Starbucks Baristas: The daily grind
↑
36
↓
Trenta Rant/need advice- Hate Speech from a Customer to Partner (self.starbucksbaristas)
submitted by drowninginristretto
I work at a store with no permanent SM or DM right now. The SSVs are essentially in charge of day-to-day operations.
Today a regular customer came in and was upset that their mobile order was taking a long time, which is fair, but their estimated wait time was 20-25 minutes. She was causing a stir, talking loudly in the cafe about how she had seen waiting for 30 minutes already (it was only 9 minutes based on DPM). I told her that we were running a 25-minute wait, but I had just gotten to the bar to try and fix it. I was churning out drinks, and she was swearing, “why is it taking so fu**ing long?!?”, telling other customers that this was ridiculous and generally complaining.
She kept asking where her drink was, so I told her that it was however many away, but she kept telling me that she was running late to something, which everyone was. I finally get her the drink, and she grabs it and says, “bout fu*king time.” and she stormed off.
One of my SSVs was coming into work, and the customer started telling my partner that I was the f-slur and that I was the worst and complaining aggressively towards her.
The SSV that the customer talked to clocked in and jumped on bar to get us caught up again. While we were at bar together, she told me what the customer had said about me. I no longer felt comfortable serving her, and many of my partners felt the same. The shift team collectively decided that we could not serve her the next time she came in. We filed our incident reports; we called our point SM, and we did everything that we usually would do.
She came in for her second drink of the day, and the SSV refused service to her but already had a store credit card for the value of her order ready. She asked for our manager's number, and she got it. The customer was not making us feel safe, and she has been causing problems at our store for years. We thought that this had settled everything.
The customer called the DM and threatened to sue, get us fired, and she was so angry. It escalated to the level of our point DM just allowing her back. Then we got a text from our DM telling us that we, the SSV team did the wrong thing, despite it being what we have done every time in the past.
She called me a slur, and I cannot serve her again; I don’t feel comfortable doing so.
Our point DM told us that we should have given her a verbal warning about her behavior, despite getting several of those in the past. There is a paper trail of her behavior dating back almost three years. Everyone on the SSV team wanted to call off tomorrow because we feel unsafe working. We feel as though we are being gaslit by our point DM, and they are taking the customer's side in this.
When I heard that this customer would be allowed back into our store, I literally couldn't stop crying. I had a mental breakdown, and I didn't know what to think. We were following the advice of our former DM, who knew and trusted us to handle the situation.
We asked if we were in trouble for refusing her service, something that I was taught to do in this situation during my SSV training, and they just gave a non-answer.
TL;DR: management is not supporting removing an abusive customer from our store. They told us we were wrong despite documented evidence of her swearing and using slurs at us.
What should I do?
Today a regular customer came in and was upset that their mobile order was taking a long time, which is fair, but their estimated wait time was 20-25 minutes. She was causing a stir, talking loudly in the cafe about how she had seen waiting for 30 minutes already (it was only 9 minutes based on DPM). I told her that we were running a 25-minute wait, but I had just gotten to the bar to try and fix it. I was churning out drinks, and she was swearing, “why is it taking so fu**ing long?!?”, telling other customers that this was ridiculous and generally complaining.
She kept asking where her drink was, so I told her that it was however many away, but she kept telling me that she was running late to something, which everyone was. I finally get her the drink, and she grabs it and says, “bout fu*king time.” and she stormed off.
One of my SSVs was coming into work, and the customer started telling my partner that I was the f-slur and that I was the worst and complaining aggressively towards her.
The SSV that the customer talked to clocked in and jumped on bar to get us caught up again. While we were at bar together, she told me what the customer had said about me. I no longer felt comfortable serving her, and many of my partners felt the same. The shift team collectively decided that we could not serve her the next time she came in. We filed our incident reports; we called our point SM, and we did everything that we usually would do.
She came in for her second drink of the day, and the SSV refused service to her but already had a store credit card for the value of her order ready. She asked for our manager's number, and she got it. The customer was not making us feel safe, and she has been causing problems at our store for years. We thought that this had settled everything.
The customer called the DM and threatened to sue, get us fired, and she was so angry. It escalated to the level of our point DM just allowing her back. Then we got a text from our DM telling us that we, the SSV team did the wrong thing, despite it being what we have done every time in the past.
She called me a slur, and I cannot serve her again; I don’t feel comfortable doing so.
Our point DM told us that we should have given her a verbal warning about her behavior, despite getting several of those in the past. There is a paper trail of her behavior dating back almost three years. Everyone on the SSV team wanted to call off tomorrow because we feel unsafe working. We feel as though we are being gaslit by our point DM, and they are taking the customer's side in this.
