A barista’s video calling out a Starbucks “hack” that doesn’t actually work has drawn nearly half a million views on TikTok, where commenters agreed the attempt was bold at best.
The video was posted by Sinéad (@sineadrobbins), who warned viewers not to try this because no store would make the order.
@sineadrobbins #starbucks #barista #youtried ♬ original sound – sinéad
“So today someone ordered a handle bag, which is five cents, and then there’s like a text box where you can put in requests, and they just said, ‘could I have a grande strawberry cream frap with no whipped cream? Thank you,’” Sinéad explains, showing an image of the order. “This is not a Starbucks hack. It was a little bit funny, but it didn’t work. We just canceled the order. So don’t do this, but this person really tried.”
Viewers criticized the customer for believing they would get away with a nearly-free beverage by ordering it this way.
“They LOVE to do this in the request section,” one commenter wrote. “Like you’re not getting shit for free babe.”
“People try that all the time with our mobile orders at my job,” another commenter wrote. “Like no ma’m, you are getting what you paid for.”
“People try to do this at my restaurant, I ring it in proper and then they’re shocked when they have to pay for it,” a commenter wrote.
Others shared some of the specific items customers attempted to get for free by adding them to their orders via notes.
“People would do this when I worked at Moe’s, they’d put in the *special instructions* tab ‘please a cup of queso,’ but wouldn’t add the cup to their order,” one commenter wrote.
“I used to work in pizza and people add stuff like this in the online order notes like no sorry can’t give you extra stuff,” another commenter wrote.
“I used to work at a Chipotle and people would put ‘add guac’ on the special instructions,” a commenter wrote.
The Daily Dot reached out to Sinéad via Instagram direct message but did not receive a response before publication time.
