Remember those emails sent around 1999? "Please forward this email and Bill Gates will give you $1,000," it said. Something about an experiment Microsoft was conducting.

Starbucks unwittingly conducted an experiment in the forwarding behavior of its employees in the Southeast U.S., offering a coupon for one free iced coffee (between noon and 9 p.m.) via email. The email said to "try your coffee iced" and encouraged employees to forward the printable coupon to families and friends.

Some of the family and friends, evidently, have eBay seller accounts and printed out multiple coupons to sell. As the Oregonian noted, you could buy a pack of nine Starbucks free iced beverage coupons -- redeemable for anything from a regular iced coffee to a Frappuccino. While the AP is saying that Starbucks has rescinded the offer, according to the Oregonian, many stores were still honoring the coupons -- good through September 30, according to the fine print.

Starbucks can hardly afford to lose sales this month given its poor results last month, but what's worse: the small impact of those still forwarding the emails (and the few dozen being sold on eBay), or the negative PR of pulling a freely-given coupon?

Starbucks giving away iced coffee ... oops originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 30 Aug 2006 12:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.