Starbucks Wireless Terrible, Embarrassing

Starbucks new "free wireless" does not work! It's not functional, it's hard to log into and only one Starbucks Partner I talked with out of 15 over four or five stores knew how to log in, and he was a techie. There is no literature in the store to tell you how to log in and beyond that, there shouldn't be! It should be an easy, seamless log in process.

The partner I spoke with had only one way around the problem: His solution: "I just give customers my id and password who want to log in because no one has been able to figure it out quite yet. You can't log in because you need to access your email to retrieve your account info and validation. Of course you can't do that unless your online. Beyond that, there are no instructions, just the log in screen." (Log in screen seen below)


The above photo is of attempt 1. Logging into the ATT network. What follows is the access point - where you put in your "id and password".

The problem here is that no where does it say "Hey guys, if your new to our new free internet wireless network, WELCOME! We're excited about our new service and the best way to use it is as follows" and continue on with an easy step 1, 2 and 3 process. This is by far more complicated than Tully's process, which simply says "CLICK HERE TO LOGIN". Done! That's it! Free, easy and strong internet wireless.

But Starbucks has an impenetrable wall to their free wireless connection. The only way to access their network is to purchase a Starbucks card, go home, log in, sign up for an account, save your account information, go back to Starbucks and log in with the information you have. Embarrassing!

Again, this is a symptom of a company that doesn't know how to be big. Just last week an Ex Starbucks Executive told me: "Their 10,000 stores..it's hard to execute on those details"

The Partner I talked to above mentioned, while shrugging his shoulders: "I think there just leaving it up to ATT to take care of it..I don't know..but that is what I heard".

Wow. This is too bad. A great opportunity sputtered away.

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