Welcome to the last StarbucksMelody post of the year 2015.
DONNA WINS STARBUCKS FOR A MONTH!
Regular reader Donna contacted me because she won Starbucks for a month in the game, Starbucks For Life!!! Donna was thrilled. The first thing she said was, “I never win anything!!”
Donna has been reading StarbucksMelody for about 3 years, and said, “I’m a huge fan of everything Starbucks 🙂  It’s such a quality coffee and I am a supporter of the conscientious efforts they take in community, employees and the environment.” Donna has always enjoyed Starbucks but became a much larger fan after her daughter became a Starbucks partner several years ago. She is super proud of her daughter who is working towards ASM at a store in Topsham. Donna now has several French presses, a Teavana Perfect Tea Maker, and a collection of coffee and loose leaf tea!
Congratulations Donna!!!! I’m so happy for you!!
GABRIEL’S RED CUP ART:
In April this year, I featured Starbucks UK partner Gabriel’s beautiful hand-drawn cup art. Recently, he emailed me his red cup art. I want to spotlight this striking cup now:
Beautiful artwork Gabriel!!! Turns out a plain red cup is a beautiful canvas! If you are on Instagram, you can search the hashtag #RedCupArt and find more hand-drawn red cups. If you want to follow Gabriel on Instagram, you’ll find him here.
TIS THE SEASON FOR HOLIDAY COOKIES:
If you like baking, coffee, and tea, I recommend the blog TheModernBarista. Recently the Modern Barista (Jocelyn) experimented with Teavana Joy tea cookies! I want to try one! These look so good!
If you ever want to send me cookies in the mail, you’ve got my address! Okay, I’m kidding. Please don’t send me cookies! LOL
GOODBYE and MERRY CHRISTMAS:
I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season. Merry Christmas to all! (Or happy holidays if you’re not celebrating Christmas.) I’m taking a break from blogging. I’m going to California for the holidays and decided I’m overdue for a little break from this blog. It’s actually some amount of work. I want to say a special thank you to the many people who have used a “submit a photo or tip” widget! And journalists don’t give out their sources!
I recognize that over the years, the number of people leaving comments on websites like this has declined. This has nothing to do with the size of the site. You could be Thrillist.com, Consumerist.com, or the West Seattle Blog, and notice declining comments. Largely, it simply has to do with the drift to an increasing number of conversations happening on social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. It also has to do with the fact that increasingly people consume online content on their smart phones: it’s a little easier (usually) to leave a comment from a desktop than a phone.
If you want to give me a Christmas present while I’m gone, say hello below. I don’t care if you congratulate Donna or wish me a Merry Christmas, whatever you like.
Please take a moment to subscribe too. There is a field in the sidebar (desktop view) to add your email address. Don’t miss any articles in 2016.
Goodbye … for now!
Merry Christmas!!
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Merry Christmas! I just found your blog several weeks ago. Social media is great, but the meatier more substantial content is still on websites.
Hi Melody,
I love what you do as much as I love Starbucks…I don’t usually comment, but read your blogs religiously. My name is Melody too. Thanks for doing what you do and keeping us informed and smarter about our cup of awesomeness (mine is a latte) and the amazing company behind it!
Merry Christmas and a prosperous Happy New Year to you!
Best Wishes,
Melody
Merry Christmas Melody. Thank you for all the work you do in sharing your love of Starbucks. Congratulations to Donna. You’ve given me hope that winning is possible. Gabriel, your cups are AMAZING. And, thank you to Jocelyn for sharing the, very yummy looking, Joy tea cookie recipe. And to all of the other StarbucksMelody readers, I pray you enjoy this season with family, friends, joy and love.
Congratulations again Donna!!!
Merry Christmas Melody! I hope the gift basket was filled with treats you enjoy from Arizona. Thank you for all you do and hope you enjoy some much needed time away.
Love your blog! Merry Christmas, Melody!
Merry Christmas Melody! Thanks again for sharing how you do. It is a fantastic blog.
