Jesse O’Dell called it a “weak moment” when he picked up two coffees at a Starbucks drive-thru last month.
The Tulsa, Oklahoma, resident paid with a credit card and said he selected the “no tip” option on the coffee chains’ computerized system and shelled out $11.83 on Jan. 7 for a venti Iced Americano and a venti Caramel Frappuccino with a single shot of espresso for his wife.
Unbeknownst to O’Dell, he was actually charged a whopping $4,444.44 tip, which he didn’t find out about until two days later, when the credit card he used at Starbucks was declined while his wife was out shopping, he said.
“I didn’t enter a tip,” O’Dell, 36, said Friday. “But somehow there’s a big clue about it.”
It was then that a month-long fight began for O’Dell to get the money back. The ordeal even led the O’Dells to cancel a family trip to Thailand.
After learning about the colossal charge for the coffee, O’Dell said his wife, Deedee O’Dell, called the credit card company and found out about the tip at Starbucks. They then went to Starbucks to dispute the tip and were initially told it was a “legitimate charge,” O’Dell said.
After speaking with several managers, O’Dell was told checks would be mailed to him to cover the tip.
Two checks arrived at the end of January, O’Dell said. But they bounced.
“I’m going to go crazy,” O’Dell said, telling an area manager after explaining that the checks couldn’t be cashed.
O’Dell, who runs a nonprofit organization, and his wife, a restaurant general manager, canceled a family trip to visit Chonburi, Thailand, where she is from.
The couple have four daughters whose ages range from 13 to a baby.
“I didn’t want to be traveling all over the planet while having thousands of dollars hanging somewhere,” he said.
O’Dell then went to the police because he wasn’t sure if he would ever get the money back and he didn’t know if the tip was added on purpose.
A Tulsa police spokesman said in an emailed statement Friday that no one was charged in the case.
A fraud investigation began on January 26, the spokesperson said.
“Detectives from our Financial Crimes Unit investigated the case and discovered that the tip was added either by accident or by machine error. Detectives found no fraudulent intent by the employees working at the time,” the statement said. The spokesperson added: “We are no longer investigating the case because we understand that Starbucks is making a good faith effort to reimburse customers and we did not find any evidence of fraud.”
A Starbucks spokesman said in a phone call Friday that the matter had been “resolved.”
“This is an unfortunate situation that is now resolved,” the spokesperson said. “A mistake was made regarding a customer suggestion at a Starbucks drive-thru and we are working to address the situation as quickly as possible. Checks have been issued and were cashed by the customer on Monday, February 6.”
O’Dell confirmed that the checks were cashed. He said, with a laugh, that his and his wife’s habit of stopping by Starbucks a few times a week is over.
“I make better coffee than Starbucks,” he said. I have a french press.
