One Million Consumers Double-Charged for Coffee, Starbucks Admits

As if paying $5 for a cup of coffee wasn’t bad enough, as many as one million Starbucks customers were charged twice for their coffee fix over part of the Memorial Day weekend, company officials said.

The accidental overcharges were caused by a computer banking glitch and Starbucks officials said they are working to reimburse debit and credit card consumers who were affected.

The Seattle-based coffee giant said consumers who used plastic to pay for their coffee on Friday, May 22 and part of Saturday, May 23 were accidentally charged twice for their purchases. When banks reopened on May 26 after the Memorial Day holiday, Starbucks noticed the accounting error and started working to reimburse customer accounts, a spokeswoman said.

Many consumers may not be aware that they were charged twice, because the double amount did not appear on the credit card receipt printed out at the Starbucks locations, officials said. The double charges did, however, appear on consumers’ credit card summaries and banking statements for debit cards.

Starbucks said it has already credited the amount of one of the accidentally duplicate charges back to the accounts of affected coffee drinkers, but some consumers have called to say the double charge still appears on their statement, officials said.

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