Merry Christmas Melody!! I’m in Irvine so maybe I’ll see you at a sbux sometime! Really enjoy your blog. Enjoy your break and look forward to more in 2016!
I hate to be a bubble burster, but because Donna’s daughter is a Starbucks employee, Donna is not eligible to win and Starbucks For Life prizes per the official rules. https://starbucks.promo.eprize.com/holiday15/public/fulfillment/rules.pdf
Hey Melody, merry Christmas on behalf of myself and The Real Housewives of Starbucks. Have a great vacation. Remember you and Jócelyn still need to come up North. I want you to meet my favorite Barista, and coffee master, Daniel at the Cordata store.
That is a bubble-burster, Justine! I hope Starbucks doesn’t read this or if they do, find a way to give Donna something nice as a consolation prize. Also the word contentious in the quote maybe should be conscientious. Though Starbucks certainly has more than its share of contentious press on occasion.
I don’t believe that Starbucks has a reason to remove a prize from Donna. Starbucks for life is legally a “contract of adhesion ” thus the presumption is that the person writing the contract new what they were doing.
Donna played under the Canadian rules – Donna is in Alberta. Her daughter is in Maine. Since her daughter is not an employee of Starbucks Canada, as the rules mention, she should be fine. It would be a crime if Starbucks took back the prize! !
Hi Melody. I love your blog and am an avid reader. Really appreciate the heart and soul you put into this. Merry Christmas.
PS I’m one of those who reads through an RSS reader rather than the site, but I regularly read the comments too.
I did not realize that Donna was in Canada while her daughter works for Starbucks in the US. However, I would be concerned that Starbucks US would be considered an affiliate company of Starbucks Canada, and therefore make her ineligible.
I think the redesign, where the most recent article is less prominent, doesn’t help direct the prospective commenters where they should go. I’ve won about 9 stars with the Starbucks for Life promo (taking advantage of the alternative means of entry on the days I don’t go to Starbucks) and wish Melody a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Merry Christmas! Love the blog. I won Starbucks for Life (in my dreams! HA!). Thanks for your work and efforts here.
Merry Christmas to all and congratulations to Donna on a free month of Starbucks!
Merry Christmas, Melody! Have a great vacation!
And congratulations to Donna on her win!
Thank you for continuing the blog. It can be a bright spot on a dreary winter’s day, just like a cup of Starbucks coffee. Best wishes for the holidays.
As one of your newest subscribers (who’s only started frequenting Starbucks just over a year ago) Merry Christmas and Thank You for all the useful insider stuff you’ve put up here. Hoping to someday fly out to Seattle to visit the Pike Place Market and of course the Roastery!
While you’re on hiatus (much deserved, given how much work you’ve put in here) I’ll be able to “catch up” by reading all of your previous blog entries!
Enjoy your CA vacation and I am confident you’ll come back rested, refreshed, and stronger than ever!
Happy Holidays, everyone.
Wishing you all a happy and healthy 2016.
Congratulations, Donna!
Have a wonderful holiday!!
hi Melody, just wanted to leave a comment to say Merry Christmas and to let you know how much I have enjoyed your blog over the past year. I am a big Starbucks fan and have often wondered how you have the time and resources to keep up with this blog ( and try all the drinks you talk about). It’s a quality read and I have recommended it to my other loyal Starbucks fan friends. Thanks for all you do to keep us informed about Starbucks culture, offerings and other interesting bits!
I hope you have a great Christmas! Thank you for all that you do – I enjoy your blog very much. You do a great job!
Love your blog! And I won 3 bonus stars today playing the game…didn’t make a purchase either just did the email/snail mail address so I was quite surprised!
Dearest Melody!
Thanks for your contribution to the Starbucks world! I wish you a very happy Christmas, spent with loving family and a lot of lovely moments in the upcoming year. I am really sorry for not commenting too much on the blog, I got really busy lately with my university, but I do promise – I read all your blog entries – sometimes on the page, sometimes via mail newsletter.
