I thought I was seeing double when I reviewed my bank statement the Tuesday following Memorial Day weekend and found two charges from Starbucks for $3.66 on the same day. I rarely go to Starbucks so I knew for certain that I hadn't gone twice on the same day. I was out in Washington visiting a friend who had just had a baby, and on my way home decided to pick up a Caramel Frappaccino. Guess they decided to give my debit card a double shot rather than my latte.
To make matters more complicated, I had just switched banks the week prior so I was unfamiliar with how they process charges. I called my bank and explained my dilema to them and they informed me that I would need to come into the bank and sign an affidavit stating that I had not authorized this charge. All this for a mere $3.66! Now we're talking principal. I believe a lot of people would simply write it off for such a trivial amount but if everyone did that how much would that amount to? Well, apparently it amounted to over one million customers (multiply 1,000,000 x $3.66 = $3,660,000, but Starbucks is not disclosing the actual $ amount).
My bank straightened everything out, but until today I half blamed my bank, and wondered how it happened and was concerned whether it could happen again only for larger amounts, like at the grocery or department stores.
To further complicate matters, upon reviewing my bank statement online today, I discovered a new credit to my account for $3.66?! Which was what led me to discover the Starbucks debacle. I called my bank to alert them to the new credit in my account for the amount which was already credited, so now I need to give it back to Starbucks. Overall, if you were to add up all the time expended and variety of business and people involved in order to resolve this entire fiasco - I think Starbucks owes us all a "free latte day". I'll be waiting.
1 comment:
this is bad timing for Starbucks... the last thing they need right now is more bad PR
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