Starbucks metal gift cards, which appeared on gilt.com Friday, apparently appeared a day earlier than anticipated.
"Starbucks should be ashamed of themselves for pairing up with a deceptive company like this," Chad Burrows, president of a commercial cleaning company told USA Today. Burrows saw a few of the cards on sale prior to their launch on Gilt told USA Today. "I don't believe anyone actually purchased these at or around 12 noon."
The news comes after information about the promotion was taken down according to USA Today.
"I'm not speculating on what we could have done differently," Linda Mills, a Starbucks spokeswoman told USA Today. "But after the Gilt link prematurely went live) about 100 cards were sold - and Starbucks honored those sales. It was unfortunate that the link went up early."
The cards can be used at select Starbucks locations, once it is registered. Those interested can go online to www.gift.com/starbucksrose. An e-mail address is needed to join the site or log back into continue shopping. Returning users can also click a sign in here link to insert their information they entered when enrolling.
The novelties will not be available in any Starbucks location. Users can also login using the same e-mail address and password they type in when viewing their Facebook profile.
"(The card) certainly got out earlier than we anticipated," Alexis Maybank, founder of Gilt told USA Today. "The accidental early post occurred after a sale preview page on the site had a technical issue that allowed some customers to purchase early. (Even then the lion's share of cards were sold, as promised, after 12 noon EST on Friday.) "And they sold out in seconds. I sat there in jaw-dropping disbelief with my engineers. When the Starbucks Metal Card was posted, the hits-per-minute on the site eclipsed by 2½ times the hits per minute we got on Cyber Monday - which is our biggest day. (Such intense consumer interest "shows what Starbucks is as a brand). If we had our way, we'd say, please give us a million of them, Starbucks."
