A Woking man who used a loyalty card to obtain discount cups of coffee from his local Costa coffee shop has been branded a ‘shameless coffee whore’ by store manager Brad Fuller after being spotted drinking coffee in a rival coffee house.
A trainee at Costa Coffee in the Peacock Shopping Centre told supervisors she had spotted the man sitting in the window of a tea room just off the high street ‘with a slice of lemon drizzle cake in one hand and skinny latte in the other’
The card based loyalty scheme had been introduced by Costa nearly two years ago in an effort to reward customers who regularly took coffee with them and had only recently been stream lined to include extra benefits and fun-filled features, making it easier for customers to redeem their points against hot beverages and ready prepared snacks in all participating stores anywhere in the country. Costa had even added the incentive of extra bonus points for customers who registered for the loyalty scheme online. But it seems for some customers, even this level of care and commitment shown by Costa was not enough.
Not surprisingly, management and front of house employees at the Peacock Shopping Centre in Woking have taken the news rather badly.
‘Quite honestly, I feel hurt’ said Brad, the current line manager and Costa Coffee employee of the month a record four times at the Woking branch ‘it hurts to say it but Costa UK feel used, abused and just a little bit dirty right now. There are rumours now going around that the man had been cheating on us for some time but we just didn’t spot it.
It seems everybody else in town knew about it but we at the Peacock Shopping Centre were the last to know. Apparently, he didn’t even try to hide it. We now know he was doing the same sort of thing at Greggs over in Chobham but they were quite happy to go along with the subterfuge. But then that’s Greggs for you, settle on a sausage and bean melt along with a grab bag of Doritos and they think they own you.
We don’t issue these loyalty cards lightly and once the bond is broken there is no coming back. I just don’t think Costa could ever trust him again, in fact he can go rot in hell for all we care’.
Church leaders have condemned the man’s actions saying it is yet another example of a creeping malaise in a society ‘losing sight of its collective responsibilities in which a coffee drinker can pledge undying loyalty to a particular coffee house yet is only too willing to break that trust as soon as a rival coffee brand opens a store in town’.
Costa say they will now be reviewing their loyalty card scheme at the Woking branch and will in future only be issuing cards to customers who can prove a serious long-term level of commitment equal to that shown by the UK’s favourite coffee retailer.
We invited Greggs to give their version of the alleged incident but there was no one available for comment. But they did remind us that their opening hours are from 8am – 5pm Monday to Saturday and closed on Sunday or you can use the navigation bar to access the FAQ on their website.
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Costa to ban loyalty-card abusers
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Earl Van Dyke
offlineMemberPosted 1 year ago # -
Like it. I had a close call myself once, when a McDonalds "7th coffee is free" sticker card fell out of my wallet when I was paying at Costa.
I told them a friend had asked me to look after it, and they believed me.
I think sometimes Costa just block out what they don't want to accept until it's staring them in the face.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Midfield Diamond
offlineMemberI bet he had a Nectar card, a Tescos Clubcard and a Morrisons Miles card too, together with loyalty cards for Hertz, Avis and Budget Car Hire. What a bastard.
I think the article could be a bit tighter but questioning the loyalty of loyalty card holders is a great idea.
Posted 1 year ago #
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