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So much suckiness over foam and espresso...(long)
Hello there, my first post and story, and I’ve decided to open up with what is probably my most memorable and rage-inducing SC. I work at a coffee shop. A certain…multi-national, multi-million coffee shop. Heh, yeah, you probably know it.
Our store is a combination drive-thru and lobby, and is quite basically busy and big enough to be two separate stores. During our morning rush I was originally supposed to take orders from the lobby side, re-brew coffee, make breakfast sandwiches, get pastries, and basically do anything else that other people couldn’t do at the moment (which is basically what I do every morning, but I digress..). So, among the things that I wasn’t supposed to be doing was answering orders though the drive-thru. Of course, though, when things died down in the lobby and everyone else was running around like crazy doing whatever it is they were doing I realized that it had been about a minute since I had heard the ding signaling another customer at the speaker box and no one had answered it yet. So, me, being the poor fool I am, decided I would answer. The following exchange is cut down for length and is written from the best of my already goldfish-sized memory:
Me-…well…me.
SC-Stupid Cappuccino woman
Italics-My thoughts
Me: Good morning, welcome to <coffee shop>, this is Morningchaser, can I start you off today with a breakfast sandwich?
SC: Yes, what iced drinks do you have? (Another of my pet peeves! I now know that 99% of the time no one listens to my spiel, but I have to say it none the less, and yes, I am asking you a question that I would like an answer to before you begin your spiel…/rant)
Me: We can make almost any drink iced (Read the ALMOST)
SC: Oh, okay. *takes a few more minutes to look at the menu, even though it’s still the morning rush and there’s a line forming behind her*
SC: Okay, I’d like a grande iced cappuccino.
Me: Oh, I’m sorry ma’am, but the cappuccino is one of the drinks we can’t do iced. The closest thing would be an iced latte
SC: What?! Why not? (Ah, yes, one of the few million who don’t know what a cappuccino is, but order it anyway. Granted, I was one of those people before I got a job at <coffee shop>, but I also never ordered it…)
Me: Well, a cappuccino is made up of mostly foam, and so it doesn’t really translate into iced.
SC: Well, it’s right here on your menu under ‘Hot or Iced’.
Me: Oh. *checks the menu inside and doesn’t see it* (I’ve now learned the drive-thru menu is formatted differently than the ones inside) Well, either way, I’m afraid we can’t do that drink iced, like I said, it doesn’t really translate into an iced drink and we don’t have the recipe to make it.
SC: BUT IT’S HERE ON THE MENU UNDER ‘ICED OR HOT’!
Me: Repeating yourself isn’t going to make my answer change, see?: I’m sorry, but we can’t do that drink iced, like I said, it doesn’t really translate into an iced drink and we don’t have the recipe to make it. We can do EVERY other drink iced, though, and the closest to a cappuccino would be the latte.
SC: I WANT AN ICED CAPPUCCINO!
Me: *At this point I am glaring at the monitor that lets us see the person at the drive-thru. Yes, that’s right, as long as you’re at the speaker box I can see and hear you at all times! BWAHAHAHAHA!* I’m sorry ma’am, but we don’t have the recipe to make it. If you’d like we can take a stab at it and put foam in a cup with ice and espresso…
SC: NO! I WANT AN ICED CAPPUCCINO! IT’S ON YOUR SIGN, LEGALLY YOU HAVE TO MAKE IT FOR ME!
Me: *And it is at this point that I really don’t care, she’s been yelling at me, there’s a huge line behind her that I’m gonna’ get yelled at for more, and you’re pulling out the bull crap “It’s the law” routine on me. I’ve been nice, I’ve been cordial, and I’ve been biting my tongue, well, I’m letting go of the tongue now! Sternly:* Ma’am, I’m sorry, but we CAN’T make it. There is no possible way. We do not have the recipe, no one here will know how to make it because it DOESN’T EXIST. We can make you ANY other drink iced!
SC: NO! I WANT AN ICED CAPPUCCINO!!!! YOU HAVE TO MAKE IT FOR ME! IT’S NOT THAT HARD!!!
Me: If it’s not that hard, why don’t you do it at home instead of paying $5 for a cup of coffee you stupid b&%#@ LOOK! WE. CANNOT. DO. IT. It doesn’t exist, there is NO recipe for it!
SC: THAT’S IT! I WANT TO SPEAK TO A MANAGER!
Me: All we have is a shift supervisor.
