Costa Coffee review: Awful behaviour from store manager on several occasions

I have had several negative experiences with the manager of the Drive through Costa in Colchester Stanway. Today was the most confusing and direct, which is what had led me to make a complaint. I worked as a barista at a different coffee chain last year throughout my masters degree so I understand fully how stressful and difficult the job can be at times, which is why I haven’t complained previously about this man, who is visibly and loudly always quite stressed when serving at the drive through kiosk. I visit the store most mornings for a drive through coffee after the school run, and last week, whilst I was parked up at the window waiting for my coffee, I witnessed him banging and crashing around the drink prep area, swearing loudly about the state of the place because the coffee draw had broken, and generally complaining very loudly about how unhappy he was. The other member of staff taking orders via the tannoy seemed to stay silent and looked slightly uncomfortable, and I certainly felt uncomfortable as a customer over hearing the manager swearing in such an aggressively angry way. I didn’t say anything, I know the job is stressful and I didn’t want to add fuel to the fire, so I thanked him for my drink and left - but I did find myself feeling very sorry for the people who have to work alongside him. The reason for making this report today, is because of a a separate incident that occurred this morning, at around 10:20/10:30am at the same store, with the same man. My husband was driving and he ordered at the tannoy for him, me and our kids. We ordered a toasty, two hot drinks and two cold milks. After taking our order, the woman on the tannoy system told us to drive round. My husband did not drive straight round and instead asked through the tannoy if we should first pay, as this drive through usually takes payment at the point of order via the tannoy. If you were to check CCTV at this point, you will see my husband hanging out of the window with his phone trying to scan it on the screen, which is how we usually pay. The lass on the other end of the mic told us ‘no, just drive round please’ which we then did. At the window we found the manager, P***r, making our drinks. He was moaning loudly about the system being all messed up now, before turning to my husband and telling him that for future reference when paying by card we need to pay at the tannoy before driving round because we have messed up the payment system now. My husband replied very politely that we did offer to pay at the tannoy, and were told to just drive straight round. P***r didn’t even look up from the drink he was pouring to acknowledge that my husband was speaking, and we assumed he had not heard, so my husband tried again and told him once more that we had tried to pay at the order point but were told to drive past. Again P***r ignored him, and didn’t even look up, so I leaned over myself and spoke more loudly to get his attention, before explaining for a third time that we weren’t at fault and were given incorrect information at the point of ordering. I figured he needed to know this was happening so he didn’t keep blaming his customers for simply following directions. P***r then stared at me silently, before handing the drink to my husband and saying a VERY sarcastic ‘thank you’ and refusing to acknowledge anything we had just said. We asked for clarification that he had in fact heard us, and asked why his attitude was so poor, given all we were trying to do is buy some drinks and be on our way. P***r then erupted into an angry rant suggesting that his staff member denied telling us to drive round so he can’t take our word for that, and moaning that he has customers to serve that we were holding up. His tone of voice was aggressive and sarcastic and it was genuinely a baffling reaction to something that could have been quite easily resolved. He refuse to acknowledge that we did as directed, and wasn’t willing to listen to a single thing we said, going as far as literally ignoring my husband when he was speaking directly to him. It was the most confusing and disturbing reaction I’ve experienced to date, and his behaviour escalated a minor issue something much bigger. I suggested some more training for the staff there might be needed to avoid the same mistake happening again, and was met with aggressive sarcasm as we drove away. P***r wasn’t willing to discuss the issue with us and told us to leave, which we did. Whilst he still works at this store, I won’t be returning but I do hope that Costa handle this incident with the severity it requires because this is not the first time P***r has made me feel intimidated and uncomfortable. A quick check of the CCTV at the time of ordering will show very clearly that my husband both expected and tried to pay at the tannoy order point - even better if the mic software records the orders being made so that the entire order can be listened back to as evidence. Though I don’t expect P***r would apologise even if the evidence was presented clearly to him. The man clearly hates his job, and whilst I can’t blame him for that, I won’t allow his attitude to make me feel uncomfortable ever again. Please Costa, ensure that this incident is looked into, along with any others that are made about this man. I’ve witnessed him being quite rude to other customers before now so I expect my complaint is unlikely to be the first.

I don’t want the man to lose his job but I do believe that his behaviour recently would be enough to warrant such an outcome and I hope that maybe Costa can step in and offer some more support and training for P***r and his team.