Couple forced to cancel holiday after realising how much they were charged for two coffees at Starbucks
Buying two coffees ending up costing this couple the trip of a lifetime.
Jesse O'Dell and his wife Deedee were left thousands of dollars out of pocket after nipping to their local Starbucks drive-thru for a beverage.
The couple - who share four young daughters - told how their 'moment of weakness' which led them to seek out a caffeine fix ended up setting them back a whopping $4,444 (£3,350).
Jesse explained he headed to a Starbucks coffee shop in Tulsa, Oklahoma, back in January 2023 to pick up a venti Iced Americano for himself and a venti Caramel Frappuccino with a single shot of espresso for his spouse.
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He was informed it would cost him $11.83 (£8.92) and so he whipped out his credit card, selected the 'no tip' option and paid.
You'd think that would be the end of it - but unfortunately for the pair, it was just the start of a long-running saga.
A few days later, Deedee was out shopping with the same credit card when it suddenly declined - and after doing some digging, she realised her husband had been drastically overcharged at Starbucks.
Although the dad insisted he had selected the 'no tip' option, somehow, he was charged a whopping $4,444.44 gratuity fee for the two drinks.
"I entered no tip," the 39-year-old previously told NBC News. "But somehow there’s a massive tip on it."
After contacting their credit card company, the couple confirmed that they had been charged thousands by Starbucks and contacted the coffee giant to claim their money back.
Jesse claimed that he was eventually informed that the money would be returned to them via two cheques, however, the couple alleged that these bounced when they arrived.
As a result, they were left thousands of pounds out of pocket.
The family were subsequently forced to cancel a trip to Chonburi, Thailand - which is where DeeDee is from - due to the coffee mix-up.
"I didn’t want to be traveling across the planet while we had thousands of dollars hung up somewhere," Jesse said.
He also previously told Fox23 that the 'tickets were non-refundable', meaning they lost even more money.
The dad eventually contacted police in Tulsa over the mammoth tip that he was incorrectly charged for, with the force saying it found the gratuity fee was 'added either by accident or by machine error'.
Police in Tulsa told NBC in a statement in 2023: "Detectives did not find any intent of fraud from the employees working at the time. We are no longer investigating the case because it is our understanding that Starbucks is making a good faith effort to refund the customers and we did not find any evidence of fraud."
New cheques were later sent out to the couple that they were able to successfully cash.
A spokesperson for Starbucks previously told LADbible Group that the error had 'been resolved.
"This was an unfortunate situation that took place and has long been resolved," the statement explained.
"There was an error made regarding a customer tip at a Starbucks drive thru, and we worked to address the situation as quickly as possible.
"Checks were issued and cashed by the customer on Monday February 6, 2023."
Topics: Money, Starbucks, US News, Food And Drink
Olivia Burke