SC: FINE! *finally drives off*
Now, despite what it may seem like a lot of the time at work and in everything I’m interested in, I’m really not a violent person; but this…fiend made me so angry that I immediately took off my headset, walked into the back room, and punched a hole into a box of mocha powder (for those who don’t know, the mocha is packed together pretty tight in bags in the boxes, and considering I have really weak arms this was quite a feat for me. Hehe). After punching a few more boxes I took a few deep breaths and tried to stop my hands from shaking (they do that when I’m pissed). Even in my pissed off state I knew I probably shouldn’t have snapped at her in the end (from a purely professional stand point, from a personal view I wanted to wait till she got to the window and sucker punch her…), so I walked back out onto the floor and said to the nearest co-worker, “Stew (our shift on duty, name changed, of course) better only give her one free drink coupon at most…” I turn the corner (our store is L-shaped, the drive-thru being at the short end of the L) to see what’s going on and all I see is Stew handing a drink and something out the window (couldn’t see much else because he’s freakin’ tall, heh). I ask someone what he ended up giving her:
3 free drink coupons and 3 free drinks on the spot!
Needless to say I was seeing red, and it must have been quite obvious because the second Stew turned around and looked at me he recoiled a bit (Up till this point I’d never shown the slightest hint of even being aggravated at work, so it must have been a bit of a surprise) and told me to calm down and go home for the day (I was off in about 15 minutes anyway).
I tell EVERY new person at our store this story to get them ready in case they have to deal with stupid crap (and we ALL do), and to just mentally prepare them so, hopefully, they don’t get as pissed as I did.
[b[Epilogue!:[/b] Oh, and naturally we didn’t get sued, but I’m pretty sure she wrote to corporate or something because quite a while later when the new recipe cards came in, lo and behold, we had the recipe for an iced cappuccino. Instructions: Fill a cup with ice, put espresso shots in there, steam milk like a regular cappuccino and pour it in the cup. And yes, it’s as disgusting as it sounds ^_^. Also, everyone at work kinda' watched me out of the corner of thier eye for a bit, because apparently they would have NEVER expected me to snap at a customer like that, and so whenever they see my thermometer rising they now know to take it out of my hands as opposed to standing around there and waiting for me to burst like they did that day. Hehe. Although if there's someone that's giving them crap, they now know who to come to, and unless he gets a complaint my manager will usually let me; so I guess I am the unofficial bouncer for our store
Our store is a combination drive-thru and lobby, and is quite basically busy and big enough to be two separate stores. During our morning rush I was originally supposed to take orders from the lobby side, re-brew coffee, make breakfast sandwiches, get pastries, and basically do anything else that other people couldn’t do at the moment (which is basically what I do every morning, but I digress..). So, among the things that I wasn’t supposed to be doing was answering orders though the drive-thru. Of course, though, when things died down in the lobby and everyone else was running around like crazy doing whatever it is they were doing I realized that it had been about a minute since I had heard the ding signaling another customer at the speaker box and no one had answered it yet. So, me, being the poor fool I am, decided I would answer. The following exchange is cut down for length and is written from the best of my already goldfish-sized memory:
Me-…well…me.
SC-Stupid Cappuccino woman
Italics-My thoughts
Me: Good morning, welcome to <coffee shop>, this is Morningchaser, can I start you off today with a breakfast sandwich?
SC: Yes, what iced drinks do you have? (Another of my pet peeves! I now know that 99% of the time no one listens to my spiel, but I have to say it none the less, and yes, I am asking you a question that I would like an answer to before you begin your spiel…/rant)
Me: We can make almost any drink iced (Read the ALMOST)
SC: Oh, okay. *takes a few more minutes to look at the menu, even though it’s still the morning rush and there’s a line forming behind her*
SC: Okay, I’d like a grande iced cappuccino.
Me: Oh, I’m sorry ma’am, but the cappuccino is one of the drinks we can’t do iced. The closest thing would be an iced latte
SC: What?! Why not? (Ah, yes, one of the few million who don’t know what a cappuccino is, but order it anyway. Granted, I was one of those people before I got a job at <coffee shop>, but I also never ordered it…)
Me: Well, a cappuccino is made up of mostly foam, and so it doesn’t really translate into iced.
SC: Well, it’s right here on your menu under ‘Hot or Iced’.
Me: Oh. *checks the menu inside and doesn’t see it* (I’ve now learned the drive-thru menu is formatted differently than the ones inside) Well, either way, I’m afraid we can’t do that drink iced, like I said, it doesn’t really translate into an iced drink and we don’t have the recipe to make it.
