Last week, I was in Columbia visiting my parents for a few days. Since I was on my way back from a booksigning in Greenville the previous weekend. The problem with that is that my parents don't have internet connections. However, there is a Starbucks in Forest Acres, South Carolina that has internet. Since my work requires access to the internet, I decided to purchase a 5 dollar coffee and use their internet.
According to Starbucks marketing, that's the deal; paying their ridiculously high prices enables their customers to have internet access. One could imagine how disgruntled I was when the home page I was taken to required me to be logged into some AT&T website. Knowing that signing up and creating an account would mean AT&T would have my email address forever and would be sending me junk email, I refused to persue with this.
I complained to the manager saying that buying this 5 dollar coffee should have given me unconditional internet connection. I told her that I would be writting a blog about that so if people think that buying a 5 dollar cup of coffee is going to get them unconditional internet connection, they are wrong.
I don't know why Starbucks has it set up this way, I gotta assume they're getting paid by AT&T to make people sign up to enable them to connect to the internet. That would mean AT&T has a larger database to draw potential clients from.
My problem with it is that, Starbucks is already enjoying what one could only assume as at least a 600% markup on the coffee. Doing this is unethical, they scammed me into buying their 5 dollar coffee because I thought I would be able to use their internet connection.
I will talk to their corporate office and give them a chance to explain why they do this and will let you know their reasoning. Until then, Starbucks is an unethical company who compromises customer satisfaction to make a few extra bucks. Technorati Tags:starbucks
About Me
- jasondeierlein
- I'm trying to turn a positive out of something for as many people as possible. I have met and talked to people living through rough times ranging from blindness to terminally ill cancer. This is lots of fun doing such at booksignings.Please view my audio clips to see a backgroud of my book. I also teach 2nd and 3rd graders most of whom come from broken homes.