Ok, a new day has dawned on IHateStarbucks.com.
I no longer want to keep hacking the old, tired php on the site, so this is what I propose. These messages will remain up for all eternity. In addition, there is a new Guest book. So if you want to share your opinons, i.e. post to the site, go here. As always, if wish to rant or rave, send me an email:
| Name: | Ashley Castillo 03338 |
| Date: | Aug 24 2004 12:47 AM |
| hi i just wanted to say i think this web site is awesome (sorry if i misspell words i'm the worlds worst speller). I work at starbucks as a shift supervisor and i would quite if it was not for my other coworkers that i have made friends with. Who also hate starbucks. This website gives me another way for me to vent my frustation and see others frustations with the company. So that way i can work my way through college and then have to step into a starbucks agian
Ashley |
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| Name: | ha 03337 |
| Date: | Aug 24 2004 12:46 AM |
| Don't call corporate on me because you come in after we're closed and I won't serve you. I hate that 10 min rule and does anyone else follow it? They don't open 10 min early so we do we have to stay open 10 min late. What kind of crap is that? Why is there always so much drama between the openers and closers? Yes, each person has there own ways of doing things, it's not always going to be Starbucks Standards. And why do we have to say grande mocha frappucino BLENDED COFFEE? Who cares, it's a mocha frappucino. And don't take a drink that's not yours. And don't ask me to make you a drink that you have no idea how to explain and that someone else custom made for you. I'll make you a good drink, just won't be that one- and I'll write down the name of it for you. Also don't take tips out of the tip jar just because you don't have a penny. How about you take your 99 cents change and put it in my tip jar. If you reach in that tip jar looking for a penny or two and you have a wad of cash in your hand- you're getting 8 sec shots and probably some burned milk. Or coffee that's about three hours old. We not a bunch of *itches, just trying to get to the next phase of life. I'm not always this grumpy, sorry... just venting! |
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| Name: | tamugirl 03336 |
| Date: | Aug 24 2004 12:46 AM |
| So, its been awhile since I've stopped by. This is just an update on myself. After turning in my two weeks notice (catching my manager off guard) we discussed my reasons for leaving. Personally, I feel that I have alot more to offer the world in a career that, to me, would be more meaningful and I want to pursue a position that will give me real world experience in the field of my future degree. I have read a few comments on here where people state that all they have read are complaints of employees that hate people they work with or customers that were rude. The truth is, this site has been a place where many people have felt free to vent where others will understand their frustrations. Why criticize them for venting? Everyone needs to do that to stay sane now and then. Starbucks as a corporation has MANY flaws, like ANY corporation or Fortune 500 company for that matter. If you work long enough for the company you begin to have your eyes opened to the flaws and crooked ways of doing business. However, this is true with MANY businesses in society today. It's not just Starbucks. Starbucks is just ONE example of many companies that have a perfect image in society's eyes but underneath it all has just as many flaws as the next company. Each and every employee has a CHOICE to stay or leave. Many feel desperate to stay because of the assistance with benefits, etc. but that doesnt mean that they arent allowed to express their frustrations with the daily "grind" of work related issues. I look forward to the day that I can shed my "barista" skin off and move on to bigger and better things, and yes, I dislike my job but I did make a choice to stay there as long as I did. If any of you curious readers are actually interested in the shady practices of Starbucks feel free to note me. I still feel that I could write a book about the misleading practices of Corporate Coffee Hell.......until then, I will do my time with the company. I will have many future complaints but the thing that keeps me going is the fact that soon I will have a piece of paper from a university that will allow me to blossom into the person I really am. I wish that for all the rest of you. And those of you that continue to stay with the company, you always have a support system here on this site with many who feel your pain and sympathize with you...but dont be afraid to move on....we all deserve that. I have learned alot from my experience with Starbucks, some good, some bad, but the thing that I realised the hard way is that there will ALWAYS be co-workers that I dont get along with, there will always be clients or customers that are rude, there will ALWAYS be management that acts like they only have a 3rd grade education, but its up to ME on how I will hold myself in that position and the decisions I make to do my job right. Just because you hate your job, doesnt mean that you have to do it poorly. This is just my opinion in response to those who feel that all we are on this site are a bunch of complaining, disgruntled employees. I'm 28 years old, have been with the company almost 2 yrs and have only received 1.30 raise in that time. I took a MAJOR pay cut to take this job, have been jacked in hours, called at all hours of the day to fill in for people that couldnt or wouldnt work, I'm a single parent and a student. I'd say that I've had to put up with alot as well as sacrificed alot. I'm grateful for the money that I've made but embarrassed at the sacrifices that it took to get it. I know I deserve better as do alot of you. So, I'll get off my soap box now and let some real venting proceed! :-) |
