The above video basically tells it all in detail with the VIA taste challenge info that I got through the post for being a loyal prepaid RED customer. If you don’t want to watch it then basically The terms and conditions on both the info through the post and also on the Starbucks VIA website state that I should have received a free coffee based drink if I took the VIA taste challenge. What actually happened was I went to 3 Starbucks today and all of them said that I could only get a free coffee if I purchased the via coffee which I blind tested 3 times and found to be inferior! Why would I want to buy poor tasting coffee to get a free coffee? I ended up buying a venti white choc mocha anyway to get rid of the foul taste. One taste tester staff person also lied about which coffee was which but I saw the flasks afterwards of which one he poured out the coffee from. He had earlier told me that he would give me a discount if I thought the via coffee was worse. What a con!
Having come back home and gone onto the official Starbucks VIA website I have seen that many other people had faced the same problems in what must be one of the worst PR disasters for Starbucks in the UK. They had even advertised on Capital radio earlier in the week that we could all pick up a free coffee of our choice if we took the taste challenge!
My review score for today’s Starbucks experience was a 1 out of 10!
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Discuss this video, this article or your experience with the Starbucks VIA taste Challenge here