Costa Coffee - Tendring

My husband and I joined the queue yesterday lunch time. We waited to be served for 15 mins noticing that the young male member of staff was only dealing with phone orders, leaving a female member of staff to deal with the queue. Another female member of staff walked through the back door with her hair round her face (half in a side pony tale the rest had fallen out), she was chewing, mouth open, something white, which she went on to unpick from her teeth with her finger and then continued to use the till. She then moved away from the till, and her colleague then also used the till! We chose to leave at this point! Covid or no covid, this is discusting! It made us think about how clean everything else was. They use tongs for the cakes, but if they think sticking a finger in their mouth to unpick a sweet is hygenic behaviour, then I will never visit this coffee shop again! The staff didn't wear masks either, which many shops and pubs are continuing to do.

Sadly went there for a nice coffee and cake to catch up with a dear friend. Was given rude instructions not to sit at any of the empty tables and refused me to sit and wait at a small table out of the way, due to social distancing , she rolled her eyes and called a collegue who offered a tiny chair near to the entrace not Social Distanced at all. I was very dissapointed and upset as there was at least 3 empty tables away from the rest of crowd. Chairs legs had been tied together and it looked awful not inviting or organised at all ! I took my custom elsewhere and would never recommend it with such rude staff and their rubbish service!

I was in Costa at the waterglade with my family, spent a fair bit of money as always, I used the toilet and lifted the handle as I always do and I make sure it's locked, a little girl managed to open the door and was a good job I had finished, I told the young girl behind the counter that the lock might need looking at and she spoke to me like I was a 6 year old, I'm an older lady and I've been locking the toilet doors for many years, I did not appreciate being spoke to like I was stupid especially in front of customers, well I won't be returning here which is a real shame

There isn't a great choice of places to have coffee in Clacton so we went for Costa which is normally reliable. We arrived about 1 hour before closing but as they were cleaning we had to sit at a table at the rear. The barista told the customer before me that she only had skimmed milk which doesn't make the best coffee but luckily I spotted a small amount of full fat milk on the side. We had cortado coffees which were ok but really too milky. I heard the barista tell other customers she was out of ice and out of change so she could only accept cash. Better to get here early in the day before they have run out of everything.

Often come to this branch however recently they have taken to closing early. Regularly close half an hour or an hour early so come early or be disappointed. Also the staff can be somewhat rude. And finally, they recently put codes on the toilet doors. Ok, I get their reasons. But, the handles have been put so far up that children and those on wheelchairs cannot access them, even the accessible one. Am changing the branches I visit.