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| Name: | Desert Flame 03335 |
| Date: | Aug 24 2004 12:46 AM |
| hbn - Bad news if you think you are getting quality from Starbucks. When employees are required to get a customer in and out of the store in less than 3 minutes (regardless of how busy) they take a hell of alot of shortcuts. Frap pitchers get reused without being washed between drinks. Milk sits out for hours and gets burnt to hell by the steam wands. And heaven help if your drink is made by someone new. The training is a joke. They just throw you on bar and tell you to start making drinks. It is all about quantity and the faster the better for the corporate giant. |
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| Name: | new employee 03334 |
| Date: | Aug 24 2004 12:45 AM |
| I'm brand new and can't understand why Starbucks spends trillions of dollars on training materials and pratically makes you write a thesis about some boring ass coffee origin (just put the freakin map up in the damn seating area idiots). Instead they should make a DVD training video and make you watch it 2X. Then LABEL things-no stupid-ass remembering everything 1,2,3, shots of this etc. |
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| Name: | SCVBaristaGrrr 03333 |
| Date: | Aug 24 2004 12:43 AM |
| ok, so I have worked for this company for around three years. And the first two years were amazing. I found one of the few stores that rocked. Everyone was friends we had enough hours and the job just rocked. Now, on top of that I have cancer and my first store was AMAZING at standing behind me and making things easy for me to continue to work there. Now, they fired that stores manager cause honestly he was making to much money (hed been there forever and he got a tun of bonuses cause we always placed at 100 % on snap shots and such) The person they replaced him with is supposed to be psycho (but now I live in so cal) There I was making 9 an hour at hire and then 936 after my review. I took a year off for my health (they wouldnt hire me back till after a year cause then they would have had to match my prev. pay.)So, now the companies changed. They brought in this horrible manager who has us opening a drive through store. We are running out of everything, we never have enough people on the clock, the guy is psycho about cleaning floors, and we don't get our breaks. Well the fired him but now they are giving me such a hard time about my having cancer.First they need a note, which was fine. Then my inability to take out the garabage or clean a bathroom (do to my lack of an immune system) is such a problem that its not reasionable acomodation (this was never a problem up north) So then they need another note from my doctors office and they have me jumping through hoops. I don't get my breaks half the time and when I do its five minuets before I am supposed to get off. I refuse to open a till now cause it will take FOREVER just to get some one to let me close it. They were a nice company to work for, but now they are just evil demonic corparate entity. I hate them. But I refuse to quit cause I know they hate having to keep me on staff. But when I do quit. Oh man will it be a fun day in paradise. |
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| Name: | dylan*** 03332 |
| Date: | Aug 24 2004 12:43 AM |
| red haired girl:
duuuuuuuude! my manager hates it when people stick up for themselves and her way of getting back at you is to jew you hours, pretty lame huh? she's the reason i lost my benefits because i told her she doesnt know how to run a successful store because now everyone hates their job and her and etc. |
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| Name: | random person 03331 |
| Date: | Aug 23 2004 03:58 PM |
| well to be honest, ive never been into a starbucks in my life, they managed not to consume our town with overpriced coffee, althoguh i am familiar with the talk of its overpriced coffee, which makes me glad we dont have one, instead we are overunned by tim hortons, they barely constitute as a coffeeshop, but there eveywheres. |
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| Name: | hbn 03330 |
| Date: | Aug 23 2004 12:30 PM |
| i dnt c wot u ave against starbucks. ok so their prices r a bit high but so wot?
its quality not quantity |
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| Name: | h pets 03329 |
| Date: | Aug 23 2004 12:30 PM |
| THANKS!
keep on doing what you're doing. |
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| Name: | Haydee 03328 |
| Date: | Aug 23 2004 12:00 AM |
| Red-Haired Girl: Yes, they did this to you on purpose--shortchanging your hours on purpose. Yes, they go from 25 hours a week to 12 hours a week--so say good-bye to your benefits! Then Starhoots has the nerve to make themselves look good by saying that they give benefits to part-time baristas who average 20 hours per week. By the way---at my store, we were ALWAYS running out of things. It was terrible. One day we even ran out of Coffee of the Day (I'm not kidding!)---so we offered people Americanos at the price of Coffee of the Day.
