Starbucks Scalded a Retired Minister and All He Got Was a Questionnaire
... and a $50 gift card.
Back in July, a retired Methodist minister in California was accidentally scalded by a Starbucks barista. Early this month, his son Matt Smith reported on Starbucks' response in the SF Weekly:
Before Dad picked up the coffee, the barista bumped it off the counter. It spilled on the front of Dad's pants, burning his crotch, then running down his legs and settling into his shoes.Smith ended up going to the ER for treatment and incurring $500 in medical expenses. Starbucks' response? A $50 -- after the guy waited a few days, went back to the store, and asked if they were going to do anything about injuring him.Instead of running to get some ice, the barista grabbed a questionnaire.
"I don't remember all the questions, because I was thinking, 'What am I going to do with this burn?'" Dad recalls. "There was a man in the shop who was a male nurse. He came from where he was sitting and said, 'I've been watching this, and I'm a nurse, and I must say to you, you must not fill out this form. You must take yourself to the bathroom and make sure you get some water on your foot.'"
The nervous employee persisted. "He said, 'I'm almost done.' I said I had to go to the bathroom and cool my foot," Dad recalled.
The younger Smith ended up talking to a Starbucks spokeswoman about their "scalding incident program" -- though details on what that program involved were scarce. "I think it's in everybody's interest to know that the world's most ubiquitous coffee shop apparently approaches scalded customers as PR problems, rather than burned human beings," is Smith's interpretation of his conversation.
Of course, people get scalded by hot beverages, at Starbucks and elsewhere. Is it to his credit that Smith's father hasn't filed a lawsuit, or even taken Starbucks to small claims court?
Accidents happen, Starbucks. What's the big mystery? In any case, if a Starbucks barista accidentally throws a pot of coffee at you, don't wait around for the questionnaire. It's important to get cool running water or cold moist cloths on your burn as soon as possible. Don't use ice or ice water, and don't rely on Starbucks for first aid.How a company responds to accidents sets them apart. Somehow, we expected better from Starbucks than stonewalling and questionnaires.
