...oofdah!

-If you are ordering something and it always comes back bigger, AND more expensive?
(IE: they didn't just 'promo,' the thing
-and give it to you at the (smaller, initially ordered,) price?
--this is is a form of theft and is illegal.

Though I'm not a mermaid hater,
-thanks for writing this post.

I'd discuss this issue with Corp.
(not just 'cust relations,')
-then a regional,
-THEN the store manager
-all at once... (blanket them)

(If everybody is clean,
it will roll right to the employee who is doing this,

--if it's a strategy?
...well, it's not exactly 'hire a lawyer,' time,
---but the pen is mightier than the sword, dontcha-know...

(-and we are a reporter, aren't we?! ;)

first, there breakfast sandwiches were good.
second, i heard they stopped selling them, which saddens me.
third, you should tell them that you ordered a particular size when they try and sell you the more expensive one. it's not like they make it and then charge you. order, charge, receive is usually how i've seen it work.
fourth, i know you like brevity so i'm done.

Actually, Ed, that's not how it works.

I'm usually in the drive-through, so I order, I pull up to the window, they hand me a larger-than-I-ordered cup of already made coffee, then ask me for the higher price.

I assume culpability for not making a big deal right then and there, usually because - since it's the drive-through - I don't want to hold up the line by asking them to remake my drink in the smaller size.

...oh Houston, we so have a problem here...

This is nothing more than a drive-thru version of the old Bait and Switch technique, (upselling is permissable, it's explaining what ELSE the customer can get, prices disclosed.)

This is a 'forced sell,' with the understanding that the customer is not likely to leave their car and come in and complain...
-totally unethical and illegal IF being done deliberately.

A mistake of this nature should be handled by your getting the larger cup at the earlier stated' price.

Again speak to all points of light in the managament chain.
(If this is found out, Mermaid Central could get into a lot of trouble,
-and if this is happening to you continuously, assume that it's happening to others as well.)

If it's an innocent series of mistakes, that's one thing.
If it isn't?, a racquet is being run here, and needs to be halted ASAP.

I'm wondering if other readers have noticed this trend at other Starbucks? (or same behavior at this same one.)

Somebody may be banking on the fact that folks in:
-that section of town may not notice a buck or two more (and)
-that they're usually 'going somewhere,' and are less likely to pull in and raise a fuss...

(Heather, looks like you just became the next Joan of Arc for NE's caffiene achievers...) Consider yerself knighted.

Persnaps this is particular to Y'all up on the North side? because I can tell you that the folks at the downtown *$ (Kern & N st) are TOTALLY on the ball with the correct coffee-ness.
To be honest, I had my doubts that a "deathstar" could step up after my beloved Kern Street Coffee closed down (Sob!), but they HAVE.
Timely, accurate, friendly (w/o that sickening over-perkiness that makes you want to gouge out your own eye with an over-sized green straw!), they ROCK down here!

nancy,
if you're buying coffee downtown, and used to go to kern street, why aren't you going to cafe corazon? it's a billion times better starbucks, it's locally owned, and leo actually roasts his own beans (what a novel idea).

and heather, i stand (sit) corrected on your coffee ordering/paying skills.

Ed,

Um...because the deathstar is half a block from my job, but Fulton Mall is 3 blocks away from the same.
And don't be hatin'...I'm not too lazy to walk that far, it's just that I barely make it to work on time as it is...
(So I'm not a sloth, just a procrastinator!)

Anywho...when my "I'll make my coffee at home from fresh ground beans and this nifty new press" plan works out, I'll be buying beans from Leo if even HALF of the good stuff I've heard about Cafe Corazon is true...

In the meantime, the folks at downtown *$ are STILL cool. (Say "Hey!" to the LITTLE TINY Redhead!)

It's called Bubba-sizing.

The Fort Washington/Friant one is my neighborhood one as well. I haven't had the mis-sized issue, but they are notoriously slow in the mornings when I'm going to work and stop in (which is when I forget to make my own pot at home). They talk waaaay too much to the customers and seem to forget some of us actually have to be somewhere and it's an endless source of frustration for me...plus they seem to have a lot of turnover there and are constantly breaking in a new crew, which is not a big deal if youre ordering a drip coffee (me), but a holy calamity if youre ordering something frou-frou (everybody else). Ugh...

Or just do what I have been doing since I read this in Slate
......though I haven't tried it at the drivethru.....
It really does taste better!

Starbucks Economics Solving the mystery of the elusive "short" cappuccino.

http://www.slate.com/id/2133754/

sad but true:

http://www.slate.com/id/2132576/

The title says it all - they ARE shady - bait and switch aaaand hiding the real cappucino ... what the heck??

I'm marveling that a person can wait to get to *$ ... I can barely speak until I've had a cup ...

UUUUGGGG!! This post is giving me heartburn already.

first of all fort washington and friant has the best customer service ive ever had and is the most sanitary second if u ordered a grande and they give u a venti and charge for a venti say NO i ordered a grande im paying 4 a grande duh or go somewhere else theres river park or clovis or dont get any starbucks at all stop complaining if its that big of a deal dont drink starbucks u wont die and neither will the company with out u as a cutomer. and ur excuse for not speaking up at the window is holding up drive through, go inside
HAPPY STARBUCKS CUSTOMER

I'm with Mike Oz... Bubba-sizing! haha!

Oh and did you see that *$ is supposedly wasting enough water in a day to fill an olympic sized pool every 83 minutes??

Eco friendly my butt!