Starbucks says free iced coffee coupons no longer accepted

Starbucks has issued a statement regarding the free-drink coupons that have been widely distributed via e-mail. It says: "An e-mail offering a free Starbucks iced coffee was distributed to a limited group of Starbucks partners (employees) in the Southeast United States on Wednesday, August 23, 2006, with instructions to forward to their group of friends and family. Unfortunately, it has been redistributed beyond the original intent and modified beyond Starbucks control. Effective immediately, this offer will no longer be valid at any Starbucks locations." (This was also posted by the cash register at the Sherman Ave. Starbucks in Evanston -- and, presumably, at other Starbucks stores.) (Starbucks news release)
> One eBay user was auctioning off a 20-pack of the coupons

Comments

[Jimmy Chang in NYC]

Did Natalie post the signs??? *snicker*

BTW, did you get a coupon to use later in the day?

[Costas]

Guess the party's over.

I think we all should phone *$'s and ask that idiot who came up with this campaign should be canned. It's stupid that they don't honour their own coupons.

[hugo]

Agreed....this/these person/s caused near bedlam in our store yesterday. We are located in the heart of a HUGE corporate complex in suburban San Diego...over 30,000 employees in a couple of square miles. We were absolutely inundated yesterday afternoon- 100s of free drinks...it was a freaking circus & a zoo & and an insane asylum...none of us need that grief and neither do the customers...(the wait was dreadfully long, but just like a fire drill, ya HAD to wait for a FREE drink!)I won't touch the issue of coupon acceptance or non-acceptance....(:^D hugo

[Mario]

Starbucks should stop charging .55 cents extra for an extra shot of expresso in the Venti Latte drinks this is a rip off because it is too weak if you get it the way they make it. Why should you have to pay extra for them to make an already expensive drink properly?

[djchuang]

Too bad for the Starbucks coupon gone wild and out of control. A nice rebound would have been to accept the modified coupon as a buy-one-get-one-free instead of shutting the whole thing down.

[coffeeguy :)]

thank goodness. Someone needs to use their head next time.

Internet coupons are a bad idea.

Putting free money on starbucks cards and rewarding our customers is a good thing.

[mochatina]

i just came from my local *S and they have a really really small sign up by the registers... i only noticed it because i was looking for it.

i think they will make money off of this because the coupon will draw people into their store and since the signs are at the register and are so f-ing small, someone will wait in line thinking that they'll get this free drink. by the time they get to the register and read the sign and instead of leaving the line embarassed for not ordering anything, they'll fork over $4 for a coffee.

[Rae]

Perhaps Starbucks doesn't yet realize that "friends and family" often extends to internet communities . . . not just people within a set geographical area.

[Scorpio370]

I think it's better to say that it only takes a few people to abuse something. I don't think the person who created it should be fired, after all, it would have been approved by upper management. Starbucks was willing to accept the coupon until it got out of hand and the coupon was modified from what it was originally. I don't blame them for discontinuing it.

And Mario, if you think a shot is to weak, then maybe you should ask them to make it stronger. The machines may be automatic, but it does not mean that it doesn't need to be adjusted sometimes. Beans cost money, therefore the shots cost money.

wow starbucks tries to do something nice and everyone yells at them for it. Why doesn't starbucks do this for me or this? It was a mistake move on and pay for your drinks you cheapos

[Jojo]

The coupon was for a free iced tall coffee in certain areas...someone scanned it and edited it to say a free grande iced beverage. it was pretty much a fake coupon. thank goodness we dont have to accept them!!!

[Kenneth]

When I drove my mom back home from work, she showed me photocopy of those coupon which her co-worker printed out. Same goes, my co-worker mentioned that at work as well.

The whole thing really generated a lot of buzz.

[sbuxgrrl]

Which genius in marketing thought that it would be a good idea to email coupons to partners and and ask them to forward them to "friends and family?"
Even more scary that senior management approved it. I doubt that senior management approved it.

I guess the policy is now, "Just Say No!"

Senior regional mgmt. did approve it, and it came from the higest levels of marketing. ONe would think Starbucks was a little less behind the times when it comes to technology, but I guess that's what happens when old status quo corporate drones are in charge.

[Mario]

I think Yah missed my point the drink is already a lot of money, infact when you add the .55 cents for an extra shot it makes it a $5.00 drink. A little crazy in my opinion. As a result I don't buy that drink anymore.

[Becca]

Mario, judt because you're a glutton and want 20 oz of coffee flavoured steamed milk, doesn't mean you should get it to taste more like an actual latte for free. Why do you even need that much? Just get a bloody grande and stop your whining.

[coffeeguy]

accually I happen to agree with him. I think a Venti should get an extra shot of espresso.

Problem is it's on that threashold where you go between 16 and 20 ounces. If we added 3 shots a lot of customers would end up very confused on why the taste of coffee to milk changes so quickly between the two sizes.

There was almost deffinatly a dicussion on this at some point in the company I'm sure. It's a hard call.

