‘It’s usually like 80 cents’: Starbucks customer orders 2 tap waters. Then they charge her for ‘custom tea’

Starbucks' tap waters are an old staple. Who doesn't love a free way to get iced water? This creator does a tap water hack for their kids. However, it ended up costing them way more than they expected. This is what happens when they ask for a refund.

Starbucks' water cup policy

There's one item that's not on Starbucks' long list of drinks—free water. However, it's become a staple of the company. Company policy is that you can go up to the counter and order free water at any Starbucks location. However, some stores may charge you a cup fee. The stores that are more likely to charge you a cup fee might be something called a "licensed" store. While Starbucks does not follow traditional franchising structures, licensing is a similar format. These stores may have to absorb more operating costs than stores owned directly by Starbucks and, as a result, charge for cups.

This customer, Emilyn (@everythingemilyn) was charged for way more than just a cup when they ordered two waters.

Customer charged oddly for water

TikToker Emilyn (@everythingemilyn) talks about buying two tap waters for their kids at Starbucks. Emilyn explains that they bought two tap waters and added strawberries to each of them. In the past, Emilyn has only paid .80 cents to add strawberries to a water cup, but not this time.

"Starbucks charged me $11 for water, and I need to know from someone with inside information if this is correct," Emilyn starts the video off by saying. They say that when they asked to add strawberries to the waters, their bill went up by $11.

"Looked at the receipt, and I see they are charging me for a small custom tea and the strawberry infusion, so it's like over $4.50 per drink," Emilyn says. Once Emilyn asked the barista about it, they told them that's just how they have to ring it up. Emilyn asked to swap their order to plain water.

They then explain that they asked the barista for a refund and were refunded $11.

What's a custom tea?

According to a Reddit thread with several presumed Starbucks employees, the custom tea option is a bit of an anomaly. The thread starts with someone asking what the "custom tea" button in the POS system is for. Several others weigh in.

Some say it's for water with fruit inclusions like strawberries, which is exactly what Emilyn asked for. Others say it's a catchall button for out-of-the-box drinks that don't require coffee or a substantial amount of milk or tea. Others say it's for when you make a tea latte or turn a hot tea into an iced tea. Folks in the thread never reached a consensus, so there's no way to tell which explanation is true.

Emilyn's video has over 376,200 views and 24,000 likes. There are 1,398 comments, but comments on this video are disabled, and there's a reason why.

@everythingemilyn Starbucks has lost their mind! #fy #momlife #starbucks ♬ original sound - Emilyn????

"It was just very shocking."

Emilyn has posted two other videos responding to the Starbucks video's unexpected virality.

"I all of a sudden have this video with like 350,000 views. Most of my videos get like 300 views. It was just very shocking, and I am never one to say rude things to people on comments … and so it was just very shocking to see what people felt they could say," Emilyn says in a video.

They also mentioned that they have tons of sympathy and appreciation for customer service workers and would never want to scam them or get them in trouble, that they were simply looking for answers to this obscene cost. Viewers on this video sympathize with Emilyn and speculate on whether this is a change in pricing policy.

"No trust me us baristas don’t like it either, i’m a shift supervisor at starbucks and everything has been changing with how we have to ring things up so they make more money even though we don’t," says one comment.

"The starbucks thing is 100% correct, we have to ring it in like that," says another.

The Daily Dot has previously covered people ordering at Starbucks and wondering if their behavior is uncalled for or not, like this customer who canceled their order and asked to have the tip refunded as well.

The Daily Dot has reached out to Emilyn via TikTok message and comment and to Starbucks via email.

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