June 9, 2009
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News: Starbucks Charges Double
Starbucks' customers who used their debit or credit cards for purchases over Memorial Day weekend found the already high cost of coffee even higher. A glitch in company's system inadvertently doubled many of the transactions. For those who have already complained about the high cost of a cup of coffee it was no laughing matter. Approximately one million debit and credit card customers were billed twice on both May 22nd and 23rd involving over 7,800 Starbucks across the nation. Transaction receipts did not reflect the double charge which was noticed at the end of day sales settlements. Unfortunately, credit card accounts had already been charged. On Tuesday, May 26th the day after Memorial Day, Starbucks notified the banks and began reconciliation of the double charges immediately. By May 29th, the process of reconciliation was completed where all duplicate charges had been reversed.
Trina Smith, a spokesperson for Starbucks released a statement apologizing to all its customers for the inconvenience and confusion. Smith further stated that in our high tech world, with the large number of debit and credit card transactions, "consumers are accustomed to these kinds of things." The comment set off its own controversy as some individuals feel that consumers expect more from Starbucks. According to David Robertson, Publisher of the Nilson Report, any merchant is susceptible to this type of error. Last year there were over 57 billion debit and credit card transactions, as technology continues to grow, problems processing these transactions will continue to grow as well.
This is not the first time this type of error has occurred. A similar incident occurred during the 2008 holiday season when Macy's customers who used their cards were also double charged. The exact amount of the duplicated debit and credit card charges has not been released. Starbucks says that because the problem was resolved in such a timely manner, the revenue never hit their books. They maintain the problem has been fixed and no further comments are needed.