S.o.e coffee: What happened at the Heytea Columbia store opening?

Heytea opened a store near Columbia University and planned a January 23 beta test where students showing a Columbia ID would get a free milk tea and a limited-edition fridge magnet. Many who queued in subzero temperatures were instead told they needed a brand invitation letter, and went home empty-handed.

Store staff reportedly called the promotional posts false, while students said the rules were changed at the last minute. Heytea apologized that same evening, admitting deficiencies in planning and execution, and confirmed Columbia students could still get a free drink with their ID on the January 24 official opening day.

Heytea opened a new store near Columbia University in the United States. It was originally scheduled to hold a beta test event on January 23, claiming that Columbia students could receive a free cup of milk tea and a limited-edition fridge magnet by showing their student ID. However, many students who arrived that afternoon were told by staff that they needed an invitation letter from the brand to enjoy the benefits. They queued in subzero temperatures but went home empty-handed, triggering widespread dissatisfaction and complaints. Some staff even said that the related promotional posts on the platform were all false information, while the students who posted refuted this, saying that the rules were changed by the store at the last minute. After the incident quickly escalated, Heytea issued an apology that evening, admitting that there were deficiencies in the planning and execution of the event, and reiterating that on the official opening day of January 24, Columbia students could still receive a free drink with their ID.

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Recently, multiple warning posts about the Heytea Columbia store have appeared one after another on social platforms, sparking curiosity and confusion among onlookers, who have been speculating about why this new store has prompted so many students to post complaints.

It is understood that the Heytea Columbia store is a newly opened location by the brand near Columbia University in the United States. The store launched a beta test event on local time January 23. Some netizens who learned the news in advance arrived at the store early, hoping to experience it first. They said, "After walking in, the staff said that showing a Columbia student ID today would get you a free cup," and if they posted a check-in post on social media, they could additionally receive a limited-edition fridge magnet.

Afterward, many students who saw these shares on social platforms rushed to the store between classes, hoping to enjoy the beta test benefits before the official opening. However, customers who arrived that afternoon were unable to get the free milk tea and limited-edition fridge magnet as they had hoped.

Some people reported that after arriving near the store, they saw a long queue at the scene, but most people could not get free milk tea simply with a student ID as the check-in posts had said. Students who were stopped outside the store said that staff told them they needed an invitation letter issued by the brand to enjoy the free milk tea benefit, while most people said they had never heard of any so-called Heytea invitation letter.

Having queued for a long time in the freezing wind at several degrees below zero yet ending up with nothing, the students were extremely dissatisfied and posted complaints one after another, accusing the store of temporarily changing the rules of the beta test event and making users who had been full of expectations waste a trip.

Interestingly, amid the dispute between the Heytea store and users, some netizens reported, "Two staff members directly said that all the posts currently on the platform promoting free Heytea and fridge magnets are false advertising." The original poster argued that what they had posted at the time was true, and that it was instead the store, which had temporarily changed the event rules, that was shirking responsibility, shifting the blame, and pinning it on the students who had posted truthfully.

What was originally a warm-up event for the new store's opening turned into a farce because the event rules were not clarified in time. Therefore, after the incident escalated, Heytea released a statement that evening about the "Columbia beta test" event in order to placate the students.

The statement explained, "Because the planning, communication, and execution of the event were not done well enough, it caused misunderstandings for everyone and also brought a bad experience to the Columbia students who came that day." The company apologized for this and said it had launched related accountability measures and an investigation. At the same time, the statement reiterated the event rules for the new store's opening: "The store will officially open on U.S. time January 24, and on that day all Columbia University students can come to the store with their student ID to receive a free cup of Heytea."

Because the store offered such a sincere compensation method, after the Heytea Columbia store officially opened to the public, students rushed excitedly to the event site as soon as class ended, standing again in the winter cold wind to queue for their own free cup of benefits.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.