[seattle]

Although it shouldn't be, it is still amazing to me that people can look at a big corporation and forget what they are really dealing with.

When I was in grade school I learned a lot of stuff. One piece of that stuff was that...people make mistakes. No one is perfect.

So, here's the thing that maybe no one has discussed yet-since all a big corporation is, is a lot of actual human beings and not robots...could someone have made a mistake ?! Does it have to be that someone is an idiot, or someone is a "status quo corporate drone". SOMEtimes people make a mistake...because they're people. Every single poster that posts on here that has a job makes mistakes at work-the only difference is that you may not be at a place that has national/international scrutiny.

So, to recap, grade school=where you learn that humans make mistakes and you learn how to deal with those mistakes.

[nickname]

i, however, make no mistakes.
:)

the mistake wasn't the sending of the coupon.

it was the ability to change it and then duplicate it...

the coupon itself - incorrectly sent around the countries - probably wouldn't have caused the revoking of the issue.

it was the adaptation by some photoshop star that did...if they had just redistributed it - outside the origins, we'd probably not have any problems with accepting them.

(not that i had any problems then...read the other post)

it was that someone took what was meant to be one thing, edited it, and made it into another thing - that starbucks had a problem with.

[Mario]

Finaly a resoponse to my Venti extra shot issue that was posted by someone with a brain thank you!

[nickname]

mario - i'd recommend getting your venti latte with long shots. it'll taste like a triple, but cost you nothing extra.

[seattle]

NICKNAME I do appreciate the response-however, that wasn't the real problem. It was a mistake all together.

I agree with Mario I think that the Venti should come with three shots as well, and when I get a Venti I order it with a third shot but I work for Sbux so I can afford it with my discount while most others can't. Personaly however I think that 20 oz of anything is too much unless it's an Americano.

[Dan]

Just got his e-mail from Caribou Coffee:

You may have heard that one of our biggest competitors(who shall remain nameless…but has a big green logo) recently issued a coupon for
a free iced coffee beverage and then decided not to accept it.

Although they won’t honor their coupon, CARIBOU COFFEE WILL!

Bring your coupon to any Caribou Coffee on Friday, September 8, 2006, after 12 noon
and receive a FREE Medium Cold Press iced coffee, Iced Americano or Iced Tea.

[Candi]

Caribou Coffee is honouring those coupons all day long.

And I work in a very tiny one IN A MALL, life is going to be hard today...

Why couldn't you guys just take the stupid coupons, why make all our lives difficult at Caribou?

[sbux fan]

/Caribou made their choice, besides seems only for the afternoon. big deal. If you don't like the SB coffee or stores just stay away, there are billions who love SB. The company gives millions of $ to our parks here. Sure someone can find fault with that too i suppose. Well stay out of my parks then, go play in the steet and drink water.

[jdcitizen]

There's a class action lawsuit now!

http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/blog/hell-hath-no-fury-like-a-coffee-drinker-scorned.html

[Rikky]

maybe ppl shud actualy ask starbux what the 411 is before they go again with the slander.

The coupons; the coupons were made by a NON STARBUCKS man in america sumwhere who posted them round the internet under the story which many of u have commented on. The problem is the coupons dont even have the starbucks logo on, and if any one knws starbucks well enough they would knw they put the logo on everything. the reason why they didnt place the logo on the coupon is because the logo is so tightly copyrighted the lawsuit agaist them would be massive.
Some of the coupons were forwarded to UK email address and the 'free drink' phenonmon began to grow over here in the UK too. We originaly accepted a few coupons manly because customers caused a fuss and it was easier to agree with them until we could figure out what on earth was going on. We originaly assumed it was an american only offer. But we got in touch with head office and they said their was no such offer in place and it was simply a prank played by sum idiot with a printer and alot of spare time.

as far as Venti drinks with 3 shots go, i totaly agree they should do. i will bring it up with our mamagment team and find out why we dont do it!

Ill keep u posted!

[Rikky]

maybe ppl shud actualy ask starbux what the 411 is before they go again with the slander.

The coupons; the coupons were made by a NON STARBUCKS man in america sumwhere who posted them round the internet under the story which many of u have commented on. The problem is the coupons dont even have the starbucks logo on, and if any one knws starbucks well enough they would knw they put the logo on everything. the reason why they didnt place the logo on the coupon is because the logo is so tightly copyrighted the lawsuit agaist them would be massive.
Some of the coupons were forwarded to UK email address and the 'free drink' phenonmon began to grow over here in the UK too. We originaly accepted a few coupons manly because customers caused a fuss and it was easier to agree with them until we could figure out what on earth was going on. We originaly assumed it was an american only offer. But we got in touch with head office and they said their was no such offer in place and it was simply a prank played by sum idiot with a printer and alot of spare time.

as far as Venti drinks with 3 shots go, i totaly agree they should do. i will bring it up with our mamagment team and find out why we dont do it!

Ill keep u posted!

[Ethan]

wow, Starbucks is already charging way to much. It's about time that they did something nice for the people that keep them open.