Has anyone here stumbled upon any old Starbucks beverage certificates or ancient customer service recovery coupons? I thought this was interesting:
Very recently, a customer walked into a Starbucks and attempted to redeem this certificate:
The partner who took the certificate at the register, hung on to it, and then yesterday she gave it to me! That’s an ancient customer service recovery coupon! Here’s the back side:
I would note though, it still looks legit. There is no date on it anywhere. However, that version of the logo on that red certificate was only in use at Starbucks from 1987 – 1992. I had posted this red, complimentary latte certificate on Instagram, and a long-term Starbucks partner commented on it and remembered these. She said there were two versions of these certificates. The red version was for lattes. There was a green version of the same certificate, redeemable only for drip coffee. Remember, this above certificate pre-dates a lot of Starbucks beverages. In 1992, the Frappuccino wasn’t even yet a thing, and you could basically order only a few beverages. It was the era where drinks were only available in whole milk, there was no such thing as a sugar free syrup, and stores didn’t have blenders.
Tonight, I was at a downtown Seattle Starbucks, and the customer immediately behind me in line tried to use these beverage certificates:
The customer had about five of these $3 drink certificates. Apparently, these were once sold at the registers in booklets of five $3.00 certificates. It’s interesting that they even have an expiration date on them, because I think these days a person has to be able to recover a small amount on a certificate or gift card, in most states. And I don’t think these can expire in most places. I offered the customer cash for two of them. He walked away very happy. He had a little money, a free drink, but no more certificates. The register barista ended up with three of them. And I got two of them, just for fun!
I don’t know what the proper procedure is for these old beverage certificates. I would assume treat them like their face value?
Of course, if you don’t know what a current customer service recovery coupon looks like, here it is:
Over the years, there have been other beverage certificates and customer service recovery coupons out there, which are not shown here. I’m sure every barista has a funny story of customers trying to use an ancient certificate! Feel free to share your story!
If you like these article that throwback to Starbucks of yester-year, click through this category here. My favorite Starbucks history lessons are the story of the Eggnog Latte and the Breakfast Blend Coffee / Milder Dimensions article.
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Latte and Drip certificates were still around when I started. I also seem to remember a Frappuccino certificate, but that didn’t last long before being phased out. Also, Gift Certificates were hand written (like a check) on two part NCR paper, and had to be validated through the Cash Register printer. The Latte / Drip certificates were sold in books of 7 each (one week worth of beverages), but were replaced by the $3 Beverage Certificates because pricing varied in different markets, and it was easier to account for. It was items like this that made Starbucks interesting back in the old days.
When we got a few of these a week ago, I coached my partners to take them, let the customer know that they have an expiration date but we’ll buy their beverage today. Just to show the way partners should he handling these types
of situations.
Woah! I received a “Star Buck” about a decade ago working at a Starbucks in Miami. At the time I thought it must have been a fake because I didn’t think Starbucks was cheesy enough to actually call their coupon a “Star Buck”. I guess I was wrong.
Even 10 years ago, it was strange, so I took a couple photos of it, gave the customer their free drink and held on to it. I think I still have it lying around somewhere.
Note that it’s identical to the one you see here, except with the post 1992 logo.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/asurroca/51023890/in/set-1005832
I love the comments above. Interesting to hear that idea of calling it a “Star Buck” to call that “cheesy” – In all honesty, I’ve kind of thought the same. But there must be a lot of people who like that play on words because I’ve seen MyStarbucksIdea calling for “Star bucks” – Oh they don’t know, it’s been done already!
http://mystarbucksidea.force.com/ideaview?id=08750000000HgsYAAS
^ I know I’ve seen others but that’s all I can find in a very quick search of MSI.
pre Sbux gift cards, I clearly remember the booklets of various $$$ increments one could buy as a gift. They were varying amounts of worth: $1.00 ages, $5.00 etc….as I remember them. They were around in the late 90’s for sure.
I still remember my first Christmas (96) on register, getting an order for 40 $5 Gift Certificates. It took me 15 minutes to write all those out and run them through the register. Swiping Starbucks Cards (even 100, which I have done) is much easier and faster than those old fashioned ways.
When we switched to Beverage Certificates, the Gift Certificates were only available in a $10 denomination. So again, the $5-500 range for the cards is much better.
It is so funny the amount of old recovery/gift certificates we get in our store. I always wonder if people don’t come to Starbucks often or if they just found it some place in a box and decided to use it.
Do they even issue paper certificates anymore? The times I’ve complained about something they’ve credited me money on my Starbucks card instead. Much easier that way.
I have one floating around somewhere. When I find it, I’ll photograph it for you! This lovely older gentleman customer brought it in along with an empty bag for the free tall drip and attempted to get a chai tea latte for his lovely wife. This warmed my heart and clearly this was a “treat” for them, and after noticing the expiration day had been far surpassed, I offered to pay for the latte myself (with my Starbucks card, so I even earned a star for my good deed!) in exchange for keeping the certificate. I knew the guy didn’t really understand my delight in the exchange, but was thankful and generally please that he was able to make his wife’s day, but also mine and thereby, his.
Hey Melody! I actually have a $10 gift certificate from 1998! How can I send a pic?