When I arrived home this afternoon I was surprised to see a brown box from Starbucks on the front porch. You may recall that on April 15, 2008 I wrote about my Starbucks Duetto Visa card which acts as both a VISA and Starbucks Card. Seems that someone at Chase wiped clean the prepaid balances on all the Duetto cards nationwide - so when I tried to make a purchase my Starbucks card came back invalid. The outage lasted about a day before everyone’s cards were restored. Turns out that the box on my front porch was a free pound of Starbucks Whole Bean Espresso Roast. Hats off to Starbucks for knowing and demonstrating the meaning of customer service!

AT&T appears to have disabled free iPhone access to their Wi-Fi network via your neighborhood Starbucks. I just stopped into the same Starbucks that previously allowed me free iPhone Wi-Fi access, and now I’m prompted for a password. As reported elsewhere, I can verify that my local Barnes & Noble ( Manchester, CT ) prompted for a password, though it was a slightly different login than the one presented at Starbucks. Looks like the free Wi-Fi ride is over for now. Let’s hope it’s only temporary.

Via: Macrumors

(Update: 4-16-2008 - the balance is back on my Starbucks Duetto card and things appear back to normal after a nearly 2 full day outage for Duetto cardholders.) If you’ve tried to use your Starbucks Duetto (that’s the combo VISA/ Starbucks card) since yesterday afternoon you may have noticed the “Starbucks Rewards Side” being rejected. I was in the Glastonbury Starbucks yesterday afternoon clearing out some emails and the cashier wasn’t able to process my order via my Duetto card.

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