File This Under … You’ve Got to be Kidding
I am the first to admit that I value customer service very highly. If an order is not right, I’ll pipe up and get it corrected. Incorrect change? I’ll mention it and get it fixed, even for just a few cents. But there’s a line.
Just the facts:
Starbucks sent an e-mail to a select group of employees with a coupon for a free grande coffee at participating locations. The e-mail asked them to forward it to their friends and families, which was done. And then things went a little crazy. E-v-e-r-y-o-n-e, it seemed, had a coupon, and Starbucks withdrew the offer and apologized. Mistakes happen, people move on. Seems fair enough, except to Kelly Coakley of Queens, New York.
Ms. Coakley, who works as a paralegal and administrative assistant, filed a lawsuit with her attorney, Peter Sullivan, for $114 million, the average cost of one cup of Starbucks coffee a day for all of the people turned away for the 38 days the offer was valid.
Hopefully, the lawsuit will be turned down quickly, before it wastes too much time and space on assorted court dockets, but in the meantime? Crazy.
Want more? There’s lots brewing at the Starbucks Gossip blog over this very topic, and at Snopes as well.
