Why I’m done with Starbucks
( February 11, 2011 at 4:20 pm) · Filed under Food and Recipes, People to smack, christmas, Coffee, gifts, pissed, poor service, saving money, starbucks 
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So I’m upset with Starbucks, to the point where I’m done with them until at least, 2012. Considering my office is in the same parking lot as a Starbucks, where I love the people, that says a lot. The short version of the long story goes something like this. For the past 4 years that our office was in this location, since the owner’s of the company I work for also goto SBUX daily, I’ve been purchasing them gift cards for Christmas. This year, I decide to spice it up a bit more than the standard plain off the shelf card, what a mistake that was.
On December 10th, 2010 I placed my order, which included an extra $8.00 charge, which I was able to accept as I thought my gift would stand out more to them.
On December 12th it shipped, under the auspice of taking “6-8 business days” from the Starbucks website and my order email, which has since been changed on the website, not sure about the order emails.
On December 22nd, I email them and explain that it’s now been over 8 business days and the order has not arrived, and inquired if it had been returned or lost. There is no response for a few days
On December 23rd, I call support, and I’m rudely told that it’s 7-12 business days, and there is nothing they can do since it’s USPS. Also, it’s “unreasonable to question” why it takes an envelope over week to travel anywhere in this country. Worse case scenario, Seattle to NJ, will only take a few days at best. I explain my displeasure with the entire situation to the service rep, who acts like he doesn’t care, but claims he will let his supervisor know of my displeasure with the entire process, per my request. The CSR did not offer me any type of ticket number.
On December 24th, get a response to my email sent on the 22nd, they say wait until the 12th business day then contact them again. This time, I get a ticket number.
On December 28th, I respond to the email explaining how I have now been embarrassed in front of my employers, and quite upset with the Starbucks brand. I request in the same email that the cards be reprinted.
On January 4th, I respond to the same email asking if there is any status change or if anything has happened. All the while keeping the subject line intact with the order info, as well as all ticket numbers.
On January 5th, I get a response saying to call, with yet another ticket number, so I do. On the phone, all of my existing ticket numbers don’t help her find any real information, so I give her the order string. She tries to find me in their system, to see if I have a Starbucks card, then gets snippy with me for trying to explain that they are shipping to my office. After about 30 minutes she’s able to tell me that the cards were “signed for, then redeemed”. I ask her how they could be signed for if they are just plain USPS, and she’s unsure, then ask her when they were used or redeemed. Again, she’s unsure. I’m now told that this will have to be escalated, however I can’t speak to anyone about the issue, but she’s got a ticket full of the info, and of course a new ticket number, and someone will contact me with the resolution.
On January 19th, since I have not heard a word back from any supervisors I call back, and a very nice woman tells me there is an update to my last ticket I’m to be refunded because they are unable to reprint custom cards. I explain to her that so far this has been going on for well over a month, and I’ve now spent about two hours of my life on the phone trying to resolve this, she is very apologetic and agrees that the entire thing is a mess.
On January 27th, a week and a day later, I contact my credit card company do charge back the initial charge.
On February 1st, someone calls me back and says “we see you disputed the charges, but we are going to send you coupons for a free coffee”..
I’m not going to sit here and rant and rave any further, but those of you in my office, and anyone in my personal life knows all about how badly this one was botched. My recommendation is don’t’ bother wasting your time with Starbucks support staff, and especially don’t bother with custom gift cards. In short, thanks for screwing up my office Christmas and making me look like an ass Starbucks.
At least I’ll save a ton of $$ by either buying coffee elsewhere or making my own. Now enjoy this funny, and freshly updated video:
They don’t even have a website to find someone to complain to. Oh well. 
