While you might be dreading the impending workday and itching for caffeine as you roll through the Starbucks drive-thru in the morning, remember that there’s a person behind the speaker box. Because so many customers seem to forget that basic fact, Starbucks employees recently revealed their biggest drive-thru pet peeves. If you want to be a model customer, avoid these seven irksome drive-thru habits.
Related: Starbucks Employees Dish on Why ‘Secret Menu’ Orders Can Be Frustrating
Complaining About Sold-Out Drinks
If Starbucks is out of the ingredients for your favorite drink, don’t throw a fit, a barista writes. You can survive the day without a mocha cookie crumble. We believe in you. “There are six sets of ears in here that don’t need to hear your mental breakdown. It’s not cute,” they add.
Related: Starbucks Baristas Reveal the Most Frustrating Holiday Drinks To Make
Mumbling While Ordering
When you order, speak clearly as if there’s “a person standing next to you,” one Starbucks employee writes. Other workers agreed, with many complaining that they struggle to hear and understand drive-thru customers, especially when a passenger orders. “Like, ma’am, please, we can’t hear your child ordering from the inside of your trunk, just tell us what they want,” one top comment reads.
Related: What Starbucks Baristas Really Think When You ‘Pay it Forward’ at the Drive-Thru
Asking for Multiple Separate Orders
Two separate orders? Tolerable, a barista says. But three is “pushing your luck.” Just treat your passengers, or split the bill amongst yourselves.
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Treating Workers Like They’re ‘Coffee Automatons’
While ordering from a drive-thru might not be anonymous and alienating as contactless delivery, one Starbucks employee writes that some customers treat drive-thru workers like “coffee automatons with no brain.” “When a customer is respectful and genuinely cares about us as people it is amazing! We will bend over backwards for you simply because you are KIND,” they added.
Keeping Your Windshield Wipers On
Unless you want to give drive-thru employees an unwanted shower, turn your windshield wipers off at the order window. “Your car is not moving. You don’t need them,” one frustrated barista wrote.
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Not Knowing What You Want
Show up to the drive-thru prepared with your order — and don’t forget to note the size. The barista shouldn’t have to “pull teeth” to get the order out of you, as one employee puts it.
Speeding Through Your Order
At the same time, don’t rush through your ultra-complicated TikTok-inspired custom order. Give baristas time to write everything down; otherwise, you’ll have to repeat yourself.
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