Starbucks Still Confused About How Email Works

If your workplace is anything like Seattlest's, you've seen this free iced grande beverage coupon a few times already. If you're as skeptical as Seattlest, you double-checked with Snopes to make sure it was legit. And you discovered that yay, it was legit! (Actually, if you're like Seattlest, you wished it was for a free Tazo lemonade because you don't drink coffee.)

Well, it was kind of legit, anyway. The promo was supposed to be emailed only to friends and family of "a limited group of Starbucks partners (employees) in the Southeast United States." Turns out that lots of people want free coffee and that Starbucks partners (employees) in the southeast US know a lot of people outside the southeast US -- or at least, they have their email addresses. This coupon got around.

For a while, Starbucks was honoring the coupon anyway (or at least telling its franchises to honor the coupon, though some were reluctant to do so). Fast forward a few days and it further turns out that sometimes viral campaigns can be too successful:

An email 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.

In the well-considered words of Consumerist: "Jesus Christ, Starbucks. Make up your fucking mind. Snopes has now changed their status on this story, noting that it was true, but Starbucks has since changed their mind because the offer was sent to too many people. What. The. Fuck."

So if you haven't already used that free coupon, you may as well recycle it. We're sure Starbucks partners (employees) everywhere are thrilled at having to explain the corporate flips and backflips to people who are still trying to use that coupon, and we encourage all of our readers to tip them to make up for the extra hassle, or at least not to bitch at them about corporate policy that they can't control.

Current status on Snopes: "Was true, but the company has since changed its mind."