Perhaps They Should Have Tested More - Starbucks

For a couple of days in May, coffee giant Starbucks ended up double charging about 1 million of their U.S. and Canadian customers.

• More than 1 million transactions at 7,000 Starbucks locations on May 22 and May 23 were double billed
• The one-million Starbuck transactions involved both credit and debit cards
• The POS charges—and the receipts given to customers—were perfectly in order. The problems kicked in hours later, in the settlement processing area
• Starbucks has declined to say how the glitch happened
• Starbucks has declined to say how they plan to prevent it from happening again
• Starbucks says they've had some customers call whose accounts were not fixed
• Any customers with questions should contact the company's customer relations hotline at 1-800-23-LATTE.

Starbucks spokeswoman Trina Smith didn't seem to think the double charges were a big deal, just a minor confusion:

"We sincerely apologize to customers who were confused,". But, she adds, in a world of digital transactions, "Consumers are accustomed to these kinds of things."

Others disagree, and think the Starbucks image may have been tarnished by the error:

Starbucks patrons pay more not just for a better product, but for a perception that it treats consumers better, says Bradford Hudson, assistant marketing professor at Boston University. "You expect a company like Starbucks to do everything flawlessly, or to do something extra special to recover." He says it could have given a free drink to all affected.

Perhaps they should have tested more.

Just wondering - On the Starbucks Annual Report, will this screwup be categorized as a "Short" bug?  A "Tall" or "Grande" bug?  Or is it actually a "Venti" bug?

See also:

http://www.truveo.com/starbucks-glitch-sends-up-red-flag/id/3090346023
http://www.11alive.com/money/consumer/story.aspx?storyid=131231&catid=24
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Starbucks-Memorial-Day-apf-15494050.html?.v=6
http://www.storefrontbacktalk.com/payment-systems/starbucks-confirms-one-million-transactions-double-charged/
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2009-06-09-starbucks-doublebills-accidentally_N.htm
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31190577/