While the Starbucks (yes, yes, Starbucks is evil and no one should go there – sorry. I just like the coffee) card/VISA combo is really awesome – I get free money from Starbucks loaded onto the card regularly, on top of the 1% cashback on my VISA purchases and 3% cashback on the money I load onto it (hmmm… I wonder if that’s considered taxable income? we’ll just say it’s not 😉 ) – I do have one qualm with it.
It is notoriously difficult to do the following:
- Order a drink
- Reload the Starbucks card from the VISA
- Pay for the drink with the subsequent newly loaded money on the Starbucks card
So, instead of me putting $20 on my Starbucks card from the VISA and then buying my drink from that $20, I’m paying for my drink on top of that $20 – bringing the purchase to a messy $21.55 (or whatever it happens to be – it’s even worse when I’ve just ordered an iced-double-tall-soy-latte!).
The reason this gets my goat? Because that’s $1.55 (at the very least) I’m only getting 1% cashback on – instead of 3% – whenever I reload my card. Doesn’t seem like much, but it adds up over time. (Thank the Yorkshire in me.)
Plus, it really does just feel messy to get a receipt back like that. Starbucks should have
a) tried harder to train their employees on how to reload the Starbucks card/VISA combo and then charge a drink from the newly reloaded funds, and b) actually spent the time to design their POS system to be easier to do this in the first place.
In this day of constant card transactions and higher awareness of user needs, there is absolutely no excuse for this kind of sloppiness.
Starbucks, you get a slap for this!
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