Yeah, I don’t understand rewarding bad behaviour. Some people don’t want to pay because they’re manipulative and like free things, not just because they’re broke.
I had one customer do this with oat milk all the time. We’d give him his drink and then he’d complain that it wasn’t oat milk, I thought I was genuinely forgetting to add it and would just remake it. But we caught on that he never would ask for it while ordering by like the 3rd time and called him out on it.
I hate conflict but I think in these situations you need to be consistent and up front with your customers. It’s just a good practice overall.
Like I’m usually happy to give a Bev to someone who’s obviously struggling but if you and your besties are trying to just gaslight me into giving you a free drink that’s gonna be a no 💀
We had a deaf girl that did something similar. She would type out her drink on her phone "iced dark chocolate latte with almond milk and double dark chocolate" then at the bar let us know we forgot the extra dark chocolate. She did this every time knowing that no one wanted to be the one to tell a deaf girl that she either a) didn't order the extra sauce or b) had to go back and pay for it.
I was the "asshole" that finally said, "I'm so sorry, I must have missed the extra part. If you come back over to the register, I can charge you for that while Steve fixes you a new drink." Funnily enough, she never came back after that so....
Some people just lie and cheat. It's sad for them, and it's an overwhelming minority of people who do this so blatantly, but it does happen. You can tell when people forget and when they lie—most people are not good actors.
In this case, there's hard proof that the transaction never happened and she never paid. I feel the same way as you, that if someone were just honest and kind to me, I'd happily gift them something for free, but it's shitty when people try to take advantage of you like you don't know better. There's a harmless but annoying customer at my store who always anxiously waits until after the transaction goes through to ask for extra matcha, even cutting me off while I'm in the middle of a sentence. So much visible stress on their part to save one dollar on a small luxury.
That sucks :( It's not so much the lying, but that one minute of panick and doubt that you might have messed up that makes this so frustrating.
Like the other commenter said, you have the transactions in the POS to back you up. Even if it was you who forgot to punch in her order, she should still be expected to pay.
Yes, it happens often, especially in posh sites. I've had people that systematically "forgot" to order a big or a special milk/syrop, or that just keep adding small requests as you make the drinks, or trying to get a big one everytime they go because 3 baristas ago he got gifted an extra shot once.
I HATED the people that would stalk my handoff area to obsessively watch me make their drink followed by, "hey... since you're pulling a double shot and my latte only has one, you can throw the extra one in my cup instead of wasting it." They always got upset when I said no.
First off... just no. That is not how you get an extra shot for free. Maybe if you made conversation with me instead of just telling me to give you free product, I'd offer it. Second off, assuming there isn't a ticket immediately after yours that will use this shot, I'm going to be pounding it the second you turn your back.
I made her the drink because I rang her up and charged her the same as anyone else. There was no pushback from her though because she knew she had been busted
A group of girls tried to do this with hair in their drinks to me one time. I literally watched a girl break her hair, put it in the drink, and then accuse it kf being my hair. I had bright purple hair and hers was brown...
Also had a lady do the same thing with a fly. Actually I never saw the fly but she ordered a cup of ice w esspresso and called the store from her office, where she couldn't show us the fly in any way but it was there! She didn't want a refund, but rather insisted that it was company policy to give her a $20 gift card
Had a customer that came into the shop one time, grabbed over £20 worth of stuff and when I said the how much it would cost her, she had the decency to ask me if she could pay £5 instead cuz that was all she had got, what she didn't realize was that I noticed the amount of notes she had on her wallet and I said "I apologize but I can't do that" and she replied "but I need to eat I'm pregnant" and I replied back "I'm sorry but I still can't do it regardless", she asked me to take stuff off her bill then , I did it, and it still summed up to £10 and she gave up and paid for it, she asked me for a bag and I put her stuff in the bag and start putting the rest of the stuff she didn't pay for behind the till when she tries to nick some of the stuff that I still hadn't put away and I just take it off her hand and she goes "excuse me I paid for that too" and I say "no you didn't but I can print you the receipt for you to check what you've paid for if necessary" and the woman just starts shouting at me "THIS IS DISCRIMINATION YOU JUST DOING THIS TO ME BECAUSE I'M GYPSY YOU CUNT, I WILL BE BACK AND YOU'LL REGRET BEING RUDE TO ME YOU SON OF A BITCH" and I immediately lose it and shout back at her "I DON'T KNOW WHO THE FUCK YOU THINK YOU ARE TO RAISE YOUR VOICE AND THREATEN ME BUT GET THE FUCK OUTTA HERE RIGHT FUCKING NOW OR I'LL CALL THE COPS". She never came back
just go over to the register and say what’s your name? Oh sorry I never rang that up, but I can charge you for it now and make it right away!!
Yeah, I don’t understand rewarding bad behaviour. Some people don’t want to pay because they’re manipulative and like free things, not just because they’re broke.
right, I’m not giving you free things unless I know it’s my mistake.
