As Starbucks Korea temporarily eases the refund criteria for prepaid rechargeable card balances next month, it halted sales of 100,000-won e-card exchange vouchers across all channels over concerns about abuse through so-called "card kiting."
According to the industry on the 28th, Starbucks Korea stopped selling 100,000-won e-card exchange vouchers across all channels, including KakaoTalk Gifts and Naver Plus Store, on the 26th. The suspension period runs from the 1st to the 14th of next month, when full refunds of card balances end. It also halted sales of new unnamed physical cards and temporarily suspended exchanging e-card exchange vouchers for unnamed Starbucks cards.
Earlier, Starbucks Korea said it would support full refunds upon customer request for two weeks from the 1st to the 14th of next month, regardless of the proportion of the recharge amount used. Previously, customers had to use at least 60% of the recharged balance to receive a refund of the remainder. The move follows the flare-up of controversy over Starbucks Korea's "Tank Day" marketing on the 18th, which prompted some customers to withdraw from the rewards program and demand refunds of Starbucks card balances.
However, concerns were also raised that cases could occur in which people buy large amounts of prepaid cards with credit cards and get cash back. In fact, posts such as "Buying Starbucks e-cards" have increased recently on secondhand trading platforms like Karrot Market and BungaeJangter. In the secondhand market, Starbucks e-cards are typically traded at a 5% to 10% discount to face value. For example, if someone buys e-cards worth 2 million won at a 10% discount for about 1.8 million won and then receives a full refund during the refund period, the person can earn a margin of about 200,000 won.
Starbucks Korea also temporarily halted sales of e-card exchange vouchers on some B2B (business-to-business) mobile gift certificate platforms. Platforms that generally sell mobile gift certificates to corporate members sell e-cards at discounted prices. The intent is to block transactions in which people buy e-cards at a discount and then get refunds at face value to pocket the difference.
A Starbucks Korea official said, "In consideration of some potential abuse, such as cashing out, we are temporarily not selling high-denomination vouchers and unnamed physical cards across all channels." However, 10,000-won, 20,000-won, 30,000-won, and 50,000-won vouchers and merchandise-exchange gift certificates remain on sale.