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- An Oklahoma couple's regular Starbucks visit ended with a mysterious added charge of $4,444 for two coffees.
- After contacting the company, Jesse O'Dell told Fox 23 News the first checks they received as a refund bounced.
- As of Friday morning, checks reissued by Starbucks have cleared, the couple told Fox 23 News.
An Oklahoma couple was left with more questions than answers after they said two coffees from Starbucks ended up costing them more than $4,000.
Tulsa resident Jesse O'Dell said he and his wife, Deedee, finally received a refund from Starbucks after a mysterious $4,444.44 tip was added to their order in January — but only after an initial round of checks bounced and the couple had to cancel a "once-in-a-lifetime" trip, according to Fox 23 News.
According to O'Dell, he and his wife weren't aware that they'd been charged so much until days later when the card they used was declined at another store. When a confused Deedee checked the account, she noticed the strange deduction, Fox 23 News reported.
"For this to happen was just a real it was a real shock," Deedee O'Dell told Fox 23 News. "I know for a fact I didn't do that but sure enough, it was there in the charge. We do give good tips but nothing like that. And from there the real hell started."
Jesse O'Dell/Fox 23 News
According to the news station, Jesse O'Dell contacted a Starbucks district manager who informed him of network problems and a possible "sticky button issue." The company then allegedly sent the couple two checks equaling the total amount mistakenly deducted, Fox 23 reported.
However, the O'Dells' financial hiccup was far from resolved. One day after attempting to deposit the checks, they received a call from their bank that they had bounced, per the news outlet.
Jesse O'Dell said he contacted the Starbucks customer service help line "probably 30 to 40 times" afterward, until someone from the company's Seattle office reached out to inform the couple new checks would be mailed out.
On Tuesday, a day after Fox 23 published their story, the O'Dell family received two new checks in the mail from Starbucks for the money. As of Friday morning, the full $4,444 refund has successfully been deposited into the couple's account, according to an update from the news station.
Despite receiving the funds, the ordeal led to the family cancelling a trip abroad that was scheduled to happen three weeks after the incident. When the checks didn't initially clear, they filed a report with Tulsa police, ABC-affiliated KOCO 5 News reported.
"My wife is originally from Thailand and grew up in the States. We had planned to take a trip to the country as a family on January 27 but had to cancel and these tickets are non-refundable," Jesse O'Dell said.
Starbucks did not immediately respond to Insider's request to comment, but the company told Fox 23 it was aware of the incident and attributed it to human error although it's still unclear why the charge occurred or why the checks bounced.
"This is something that has caused huge duress in our own family you know and hopefully other people don't have to go through something like this," Jesse O'Dell told Fox reporters on Monday.
"I would highly recommend number one, check your receipts, ask for a receipt, get a receipt," he added.