Blast from the Past: Dunkin Donuts Boycott

I was talking with my brother David about coffee and South Korea over Tim Horton's coffee and cigars last night. It got me thinking back to my frustrations with Dunkin Donuts that led me to boycott them for a while. I can't remember exactly how long it lasted but it was more than a couple of months.

This afternoon I was looking through old emails and found one I had sent to a friend venting about the stupidity I was encountering just trying to get a cup of coffee in SoKo and my DD boycott.

Here is the email, some more commentary will follow after it.

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Hey bud!

You know that not much pisses me off more than someone screwing up my coffee. Dunkin Donuts in Korea is useless. Any Dunkin Donuts I have gone to in Korea has caused problems. I am not complaining about language skills, that would be stupid. You can't expect everyone in a foreign country to understand English. unfortunately, they even seem to be able to understand Korean here at any of the DD's I have gone to. There are so many reasons I am pissed off at them.

You go in and order a large coffee with cream. I don't like sugar in my coffee. I like large not regular. I don't want Americano (black) I don't want Original (cream and sugar). I want a large fucking coffee with cream. Not black. Not cream and sugar. It should be easy to get, right? Wrong.

They constantly fuck it up EVEN WHEN YOU ORDER IN KOREAN. I have gotten a small Americano, regular Original, coffee with 2 cream and 2 sugar, you come up with a way to fuck it up and odds are a DD's in Korea has done it and tried to pass it off to me as what I ordered.

They just can't think outside of the fucking box. In the box you have Original and Americano. Nothing else exists in their world. Try to go outside the box and they just can't wrap their tiny minds around it. Go help you if you want something a little different because they just can't ceop with it in Korean or English. I have had Koreans go in and order my coffee and they STILL get it wrong. Havign your first coffee of the day ruined by some moronic shit stains sets a bad tone for teh rest of the day.

Then you have ordering food. I liked getting their bagel sandwich. I hate sweet mustard and sweet pickles. Of course that is standard on most Dunkin Donut sandwiches of any type. I ask for them with no pickles or sauce, in Korean, and 9 fucking times out of 10 it comes back with one or both of those on it. Then they will try scraping the mustard off and then giving me the sandwich.

It must be a Dunkin DOnut thing because I NEVER had a problem with the McDonalds in YongAm-dong screwing up my burgers. I hate ketchup and pickles on my burgers. They never once fucked up and gave me a burger with that on. Evidently my Korean is good enough for McDOnalds to understand but not DD's. I think the problem is that they just don't pay attention to what you say and/or they aren't trained that well. Or they are just a bunch of fucking morons.

Then you have another problem. If you don't watch them, and stop them, they will half fill your cup with brewed coffee. THEN they will add hot water to the rest. Fuck me! I don't pay fucking starbuck prices for Dunkin Donuts coffee that is half watered down. That happened and every DD I went to. Sure, after a while, you can train them not to do that. Usually by the time you train them, and we are talking months here, someone new starts working there.

They would actually swear black and blue that they don't do that. Then turn the fuck around and start doing it. My co-workers would get coffee, tell them about my problem, be told it doesn't happn, and then the person who just told them that would fucking do it. Are you a bunch of fucking morons? Survey says ... yes.

So, the last few weeks this bullshit was going on almost daily, plus sundry other bullshit. Bullshit like how slow they are. Even when they aren't busy they tale too long. One friend just wanted a cup of black coffee takes 5-10 minutes with NO ONE in front of you. Last week I waited 25 minutes for a fucking cup of coffee. When I had come in the waoman was pouring coffee for some customers. There was at least a cup left. When I ordered she dumped it out. Which can be a good thing, fresher is better, but it took 25 fucking minutes! People were coming and going while I waited. It should take 5 minutes to perk a pot of coffee.

Then what happened when she actually started making my coffe? She half filled it and started adding hot water. What the fuck?!?!? And at that point I lost my temper.

I have had enough. I'm boycotting DD in Korea. I will not be buying anything from them anymore. I may go sit on the patio if my friends want something from there but I won't be getting anything. I have just had enough of the stupidity. I will tell all my friends not to go to DD. It will be a cold day in hell before I ever go there again.

I hope you guys enjoy your Tim Horton's. Wish I was drinking it now.

Take care

Flint

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I decided to give Dunkin Donut's another shot after a few months. Two factors helped me come to this decision. First was the fact that it was hard to get good coffee or coffee service anywhere I went in Korea at that time. I remember trying to get a coffee with cream at Te Amo, which was right beside work. When I asked for coffee with cream no sugar they started putting whipped cream in. They actually had no cream or milk to put in coffee. Although they did have milk to make lattes with, but couldn't be arsed to put it in a coffee. Angel's In Us did the same sort of nonsense. So, no matter where I went for coffee, there was too much fuckery.

The second thing was a change in managers at the Dunkin Donut across from where I worked. I didn't expect anything to have changed that much but you never know. It turns out she made a big difference. The odd problem still happened but they were few and far between. not like the constant bullshit that caused me to start my little boycott.

Thus ended my boycott which probably had no effect on their business but made me happy.