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Fun with the Dunkin Donuts card 1234#

I got one of those new Dunkin Donuts cards as a gift.
The idea is that you go in, order your [weak] cup of coffee, and avoid having to deal with handing over and receiving any money. You just give 'em your card, they swipe it in the machine, and you leave with your order.

That's the idea their ads leave you with, anyway.

What happens when your card doesn't work? (Somehow it got demagnetized before you ever came into possession of it.)

You go in, order your coffee, hand 'em the card, tell them that the card doesn't work and they have to key in the numbers, and they try to swipe it anyway. Then they call the manager over and have a conversation in some non-English language, after which the employee punches in the numbers on the card, and if they manage to punch in the numbers correctly and remember the manager password (Set to '1234#' in every DD I've been to so far) on the first few tries, you leave with your [weak] cup of coffee having only annoyed the growing queue behind you slightly. If not, then you hand 'em the cash because you feel sorry for the sighing people in back of you, and you leave.

Later that day, you call the toll-free number on the card and ask the nice lady to send you a new card and she tells you that they can't do that, you have to go to a Dunkin Donuts shop and they can either punch in the numbers manually, or you can ask them to transfer your balance to a new card that works.

So... the next time you happen to be near a Dunkin Donuts (not during rush hour so as to not annoy other patrons in line waiting for their morning C8H10N4O2 fix) you go in and order some [weak] coffee, explain the whole situation and ask for a new card. The Donutista looks at the card, looks at you, looks at the card, and tries to swipe it. You repeat, slowly, what the lady on the phone said. The Person of Donut says, "no", and punches in the number on the card (followed by the super-secure manager password previously mentioned) and gives you your receipt.
You ask to speak to a manager, and the donut technician summons the other employee and has a brief conversation in a language other than English after which the other employee informs you "It's OK, just punch in". You again slowly explain the situation to the 2nd person and are greeted with a blank stare as though you were making the HWAH WHAH HWAH noises that the adults on the Charlie Brown specials make.
"It's OK, just punch in". AAAAAAAARRRRGFGHHHHHHH!!!!

Repeat previous paragraph until your balance runs out. So far I've been to DD's in Canton (2), Westwood(2) and Dedham(1), and have found a total of 1 employee who spoke English, and knew she wasn't going to be useful when I saw that she had a thing in her eyebrow. She didn't only not know how to transfer the balance, but she couldn't remember the manager password when I bought some [weak] coffee, and when I told her it was 1,2,3,4# exclaimed OMIGOD! as though I had broken some secret ancient code.

I can be thankful that I only have about $7 left on the card that doesn't work.


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Comments

My Starbucks card has been working great since 2001. I can even recharge it online. No 1234# necessary!

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...lest the eyebrow-pierced coffee boy sneer at you, and when you get your cuppa joe, it tastes like charcoal.

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I'm an eyebrow-pierced person, and I'm from Seattle, so I know how to order coffee and make sure it's made exactly how I wanted it.

At Dunkies the coffee has caffeine and coffee flavoring added to it and you have to order in Portuguese at most of them to get what you want. And they get irritated when you want it in your own mug instead of their styrofoam crap.

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