Gimme My Money, Starbucks!!

A few days, I gave Mike some money to buy something at the store. He came back and gave me a $10 bill as my change. I put it in my cup holder. I remember seeing it every time I got into my car for the next several days. I even remember thinking "hmm...I don't get $10 bills that often." This fact will become relevant shortly.

This morning, I gave Mike the $10 bill from the cup holder to buy us both coffee. He ran into Starbucks and I waited in the car. Mike returned with $1 in change for 2 coffees. Um...where's the rest of my money???

Apparently the guy told Mike he owed $4, Mike gave him the $10, and the guy gave him $1 back. Mike says, "Excuse me, I gave you a $10." The guy says, "Nope, you gave me a $5. I'm sure of it." Mike understandably gets mad. He says, "No, I'm 100% positive I gave you a $10." The guy tells him he is 100% positive it was a $5. Mike asks for a manager. The guy says we'd have to contact SEATTLE to look at the tape recording and see who was telling the truth, and that would take at least 30 minutes. Mike and I were meeting some friends, so he just left.

He gets in the car and I'm all "HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELL NO! We are calling those shady bastards this INSTANT!" So we called, and the woman who answered said the same thing about having to call Seattle to review the tapes. And of course no one is in the Seattle office today, because it is a holiday. Um...can't they just count the register? If it's even, the barista was right (which he SO was NOT), and if it's over $5, then we are telling the truth (and it of course would have been over $5.). But this isn't an option?

What kind of a racket is this??? Apparently any sketchy barista can lie about how much money you gave them, and then simply say "oh, too bad, we have to have the execs from Seattle sort this out, and it will take a LONG time," so that you just give up and walk away out of frustration, and then they are ostensibly free to pocket your money. I don't think so, Star-take my 5-bucks.

At least the woman on the phone was nice, and she agreed to give us $5 in Starbucks drink coupons. Oh great. So after they try to steal our money, we get coupons to give them more business. Fantastic. Also, all the while the barista who caused this whole problem was in the background yelling "I know it was a $5 bill! He gave me a $5!" So basically we can't ever go in there again anyway, since they will surely spit in our coffee.

I know it's only $5, but no way can they get away with that behavior. Maybe they get a lot of people in there trying to swindle them. And maybe since it was only $5, we should have just let it go. But I'm not so keen on some giant corporation accusing us of lying and taking our money, leaving us with no recourse. Although it is ONLY $5, it is MY $5, and I would like it back.

So anyway, I just thought it was kind of funny that I had my $10 bill in my cup holder for a few days, or else I NEVER would have been so absolutely positive that Mike had paid with a $10. I also thought that companies these days were smart enough to leave your money out in plain view until they give you change, to avoid such potential conflicts. Guess not.

So for the foreseeable future, I'm totally anti-Starbucks. I will probably get over it next time I'm desperate for caffeine and Starbucks is the only thing in sight. But for now, they will be known as Starsucks. Because they do suck. A latte.