So I’m using Starbucks now – at least for a while to penalise Costa.
This morning did not go well.
First of all, there is the Starbucks rewards scheme.
With Costa, you have a physical card with a magnetic strip that you present upon paying to collect points. You can eventually pay for drinks using your points (10 points = 10p).
Starbucks do things a little differently.
You have to charge your Starbucks card with a sum of money (minimum is £10) and you pay for your drinks with the balance on the card. When you do so, you collect the points (15 gets you a free drink). You can’t pay with cash, for example, and collect the points. There was some kerfuffle with the cashier trying to figure this all out. I’m using the Passport app for Starbucks which, having now seen it work (she put the cost of the coffee on my virtual Starbucks card by having me point my iPhone screen at the scanner, then she charged my debit card, then charged the Starbucks card – a long winded way of finding out how it all works, but I’ve now got the picture).
I waited to pick up my grande mocha. And waited. And waited. The barista was dishing out takeaways lattes like they were going out of fashion, and there’s me watching everybody pick up their coffee and go. Starbucks also suffers from the takeaway drinker/table syndrome as previously described. But there are many more tables at Starbucks and not so much of an irritant.
It turns out the cashier did not pass on the order to the barista. So after many apologies I got my coffee – which I promptly spilt on the way to my seat – my backpack deciding it’d be a good thing to slip off my shoulder. Thankfully not much lost, and I cleared up after myself.
But what I like about Starbucks is that they do good mochas, and wi-fi is free (and fast). So I can wait out the shuttle bus to Dunsfold in comfort.