And what's worse---at my store, partners were scheduled until 30 minutes after the store closed for their shifts. But the managers had the shift supervisors have everyone closing leave the store 10 or 15 minutes after closing to cut down on labor---as well as to prevent having to pay benefits coverage. That's why we hate Starbucks so much! |
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| Name: | Paws (")(") 03326 |
| Date: | Aug 22 2004 11:57 PM |
| Red haired girl - If you made more money at telesales or dunkin dounuts, why do you stay at SB. why not quit and go back to something that you said you enjoyed more? |
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| Name: | Red Haired Girl 03325 |
| Date: | Aug 22 2004 02:36 AM |
| Man, I barely know where to start.
I've been "with the company" for 8.5 months, and I just NOW got my benefits info. I got denied for months, when I kept calling they said "You need 160 hours in 8 weeks to qualify.. last period you had... 159.95." I'm not lying. They seriously screwed me out of my benefits over .05 Hours. You do the math.
8 months of being there. We've had three managers. One left for another store, one we forced into quitting after two weeks (we're talking UBER bitch) and one we have now. We've had two assistant managers, and spent four months without one at all. I have been working at this store, longer than ANYONE - my manager, my assistant manager, all four shift supervisors. Three of these shifts have worked for the company MONTHS LESS than me. For the extra $1 an hour, I've made it clear I don't want to take the blame for everything AND work 50+ hours a week as a SS. No thanks. As a matter of fact, only TWO people have been there longer than me, and one by only a month. That's a pretty crappy turnover, huh?
Anyway.. the job is stressful, weaher people want to mock it or not. It's a crap load of work, it's demanding, it's very fast paced, it's stressful and it's tiring. All the drama, the BS, the call outs, the losers they hire that peter out a week later... going from 12 hours to 25 hours and back.. Do they TRAIN the managers to prevent people from getting benefits? Why offer them? Make them look better?
Truth is, our store is screwed up. People "break" pastries all day long. We're lucky if someone does markouts. No one's ever done "partner beverages". We run out of venti iced cups, white mocha, toffee nut syrup... and yes, even frappachino. That's right folks. We run out of EVERYTHING. OFTEN. The customers blame the baristas, like we drank it all. We've pissed off the customers by loosing their favorites like coconut, irish cream syrup... the coffee tastes like dirt. It's not "Earthy" - it tastes like DIRT. Get it right.
The company is hell, it truely is. I made more money working telemarketing and dunkin donuts, and enjoyed both more. *sigh* |
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| Name: | Yo Dawg 03324 |
| Date: | Aug 22 2004 02:35 AM |
| soy chai and no more lattes and anyone i missed: thanks for your ideas, i think i might just have to try them out. It gets super-old being treated like a noob. it will work out though, i am not going to quit, so they will have to deal with my awesomeness!!! PEACE OUT!!! |
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| Name: | annabella 03323 |
| Date: | Aug 22 2004 02:34 AM |
| Man, oh man I wish I had seen this web site before I started working for this damn company! Almost every entry is a pissed off partner! I'm about to go back to waitressing, the other good college job. Customers of SB are the rudest people ever! I feel really bad for this last guy, I just started 6 months ago and I'm making $7.75 an hour and at least I'm getting the hours I need. Then again I'm in CA not VA. And I'm about to have my first reviwew. I wonder what i'm going to need "improving" on. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to work for SB. Any moron, and trust me we do hire some winners, could use the new machines. Stick the cup under push the button. WOW! Hard stuff. The other day a customer got pissed off about something or another and told a fellow partner of mine that SB just lost a customer. The partner just about laughed in his face! I hope I can find a server position soon! |
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| Name: | Sanctum 03322 |
| Date: | Aug 21 2004 12:37 PM |
| Hmm..you know. Ever since I moved back home from Vermont, I worked at SB again and asked for at least 25 hours a week to maintain my apartment and get maximum wage. I've worked for SB for almost 6 years and oddly, I'm getting $7.75 an hour and getting 12 or less hours a week. Clearly something's wrong. I'm supposed to be making maximum of about $10 an hour for working this long for those guys.
But did I have a review? No. I think the manager was supposed to go to the partner and remind them of the review, not the other way but I think they do this out of hopes that the barista forgets about it so they can get away with shortchanging our wages. For this kind of pay, SB should be hit with a federal class action lawsuit for this kind of 'white collar' criminal act and the Feds should crack down on Howard's policies.