I will be enjoying the holidays with my small family, this year even smaller, as two family members have passed away just a couple of weeks ago. I will do my best to bring some merry moments to the celebration with a tiny tasting of Christmas Reserve Blend 2015, which I got just today in a package from the USA.
Always yours,
Kuba 🙂
Merry Christmas
I’ve won four bonus stars and have two of the three icons for each category. Keeping my fingers crossed, but would that mean I must die in 30 years? 🙂
Happy Holidays!!! I too have been playing the game & so far I’ve won ten bonus stars. Haven’d made a purchase yet, only entering online. I keep getting the same pieces & hoping that making a purchase will give me some better luck. Plus I enjoy a flat white on the wknds 🙂
Merry Christmas!
Thank you for all the Christmas wishes in this thread! It’s heartwarming to read!
If you’re lurking, come say ‘hello’ 😉
Hello! 🙂 Merry Christmas! I don’t know that I’m a lurker – but have a wonderful break with family!
I don’t usually leave comments, but I wanted to let you know that several Starbucks partner friends and I are fans of your blog. We are also in China, where internet access to certain sites can be inconsistent. A big thank-you for your work and dedication to all things Starbucks! Happy holidays and a Happy New Year!
@Dave – Merry Christmas and thank you for saying hello from China! You’re the person from the furthest away from Seattle reading this maybe! 🙂
Hi Justine and Others: This in regards to “Starbucks for Life”
The game is not as it should be, has been and still is not working correctly. This is FACT confirmed by Starbucks customer care as I was having issues with getting game pieces to play (I use both Mozilla Firefox and IE) Starbucks sent me this reply to one of my concerns…”Thank you for contacting Starbucks. I am very sorry to hear about this situation!
To be honest I have not been able to duplicate this situation with other customers. I did receive several of something going wrong with their code but your instance does sound unique.
At one point we found that Safari Browser was not very compatible with Starbucks For Life and if you are trying to use Safari, please use a different browser such as Chrome. Clean out your cache and make sure JavaScript is enabled.
Again, we apologize and you are always welcome to give us a call at 1-800-782-7282 and see if we can further troubleshoot with you.
If you ever have any questions or concerns in the future, please visit us at customerservice.starbucks.com.”
******************
Starbucks should know that a browser has nothing to do with anyone accessing game plays and if another browser is used and game plays are still not available, there is something wrong.
READ ON…… This is another email response (direct quote) to me from Starbucks….”Dear wwwww , Thank you for contacting Starbucks. I just finished reading your email and appreciate you taking the time to share your concerns with us.
We are experiencing difficulties with our Starbucks For Life Game. We are working diligently with the vendor to correct this issue. Please accept our sincere apology for the inconvenience. Please log out of the Starbucks For Life website, and wait 24 hours, then sign in again.
Customers can submit directly to the vendor their issue by emailing the game vendor at questions@helloworldfulfillment.com or by using the webform located at the bottom of the FAQ pop-up. The FAQ link is in the footer at the bottom of the home page at ww.Starbucksforlife.com.
We sincerely appreciate your patience while we work to correct this issue. In the meantime, I have credited 14 Bonus Stars to your account.
You can also feel free to contact our customer contact center and have reference # 20909744 handy to provide to our representative. Our contact center can be reached at 877-309-3180 Monday-Friday 5am-8pm, as well as Saturday-Sunday 6am-4pm (PST).
If you ever have any questions or concerns in the future, please visit us at customerservice.starbucks.com.
Sincerely,
Brandy W.
customer service
***********************************
Starbucks shares with me via email direct quote above (this was received by me on 12-26-15. How can Starbucks, a company I really love and have thought highly of for what Howard Schultz has done for all of his employees (provided health ins) and seeks to due business with integrity and character.
I LOVE STARBUCKS. HOWEVER, THIS GAME IS FLAWED and over 1 MILLION people are playing thinking that they may win Starbucks for Life, when who knows, if the problems the game is having how the major “wins” are going to “play” out!