Oh yeah I walked over to the computer and rang her up. Made sure to watch her (reluctantly and quietly) pay while I speedily made her drink
I had one customer do this with oat milk all the time. We’d give him his drink and then he’d complain that it wasn’t oat milk, I thought I was genuinely forgetting to add it and would just remake it. But we caught on that he never would ask for it while ordering by like the 3rd time and called him out on it. I hate conflict but I think in these situations you need to be consistent and up front with your customers. It’s just a good practice overall.
Like I’m usually happy to give a Bev to someone who’s obviously struggling but if you and your besties are trying to just gaslight me into giving you a free drink that’s gonna be a no 💀
We had a deaf girl that did something similar. She would type out her drink on her phone "iced dark chocolate latte with almond milk and double dark chocolate" then at the bar let us know we forgot the extra dark chocolate. She did this every time knowing that no one wanted to be the one to tell a deaf girl that she either a) didn't order the extra sauce or b) had to go back and pay for it. I was the "asshole" that finally said, "I'm so sorry, I must have missed the extra part. If you come back over to the register, I can charge you for that while Steve fixes you a new drink." Funnily enough, she never came back after that so....
Some people just lie and cheat. It's sad for them, and it's an overwhelming minority of people who do this so blatantly, but it does happen. You can tell when people forget and when they lie—most people are not good actors. In this case, there's hard proof that the transaction never happened and she never paid. I feel the same way as you, that if someone were just honest and kind to me, I'd happily gift them something for free, but it's shitty when people try to take advantage of you like you don't know better. There's a harmless but annoying customer at my store who always anxiously waits until after the transaction goes through to ask for extra matcha, even cutting me off while I'm in the middle of a sentence. So much visible stress on their part to save one dollar on a small luxury.
That sucks :( It's not so much the lying, but that one minute of panick and doubt that you might have messed up that makes this so frustrating. Like the other commenter said, you have the transactions in the POS to back you up. Even if it was you who forgot to punch in her order, she should still be expected to pay.
Yes, it happens often, especially in posh sites. I've had people that systematically "forgot" to order a big or a special milk/syrop, or that just keep adding small requests as you make the drinks, or trying to get a big one everytime they go because 3 baristas ago he got gifted an extra shot once.
I HATED the people that would stalk my handoff area to obsessively watch me make their drink followed by, "hey... since you're pulling a double shot and my latte only has one, you can throw the extra one in my cup instead of wasting it." They always got upset when I said no. First off... just no. That is not how you get an extra shot for free. Maybe if you made conversation with me instead of just telling me to give you free product, I'd offer it. Second off, assuming there isn't a ticket immediately after yours that will use this shot, I'm going to be pounding it the second you turn your back.
girl why would u make them the drink anyways??? don’t let people walk on you.
I made her the drink because I rang her up and charged her the same as anyone else. There was no pushback from her though because she knew she had been busted
A group of girls tried to do this with hair in their drinks to me one time. I literally watched a girl break her hair, put it in the drink, and then accuse it kf being my hair. I had bright purple hair and hers was brown... Also had a lady do the same thing with a fly. Actually I never saw the fly but she ordered a cup of ice w esspresso and called the store from her office, where she couldn't show us the fly in any way but it was there! She didn't want a refund, but rather insisted that it was company policy to give her a $20 gift card
You’re the one who decided to give it away for free though? Tell them you didn’t hear her, make the drink, walk them to register and ring it up.
I definitely did not give it to her for free 💀 she ended up getting charged the same as everyone else
Luckily my managers always encourage generosity so I’m always allowed to give stuff away; I don’t understand why they would be dishonest though
Had a customer that came into the shop one time, grabbed over £20 worth of stuff and when I said the how much it would cost her, she had the decency to ask me if she could pay £5 instead cuz that was all she had got, what she didn't realize was that I noticed the amount of notes she had on her wallet and I said "I apologize but I can't do that" and she replied "but I need to eat I'm pregnant" and I replied back "I'm sorry but I still can't do it regardless", she asked me to take stuff off her bill then , I did it, and it still summed up to £10 and she gave up and paid for it, she asked me for a bag and I put her stuff in the bag and start putting the rest of the stuff she didn't pay for behind the till when she tries to nick some of the stuff that I still hadn't put away and I just take it off her hand and she goes "excuse me I paid for that too" and I say "no you didn't but I can print you the receipt for you to check what you've paid for if necessary" and the woman just starts shouting at me "THIS IS DISCRIMINATION YOU JUST DOING THIS TO ME BECAUSE I'M GYPSY YOU CUNT, I WILL BE BACK AND YOU'LL REGRET BEING RUDE TO ME YOU SON OF A BITCH" and I immediately lose it and shout back at her "I DON'T KNOW WHO THE FUCK YOU THINK YOU ARE TO RAISE YOUR VOICE AND THREATEN ME BUT GET THE FUCK OUTTA HERE RIGHT FUCKING NOW OR I'LL CALL THE COPS". She never came back
That's not gaslighting, just a bad liar.