May 31, 2010
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News: Drinking Coffee Gets Credit Cardholder in Hot Water
If you're a coffee drinker, you could be a Starbucks fan. Starbuck's offers this nifty service by offering a Starbuck's card. The card works similar to a prepaid credit card however can only be used to pay for merchandise at a Starbuck's store. For customers who frequent Starbuck's while scurrying off to work or rushing to catch that commuter train or bus, the card can be a tremendous time saver. Like most prepaid cards, a Starbuck's card can be easily reloaded when it reaches a selected minimum with the customer's credit card. Although the coffee giant boasts that the system works great and is safe to use, one coffee drinker found someone was able to capture her credit card information and placed three $20 charges.
Sheila Morrison a British Colombia resident she never had to worry with the card because even if she didn't have any cash. Morrison suddenly discovered one day after just having reloaded the card which was linked to her credit card that there was nothing left. It was discovered after she gave the card to her daughter to use. When her daughter went to check out, she was told there wasn't enough left to pay the bill. At that time, the daughter told the Starbuck's clerk to destroy the card since there was nothing left on it. Shortly afterwards, Morrison noticed the card had been reloaded with her credit card three times at $20 each.
After notifying Starbucks about the theft, the coffee giant reimbursed Morrison for the balance that the thief left and not the $60 from the three $20 credit card reloads. The small reimbursement was not acceptable to Morrison and she continued to pressure Starbucks for the entire amount. Morrison didn't waste any time contacting CTV News in British Colombia. After CTV contacted Starbucks, the company promptly reimbursed Morrison the entire theft amount. Morrison suggested that Starbuck's develop the policy of shredding up or destroying old cards versus just having employees through them in the garbage.