time to reload...

do you have a starbucks app on your phone?  if you don't, you should.  this is by far one of my favorite apps made.  every time i use it, i  really mean every time, i say, "i love that, makes my day!"  you will have to get the app to understand my joy. 

anyway, about a month ago, i was wanting a cup of coffee.  i pulled up my app and noticed there was only a dollar and some change.  in the times of ridiculously overpriced coffee, less than two dollars wasn't going to get me a free sample.   there is this magic button that you press that says "reload".  you get to choose the dollar value you want to add and it automatically takes the money from the account you have linked to the app. 

i always choose $25.00.  it is the smallest amount you can select and seriously if i am needing more than $25.00 at a time i might have a serious caffeine problem.  so i go through the steps; select the dollar amount, select continue transaction and wait.  usually there is a message that says something about the transaction has been completed it may take up to 24 hours to appear on your card. 

not this time. instead of success i got an error message that read something like this: we're sorry there was an error with our system and your transaction could not be completed.  please try again later.

hmmm?  i checked my balance, it still said a dollar and change.  bummer.  so i went to work.  instead of fancy coffee i had a cup of drip coffee with equal and coffeemate.  definitely not a good substitute for fancy coffee.  i would've rather had my drip coffee with homemade creamer, but what is a caffeine deprived human supposed to do?

moving on.  i checked my app later in the day and it still showed a balance of a buck and change so i tried again. i got the same error message.  like a fool i tried it one more time.  again getting the same error message.  by this point i was totally annoyed with my favorite app. 

fast forward to the next day.  i thought i should check on the app.  maybe there was a big glitch, or i missed an update, or some other super techy thing that i can't even begin to understand.  i went to my homepage and low and behold i had a balance of $76 and some change!  if i was an easy "passer-outer" i can guarantee i would have passed out.

here is where the problem lies, i don't have an extra $75.00 to spend at starbucks.  however since i had this money to spend there, and they have food, the kids and i frequented starbucks much more than usual, getting things that we normally wouldn't get; cake pops, breakfast sandwiches and other delicacies.

my son reminded me during one trip that there was a lady who was going to eat all her meals at starbucks for the year 2013.  for a brief moment i wondered how her endeavor was going. 

anyway, if you have this app you should be cautious about reloading it.  even if you get an error message that your transaction could not be completed, it doesn't necessarily mean that.  trust me once they have your money they don't give it back.