"I have been experiencing horrible customer service issues with Teavanna That I would like Starbucks to Address, as I can say your company has so far given me the worst customer service I have ever experienced in my lifetime.

As a short summary on or around 10/7/2014 I Placed an order via Teavanna's Website for Loose Tea, A YixingTeapot, A Teacup and Saucer and a YixingTea Mug. The order number is W2515740.

I waited several weeks but my order was not shipped, during that delay some items went on sale and sold out. I then made a phone call to customer service and was told that users of the site using tablets and such can get timeouts where orders appear to have been placed but in reality they have not.

This could be plausible, However they zeroed out the gift card that was part of the payment this I advised the customer service person on The telephone so they did receive the order but did not fulfill it in a timely manner, the service person did restore the amount debited from the gift card. I have also sent Three E-Mails The first one was responded too with a proposed solution to the problem I was Agreeable to that however that, was never fulfilled and my follow up Emails now numbering two have been ignored. Is this really How Starbucks and Teavanna wish to represent themselves as a business to customers?

There is no excuse for this! nor is it professional or businesslike by any Standard! I do not appreciate my Time being wasted in such a manner! A copy of my original order Follows below along with all E-Mail Correspondence.

Hello Latonya,

I apologize for having to bother you but I have experienced another problem with the website. I placed an order for a teapot,tea and some teacups around 10/7/2014 I used a promo code for forty five dollars off one hundred and a gift card and my credit card for the balance.

My giftcard was debited but no order was shipped also over time some items sold out, when I phoned customer service they could not find the order as current and suggested it might have timed out when placed however the giftcard was debited and zeroed out so that suggests some part of the order did not time out.

I'm enclosing a screen cap of my original orders and please let me know if I can provide any addition information. I find this to be very disappointing as I was really looking forward to that teapot hopefully things can go better in the future. Screen shots below for your connivence.



First Response Oct 27, 2014, at 6:40 PM

Hello Mr. Mac Cormack,

Thank you for contacting me. I sincerely apologize for the problem that you experienced with our website. I clearly see that you attempted to place this order. We have issued a credit back to your gift card in the amount of $25 and as a good faith measure, we will send you the teas that you orders complimentary and I will give you a $10 discount on the purchase of the infuser mug. Please let me know if these terms are acceptable to you. I hope to hear from you soon and I hope you have a great evening.

Kind Regards,
LaTonya Savoy

Teavana Corporation
Manager, Customer Support
3630 Peachtree Rd., NE
Atlanta, GA 30326
***-***-****
****@****

My Response Oct 28,14 at 7:08AM

Hello LaTonya,

That would be great, do you need me to send you my credit card info? Also should I stop using the website to place orders? I normally browse the store using Safari on my Tablet, I don't think it would cause anything but I'm just hoping to avoid any problems. Thank you for all your help and I hope you have a great day.


Thank You your assistance & Best Regards, Ray

There is as no reply to this email.

My Third E-Mail November 7, 14

Hello LaTonya,

I'm just writing to follow up on my last E-Mail as I had not heard anything back please find another copy enclosed for your convenience just in case the mail ended up in a junk folder.

Copy Follows Below.

Hello LaTonya,

That would be great, do you need me to send you my credit card info? Also should I stop using the website to place orders? I normally browse the store using Safari on my Tablet, I don't think it would cause anything but I'm just hoping to avoid any problems. Thank you for all your help and I hope you have a great day.

Thank You & Best Regards, Ray

Original Order Screencap
"

"OMG I'm not the only one! I wish I could give them zero stars!
These ppl are rude and untrained. Ive never encountered customer service like this before. Anyways, here's my story...

Horrible customer service! I made a purchase with their $30 off $80 coupon. The coupon went through and I THOUGHT I received my discount. But the confirmation email did not give me the discount. Now they refuse to give me the discount because they claim the coupon hasn't started yet.

So why does the stupid coupon work in the first place! Don't give me the discount and then cancel it on me after my order HAS BEEN PLACED! SO that it's to late the cancel the order. ANd of course you get the whole excuse that it's been shipped out already so they can't do jack for you! Not even a courtesy discount because "the coupon hasn't started yet". Yet the coupon went through and confirmed my purchased with the $30 discount.

My credit card was charged with the $30 discount price, but they took it back and charged the full amount. Even when I told them what my credit card was showing they still insist that the coupon didnt start yet and in order to give me the $30 refund I had to show proof. I didn't understand why my credit card charges were not proof enough.

The supervisor finally gave me the $30 off after she told me to send in a image of my credit card charges. But I had to go through SOOO much hassle and frustration! Rude customer service, supervisor was better, but the rest were rude, no training watsoever.

He even blamed me for the problem because he claims I had an opportunity to check the prices before I confirm my order. But I'm really wondering if he was deaf, cause I told him the order went through with the discount, WTH!