If I were you guys, photocopy or send your handbooks and pay stubs to your congressmen/women and show them why SB is a crooked organization. This way, if we signed our waivers early on and SB threatens to fire us, it'll be too late for them since the government would know about the low double-standards.
To open the store 10 minutes after closing is unethically wrong and stupid, period. I've seen nightclubs and bars kick people out right before closing and say "move it people! move! We're closing!" and if you don't move it, you get your butts kicked by the bouncers and cops. They even have a "last call" policy. We're not in the business of encouraging punks from beating our clocks at the last minute to get coffee, we're here to run the stores efficiently and kick them out exactly at the time of close. And if Howard can't get that in his head, he needs to go along with the morons. To have doors open 10 minutes after closing is a security issue. SB is NOT a coffeebar..it's a McDonald's disguised as a coffeehouse.
I'm this close to walking out on them because I needed the job to support my graphic design/freelance business and I am quite frankly sick of having the young partner SS talk down on me or bark orders..imagine being in your young 30s and being barked at.
It's degrading. I think SB needs to stop hiring too many kids and use older and more reliable people. I can't help but notice in my experience that of all the partners I've worked with, it's some of the older/mature ones that have been reliable and that some young ones keep calling in sick..just because they have a date or party. They should know better to call it off in advance and not the last minute. It's time to give the Green Siren the finger soon. |
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| Name: | Haydee 03321 |
| Date: | Aug 21 2004 04:03 AM |
| Okay, partners. What retail-level store employee at Starhoots, especially at the barista level, really feels like the company cares about them? I mean, low wages, low hours--and thus no benefits---and Starbucks boasts that it's one of the Fortune 500 Best Companies to Work For. How many times did they shortchange your paycheck? Any scheduling problems? I know that some store managers are better than others. Hard, fast, repetitive work?
Starhoots mentions "international opportunities." Yeah right---maybe if you have a degree in International Economics or something and you want to be a coffee purchaser. Oh, and stock options and full benefits coverage to partners and their "domestic partners"---which of course if you consistently qualify for benefits as a barista (then you should be lucky)---you have to pay for those benefits, and by the time you pay out of your paycheck, the co-pays for doctor visits and medications---your paycheck is gone----and you don't have a living wage---who can live on such few hours of work per week? Also, in the store I worked, I had open availability for one summer and they scheduled me for 12 hours, and they told me if I wanted more hours I could call other stores---so I did---but still didn't get a consistent guarantee of minimum hours. Slave labor, little incentive to care, corporate greed----no wonder there are so many lazy baristas and shift supervisors. It's a joke. |
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| Name: | earned my money 03320 |
| Date: | Aug 21 2004 04:02 AM |
| S: How many drinks did you take? I used to drink one an hour. Did you take the drinks in the RTD case too? The handbook says those aren't free but many people at my store took them without paying for them. Did they "partner beverage" your drinks and keep track? I don't understand the function of that button because before, we had to do that for every drink we took. Then they said if we used it too much we would get written up, so we stopped using it altogether. Kind of like voiding something out. Were we supposed to be psychic and know the customer was going to change his mind? Just don't get it!
