So web 2.0 it makes babies cry.

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:

A few weeks ago Starbucks closed all of their stores for 3 hours so that they could “retrain” all of their employees. Well that opened the flood gates for plenty of free or steeply discounted coffee for the same 3 hour period. Which, fueled the hell out of the bloggers, and there was plenty of free publicity. So that’s about all I’m going to say on that one. But I will get on a bit of a rant here. Now I love Starbucks, not as much as I love Dunkin’ Donuts, but I do love them. I just hate that I can’t order a “large coffee”, actually I can because I kinda want “iIl Will” style one day at my local Starbucks and now I don’t get any shit about my coffee. As I digress, I have to be honest I can’t stand the pretentious coffee experience at Starbucks. As far as the coffee is concerned, I like Dunkin’ Donuts better, even if it is in a crappy styrofoam cup.

Dunkin’ Donuts does have some big balls though, just look at one of their commercials from 2006 (this is still one of the funniest ones). How could you hate anyone that has John Goodman doing a voice over? Then again, Dunkin’ Donuts is a private company, and let’s be honest it is not an American company any longer. So once again, our dollars are leaving as fast as we plunk them down on the counter.

Although it may seem like I’m bashing Starbucks, well I guess I sorta am, I still like them. They give me free coffee! Well free coffee grinds that they have used and would otherwise toss out because no one in Medford would even think of reusing something. But again, I digress. Starbucks has a really nifty program called “Grounds for Growers“. Which is exactly what it sounds like, they give you the used coffee grounds and you can use them to compost.

Coffee grounds make a great “green” to mix with your “browns” aka leaves. So I now have two hot compost piles which I’m experimenting with. The first is a BioStack system that I purchased for $20 from Lowes because it was dirty and they were willing to play “Let’s make a deal”. The second, is a trashcan which I have drilled holes along the sides for aeration. I was originally going to try running this as a closed system, but discovered that even the expensive commercial tumblers have a lot of air flo.

My garden is going to kick even more ass this year than it did last year. If all goes well, I’m going to be up to my ears in fresh salads and veggies all while paying nearly nothing for maintenance. I also have another idea for the grounds which I plan to enact before the winter months, but I’ll explain that when I get more details worked out.