Starbucks’ payment system shut down takes a toll

Free coffee was on the menu at some Starbucks locations on Tuesday, due to a point-of-sale software glitch.



What the coffee giant described as a typical software update ended up putting POS systems out of commission — and for longer than expected, in some locations. The outage began in the evening on Monday, May 16, and continued into Tuesday, May 17, according to CNBC.



In the report, Starbucks said in a statement, “As part of our normal course of business, overnight we worked to install a technology update to our store registers in the U.S. and Canada. A limited number of locations remain offline, and we are working swiftly to resume full operations in each of these stores.”



Starbucks regulars turned to Twitter to share the news. These posts ranged from pictures of hand-made store closure notices to tweets of disappointment, including “My Starbucks is closed this morning. What kinda sick joke…”



Despite the disruption, some Starbucks locations did try to function with a “business as usual” mindset. This included switching to cash-only payments, as well as offering customers free tall beverages, according to CNBC.



Starbucks also reported that the glitch was not related to the recent "WannaCry" ransomware attack that infected more than 300,000 computers worldwide, according to Reuters.