By the way, the $30 has not shown up in my credit card account yet..and the original discount price has disappeared from my credit card account...let's see how this pans out...coupon user beware! It's a headache dealing with Teavana if you encounter a problem. They don't really care about the customer and they're straight as an arrow, whatever the book says, they follow it to the tee. There is no bending or working differently for different situations...this was definately a different type of problem and they couldn't deal with it differently."

"The customer service sucks every time I go to ANY Teavana. It does not matter if it is in Connecticut, New York or New Jersey... it is always consistently awful! They are never engaging or friendly, and they usually straight up ignore me. Everything is overpriced. I can not stress how much I do not like Teavana."

"Let me start this by saying that I love Teavana's tea. However, I will never deal directly with them again. Their ordering system and customer service are abysmal, and the tea is not worth the trouble. If this is as far as you read, you've got the gist of my story.

Here are the gory details if you're interested:
-12/26/13'ish placed an order for $23.30
-ship date: 1/13/14, received 1/16/14'ish
-packing slip indicates $11.87 and half my items are marked 0 for qty shipped. NO other explanation
-emailed Teavana - no response after 3 days
-emailed Teavana - no response after 2 days
-called Teavana, waited on hold for 25 minutes, requested a callback, no response all the following day
-called Teavana, waited on hold for 20 minutes, finally got someone. she said it looks like I received all my items, her system showed that all my items shipped. interesting. I was mad at this point already and asked what I'd be charged? she said the $11.87 on the packing slip, but she offered to ship me the other items from my order at no charge. most weren't available so had to make substitutions.
-several days later I see the credit card charge for the original $23.30. emailed Teavana - actually got a response the following business day this time.

so to sum it up, their shipping system is completely disconnected from their ordering/payment system. one doesn't know what the other does. doesn't matter what they tell you what you'll be charged, they apparently don't really know. if I'd never contacted them, I'd have been charged full price for half my tea. even after contacting them and them making apologies and offering to ship the remainder of the order at no charge, they charged me the full price anyways and pretty much told me there's no way they were honoring their word of only charging me $11.87 b/c they'd substituted items. I recommended they pull the phone conversation to verify, no response. I will NEVER order from Teavana again. I'm not sure that I'll order their product from anybody else. never have I felt more neglected and disrespected as a customer. and before you call them & request a callback, I'll quote what their representative told me: "there's usually a 2-3 day waiting period for a callback." I asked if they were working on that problem and she said "well, I'm answering your call now aren't I?" wow. just wow."

"I'll simply echo what many others have said: customer service at Teavana online is a bad as service at your local Teavana store is good. I placed an order online, there was something left out in delivery, I wrote to their customer service online twice, and never received a response. I'll never order from their website again, and am not sure whether I'll buy from them again locally either."

"NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER will I ever order from Teavana online again. They have the absolute worse customer service I have ever experienced in my entire life. I have so many of there products> I literally buy every single week from an actual store. BUT after the hours of my time I sent on hold (over an hour) I WILL NEVER ORDER FROM THE ONLINE OR IN STORE. "

"Teavana's online experience is horrible. If you want to purchase tea from them, I'd go to a brick and mortar Teavana. Placed order and didn't get shipping confirmation until almost a week after the order was placed. When I called customer service to request tracking, I was on hold for half an hour before I hung up. I took a screenshot of my phone showing my hold time, and sent them an email of my horrendous experience thus far. That was two days ago and still haven't received a response or any type of communication. My order still hasn't arrived and I'm just thoroughly disgusted. I ordered online because I found a coupon for $10 off and I end up with more frustration. I should've just spent the extra $10 and went to Teavana in our local mall. This whole experience has shed a new light on their customer service in general. I also agree with others about how the employees do try to up-sale everything under the sun. Just let me buy the tea I want and get out. Online experience definitely gets a 1 star from me. Booo and don't know if I will give them any more business - period."

"I wish I had read the reviews before I asked for something from Teavana for Christmas. I showed my husband what I wanted and he went in to buy the item. The salesperson didn't believe my husband when he said he wanted to buy what I asked for and convinced him to buy something that cost ten times as much. So I returned it the day after Christmas and purchased the item I wanted. They "put a credit on my card" but as yet (four days later) it has not been credited to my bank. My husband called yesterday and was told that credits take a few days (!!) to process, even though debits are posted same day. Not happy at all with their customer service."

"I was not impressed and won't be back. The used-car salesmen approach in the Westfield-Montgomery store was pathetic. The server, after I asked for the smallest serving--2 ounces, placed almost 3 ounces of each tea in the bag, then fast-talked me into seeing if that was okay. I looked at the scale, mis-read it and said "yes." He knew what he was doing, he knows what 2 ounces is and deliberately overpacked the teabag just to boost their sales. Then he tried to sell me more items I didn't want, including tea equipment I didn't need. Very disappointing and not very beneficial to their brand. I would not recommend this store other than as a tasting point, or idea factory to blend your own teas. Their teas are incredibly overpriced and the sales pitch is disgusting."

