Yes lol. If they use profanity or raise their voice we have a right to refuse service. You’ll get your sugar lemonade tea when you can ask for it politely like an adult

Make sure you file an incident report to cover yourself! Building paper trails against these people and their behavior will go a long way for you, especially if your SM or DM are called into the situation.

Whenever I have a customer order a medicine ball I always reply “sure of course a honey citrus mint tea anything else for you today?” And if there’s ever any confusion I just let them know that we can’t legally call it medicine since there’s no medicinal qualities in it. I do believe you did the right thing tho OP

You're welcome to refuse if they use any profanity whatsoever. It was on a weekly update a loooooooong time ago at the height of COVID I believe.

This is a tough one, I’m kind of in the middle on this. On one hand, you got every right to refuse service when people are bein assholes and I’m all for that. On the other hand, it’s fairly common where I’m from for people to call it a medicine ball or sick tea, so I would’ve just punched in the honey citrus without a second thought.

This drink was a secret menu drink called the medicine ball (peppermint, honey) Starbucks a few months later called it the honey citrus mint tea (honey blend). Which we only press one button for it.

Don’t tolerate rude behavior. But be careful with your battle because Starbucks corporate may aside with the customer will this one. It happened at my store. And the partner got written up with 5 yrs of experience.

We’re so good at choosing our battles

All these people saying "just make the damn drink you know what it is" read the post. Yeah, we know what it is, but letting them know that the drink they're getting is going to be rung up as a HCMT and will say that on the tag helps clarify confusion for them at the window. You hear them say medicine ball, and you put in HCMT. Easy. This isn't a case on name debate, it's the fact that the customer refused to accept the drink because it's called something different to us, and she became aggressive over it. And yes, you could also just give her the tea and let it be, but denial of service is up to the discretion of those involved, and if that's their choice then so be it. What you did is perfectly fine OP, good job at trying to de-escalate first and then doing what you needed to.

The more you refuse service for inappropriate, rude, disrespectful behavior, the better. You’re helping create a positive and respectful environment for your store and there’s nothing wrong with that. Please make sure you are filling out an incident report every-time you refuse service with these customers. Make sure to include the exact phrases these customers are using.

When customers order a medicine ball I generally repeat it back as the HCMT. If they try to correct me that they want the medicine ball or are confused, I explain that the actual name of the drink is Honey Citrus Mint Tea because it doesn't have actual medicine in it and that before it was officially on the Starbucks Menu, people called it the Medicine Ball. Even the people who belligerently say they want the Medicine ball, usually calm down when I explain it that way. I sometimes even throw in a "It's best to ask for a HCMT because sometimes newer baristas don't know it by the unofficial name"

I would have told her that our version is called Honey Citrus Mint Tea instead of presenting that we didn’t have a drink called that. I think things would have gone smoother and without anger or swearing

I’m not sure why it’s important she call it by the proper name if you understand what she wants to order. If someone came through drive through and ordered a “red eye” would you tell them they need to order a pike with a shot or would you give them their coffee? Part of what we do is knowing the popular nicknames for drinks.
You do not need to put up with abuse from customers though. Im sure it was probably someone confirming they were making the correct drink but it’s very common for people to order a medicine ball in my area so it’s an expectation that partners know what that is.

This is the kinda worst battle to pick. Yall knew what she meant and could have just made for an engaging conversation at the window about secret menu items becoming official starbucks offers if you were feeling so inclined but there’s not really a reason to say you “dont have” the medicine ball when we all know they names are virtually interchangeable.

That said, i don’t fault you for refusing service when she decided to be a brat about it and throw a tantrum. More people deserve to have service refused when they get told no and decide to make an ass out of themself.

Never in my four years have I or anyone I worked with corrected someone when they ask for a Medicine Ball. It’s really not that deep

Refuse service if people are being rude, but honestly you should have just made the drink in the first place. These are customers, they aren't going to memorize the whole menu and honestly look at the state of America right now, good luck trying to explain to someone that due to legal issues and the ethicality of mass branding that the name had to change from this recognized name to one they won't remember anyways.

I hate that drink so much. People are so extra about it.

Funny enough, I’ve never known it as medicine ball, even before I worked at Starbucks, I only ever knew it as the honey citrus mint tea, when I first started working and ppl called it a medicine ball, I had absolutely no clue what the heck that was. Why is it called a medicine ball?

Personally this would have been a case where I’d just go with what she thought it was called. Pick the battles where ya can. Sometimes the customer just isn’t worth the hassle.

I wish I could snap back at a customer

If you curse at you’re done. You can deal with the manager, that’s well above my pay grade. And we have a literally infinite amount of drinks and very high turnover it’s important that people know the right names of things good on you 👍🏻

Sometimes I just don’t correct them if it’s something I know and they just wanna call it that. It’s like when they say small medium large. I can’t give two shits to correct them on that. Gotta choose your battles sometimes. However, I would correct them if they are trying to say the barista made it wrong just so they can save a few dollars. It’s not that I wanna save the company’s money, it’s them exclaiming we are wrong and having us to do more work.

