The Consumer Complaints Blog

This is my story of Starbucks, their terrible customer service and lack of care.

On September 24, 2010 I was at a Starbucks with my mom. We were waiting for her drink to be made and decided to split a piece of pumpkin loaf. I bit into the loaf and felt a crunch, but I assumed it was one of the pumpkin seeds and bit again. I instantly felt a pain and strange feeling in my mouth. I spat the piece out of my mouth to discover a small grey stone. I immediately took the stones to the barista and she profusely apologized while filling out an incident report. I asked if she wanted to keep the stone, but she said no and wrote down all of my information.

It is now almost December and I have been playing phone tag with the corporation for months. I have spoken to 11 different people and have been given 6 different case numbers to which I have to report and explain this frustrating situation every time I call. Each person tells me something else and tells me to wait for a representative to call. I was asked the best times to be reached, but of course the only time I receive phone calls is to my answering machine while I am at work and they are rare.

I went to the dentist to discover my teeth were severely damaged to the point of needing filing and porcelain veneers. My teeth were perfect, my parents had already spent over $5000 getting braces, filing and bleaching. Due to the damaged teeth, other teeth are now becoming damaged as the sharp edges chip away at existing teeth. I now need the removal of my brace wire and cement, mouldings for my teeth, porcelain veneers and 8 teeth filed. All because I decided to trust Starbucks and their products that were tainted. I would like to believe that the high prices and friendly people ensure safe food, but clearly they do not.

How the stones got there I am not sure….was my food dropped on the ground? Were they baked inside? No one knows. All I am aware of is I am an extremely frustrated consumer that has realized clearly Starbucks as a corporation does not care about their products or consumers.

After writing this message I received a letter from Starbucks (Nov 29, 2010. It states “ It is with my sincere apologies that I must inform you that Starbucks does not feel we are responsible for your damages and therefore must respectfully deny any claim you may file as a result of this incident.” Not responsible? Was the product not sold over your counter, from your store? Did you not take my money? Are you saying you don’t care what is in your products or who eats it? What if I was a small child? What if I was a high power business man? Would you treat this situation any differently?
All I know is I will never purchase an item from Starbucks again. I will tell every person I know this story as a warning so they know the type of company Starbucks is, and to be careful before biting into any product they sell.

I never wanted a big pay out or attention, all I wanted was for my teeth: that were damaged eating a Starbucks pumpkin loaf to be fixed and returned back to the way they were. I was passed around for 2 months and now have been told that I don’t matter and my issue although due to their product, is not their responsibility. Thank you Starbucks for caring about the little people and the products you sell.

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.

I’m e-mailing about a company in Markham, Ontario called Heinz Jordan and Company Limited, which is an art supply company.

My complaint is really with their CEO, Birgit Cooper, and their Nova Scotia sales rep, a guy named Roy Thornhill.

I had e-mailed both of these people yesterday, along with their colleague in Quebec, to complain about a sketch pad of all things, because they had used a Canadian flag to represent the English language and French (as in France) flag to represent French-speakers (not just Quebecois) on their bilingual packaging, and I thought this was extremely stupid, ignorant and prejudicial toward the French across Canada. So I wrote them an e-mail reminding them that Canada is bilingual and this packaging is extremely offensive to French speakers throughout Canada- not just Quebec. And to make it clear, I didn’t accuse them of anything directly and was being polite, assuming they would get the point and apologize.

And then this is the weird part,

I get a reply from their Atlantic Canada rep Roy Thornhill saying, and I quote,

Roy Thornhill
date 6 December 2010 09:15
subject Re: Heinz Jordan drawing pad

Need I remind you How crooked the Gov is .How many Canadians are poor some Starving .

And this is your Torch????

================
What does this even mean?

and I forwarded this to their CEO, saying good luck with their company, and a short time later got a reply from her

from Birgit Cooper
date 6 December 2010 13:37
subject RE: Heinz Jordan drawing pad

Thanks Roy, I just deleted the email, no point answering him on such a stupid issue.

Birgit
==================

I know this doesn’t involve money and probably doesn’t seem like a huge deal because if that, but this is the CEO of the company acting like that. It’s extremely offensive, unprofessional and stupid and I am absolutely shocked that there are businesses in Canada which can operate with this degree of arrogance and antipathy toward customers and entire ethnic groups in Canada.

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.

