Starbucks online ordering returns after app outage

<i>CNN via CNN Newsource</i><br/>A screenshot of the app today. Starbucks app is seemingly down nationwide

By CNN Newsource

Published July 30, 2024 10:08 AM

By Erika Tulfo, CNN

(CNN) — A Starbucks app outage on Tuesday left customers unable to place a mobile order, delaying caffeine fixes for millions of coffee lovers until the app returned to service later in the day.

“Earlier today, some customers were briefly unable to access the mobile order and pay feature in the Starbucks app due to a third-party system outage,” Starbucks director of corporate communications Jaci Anderson said in an email to CNN. She said the function is now “back up and running.”

A message on the Starbucks app seen by CNN at about 10:30 am Tuesday read: “We’re having trouble with store locations right now,” and “You can still pay in store, but you’ll have to try again later to order ahead.”

DownDetector, a digital issue monitoring platform, showed the number of problem reports for the app peaking at nearly 1,500 at around 9 am ET.

Issues were reported across major cities including New York, Boston, Washington, Chicago and Dallas, according to DownDetector’s map.

Starbucks’ outage woes come as mobile app and drive-thru orders make up more than 70% of Starbucks sales across approximately 9,500 stores nationwide. Starbucks is also set to report third quarter earnings later today.

The Starbucks app, which introduced its Mobile Order & Pay Feature in 2015, allows users to browse available menu items and place orders for pickup at stores. Other features allow customers to register a Starbucks card on their phone to pay digitally and earn and redeem rewards.

Customers flocked to social media to vent their frustration.

“The Starbucks app not working on my birthday is so rude come on,” wrote X user @syndey_fields1.

“We are currently experiencing a temporary outage with the app,” the company’s customer service X account, @StarbucksCare, wrote. “We are aware of this issue and working quickly to get it resolved.”

Other disgruntled users lamented the timing of the outage as occurring on the same day as a buy one, get one free promotion.

Starbucks was among the slew of companies affected by the worldwide Crowdstrike outage that disrupted digital operations across industries last week. A spokesperson said at the time that the company was experiencing issues with mobile order and pay ahead features.

The Tuesday Starbucks outage took place at the same time that Microsoft reported its Azure cloud computing servers were down. It is unclear if the two outages were connected. CNN has reached out to Microsoft for comment.