If you weren't aware, since July 14th there was a public Starbucks card that you could use and, if you had the means, recharge the card with funds to help someone else out. The details are easily found, but what this is about is something that happened where Sam Odio produced a script that basically siphoned out $625 from the card.
Yes, the card was started as a social experiment where the creator specifically stated that he wanted to see it work in the same vein as the convenience store's "take a penny, leave a penny" but this one would be for overpriced coffee. What happened is this former Facebook employee built a script that would wait until the card had funds and transfer some of those funds to his personal Starbucks card. So much so that he ended up with a $625 Starbucks card in 5 hours of time spent at Starbucks. So Starbucks has pulled the plug.
Personally (if you haven't gleaned it from my tone), I felt this was outright theft. I really don't care that he claims to be donating proceeds from the card's sale on eBay to a charity. Odio also claimed that he thought the point of the experiment was to see what would happen and where it would go. No. It was an experiment in paying it forward just like that penny platter on 7-Eleven's counter. What Odio did was paramount to spending the day walking into convenience stores and taking from that platter then leaving. But it's much more lucrative due to Starbuck's coffee prices.
You may ask, are the people buying coffee with the card and not recharging it thieves as well? No, because that's the point of the card. You take when you need, and give when you can. "Take a penny, leave a penny." Some people may support this guy, but I really don't understand what he was thinking. What made this guy feel it was "Okay" to just take from people donating to another cause. What charity would skim off of another charities donations and claim "It's ok...it is still for charity!"
What are your thoughts? Do you agree with me that this was douchebaggery at it's finest? Or not?