Many people make their coffee at home but for those who enjoy a treat on occasion, stopping by Starbucks for a cup of Joe is something they might do. They realize that coffee is expensive at Starbucks, but they feel that they are worth it.
Then again, how would you feel if you were charged $4500 for 2 cups of coffee the next time you stopped by Starbucks? That was what one couple experienced, and it was a very stressful situation.
We all realize that it was a mistake on Starbucks’ part to charge them so much money for the coffee, but it didn’t make it any less of an ordeal. It was even worse that Jesse and Deedee O’Dell had been visiting Starbucks for about 16 years before it happened.
On this particular day, they wanted a cappuccino and an iced Americano. It was a fairly standard Starbucks order, but something didn’t go right.
This is a coffee order that typically costs around $10 but on February 2023, they ended up paying $4456.27.
They didn’t realize that the time but on top of the regular order, they have been charged for a tip of $4444.44. That’s quite a tip!
Jesse also said that he selected the option for ‘no tip’ on the card machine when placing his order. This was sizing up to be quite a mystery.
A few days later, Deedee was at the mall with her four children and tried to use the credit card. When it declined, she started doing some investigating and found out that they had been charged a lot extra for the Starbucks order.
Deedee contacted the district manager for Starbucks and was told that the network must’ve made an error when they used the credit card machine. They were then told that they would be sent two checks that would pay back the entire gratuity amount.
To make matters worse, when the checks arrived, they bounced. Jesse said that customer service was contacted about 30 or 40 times that day and he eventually talked to a representative who said they would be sent new checks.
Because of the mixup with Starbucks, the couple had to cancel a nonrefundable trip to Deedee’s home country of Thailand. She was going with Jesse and their children to visit her sister, whom she had not seen for years.
They were then working with the Tulsa Police Department to get the issue fixed. They also want to let other Starbucks customers know that they should always check their receipts when they order coffee.
Jesse said: “This is something that has caused huge duress in our own family, and hopefully other people don’t have to go through something like this.”
A Starbucks spokesman was contacted by a news outlet and they were told that the problem was resolved. They said: “This was an unfortunate situation that has since been resolved. The tip was entered by the customer in error.”
“While the original refund checks had a typo and therefore did not go through, we issued new ones on January 31, which were received and cashed by the customer on Monday, February 6.”
