You were on the money when many of you said free Wi-Fi would be a good place to start improving Starbucks. The company has partnered with AT&T and will begin offering free wireless access this Spring. Customers carrying a Starbucks card can use two hours of free wireless per day, and beyond the allotted time they'll charge $3.99 for an additional two hours. Monthly memberships for $19.99 comes with access to any of AT&T's 70,000 hot spots around the world, and if AT&T is already your service provider you'll have unlimited Wi-Fi access at Starbucks.
Does this announcement make up for their decision to nix the breakfast sandwiches that so many of you will miss?
Republic
Claudio Merazzi
Tory Burch
no, that seems pretty stupid.
1it's not free to everyone, just starbucks credit card holders?
This helps, but it's not free. I sometimes spend several hours there working (and buying stuff - mostly just coffee). I suppose the restriction will keep me from browsing when I should be working, but I hope at least I'll be able to log on and off so I don't use up my two hours at once. It's better than the t-mobile deal though. That was ridiculous.
I know they're trying to make this a profitable business model, but with so many local coffee shops in major cities that offer free wifi, I don't believe it will ever be profitable. It's a service to keep customers there so they'll buy other stuff. Maybe this is their way of recognizing that, but no need for the $3.99 charge after 2 hrs either.
2I missed the credit card part. I guess I read it as gift card, since I reuse the same gc over and just reload it (rather than charging 50 cent refills). Well that makes this totally useless for me then.
3They're not credit cards, they're just cards that can be loaded (and reloaded) to prepay purchases.
Hope that clears things up!
Savvy
4any coffee shop that charges for wifi sucks. i'm in the bay area, so there are plenty more cafes that are way cooler than starbucks. this irks me so much they charge now! glad they're at least letting you get on wifi for 2 hours though.
5Their breakfast sandwich's were wayyy loaded with carbs and calories.. You'd think they'd have diet conscience alternatives
6okay but this is not FREE, so no, this doesn't make me want to bring my laptop to Starbucks.
7Thats hilarious.
God starbucks sux.
Well, at least I can sit at the starbucks near me (altho I never would!) and steal the free wifi from Panera bread, right across the parking lot.
Its just unbelievable. Everywhere has free wifi now.
Like we needed another reason to hate starbucks.
8Who wants to deal with cards and access codes? I am also often sitting at a coffee shop for 2+ hours. I never go to Starbucks because they don't have free Wifi. This doesn't change anything for me.
9My town offers free wi-fi downtown - but you can't get it at Starbucks because they scramble/block the signal.
10I guess if I drank coffee it would be cool but I don't ever go to Starbucks.
11I heard from engadget Tmobile is offering 5 years free wifi at Starbucks if you switch over from AT&T.
12Starbucks is like the Microsoft of the coffeehouse world. They have good ideas (sometimes), but they go about implementing them in the worst way for it's users.
13haha; forget that nothing will replace their YUMMY breakfast sandwiches.
I go to Panera when I want free wifi... no card needed.
14Well, it's better than nothing, but when so many other places offer really free wi-fi, it seems silly for them not to just go all the way and do so as well.
15Seriously, I'd much rather go to a local coffee shop with free WiFi than go to Starbucks. Fortunately, there are plenty of cool coffee shops here in Austin!
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