What changed with Costa and why it suddenly matters

Costa Coffee used to feel like the reliable in‑between: a predictable flat white on the way to work, a quick toastie before a train, a place to sit when you needed ten minutes out of the rain. Then that strange, familiar line - “it seems you have not provided any text to translate. please provide the text you would like me to translate into united kingdom english.” - started popping up in customer journeys and support moments, and it highlighted something bigger: small changes in how Costa communicates and operates now land harder than they used to.

Because when a brand is built on routine, even tiny shifts in price, perks, menus or apps don’t stay tiny. They hit you in the middle of your day.

The quiet change: Costa stopped being “just coffee” and became a system

For years, the deal was simple. You walk in, you order, you pay, you leave with a cup that tastes broadly like last time. Costa’s growth made it feel everywhere, but not complicated.

Lately, the experience has been nudged towards an ecosystem: app logins, personalised offers, loyalty mechanics, delivery partnerships, machine formats, and more templated customer service. None of this is unique in 2025. What’s new is how central it is to Costa’s value, and how quickly you notice when it misfires.

That’s why a generic, irrelevant message like “it seems you have not provided any text to translate…” matters. It’s the sort of glitch that tells customers, subconsciously: you’re not talking to a person, you’re talking to a pipeline.

What actually changed (the bits you feel, not the press release)

Most people don’t wake up furious about corporate operations. They notice practical friction: the price you didn’t expect, the offer that didn’t apply, the drink that suddenly tastes slightly different, the staff member who looks exhausted explaining a new promo.

Here are the changes that tend to show up in real life:

• Value moved from the counter to the app. The best deals often sit behind scanning, collecting, or “selected for you” vouchers.
• Menus got tighter and more standardised. Fewer niche items, more focus on the core sellers that move fast across thousands of sites.
• Service became more script-led. Helpful when it works; maddening when your issue doesn’t fit the template.
• The “where” of Costa expanded. Shops, drive‑thrus, kiosks, Costa Express machines - all count as Costa, but they don’t feel the same.

None of these is automatically bad. The problem is that customers still expect the old simplicity while the business is now designed like a tech-and-logistics brand.

Why it suddenly matters now (and why you’re not imagining it)

The reason this feels more intense lately is timing. People are more price-sensitive, more tired, and more alert to being nudged.

A 30p rise or a smaller perk lands differently when it’s attached to a routine you repeat three times a week. You don’t calculate it once; you feel it again and again.

And when there’s an error - an app voucher that won’t scan, points that don’t appear, or a bizarre message like “it seems you have not provided any text to translate…” - it turns a simple purchase into admin. That’s the moment people decide they’ll “just go somewhere else”, even if they don’t, even if they still like the coffee.

The new battleground isn’t taste. It’s effort.

The hidden tax: cognitive load

Costa’s older promise was ease. The newer model asks you to:

1. remember to open an app,
2. understand which offer applies,
3. trust that it will track,
4. resolve it if it doesn’t.

That’s fine when you’re planning a purchase. It’s irritating when you’re half awake, running late, and your payment has already gone through.

The human bit: staff are carrying the gap between brand and reality

When systems change, frontline staff become the translators. They’re the ones explaining why an offer won’t apply to that drink, why the machine receipt looks odd, why a store can’t fix an app issue, why “customer services” is a form.

This is where frustration gets misdirected. Customers feel short-changed; staff feel blamed; management sees a KPI. Everyone thinks someone else is being unreasonable.

If you’ve had a weird interaction recently, it’s often not because the person serving you changed. It’s because the rules around them did.

How to respond as a customer without making your life smaller

If Costa is part of your routine, you don’t need to take it personally or swear off cappuccinos forever. You just need a clearer strategy than “hope it works next time”.

A few practical moves that reduce friction:

• Treat the app like a bonus, not a guarantee. If you’ll feel annoyed without the discount, choose a purchase you’d still make at full price.
• Screenshot or save offers before you queue. If it disappears or fails, you’re not trying to remember what you saw on a moving screen.
• Know which Costa you’re in. A Costa Express machine, a travel hub kiosk and a high-street café can run different flows and fixes.
• Escalate issues with specifics. Time, store location, receipt photo, and what you expected to happen. Vague complaints die in templated support.

None of this should be necessary for buying a coffee, which is exactly the point. The more “system” Costa becomes, the more customers need small safeguards to keep it feeling simple.

What this reveals about the future of everyday brands

Costa’s change is not really about Costa. It’s about what happens when routine brands become optimised platforms.

The upside is consistency at scale: quicker service, broader availability, targeted deals. The downside is that the average customer is now managing edge cases that used to be handled informally: “Oh, that didn’t scan - no worries.”

So when a nonsensical message like “it seems you have not provided any text to translate…” appears, it’s not just a funny glitch. It’s a reminder that the brand relationship has shifted from human flexibility to system logic - and system logic is famously bad at your messy, real morning.

If Costa can keep the convenience while bringing back a little slack - clearer pricing, fewer hoops, support that actually answers the question asked - it stays a habit people don’t think about. If it can’t, it becomes a decision point. And decision points are where routines go to die.

Quick read: what changed and why it matters

Change	What you notice	Why it matters
More app-centred value	Deals feel “locked” behind scanning	Routine purchases become effortful
More templated support	Odd messages, generic replies	Trust drops quickly when issues occur
More formats (shops/machines)	Inconsistent experience	Customers feel blamed for “using it wrong”

FAQ:

• Why does Costa feel more expensive than it used to? Prices have risen across food and drink generally, but coffee feels it sharply because it’s a frequent habit. If your perks have also shifted into app-only offers, the “headline” price becomes more noticeable.
• Is Costa Coffee worse now, or just different? For many people it’s less about taste and more about friction: extra steps, unclear offers, and inconsistencies across stores and machines. Those changes make the same product feel worse.
• What should I do if the app or voucher fails? Keep the receipt, take a screenshot of the offer if you can, and contact support with time, location and what happened. In-store teams often can’t fix app-side tracking after the fact.
• Why would I see a message like “it seems you have not provided any text to translate…”? It usually signals a templating or system-routing error where the wrong support text is shown in the wrong context. It matters because it hints the customer journey is being handled by automated flows that can misfire.