My recent in-store experience at Teavana

49 Replies
candlelite said

I was in a teavana store recently after their online department totally botched my order. I came in with a gift card and knowing exactly which tea I wanted, so I told the employee to give me that and no more unless he was willing to pay the overage :D To his credit, it is the only time I have not been overpoured (often my location overpours by close to an ounce).

While measuring out the tea though, he proceeded to belittle and mock me in some twisted sale tactic, saying things like “you store your tea in glass containers? I feel sorry for you”. I told him I store mine in the cupboard, as it’s not like I’m putting them in the window. He just kept going though: “but is it a citrus tin? Tsk tsk that’s pathetic”. By the end, I was extremely annoyed and just wanted to leave and even as I checked out he continued to push the tins, saying my tea would be garbage in its paper bag that he was packing it in.

I feel like it’s location specific, as I’ve had significantly less crazy behavior from outside my area. I’m hoping Starbucks does them good in the customer service department, because all the locations around me are crazy and I don’t plan to go back there.

Uniquity said

I understand that Teavana’s customer service is bad, but those sort of comments from a salesperson are entirely inappropriate (in my opinion). I would contact customer service/head office to report the conversation – that goes beyond upselling into rudeness.

Totally, report them, that’s unacceptable! Teavana may have trained him to be a snob, albeit a misinformed one, but not to be so outwardly rude. They don’t want their employees calling customers pathetic.

pegasi said

That is terrible – employees having goals and being slightly pushy is one thing (although not ideal), being outright rude is something else entirely. I would absolutely contact someone about the experience you had.

Omg, that’s unreal. Teavana arguably trains it’s employees to push, but not to be rude to the point that it’s flabbergasting. Managers should be notified of employees treating customers like that! When you said that you store your tea in glass, he should have just asked if you keep it in the dark or not; done.

On the website, go to customer service and “contact us,” and there’s either a form or a phone number you can use. You might want to use the form, I hear it’s hard to get through on the phone. It probably also helps to lodge a complaint on Facebook, and name the store and describe the employee to the best of your ability. You could also try calling the store and asking for the manager…or you could do what a woman in my area did recently, and call an adjacent store and get one manager to notify the other one without risking going through the snotty staff member again.

zazen5 said

I work in a hospital and am repeatedly subjected to utter nonsensical behavior on the part of staff and doctors. The unfortunate part is that due to the behavior of staff at Teavana it leads to discomfort and avoidance, exactly what they dont want. At work I expect juvenile stupidity because Im getting paid big bucks to deal with nonsense in between patient care, I wouldnt expect any nonsense at a shop I am there on my free time. I would start questioning any salesperson what their objective was in the behavior mentioned, to antagonize the customer so they dont buy and dont come back? I would actually enjoy the opportunity to argue with retailers like this, they would be a captive audience for my frustrations from work where I am not allowed to voice what I really think due to potential loss of income.

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Denny said

Wow I don’t go in the one near me much, but if they acted like that, someone would be getting punched.

Thats what I was thinking. I store my tea in glass mason jars in the pantry and that seems to work alot better than tins.

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Claire said

Just chiming in on the pronunciation of gyokuro, as someone who speaks a bit of Japanese:
The Japanese “alphabet” generally works in consonant and vowel pairs with some exceptions, for example a i e o u ka ki ke ko ku are “letters”.
Gyokuro would get split gyo ku ro. Gyo should be a combo sound of gi and yo, where the emphasis is on gYO.

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Spot52 select said

They are still pushy at the my local area Tevana. They have no clue how to respond to, “I’m good; I don’t need any help”.

Just walk in and talk to yourself menacingly. and if they approach you anyway, be Socrates.:)

Spot52 select said

:)

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zazen5 said

Teavana has some good year end sales, 75% off. I initially requested 600 grams of my morning mate, but the price was really low, so I told the person at the counter to give me a kilo. I think she was trying not to laugh. Then I requested a quarter kilo of the copper knot hongcha. I really like Teavana and am happy that after they acquired Teaopia the shop isnt screwed up. It remains to be seen if it goes downhill with the Starbucks acquisition. According to staff at one of the stores the tea will remain a separate entity for the Teavana stores from Starbucks. Given that tea is all around Calgary, I wont lack for choices if Teavana goes the way of McDonalds.

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darby select said

Surprisingly I went in to the store last week (new manager) and had no pressure at all! Just for fun I had her pull out 10 teas and took a long time deciding which 2oz to buy. It’s hard when you have them all! LOL I had a gift card for under $5 that I didn’t want sitting around gathering dust.

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Are you socially retarded? Why were you so rude to the workers? You sound SO snobby correcting people’s pronunciation of a language YOU DONT SPEAK. If I was employee #1 I would have straight punched you in the face.

Too pretentious right now. You’re like a… “Tea snob”

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Lynxiebrat said

Jeremyleediaz, who are you talking to? Generally when responding on a discussion forum, you should put that person’s name/nickname in…like I did in my note to you.

Oh and on this site…being called a ‘tea snob’ isn’t considered much of an insult.

Also, if expecting that someone that works in a tea store know about tea in general and about their stock calls me and anyone else a tea snob…well so be it.

scribbles said

Thank you Lynxiebrat for saying what I was struggling to say :) I wanted to respond in the same manner/tone as jeremyleediaz, but did not want to stoop to that level. So my thanks to you Lynxiebrat for saying what needed to be said without being rude :)

OMara said

Thanks Lynxiebrat for responding. I couldn’t nicely so I didn’t.

Hey I know, I’ll make a new account on a forum so I can necro a two year old thread with a rude post.

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