How did you spend your summer vacation? Starbucks announced they’re now offering Free wi-fi at all their company-owned stores. I must not have been listening, because I only found out about it by accident! In fact, I generally try to avoid Starbucks whenever I can – both as a way to protest their ridiculous pay-for-T-Mobile service, and as a way to support local independent business-owners.
However, when you’re consistently working out of your car, and regularly trying to find local hotspots on the other side of town… let’s just say it can get frustrating at times.
Starbuck’s free wi-fi program comes with some strings attached, so it’s not as easy as most independent shops make it. I’m not here to argue whether this is good or bad, as I see both sides of their reasoning. I’m here to tell you it’s about time they opened it up! Here are the hoops you have to jump through:
Get a Starbucks Card. You can do this online, or you can walk into the store and get one at the counter – just a regular gift card will do, as if you’re going to give it to somebody else, but you keep it instead. It’s not the fancy branded Visa card or anything like that.
Register Your Card at starbucks.com. It took me about 3 minutes to get through the process, including also registering for AT&T as part of the registration (didn’t have to buy or subscribe to anything – just need an AT&T password to access the wi-fi connection) and writing down my password so I’ll have it when I’m at Starbucks.
Confirm the Registration. AT&T will send you an email; you have to click on the link to activate it.
Semi-limited Access. You’re allowed to use Free wi-fi at any Starbucks for 2 consecutive hours each day, every day. This means you can’t sit at Starbucks all day long and use it as your office – get in, get online, get out. (they have pay-for-service plans if you need extended time.)
Reload your Card. You need to either use your Starbucks card (presumably to buy coffee while you’re online) or reload your card once every 30 days. Failure to do this will freeze your free access.
Bottom Line. Yes, there are some hoops to jump through. Yes, you can get easier access (and support local entrepreneurs) elsewhere. But if you’re out & about on a regular basis, you can’t beat having 8,000 free hotspots across the country. Heck, there are 7 Starbucks stores in a 10 square mile block around my house!
Your liking Starbucks today more than yesterday Realtor,
Chris Butterworth
Chris Butterworth is: Realtor. Analyst. Husband. Father. Writer. Amateur Photographer. Triathlete. Soccer Dad. Big fan of technology, efficiency, and the Arizona Wildcats.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Steve – I didn’t realize the AT&T/iPhone connundrum. I can see that being very annoying!
As for the hoops and the 2 hour limit.. I’m giving Starbucks a break on this one, at least for now. Unlike an independent shop, which uses free wi-fi to entice people to show up (and to stay & drink coffee), Starbucks is busy ALL THE TIME, even without free wifi. Add to that the fact that they’re on every corner. If they offered completely free, unencumbered, unlimited wi-fi, they’re sales would probably go down. They would become the defacto office for every road warrior out there (myself included). Their regular clientele would get annoyed with never finding an open table, and might stop coming. So rather than serve 75 drinks in an hour, they would serve 20 drinks to the traveling salesmen over a 4 hour period!
Although the 2 hour limit forces me to do as much as I can offline, so that once I log on I can blaze through emails, mls stuff, and blogging…
Yes, I know you wrote this a week ago, but I’ll claim whatever excuse you are claiming for not knowing about the free wi-fi.
The hoops issue is compounded on an iPhone. The need for Starbucks to control the time to 2 hours is big pain in the rear. If I take the time to log in on my iPhone I seem to time out via inactivity pretty quickly. And logging in takes a couple of minutes, making the whole process completely not worth it.
In my book, if you aren’t on a laptop it’s useless. And annoying, when your iPhone is set to auto wi-fi. I suppose I find this extra annoying, because the wi-fi comes from AT&T, and AT&T has the iPhone, and I have an unlimited plan on my iPhone…and yet…it’s limited!
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