When I heard that this customer would be allowed back into our store, I literally couldn't stop crying. I had a mental breakdown, and I didn't know what to think. We were following the advice of our former DM, who knew and trusted us to handle the situation.
We asked if we were in trouble for refusing her service, something that I was taught to do in this situation during my SSV training, and they just gave a non-answer.
TL;DR: management is not supporting removing an abusive customer from our store. They told us we were wrong despite documented evidence of her swearing and using slurs at us.
What should I do?
Jaxammx 38 points 1y ago
I would call partner resources immediately, and contact your regional manager. Your DM is absolutely in the wrong. I would not serve her, and continue to write incident reports if she goes into the store and acts out.
Im sorry this happened to you.
Im sorry this happened to you.
b99__throwaway 17 points 1y ago
CALL PARTNER ETHICS and then call your RM and maybe a different manager in your district as well
Popperz4Brekkie 7 points 1y ago
Lol partner ethics doesn’t work. You’ll wait 3 months for a response, and the response won’t make sense or accomplish anything. Their ‘findings’ are not enforceable and everything gets kicked back to the DM for action. It’s all a gaslighting scam
b99__throwaway 5 points 1y ago
i should have clarified. calling partner ethics is another form of a paper trail. you cannot expect them to solve your problem for you, but it is a way to ensure it gets documented with the company without relying on someone else to do it. keep a log of what you talked about, the persons name, date, time, and your case number, and use that when you speak to anyone else
Popperz4Brekkie 1 points 1y ago
What a waste of time. It’s sad that Starbucks can brush this stuff under the rug with a never ending chain of paperwork and bureaucracy. It’s like when you call customer service and they keep transferring you to another department to not handle your issues
b99__throwaway 0 points 1y ago
i’m not saying it’s good or ideal, but if OP wants to cover their ass and get their problem dealt with, this is the best way to do that
Necessary_Low939 13 points 1y ago
I’ve would called the police and when they came refund her and say she’s not welcome anymore. If you’re in such a hurry, LEAVE why come here in the first place? What state is this? That bitch won’t try that shit in nyc
Metsfan07 5 points 1y ago
Easy continue to refuse to serve her anyway. DM can’t fire everyone
adolfop_420 5 points 1y ago
That’s insane yes first things first as soon as they start to be loud in the lobby call them out to calm down or else they can get their refund and get out before you call the police don’t give those people a single chance specially if you already know her to be like this it’s your old SM and DM fault for not making sure this person, that was known to be harassing partners, was getting banned from the store after that as soon as they walk in call the cops and that’s that. Now what you should definitely do right now is escale this to your regional manager and if they don’t like it then they can bring a SM and more importantly a DM because just how your store is being run by SSV(been there, done that as a SSV) it’s messy and hard when there is no tenure partners honestly it’s a little easier if you do have some but still there is only so much you have access to as a SSV they need to bring a DM and a SM because (no offense) your store sounds like a mess and I bet it’s a high incident store they need to get on it and if the people who are your point of contact are not solving anything always escale to partner resources and to the regional manager, there’s a reason the daily book has all the phone numbers you need in the very first page.
Seriously_jst_4real 4 points 1y ago
I am sorry that you and the rest of your team have had these encounters. If it is causing anxiety among your team I'd say anyone who feels that way should maybe call in, and if you have the sick time take it if you need it. Anxiety is a form of mental illness-and I say that having to file FMLA paperwork at my f.t. job-so it is not unreasonable to call in sick.
salaciainthedepths 3 points 1y ago
Omg. I am so angry on your behalf. Both at that customer and the DM and this company. I am so glad it sounds like you have a supportive team within the store! But this is inexcusable. Hate speech cannot be tolerated and you should be protected. Can you report her to your local law enforcement so they can give her a warning? It helps that you’ve previously documented her harassment.
Definitely report the DM to ethics. If all else fails, tell your story to the media, cheap tabloids will pay you and whether or not it gets your DM fired, it’s going to shame them and corporate might retrain staff. You would probably risk getting fired though.
Definitely report the DM to ethics. If all else fails, tell your story to the media, cheap tabloids will pay you and whether or not it gets your DM fired, it’s going to shame them and corporate might retrain staff. You would probably risk getting fired though.
drowninginristretto [OP] 2 points 1y ago
I reported her to ethics... So we will see what happens.
Thank you for your support :)
Thank you for your support :)
This nonprofit website is run by volunteers.
Please contribute if you can. Thank you!
Our mission is to provide everyone with access to large-
scale community websites for the good of humanity.
Without ads, without tracking, without greed.
scale community websites for the good of humanity.
Without ads, without tracking, without greed.
©2023 HumbleCat Inc • HumbleCat is a 501(c)3 nonprofit based in Michigan, USA.