Lastly, I’ve run into a problem a few times, Christmas Day being the most recent. That is, I earned 2 plays, for sure, on Christmas day, even from Christmas Eve and nothing, I could access my game board, the game stuff, but it read that I have used the maximum amount of game plays for the day! WHAT????!!!
I was out of luck. I couldn’t play the game, when I should have been able to. How many others are experiencing the same thing? Certainly not just me. It is really crazy and something needs to be done. Starbucks needs to just come clean and shut the game down due to these issues and glitches that has been going on.
Interestingly enough, a representative from Starbucks called me today (I missed the call) and emailed me and wants to connect with me in regards to my ongoing concerns. This after I shared that others need to know that Starbucks for Life is faulty and Starbucks needs to come clean with the public and its over 1 million players.
Christine – I agree, there seem to be many and varied problems with the game. I’ve seen several mentions of people:
– getting a ‘you’re not eligible’ message when trying to play
– not being able to log into their accounts
– not getting free game plays
Then there are a few problems I think are unique to the Canadian game. The games routes people to the US site to log-in, which is apparently causing issues for some people. And if you win stars, the star code redemption email sends you to the US site, which gives you an ‘Oops’ message when you try to redeem them. I’ve sent two emails to Hello World Fulfillment, several tweets to Starbucks Canada and an email to Starbucks Support. I first notified them of the problem over two weeks ago and it still hasn’t been fixed (such a simple fix, too. They could just include redemption links for both Canada and the US in the emails if they can’t separate out which prize goes to which game). I’ve taken it upon myself to help out anyone I see on Twitter saying they are having star code redemption issues. I think I’m up to about 30 people.
Christine, Jo… I’ve been requesting and receiving Starbucks for Life game plays from the web site (U.S. Game) since the beginning of the contest. Yesterday, however, I signed up for several game plays but didn’t receive anything. I called in to Starbucks customer service and was advised that it can take up to 24 hours to receive the game play emails (previously, it never took more than an hour for me to receive a game play email). I was also advised to contact the third-party game vendor (HelloWorld) via the contact form art the bottom of the game’s FAQ page (which I had already done…) I received a reassuring autoresponse telling me that their already glacial response speed (3 days) is currently delayed due to the holidays…
It’s now more than 24 hours and I haven’t received and game plays since my first requests yesterday, and nothing from today’s requests. (Different platforms, different browsers…) I haven’t had a chance to make it to a Starbucks location in a few days. Is that still working?
Scott, I’ve been having issues using the No Purchase to Enter method, as well. At the beginning of the contest I would receive my game piece emails within the hour, but now I’m not receiving them at all.
I haven’t contacted support about it, though, since I assumed they would just direct me to game vendor.
I’ve also had a lot of problems with Starbucks for Life game as has my sister on law. It is not working properly.
Hi Guys: Melody, I to, love your site and am a Starbucks follower and lover and my friends refer to me as the Starbucks gal. So, Melody I love your site and some of the other sites propping Starbucks and all the fans of Starbucks, that we are.
I just returned from a wonderful Christmas Trip to Seattle with my husband. We went to the roastery, it was crazy busy, but fun to visit and some day we may come back and do the special coffee tasting they have. With all that said I still like Starbucks and am a big fan. HOWEVER, this STARBUCKS for LIFE and the problems that so many are having is very disturbing. That is, disturbing in that Starbucks is just letting time go by and seems to ignoring the HUGE ISSUE HERE- THE GAME IS FLAWED and how can continue on, as if nothing is wrong. Yesterday, I had earned and was waiting and waiting for my 2 game pieces and nothing! (12/29/2015). How do I or anyone else going through this issue not know that one of those plays could have been “the” winning big prize play?????!!!! I have contacted Starbucks several times (as you can read above and I have more email stuff), but I feel like I am being appeased and the clock is ticking til Jan 11th comes……. Why isn’t Starbucks truly doing something about this game????? I feel I am being put off, as I am sure you guys are too- wait 24 hours, don’t hear back, etc….
