darby select said

Teavana/Starbucks BIRTHDAY rewards

So, most of you have probably heard that with the new rewards we can get 1 oz of tea at Teavana. There have been many reports of problems with this. No matter, I decided to try and use my birthday reward at Teavana yesterday. The sales guy was awesome, nice and helpful! It didn’t hurt my mood when I found out they have 4 new teas!
On to the reward. So I give him all my info but his system would not let me have the free ounce claiming I was only green level and not gold. Determined to get my ounce I called the 800 number for Starbucks rewards. They couldn’t really tell him how to do it but said to honor it. Eventually the manager just told him to give it to me! Lol. Like I said, I wasn’t leaving without it. My email said nothing about a certain level. So I g home and look up the rewards. In fact, you get the 1oz at the Welcome Level! So to all who want to get the ounce he’s the info. I’m tempted to call the sales guy and let him know but will at least message teavana/Starbucks so they can educated the system!

Welcome Level

By registering your Starbucks Card or by entering a Star code, you are automatically entered into the “Welcome Level” of My Starbucks Rewards. Rewards may include:

Rewards may include: Your choice of one (1) complimentary handcrafted beverage, OR one (1) complimentary food item; OR one (1) complimentary ready to drink bottled beverage such as Evolution Fresh™ juice at participating Starbucks® stores in celebration of your birthday; OR your choice of one (1) complimentary tea beverage; OR a complimentary 1-ounce serving of loose leaf tea at participating Teavana® stores. Your complimentary birthday item will be automatically loaded onto your account and will be available to you for thirty (30) days. The offer for the free beverage or food item expires after thirty (30) days. You must present your registered Starbucks Card to the barista at a participating store in order to redeem your Reward and receive your complimentary birthday item. If you have provided Starbucks with a current, valid email address, you will receive a reminder email from Starbucks approximately three (3) to five (5) days prior to your birthday (that is, the birthday date of record that you provided in your Starbucks account information) indicating that your Reward is available to you. You will receive only one complimentary birthday item and StarbucksStore.com coupon regardless of the number of Starbucks Cards that you have registered to your account.

The complimentary birthday item may be redeemed at participating U.S. Starbucks® and Teavana® stores only, and excludes: multi-serving food items (for example, a tray of Cranberry Bliss® Bars); and Starbucks Evening food and beverage menu items (for example, wine and beer).

20 Replies
Dustin said

What were the four new teas?

momo said

Marshmallow Macaron (herbal), Jeju Island (Korean green), Strawberry Grapefruit Xue Long, Grape Wulong (smells SO FAKE)

darby select said

Lol Momo – that’s the one I bought! Haven’t brewed it yet though. I wasn’t impressed with the Jeju.

momo said

I got the strawberry grapefruit and marshmallow ones, and had smelled the Jeju so he had me smell the grape one too and grape flavoring is just something I can’t do haha.

Ooh, when I stopped by a Teavana store the other week at the mall, they mentioned they were getting a Korean tea. Good to know that it’s there now. I maay go shopping again and stop by…

Dustin said

Now I’m going to be looking through your tasting notes to see what you think of the Marshmallow Macaron! It sounds really good, but their herbals are pretty hit and miss for me.

momo said

I’m packing it up right now to take with me to work, I’m gonna try it by itself and then with the Strawberry Rose Champagne or whatever they renamed it to. It smells a lot like Rice Krispies, but it sounded so cool I had to get some since w/my discount it works out to around $2.80 an ounce

Dustin said

I just read it has hibiscus in it. :( I rarely get along with hibiscus, but it does happen on occasion.
How do you get such an awesome discount?

momo said

There is barely any hibiscus in my bag of it, in fact I had no idea it had any! I just looked in the bag again and it’s mostly fruit pieces with rose petals.

The discount from working at Starbucks applies there! It leads me to buying more than I really need to. And then when people from Teavana come to Starbucks they get the same discount, and can get a bag of coffee per week too that is part of working for Starbucks…the day it applies to getting loose leaf tea I will die.

Dustin said

Oh awesome! I applied at Starbucks a few years back, but they weren’t willing to work with being a second job with my first job of 15 years needing scheduling priority. :( I hear they are a great place to work.

momo said

Yeah I had applied ages ago and interviewed and nothing came of it. This worked out because I said I was willing to work at 5:30am. I really wasn’t but I really wanted a job. Turns out it isn’t so bad, naps at noon! It really is good, there’s the usual stuff but the thing that will stick with me until I die is this: I’m sure you heard about Atlanta’s crazy ice storms, we closed around 3 days in total between the two and we were all paid entirely for shifts lost on those days. I thought after the first time they wouldn’t do it again so soon a second time, but sure enough they did.

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Jen M said

That’s a lot of "OR"s. And it also says you “may” receive. Not that you will. And it also says that Teavana stores have to agree to participate. Not all will. Seems like that’s one giant loophole to ensure they don’t have to give you anything, especially at Teavana, if they don’t want to…

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momo said

I’m not sure how their system works, but at Starbucks there are two different buttons when using rewards depending on if it’s an earned reward for a gold card member, or a birthday reward, which would apply even if you don’t have a gold card. I don’t know why they have this be different but that’s how it is. The welcome level and green level would only have the birthday one because you do not start earning rewards otherwise until you’re gold and accrued 30 stars. Like I said I have no idea how it works but it seems like it barely meshes in with the Starbucks system…like we don’t need to enter in that it’s a reward until you are about to pay, and it seems at Teavana they need to enter in that free one first thing before the rest.

I’ve gone to use it twice now and both times they had no idea how to actually apply the reward but they gave it to me both times.

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How quickly does the registration work that you get a birthday gift? My mom just gave me a card someone gave her that she won’t use and my birthday is next week … eeks!

momo said

It might not work, they usually show up on the card 5-14 days beforehand. I don’t know if Teavana would honor it, but Starbucks if you say it’s your birthday and you might not have gotten the card registered in time, we’d still give you a drink. So maaaaybe you could get a cup of tea out of them but they might be less likely to do the ounce.

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So I’ve got a potentially dumb question, but since I can’t find an answer online that makes sense hopefully someone here can help. Lol. Where do you get a Starbucks reward card? From what I’m understanding, the rewards card is actually just a giftcard? Or am I figuring that out wrong?

momo said

Yes, it’s just the gift cards. You register it online for the rewards part of it and then you’re set! And then really you can change cards any time as long as you remember to link it to that account online.

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I had my birthday in November, and the SA didn’t know anything about it. The manager had ME explain to the poor girl. Then the manager tried to insist, like at your store, that my card level only entitled me to a free drink. I had the email from Starbucks to show the manager though, and so she told me she would make the EXCEPTION for me. I would recommend to bring the email with you or something when you go if your Teavana isn’t very friendly.

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Pyroxy select said

I recently redeemed my reward at my local Teavana…sorta.

I had accrued two rewards, but their system would only redeem one (period) so they just sent me home with the two oz I’d picked.

I’d also advise having the email on hand, as it helped me convince them to try running the reward (and that I had two of the bloody things).

They seem to be trying, at least, so that’s something…even if the clerk did sucker me into buying 5oz of one of their teas when I only wanted 2. :/

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Kaylee said

Actually, I had no problem redeeming mine last month. Lucky, sounds like.

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