I understand why u refuse the service, because she was nasty. However it’s just unnecessary to correct customers on something like this.

y’all are some babies, it’s literally in our job description not only to make drinks and serve them, but to know what exactly we’re serving to the customers. that goes for the proper name of the product, the recipe, and if you’re feeling fancy the nutritional facts (i usually see this with more tenured partners). a customer not knowing the name of a drink is a typical scenario, and i know for a fact most of the time we all correct them, they correct themselves, and we move on with our lives. what is with all this “you know what a medicine ball is you should’ve just served them” nonsense??? y’all sound like the exact customer OP had to refuse service from…

i don’t care if these customers know it by “medicine ball”, that’s not what i was taught during my training and i’m not going to get in trouble for serving a drink that doesn’t exist. it’s an easy fix, and obviously in this situation the customer was the problem… rarely do people cuss and scream because they got the name of a drink wrong.

we were taught about red eyes, london fog is a button on our menu, you know what they had to say about honey citrus mint teas during training? it wasn’t an item and had been popularized with the name “medicine ball” but now that it’s a menu item they cannot legally call it the medicine ball. it’s really not that hard to correct/inform the customer ~politely~ that we legally cannot call it a medicine ball. most customers are understanding, this one was not and you did a good job to refuse service. there were many times i wish i had done that before i found out we could do that just based off of verbal interactions alone! 😭

You’re allowed to do whatever makes you feel safest. You’re allowed to refuse to work in unsafe work environmenta

I would have just given her said medicine ball and not corrected her to avoid said confrontation. People will be dumb. There’s no point in trying to correct them when we as baristas should worry about getting these difficult out as soon as possible.
This whole situation could have been avoided.
Sorry 🫣

:|

Whenever a customer says medicine ball, I just repeat back “honey citrus mint tea, got it, anything else for you?” Or something like that, helps prevent conflict because they don’t feel corrected. Refusal of service for that seems a bit extreme but honestly since they swore you have the right to. But customers don’t know we can’t call it the medicine ball because of the medicinal implication.

Edit: grammar, added more

We all know what medicine ball means... Just type it in as honey citrus mint and let it be... Why do we have to make it harder than it is... You created the escalation by confusing the customer. She obviously could've responded better, but customers in drive are there to quickly order and move on. They don't want to be lecture, especially if you know exactly what they're talking about in the first place.

Honestly not worth the effort to fight with the lady on the name, just call it whatever she wants, who cares? Also obviously don't serve someone who is being rude.

My husband and I LOVE tea. Like- we have an entire cabinet devoted to it. I was psyched to get this medicine ball everyone talks about. Until I found out it was hot lemonade. 😂 Girl bye.

Dude, you’re being so petty. I get it, the drink doesn’t have any medicine, but I’m not gonna make a big deal out of it. Hate hearing the words “medicine ball”? When they ask for it, repeat the order as a “x honey citrus mint tea.” When you’re at the window, same thing.

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I'm surprised no one gave you the "it's just coffee" talk. It's just coffee and if you remember that, these types of interactions are going to get under your skin WAY less.

Wouldn’t it be easier and wiser on your end to just give her the damn drink! Why make a fuss about the name!! People have called it the medicine ball for YEARS. I’m a current partner and call it the medicine ball! It’s not a life or death situation…

We can’t refuse service at all lol I feel like this won’t fly with your DM

Why would you tell a customer that we don't have a drink called medicine ball. You clearly new what she was ordering so you should have just rang it up. But with that being said she still should not have spoken to you like that.

Why is there so much pushback about this? We know what they’re ordering…just enter it in and when they’re at the window politely explain now that you’re face to face (because I feel like people are way less likely to be rude when they’re actually facing you).
“Just to let you know that drink now goes by the name of Honey Citrus Mint tea! It’s the exact same recipe it just got a new name!” And that’s the end of it. I feel like fighting them on it while they’re ordering is what causes the issue because then they’re afraid they won’t get what they ordered.

knowing that’s the name of the drink theyre thinking of, I would’ve just informed/corrected her at the window…if I thought it was that serious, which I don’t lol

I understand that you just wanted to clarify the official name for the drink, and nothing wrong with that so kudos to you. However, I honestly don’t know if it is personally worth it to me correcting them. I would just make it because it’d be impossible for everyone to be on the same page globally about drink names 😂

Yeah, customer was definitely in the wrong with how they reacted, but sometimes you have to see stuff like that coming, you know? Maybe just make them the drink even if they're calling it the old name, which most people know it as.

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