SC: BUT IT’S HERE ON THE MENU UNDER ‘ICED OR HOT’!
Me: Repeating yourself isn’t going to make my answer change, see?: I’m sorry, but we can’t do that drink iced, like I said, it doesn’t really translate into an iced drink and we don’t have the recipe to make it. We can do EVERY other drink iced, though, and the closest to a cappuccino would be the latte.
SC: I WANT AN ICED CAPPUCCINO!
Me: *At this point I am glaring at the monitor that lets us see the person at the drive-thru. Yes, that’s right, as long as you’re at the speaker box I can see and hear you at all times! BWAHAHAHAHA!* I’m sorry ma’am, but we don’t have the recipe to make it. If you’d like we can take a stab at it and put foam in a cup with ice and espresso…
SC: NO! I WANT AN ICED CAPPUCCINO! IT’S ON YOUR SIGN, LEGALLY YOU HAVE TO MAKE IT FOR ME!
Me: *And it is at this point that I really don’t care, she’s been yelling at me, there’s a huge line behind her that I’m gonna’ get yelled at for more, and you’re pulling out the bull crap “It’s the law” routine on me. I’ve been nice, I’ve been cordial, and I’ve been biting my tongue, well, I’m letting go of the tongue now! Sternly:* Ma’am, I’m sorry, but we CAN’T make it. There is no possible way. We do not have the recipe, no one here will know how to make it because it DOESN’T EXIST. We can make you ANY other drink iced!
SC: NO! I WANT AN ICED CAPPUCCINO!!!! YOU HAVE TO MAKE IT FOR ME! IT’S NOT THAT HARD!!!
Me: If it’s not that hard, why don’t you do it at home instead of paying $5 for a cup of coffee you stupid b&%#@ LOOK! WE. CANNOT. DO. IT. It doesn’t exist, there is NO recipe for it!
SC: THAT’S IT! I WANT TO SPEAK TO A MANAGER!
Me: All we have is a shift supervisor.
SC: FINE! *finally drives off*
Now, despite what it may seem like a lot of the time at work and in everything I’m interested in, I’m really not a violent person; but this…fiend made me so angry that I immediately took off my headset, walked into the back room, and punched a hole into a box of mocha powder (for those who don’t know, the mocha is packed together pretty tight in bags in the boxes, and considering I have really weak arms this was quite a feat for me. Hehe). After punching a few more boxes I took a few deep breaths and tried to stop my hands from shaking (they do that when I’m pissed). Even in my pissed off state I knew I probably shouldn’t have snapped at her in the end (from a purely professional stand point, from a personal view I wanted to wait till she got to the window and sucker punch her…), so I walked back out onto the floor and said to the nearest co-worker, “Stew (our shift on duty, name changed, of course) better only give her one free drink coupon at most…” I turn the corner (our store is L-shaped, the drive-thru being at the short end of the L) to see what’s going on and all I see is Stew handing a drink and something out the window (couldn’t see much else because he’s freakin’ tall, heh). I ask someone what he ended up giving her:
3 free drink coupons and 3 free drinks on the spot!
Needless to say I was seeing red, and it must have been quite obvious because the second Stew turned around and looked at me he recoiled a bit (Up till this point I’d never shown the slightest hint of even being aggravated at work, so it must have been a bit of a surprise) and told me to calm down and go home for the day (I was off in about 15 minutes anyway).
I tell EVERY new person at our store this story to get them ready in case they have to deal with stupid crap (and we ALL do), and to just mentally prepare them so, hopefully, they don’t get as pissed as I did.
[b[Epilogue!:[/b] Oh, and naturally we didn’t get sued, but I’m pretty sure she wrote to corporate or something because quite a while later when the new recipe cards came in, lo and behold, we had the recipe for an iced cappuccino. Instructions: Fill a cup with ice, put espresso shots in there, steam milk like a regular cappuccino and pour it in the cup. And yes, it’s as disgusting as it sounds ^_^. Also, everyone at work kinda' watched me out of the corner of thier eye for a bit, because apparently they would have NEVER expected me to snap at a customer like that, and so whenever they see my thermometer rising they now know to take it out of my hands as opposed to standing around there and waiting for me to burst like they did that day. Hehe. Although if there's someone that's giving them crap, they now know who to come to, and unless he gets a complaint my manager will usually let me; so I guess I am the unofficial bouncer for our store
yeah right!
They just let the customer continue in blissful ignorance and avoid a confrontation.
"
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