This is not Howard Schultz’ way, as I have read in his book, nor Starbucks way over all in doing things, but for some reason, the clock is ticking and we seem to be put off.
I have read the rules and any prize can be taken back, etc… for one reason or another and the rules do talk about defects in the game. My concern is for the general public almost 2 million players out there. Who, are most likely experiencing what we are. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to make this right or at least bring to the public that the game is flawed- badly? I have tried and tried to keep this within the walls of Starbucks, but they don’t seem to care and I cannot speak to anyone higher then the customer care person answering the phone and they can’t doing anything (they said just that) and say “sorry.” This is not the Starbucks I know and love.
Twitter is filled with complaints about people not receiving their free plays, so there is definitely a major issue going on with the site.
I think I’ve still received most of the ones I’ve sent in for, but now they are taking about 17 hours to get, rather than the 2-3 minutes it would take for a reply before Christmas.
Jo: I just went via email Starbucks sent to do my 2 plays and it said I was out of plays for the day when I got to my board. Go figure.
Hi Melody & Everyone: I just want to emphasize that I am a BIG STARBUCKS FAN, Card collector, and coffee person. My husband knows when there is a Starbucks anything- count me in! All this to say, I don’t want to be seen as someone just jumping on Melody’s Starbucks fan page to “blast” Starbucks. That is not the case. My concern is that I believe Howard Schultz is a man of integrity and character and would not allow the Starbucks for Life game to continue with all that is going wrong with it. While “Hello World”- SB customer service contracted company and Starbucks themselves are trying make every excuse under the sun for why the game isn’t working and also trying to put the fault on the player saying the player isn’t playing correctly or by the rules or using the correct browser. All this really disturbs me greatly.
With the above said, I contacted Starbucks directly, again, this afternoon and spoke with a gal, who only could say that Starbucks and/or Hello World was still having problems with the game (so- isn’t Hello World= Starbucks?- Starbucks hired Hello World–just sayin’). In any event, she was nice and I explained all my concerns and that I felt like a flea on an elephants back, due to the fact I could not reach or get contact with any one beyond one who answers the phone. I am sure if I was someone of notoriety, this would not be the case.
At this point, I believe the public needs to know what is going on. I am not on twitter, or facebook, etc…but will do my best to let those who care and are involved to know what is going on and I hope you all do the same. To me this is very sad that Starbucks does not come up to the plate and just bring to light what is going on with THEIR game and deal with it. Instead…… Sad
Hi Melody, Thanks for all you shared with us during 2015. I like the flavor that you bring to news/tips/other info on my favorite coffee company. Hope you had a lovely Christmas and are looking forward to a very happy New Year!
I’m on my phone, but taking time to say hi. I enjoy this site greatly!
Happy holidays Melody!
I had trouble many times with a message that said I was not eligible (had supposedly already played that day, which I didn’t) while using the “no purchase option” too.
I can’t complain though because my husband was one of the 14 winners last year through a receipt. I knew I was being greedy but just wanted to see if lightning could strike twice.
Sad that only 5 people could win this year….
Super late to comment on this, but Travis won a 3 month Reserve Subscription!
The 2015-16 Starbucks for Life Game was pretty messed up. I passed by several people who had a variety of problems.
The Hello World site is the place that Starbucks contracted with to deal with the faulty game issues. They admitted there were quite a bit of problems (at the time-mid December) they were trying to fix. I just let it go, as “it is what it is” unless it is not! 🙂 My game board had 2 of each on every row. I received a bunch of stars. However, not another new game piece or star AFTER I called Hello World. I thought that, that was kind of curious. Oh well.
my name is Carole DiFranco card #607****7********. on 8/6 and 8/7 I was having trouble with playing Starbucks for life game and was unable to receive the ice cubes to melt for those 2 days. I was told to email this site and you would be able to help me. thank you. my email is cdifra3025@aol.com