“A WARNING TO PICTON/PRINCE EDWARD COUNTY TOURISTS”
Picton – ONTARIO

On August 22 my husband and I (world-wide well travelled seniors)) checked into a small rental cottage owned by Edna but run by Dave Theakston, 11494 Loyalist Parkway, Picton, Ontario and managed by County Holiday Homes (CHH) in Picton at 11682B Loyalist Parkway. (Prior to this, we had spent many great shorter holidays in The County over the past 20+ years – always a great experience.) Dave and Edna also own the Theakston B&B in Picton. This complaint concerns the rental unit only. We had rented this cottage for a week, as it listed all the amenities we were looking for : deck, air conditioning in bedroom , oscillating fan to move air from bedroom to main cottage, satellite TV, DVD, VCR ( all important because, due my husbands health problems, he sometimes can’t go outside when it gets hot and requires a cool environment), swimming, water cooler (this was in the cottage because CHH had recommended not drinking the water from the tap).

As it was important that these “amenities” were as advertised we began to check them as soon as we checked in at 3PM. While the cottage itself was quite nice, by 4 pm we had a long list of non-functioning “amenities” to ask Mr Theakston about, as a note he left asked us to call him with any problems. Guy sat on a chair on the deck and it broke. We couldn’t get the TV, DVD, VCR, Oscillating Fan to work and the water cooler took a lot of coaxing to dispense anything. Mr Theakstons’s response was that we must have done something wrong because when he had left the cottage earlier that day everything was working fine, and he’d meant to take away the deckchair. It was now 4pm Sunday night and he said he was busy at the B&B and this would also be the case the following morning, so we agreed that he’d be over before noon the next day to fix things. When he arrived, we immediately asked about swimming (his ad boasted that his waterfront cottage was “good for swimming, fishing, boating) but that day he informed us “no one wants to swim in Picton Bay” indicating that it was filled with weeds and junk. (Even if we’d wanted to brave it, there was literally no way to physically “get to” the water – there’s a steep drop off to the water, no access ladder..and a broken dock). As for the water cooler and the oscillating fan – he now claimed the previous tenants probably “ wrecked them. After over half an hour with the TV,DVD he also concluded that the previous tenants had done something there too. This, after during the course of that half hour blaming the remote which he planned to replace, and the satellite box which was “no good”. He did manage finally get the TV working…but only using “Guide” on the Bell Satellite. This meant no DVD or VCR., and we’d brought lots of “old classics” to watch in the evenings. Then, as he was leaving he added that he hoped everything was going to be okay, as he would be away until the following Saturday – 5 days! (We later learned from CHH once we were home, that this was not true – I can only assume that he just didn’t want to be bothered.)

We returned from lunch that day and settled in to watch TV as it was raining outside. Of course, it once again refused to work. Guy called the Dave and asked him point blank what he was going to do about the situation. The response…”I don’t know” followed by this pathetic, uncalled for and totally tasteless comment:

“I lost my daughter to cancer last year, and she never complained as much through her long suffering then you two have in the past day”

Guy informed him that we were merely trying to have access to the amenities that which were advertised and for which we had paid – $1200/week for a one bedroom cottage). Dave argued we should be out on the deck – not inside watching TV. Guy repeated the question and Dave said maybe he could get his techie son to come over and take a look. At this point Guy called CHH the first time to advise them on the entire situation (including Dave’s pending absence) , to ask them if any other rental units were available if this didn’t work out (our concern – what if the a/c failed and there was no one to contact). When Guy called back Dave said he hadn’t been able to reach his son, with no offer to try again or come over again himself. (This just before 5PM) At this point Guy advised the owner that we had no choice but to vacate the cottage the following morning, which we did. Guy then called back CHH to apprise them of this and were advised no other rentals were available. I made a third call to them the next morning to let them know we were gone so an inspection could be done. From this point a series of deteriorating e-mails between us and CHH resulted and they sent a $500 refund to us for our $1200 rental. We initially felt that a $857 (app 2/7 of the original rent) refund would be acceptable even though the promised amenities were not there. However the unprofessional actions of CHH ( who we contacted 3 times – never a mention that they provided a service to mediate and also effect repair ). Through e-mails first they said we hadn’t advised them when on the premises (wrong) and then they said we hadn’t given them enough time to fix things. (How could we? – we didn’t know they offered these services or we wouldn’t have left in the first place and nothing was mentioned to us by CHH in the 3 phone calls we made from this rental unit.) They said Dave had brought his son over the next morning and everything was now fine (?????) . On the Thursday afternoon they said we were free to come back to the cottage. Given the long distance involved and the very short time left when this offer was made, and given the way we’d been treated, this was not appealing in the least.

