Let me start by saying: I was having an amazing day. Great finds at HomeSense and HomeGoods, mood…read morewas high, vibes were right. So, I figured why not top it off with a pistachio latte?
I ordered my drink at 11:51 a.m. The store was pretty quiet, no drive-thru, and a few people came in after me. I watched two customers who ordered after me, one a mocha latte, another a vanilla bean Frappuccino, get their drinks before mine.
So, I walked over and politely asked the barista standing there,
"Excuse me, what's the status of the pistachio?"
He responds: "What do you mean?"
I explain: "How much longer for the pistachio? People who came in after me already got their drinks."
He looks annoyed, like I just asked for his first-born, and says, "What's the name?" I give my name and he's literally holding my cup and making my pistachio latte at that moment. Then he goes back to acting confused about what I meant, even though he was clearly working on my drink.
I said, "So you knew exactly what I meant... since you're making the pistachio latte, right?"
No response. He just starts aggressively slamming things into the cup, pushes it across the counter without a word, doesn't look at me, doesn't say anything.
I still said, "Thank you."
He walked away with a serious attitude.
At that point, yeah, I was annoyed. I did call him a "dumb a**," and I'll own that it wasn't necessary. But the way my drink was slammed on the counter with zero professionalism or acknowledgment was rude and totally avoidable.
All he had to say was something like:
"I'm working on your drink now."
That's it. Situation over.
I called the store to speak to the manager because I actually wanted to apologize for the name-calling and explain what happened. I ended up speaking to Jimmy, the shift manager. I explained everything and admitted I shouldn't have used that word.
His response?
"Well, I wasn't here for all that I just came on at 12."
Then basically: "What do you want me to do about it?"
Well, Jimmy... you're the manager. I would expect you to at least acknowledge the situation, address the customer service issue, and maybe say something like, "I'm sorry that happened. I'll speak to my team."
Instead, it felt dismissive, like both the original interaction and the follow-up didn't matter.
I love Starbucks, and most of the time the service is great. But this experience in Westwood really missed the mark. Respect and basic communication go a long way and today, both were lacking.