Looks like Starbucks cancelling their free coffee coupon pissed someone off quite a bit.
I have to admit, I wasn’t very happy to hear that they had cancelled the coupon after only 24-hours either, but I didn’t take it to the extent this person did.
Peter Sullivan filed a $114 million class action lawsuit against Starbucks Corp. on behalf of a Starbucks regular that felt cheated by the quick cancellation of the coupon. The class action lawsuit is accusing the company of commiting fraud and is obviously a blatant attempt to suck an out of court settlement out of them.
Come on folks, it was only free Starbucks coffee, do you really think them pulling this coupon early is grounds for a class action lawsuit? Give me a break.
Read more @ The Consumerist
I would like to know who to talk to in regards to a wrongful termination by Starbuck’s Coffee Company. On December 7, 2008 Heather L. was the closing shift supervisor at Starbuck’s on 1171 West Carson Street in Torrance, California. While she and another associate were closing the store and cleaning up inside and outside their store, a man in a mask brandished a weapon and proceeded to rob them and the store @ 12:05am. Heather was forced at gunpoint to open the store safe and the robber escaped with hundreds of dollars. The company gave Heather time off to deal with this trauma.
On December 15, 2008 she returned to work as scheduled. While at work, the District Manager, Pam Thompson, was at the store with the store manager, David Ramirez, and told Heather to take the rest of the day off because she was obviously still traumatized by the event. However, this was after they had told Heather that she violated company policy by not having the doors locked after the posted closing time of 10:00pm on the night of the robbery. They also told her that the furniture outside should have been put away ten minutes prior to closing. Along with that, they also told her that no trash should be put outside after dusk. Heather inquired as to how that is possible when David had told store partners not to put away furniture until after 10:00pm. Not only that, but there were only two employees, including Heather, working at the store after 9:40pm. The employee who left at 9:40pm was a minor and could not work any later lest he violated company policy of maximum hours of work for minors. Heather repeatedly called and texted her manager David and her assistant manager, Regina Anderson, over her concern of having only two people closing, both of which are women, and still having to close the store and performing all closing duties. Neither manager would come out and help because they were busy with their families. Additionally, there were still 4 to 5 customers at 10:00pm ordering drinks. So how is it possible to close a store, clean up and lock doors prior to the 10:00pm closing time? The surveillance footage can show this. However, Heather not wanting to cause a scene left for the day.
Heather returned to work at her scheduled time today, December 17, 2008 at 11:00am. Her manager fired her today for violating company safety and security policy. The paperwork that was given basically states that it was her fault that the store was robbed. It had nothing to do with changing policies to suit each individual store; managers not scheduling the proper amount of people for running the store. Let me add that this store is in a strip mall area that is dark and at their closing time, they are the only store open.
I cannot understand a company firing someone for having their store robbed. Why are there no night managers on the premises? How can one get fired if they are complying to a robber’s demands while at gunpoint? Are you supposed to kick all remaining customers out because its 10:00pm and you need clean up? What’s to say that if they finished cleaning up that they still would not have been robbed as they did the final lock up of the store? It’s seems as if Starbuck’s is looking for a scapegoat for their inconsistent policies and regulations and chose a shift supervisor because she didn’t close up on time. Please let me know if I am wrong for thinking that this company and their policy enforcements are construed and inconsistent?
Can someone give this some press coverage?
Thank you,
Paul and De Anna Hernandez
Concerned parents of Heather L.