have a fun time. It was rare towards the end when I wasn't on bar. Either in the afternoons or evening to close I had. To. Bar. And nothing else. EVER. I even became a trainer and trained a good bunch of the new people (which one of them I trained became a shift!! SO PROUD!) Which in turn because of so many people at once not only did I have a mix of customers who would yell at me for "making their drink wrong" I also had some of the noobies that just could not get the register down or weren't asking all the necessary questions. I tried to tell them and teach them as best and nice as I can (without the evening solo bar frustration coming out. Especially with our location.) But I can't tell you how many 3 to 4+ drinks orders I had to remake multiple times with no help. It was getting ridiculous. Seriously. I pushed through as much as I could training people because I broke. I had to move on. I couldn't continue with the constant abuse and the all around shit going on. I at least left making that difference and leaving good people behind to take my spot. I thankfully left on good terms with a lot of people. Some of which I'm still friends with today.

Really the moral of the story is to just get out as soon as possible. Everyone is different but that honestly is the best thing I could say. We know it's hard, but starbucks isn't life...

I’m so sorry people treated you that way. Being on bar day after day isn’t easy, either. I swear, the customers are getting ruder by the week. It makes no sense.

I actually think some people get a kick out of complaining/shouting, an even bigger one if they get something free out of it.
Stores/hospitality are an easy target, especially huge corporations cos remaking a drink, for example, is not a big waste of money to them.
It's a more acceptable form of bullying and its messed up.

Tbh the manager should have told her to fuck off.

Fuck that horrible woman saying ridiculous things to you Don’t let that asshole bring u down. It’s a DRINK. I LIFT U UP.

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I’m so sorry. You don’t deserve that.

She thought that the color was wrong either because the color is different now that the strawberry acai base is different (I haven't noticed a difference in color, myself), because the color will differ depending on how many strawberries are in it, or because other baristas have been making it wrong (maybe they think the new strawberry acai base doesn't need water added to it in the shaker? It's such a simple drink that's the only thing I can think of that they would do wrong).

She should have been told to leave. Is your manager aware that she was verbally abusing you?

Tell your manager you're tired of working bar all the time.

Okay so, it could be that you need more strawberry dust or pieces in the drink. I first noticed it in the mango dragonfruit, and it definitely happens in the strawberry acai though not as dramatically. If you get a lot of dust or tiny pieces in the drink, it'll be darker. More whole pieces instead and it'll be lighter. I think you may also be right that the old mix was a darker color to begin with, but when you put the pieces in there dig to the bottom to get a few smaller pieces as well, and feel free to tell people the longer the berries soak the darker the drink will be.

Sounds like you figured out the problem.

You made the drinks correctly per recipe, but used wrongly made or not-stirred mixers, resulting in weak colored/flavored drinks.

Do you shake your milks before pouring? Or just hope for the best each time you make a drink?

Time to review mixers being made, to recipe and stir them before pouring if it's settled in un-even color.

I wouldn't serve anything that doesn't look right.