Teavana -- If you don't want to buy something, too bad.

587 Replies

It’s good you have a chain of tea shops, we need some in the UK as Whittards just doesn’t quite cut it

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Ctea said

I agree that the staff can be extremely annoying. This is kind of irrelevant but I had bought a ceramic tumbler from them and it leaked and the lid would never lock, and I took it back and the woman wouldn’t exchange it (I had it for a couple of weeks already so it may have been past the return date but she didn’t say that that was the reason). Instead, she went on about how she has one and it’s SUPPOSED to leak and the lid is just that way. Well, sorry if I don’t like sitting on the bus with my tea leaking all over my clothes.
Anyway, everytime I enter the store I’m stalked and the Metrotown location in Burnaby BC is not particularly large so it’s annoying to be crowded by someone and pushed in every direction to try this and that and buy this and that.

Supposed to leak? What sort of BS logic is that supposed to be? Oo

Ctea said

Right? This is the I know everything mentality that is typical of Vancouver. Even if there is no logic in what they say they must know what they’re talking about!

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marileerd said

We are fortunate in Anchorage to have a great tea shop! So we can check out accessories and herbals in Teavana, but don’t have to rely on them for real tea :) Summit Spice and Tea has the good stuff!

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MikeMeyers said

-The teas that they sell in the store are NOT fresh. They open those tins all day and are exposed to air and light. Also people constantly breathe on then as they smell the tea. If you want FRESH tea, order online! The bags are sealed tightly and are not opened hundreds of times a day.

-Also when Teavana has their heavenly sale, the teas that are on sale are old and expired tea! Those are teas that have been sitting in the bag room for a long time. They have the sale so they can get rid of the old expired tea!

-Another thing to keep in mind is that the teas that go on sale at the end of the year will have different ingredients when they are back in stock.

Their storage tins aren’t magically airtight and keep tea fresh for like a year? So those tins they try to sell you are even more of a rip off.

Ost said

I’ve bought tea tins from them before and they worked just fine for me…

MikeMeyers said

I meant the huge tins they have at the store that they store their tea in, not the tea tins you can buy.

I know, I meant why aren’t they using better quality tins for storage if they sell you their smaller tins. If the product sold isn’t fresh, why are they pushing tins to keep it fresh? Sorry if I wasn’t very clear before. (Hope that makes sense.)

They don’t have what DavidsTea does and a small compartment to smell from, and the main tin to scoop from?

But in the end, to get a tea that hasn’t been opened in store, they’ll need to prepackage it all (like what Lupicia does) but then they can’t overpour on people.

I never even thought about how much fresher the tea bought online must be – it is true, they open up the big canisters to sniff. There is no real reason for it, it just takes up more space on the counter, when they could have little sniffing jars like everywhere else I have ever been. I order online because the employees at my local store have a tendency to be insufferable (mostly lecturing on why teavana is the highest quality tea out there, and lies about the magical healing powers of tea). Online is where it’s at, for me.

I cry little tea tears every time I read the Reddit forum and they direct new people to Teavana.

When I worked there pretty much everything was expired, never mind just sales tea, it grossed me out a bit, I was in the back checking out even the unopened bags of fresh tea and many were months expired and this was yet to even be brought out into tins yet. The stuff in the tins…I would not drink it, they let people sniff that stuff that even had colds or flu’s, god knows what really.

This was in the Staten Island, NY store, not sure if anywhere else is different but for the price they charge you think it would be super fresh and organic…ugh…such a scam.

Don’t they get inspected for things like that, essentially like restaurants do?

Uniquity said

Davids used to have the same system (years ago – just an open tin to smell). Then they got the new covers that have a compartment which holds a small amount of tea for everyone to sniff. It’s simple, but a brilliant fix. Well, for that one issue. :)

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eddieb said

Teavana is hit and miss for me. In some of the Teavana stores, the employees don’t even care about you while in other stores, the employees can’t stop bugging you. Ever since my experiences at Teavana, I’ve only resorted to online shopping for tea.

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Going by one in SF (on Saturday) to see what they have on sale. Mainly because that store is near the David’s Tea I plain to visit.

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jemerte said

I work at Teavana, and yes, we are required to basically follow the customer around and ‘educate’ them on tea making. I think it annoys a lot of our customers, but if we don’t keep talking, often the manager will talk to you afterwards and ask why we didn’t tell you about the cast iron or whatever. If you’re standing anywhere near cast iron especially this will happen. We have a cast iron talk track that we’re supposed to go through with every customer.

I feel for you. I went in a Teavana once, and I don’t know that I will go back. It’s a shame too, because I spend a lot on tea.

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Grill said

Teavana was my first experience outside of bagged tea and way almost enough to scare me off forever. I’m not a big fan of the hard sell or people waving things in my face. That and the product was disappointing especially for the price

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Brian said

a cast iron sucker is born every second. :-P

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LuckyMe said

Yeah I’m not a fan of how they stalk customers either. I actually think Teavana does a decent job of making quality teas accessible to the layperson – I still like their matcha and Fruta Bomba green tea. And some of their teaware is quite beautiful. But my problem is everything there is just so damn overpriced.

IMO, Cost Plus World Market is a much more affordable alternative to Teavana for basic teaware. Online and smaller brick and mortar shops like Adagio and DavidsTea offer a better value on loose tea.

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