Venti computer failure leads to free cups of coffee

[marmar]

(Bloomberg) Starbucks Corp.’s point-of-sale register system crashed on Friday evening, preventing the chain from accepting payment and -- in some cases -- leading to customers getting their coffees for free.

The system went down in the U.S. and Canada during a daily update, affecting company-owned stores, the Seattle-based coffee chain said in a statement on its website. Starbucks’ Evolution Fresh and Teavana stores were also struck by the outage. While the company initially said that stores would remain open while the problem was addressed, it later indicated they would close early.

“We are actively working to resolve the outage,” Starbucks said. “We apologize to our customers for any inconvenience or confusion and will update this statement once systems are back online.”

The disruption brings a black eye to a chain that’s long been praised for its payment technology. The company has a popular mobile app that lets customers pay with their phones, and it’s testing a system for pre-ordering coffee. But the crash on Friday extended to all kinds of payments, including cash and credit cards. ..............(more)

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-25/starbucks-registers-go-down-in-north-america-halting-orders

[Historic NY]

1. We rely so much on computers that people can't adapt...

to how things were done in & on paper 20 yrs previously. Going paperless has made us helpless.

[hobbit709]

2. Most people today don't know how to do math on paper.

All they know is to write down what the display shows after hitting = on the calculator.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

3. the other main problem is

even though they COULD have accepted cash (if the cashiers could do some basic math), many if not most people pay with a card of some sort... credit, debit or starbucks card. THAT they could not deal with.

sP