I received an email today that began thusly:

Thanks for being a Starbucks customer – but has it been a while since we’ve seen you?  We’ve noticed that your Starbucks Card ending in 3603 has not been used for over two years.  And as of 6/29/2010, it has a balance of over $5.

My first response was “I … have a Starbucks card?”

The email gave me a link to the site where, if I had lost the card, I could transfer the balance over to another card I have, or if I didn’t have another card, they would mail me a new one.

“Oh, great,” I thought.  “What kind of service fee is it going to be for them to mail me a new card?”  I thought about going to a Starbucks and buying a card just to avoid the $1.50-or-whatever.

You know what the service fee is for a new card?  $0.00.  Zip.  Zero.  Nothing.  There’s a gift card with $6.40 on it that I forgot I had and that I definitely forgot having registered on their site, and the company sent me an email offering to cancel the card and send me a new one for free.

I know someone must have run the numbers and decided that increased sales would far outweigh the cost to the company, but I don’t care.  I just got $6.40 credit at Starbucks.  That’s two whole London Fogs.  Bravo — and thank you — Starbucks.

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 20:03:38 +0000
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