In conclusion, be wary of County Holiday Homes (who rent many, many cottages/homes throughout Prince Edward County and obviously defer to clients of the Theakson’s ilk), could cause you problems you don’t want or need. Many thanks to Joan (CHH) and Dave for making our special holiday so memorable!)

(PS – If you check the Theakston’s ad for the cottage now, please be advised that the “good for swimming” has been removed…CAN’T HAVE ANY FALSE ADVERTISING, CAN WE? )

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.

I am so outraged by the experience I had at Spice Route last night that I have to say something!

We were at Spice Route for a friend’s birthday. As we were seated at two booths (there were about 16 of us), we were told that we would have to order off a pre-set menu as there was a required spending amount. My friend who had booked the booths disputed this, saying this was not communicated to her and she never agreed to this. She had specifically asked at the time of booking whether we could order off the a la carte menu and whether there would be a minimum amount spent, and she was assured there wouldn’t be one.

My friend went to speak to the manager, who right from the beginning was rude, dismissive and wouldn’t listen to her valid complaint. While she was discussing the matter with him, the server was instructed to completely ignore us (after we were seated late and were absolutely ravenous). She wouldn’t even bring bread to our table.

The manager wouldn’t listen, but we were all starving to death so we had to start ordering food. The manager (after threatening to throw us out – for what I don’t know, talking back to him? Aren’t we the customer??) said we could order food as long as we spent a certain amount. Starving, we thought we’d give it a try – maybe we’d spend that amount anyway.

When the bill came we realized we were $220 short of the minimum amount. My friend decided the manager would have to be reasonable – we still spent close to $750. She went to plead with him again. He completely shut her down. So she said that she wouldn’t sign the bill, because she wouldn’t authorize him to charge her that much. He told her that he had her credit card number on file anyway from when she booked the tables. My friend said fine. We were gathering our stuff to leave, her plan was to just contest the amount with Visa.

Then the manager showed up at our table with four bouncers – he told us no one was allowed to leave until the bill was paid in full. He said the police were on their way. We sat there, shocked and humiliated, for 45 minutes.

The police arrived, and spoke to my friend, then spoke to the manager. The police sided with us in the end, and we paid the amount that we had spent – no more. The manager was no where in sight as we walked out of the restaurant. We were still so in shock we didn’t even think to ask the police if our rights had been trampled on.

I’ve never been held hostage in a restaurant before! It was a bizarre, surreal, horrible experience. I wouldn’t recommend anyone go there.

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.

Upon installation of my satellite services, the Bell technician broke my brand new TV. I was not in the room and did not see it, but the TV was fine before he came and was moved from one place to another and broken when he left. I called Bell as soon as I realized what had happened and lodged a complaint. Since then I have been on the phone with Bell customer service repeatedly. I have been punted from one person to another, has escalated again and again and nothing is being done. They claim that because they outsource their installation practices, they are not accountable for the broken TV, but they also will not give me the name of the company they outsource to.

At long last they sent a guy (Al) out from the outsourced company to see if the TV is in fact broken – which of course it is. He then tells me that the technician denies breaking it and that if they choose to compensate me for the TV, it would be the technician himself who would have to pay for it (well of course he’s denying everything then). So basically it’s my word against his, and good luck with that. Additionally, if they do decide to compensate me for the TV, I shouldn’t expect full price because once it’s out of the store, it’s worth only about half of the original cost (the TV was 5 days old!). If the technician refuses to pay, then there’s nothing the company could do and I’d have to take him to small claims court, and the technician likely wouldn’t show up, so it really wouldn’t be worth it for me. Al continued to tell me that this is why Bell outsources, so that they don’t have to deal with this type of thing.

So basically, everyone involved is brushing me off and refusing to take responsibility and have no qualms with this. So my counsel to anyone thinking of joining Bell is to NOT let any technician in to your house – because even if you follow them around for the entire 3 hours it takes for installation, even if you do see the technician cause any damage, it’s still your word against theirs and again, good luck with that. It is such a huge risk for consumers because these technicians could steal anything, break anything, basically do anything they want and the company won’t do anything for you. It’s actually quite scary. Oh, and good old Al was quick to tell me that Rogers does the same thing so it’s not worth switching because I’d face the same thing with them.

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.