MECSTARZ: The chai is made w/half water and half milk. Some people like it with just the milk and I find it tastes better that way too so I made it with just milk. I had a co-worker who mixed the chai w/the milk and heated it together. My manager sold the chai that the baristas make your drinks with to a certain customer because it is a better quality chai than what is out for retail. You could probably ask to buy that instead and try to make it for yourself. And try to make it with just milk to taste the difference. Hope that helps! |
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| Name: | Competitor 03319 |
| Date: | Aug 21 2004 04:02 AM |
| Hey Mecstarz,
Chai Lattes are very easy. First of all, the Starbucks Chai is not that great, and there are so many better chais. You can even go to Smart and Final and get better chai. I do know of some source that are much better, it just depends on how bad you want it. Never buy the chai concentrate liquid. I am buy the powder, and for those people who disagree, they need to remember that it's black tea ans spices, therefore it was a powder before a liquid. Anyway, the rule of thumb I go by for hot drinks, 12oz cup = 1/4 cup chai, 16oz cup=1/3 cup of chai roughly and 20oz cup=1/2 cup of chai and make sure on each portion of chai is heaping. You can always adjust for personal preference. Always put the powder in first and steam the milk to about 160 degrees. Pour some steamed milk in to about half way and stir until the chai is all melted in, then pur the rest of the milk and stir until it's full, and there is a hot chai latte. If you want foam, that's up to you. Iced chai lattes are a bit different. 16oz cup=1/4 cup, 20oz cup=2/3 cup and 24oz cup=1/2 cup. Here is what I do. I use something that can take hot temperatures and add a little HOT water, just enough to stir and melt the chai. Once melt, I add some cold milk to cool it down and pour it into the cup to about 70% of the cup, and then ice the rest to the top. If you do chai tea, oviously everything is done with water. The nice thing about powder chai is that it comes with non-dairy creamer already part of the mix, so it comes out nice and creamy. Hope that helps. Any questions, just ask. |
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| Name: | Justin S. 03318 |
| Date: | Aug 21 2004 04:01 AM |
| Starbucks stands for what the world will become someday. A hoard of people go in every day to fulfill their caffene cravings only to run into a big line, the cashier wont know how to work the freakin cash register caus hes new, and the guy workin the coffee machine thingey wont give a crap caus he just wants to look better than you...snobby bastard... then you finally get the five dollar "large" and its as small as the snobby guy's penis. But you cant just walk into a Starbucks for the first time and expect to have a taste for it, no, you have to acquire a taste for Starbucks caus theyre "better" than everyone else...I hate them... and theyre from Seattle! Come on!:) |
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| Name: | Team Koral 03317 |
| Date: | Aug 21 2004 04:00 AM |
| Will anyone at Starbucks ever figure out how not to "burn" their coffee beans? Jeez, even "Light Note" tastes like carbon. Foe years, I thought it was the morons that staff Starbucks...Now I realize it's both the morons and management. Good thing John Kerry likes it...It'll be the official coffee of the US when our next Pres assumes office. |
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| Name: | jules 03316 |
| Date: | Aug 21 2004 04:00 AM |
| i've worked at this hell on earth for almost 5 (yikes)years!!im only part time now cuz im a mom, but still a shift supervisor. i've been home sick all week and have to go back tonight. i'd rather be sick. i can't handle the teen age frapp mayhem. why are these kids drinking beer in the woods like i did when i was they're age!? also, what's up with the increase in insurance costs? i blame this place for me needing a shrink! |
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| Name: | Archer 03315 |
| Date: | Aug 21 2004 03:59 AM |
| I've reviewed about 100 comments, and here is my response to all of the dissatisfied employees or former employees:
A large number of you "hate" Starbucks because some partner screwed you over, whether that be a boss or a coworker. Many of those incidents were against company policy, too. Your problem is with a person, not a company. If your store is nasty, then the store manager isn't doing her/his job. If you choose to say that the entire company is foul, that's a pretty broad generalization. That's like saying you hate a country because one (or a few) citizens of that nation were rude to you.
And for those of you who are treated badly by customers: Do you think that those same people are just sweet as sugar in every other establishment they frequent? That somehow, because they've walked into a Starbucks, they've become jerks?
To those who can't handle the pressure: High pressure jobs aren't for everyone, and you see high pressure peak times in lots of jobs.
To FEDUP: Nobody's going to change your mind. I got my BA in American Cultural Studies, and have studied poverty in-depth. They should require a course in it for business majors. Then maybe I'd hear less people in business talk about how the poor need to work harder, or else stop complaining.
I thought when I came onto this site that I'd find some intelligent discussion about how Howard Schultz broke the roasting plant union, or corporate offenses against foreign growers (are there any? I'd like to know), or something about Starbucks' impact on the environment...
But instead it's mostly a bunch of people complaining about their jobs. |
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| Name: | stacey 03314 |
| Date: | Aug 20 2004 02:17 PM |
| I hate that they get you hooked on an item and then they take it away!!!! |
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| Name: | Mecstarz 03313 |
| Date: | Aug 20 2004 10:52 AM |
| The only thing I hate about starbucks is the wait in line and the fact that at peak times they seem to be understaffed. The only drink I like is the Chai Tea Latte, and I just wish I could figure out how to make it taste the same at home. Drives me insane with the secret recipe thing. Then they come out with this liquid stuff that is supposed to taste the same and it doesn't. I go into starbucks after a long time being bugged by this to be told by the barista that I will never be able to make it taste the same at home because the stuff they use in the store is NOT the same as the stuff they claim is the same to take home. He actually told me about this site....LOL. |
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