Starbucks Coffee on Tuesday said that it inadvertently charged its customers too much for their drinks, after an upcoming price increase was added to its point-of-sale system too early.
The Seattle-based coffee giant said that a “small price increase on select beverages,” scheduled to take hold on July 12, was prematurely entered into the POS system company operated locations in the U.S.
As such, some customers were charged as much as 30 cents more than the price listed on the menu for certain beverages.
“The error has been corrected and we sincerely apologize to our customers for their inconvenience,” the company said in a statement on Tuesday.
Yet for Starbucks, the overcharge comes as customers have already complained about overcharging for food and other items. A California customer in May sued the chain, saying she had been charged more for breakfast sandwich the prices listed on the menu.
Starbucks also suffers from a value perception concern among customers. The company scores low on the American Customer Satisfaction Index, for instance, in part because customers don’t like the price.
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