I personally had a different experience entirely & thought I’d let you know about it. (the below is copied verbatim from my yelp review: http://www.yelp.ca/biz/bean-around-the-world-coffees-vancouver-7#hrid:Fx5CDeIGap5Sc3TzW1PnRQ)

I rarely ever write reviews, but I’ve never had such bad customer service. I thought I’d let others know.

I saw this place a few times, but never got a chance to stay.

I walk in, it’s packed – pretty good atmosphere. Everyone’s on their computers.

I move two tables together because I’m going to have a friend come over.

I then walk up and buy a $3.25 water that comes out to $3.92.

When i go back up to ask about the wifi password, the guy doesn’t look up and points to the wifi policy

It says $4 minimum.

I bought $3.92 i told him.

him: “it doesn’t matter, it’s the policy”

I wasn’t sure if he was joking or serious.

He then says, in rude/condescening (slightly pompous) way, “also, if you’re going to have two tables, you’re taking away another customer, so you’ll actually ahavehve to pay $8 minimum to use Wifi.”

I was like…. are you serious?

Turns out he was.

He wasn’t even nice about it. He wasn’t understanding. He wasn’t even sympathetic.

He then goes on to say. “because you’re taking away a potential customer. You want to leave? go ahead. You don’t have to stay here, I’m not forcing you, you can go anywhere you want. Go to waves if you want free internet Do you want me to refund your water?!?”

I then asked him If it would be okay to just let me use internet this once, since I didn’t know – he said no, it’s the policy.

I then asked him for his name, and he wouldn’t give it to me unless i gave him mine & my number (fair enough i guess).

CONCLUSION:
great vibe, but I don’t agree with their stance on treating customers who fell $0.08 short of their minimum purchase with contempt, and telling them they can leave instead. Also found it surprising that he said i would need to pay $8 because I was saving an extra seat for my friend who was coming in 15 minutes…

Also, I totally understand that costs are an issue, that you see cheap students a lot (i’m not, i’m a young working professional now), and that you have policies. But maybe explaining it to your customers in a less condescending , more friendly manner would also help to boost sales. Learning from starbucks in this regard might help – if a customer comes back and complains about a drink baristas are trained to give them a free drink ticket, and make it over for them.

They argue that the cost they will loose in giving the free ticket + drink will win them back in the long run because they’ll keep coming back.

Anyways, just my 2 cents.