"I went to a local Teavana store, and being the big tea drinker I am, decided to go in and try a sample of their multiple samples scattered around the store. Before I even get to taste the tea, an employee comes over and tries to sell me multiple items at once. "Have you tried that tea over there yet?" "Do you have something to brew that in?" "Have I shown you this yet?". When I picked up a few teas (three teas at $10.00 each), I noticed my total came out to be $58.00. I looked at the receipt and they charge you for the tins they put them in ($6.00 a tin!). They tried pressuring me into buying more before I payed the total, when it is then I realised the game they where playing. They tried to sell me five more products when they realised I was not buying any more of their over-priced stuff. The tea was good though which is why I gave two stars instead of one. My advice, do not go there unless you know what you're getting! Do not ask about anything unless you want to stay for another ten minutes! Ask if you can get the tea in something other than a tin, and best of all: DO NOT STROLL IN! That's how they blindly rob innocent tea drinkers into clearing their wallets in a short notice. "

"This is a store/website for people that want to pretend to be tea snobs but don't actually know tea very well besides what salesmen or websites will push on them...
Reasons why Teavana is horrible
-overpriced (if you just buy the ingredients for your favorite blend you'd save tons of money. Seriously the dried friggen fruit they put in their 'fruit' teas and 'herbs' for their herbal blends add cheap filler so they don't have to put as much actual tea in.)
-They don't actually say what estate their teas are from or much of anything for that matter. Half their blends just say "blah blah green tea". Well that's helpful. But a real tea enthusiast would know that it probably just means they have a super cheap green tea they use for that blend otherwise they would disclose the information.
-The 'german rock sugar' is always pushed and people think it's this amazing product that doesn't add any flavor and just sweetens the tea...hate to break it to you. That's just how sugar is. Regular sugar doesn't add any flavor either...and guess how you make 'rock sugar'...google it. It's literally just sugar you dissolve and then grow bigger crystals with. Such a friggen scam.
-They basically unload a pile of bull then expect you to believe it. Unsuspecting tea noobs get suckered in.
-The tea equipment they try to sell you is also overpriced."

"Was a given a gift card for my birthday. Went into the store at a mall and felt like I was scammed by the sales girl. Told the sales girl it was my first time in a store/ new to the brand. To begin with there is no clear pricing on the teas or how they are priced by weight. She went on and on about teas I had no interest in and filled up two tins of green and white but did not tell me how much each was adding up to. At the register I was slapped with a price of $191.00. A customer standing next to me gasped as loud as I did. Then when I said I couldn't afford that the sales girl seemed annoyed when she had to go back and empty out a lot from each tea. Plus I told her I wanted the tea in a bag since she did not explain the tins themselves were 6 dollars each. Seriously? Deceptive pricing. Bad customer service. Never buying from this company again."

"I placed an order on January 24th. It is now January 31st and I still have not received shipment confirmation. It was a BIRTHDAY GIFT! I have tried numerous times over the past few days to reach someone and have had no luck. I will not buy from Teavana again, and will suggest the same to my friends and family. I'm a customer service manager for a popular online retailer, and this is just unacceptable.

"

"I will never shop at Teavana again. I used to purchase from Special Teas before they were taken over by Teavana. They used to have good quality teas. There was an error with my order, my gift wrap didn't get included. I tried to contact them by phone over and over for several days and never got through. I got the same repeated message: We have been experiencing high call and email volumes. Finally I had to get the gift wrap remedied through their online chat. After several days, I saw they had charged me twice, once for the original transaction, and then a new transaction price that included the gift wrap. I called several times with no live help. I finally emailed them requesting a credit for my extra transaction on January 14 and telling them how disappointed I was with their communication. I just got a reply today, January 25...11 days later! The same excuse was in the email: We have been experiencing high call and email volumes. They didn't even respond correctly to my issue. Worst CS ever. I will never shop at Teavana again."

"I just had one of the worst customer service experiences. I had submitted an order online late December but had not received my order. I emailed customer service and was informed that they would respond but 5 days later they had not. I had called the 1-800 number and after being on hold in excess of 15 mins took the option of receiving a call back but I never received a call back. I called today and after being on hold for about 30 minutes I spoke with a representative. After I gave her my order number she advised that there were online issues and my order never went through. She advised that the items I wanted to purchase were no longer available. After I expressed my frustration and anger she merely hung up! Although I like Teavana teas, given how expensive they are, this type of customer service is unexcusable. I will never purchase from them again."