A Baskin-Robbins customer on TikTok is calling out the store for being closed due to understaffing when she was scheduled to pick up an ice cream cake for her daughter’s birthday. The clip has highlighted a discussion of staffing on the platform.
In the video, user Chelsea (@chelseatyme) shows herself holding the receipt for the cake, explaining that she was informed by the ice cream shop that she would need to pick up the cake earlier in the evening as they were closing early.
When she arrived two hours before the time she was told the store would be closed, she found the door already locked.
@chelseatyme #sweet16birthday #sweet16 #heartbroken #liedto #failed #horriblecustomerservice #baskinrobbins #blowthisup #fyp #notok #newyear ♬ original sound – Chelsea Humphries
“Paid $49 for my daughter’s cake, and tipped them,” she says in the video. “They said be here by 7 because they’re going to be closed early, and it is like 5:24. Now my daughter’s Sweet 16 cake is locked up in there. Cool, Baskin-Robbins. Fuckin’ cool.”
In the clip, Chelsea showed a sign on the store’s door that reads, “Closed Not Enough Employees.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Chelsea via Instagram direct message, as well as to Baskin-Robbins via email, regarding the statements made in the video.
Chelsea clarified in her own comment section that she received a full refund for the cake, but viewers empathized with her frustration.
“If they were closing early then they should have called everyone that was meant to pick up a cake to let them know,” one commenter wrote.
“Nah if there’s prepaid orders for that day then they need to call the customers and/or stay open,” another user said.
“I get closing for not enough employees but a manager should have stayed until 7 for prepaid orders,” a third added.
Others tied the closure to staffing and criticized the idea that any of the employees should be made to stay later than scheduled because of a variety of hypothetical reasons.
“They should have called but guys you can’t force an employee whose off at 3 to stay bc no one else showed up,” one user said. “Or 1 16 yr old to work alone.”
“Don’t be mad at the 1 employee who closes early,” a second urged. “They can’t do this by themselves. Be mad at the DMs & GMs who don’t care to pay enough people to staff.”
“As someone who is dealing with major understaffing issues, i understand them closing early,” a further TikToker wrote. “However, they already told you 7 and closed before 6.”
