Tim Hortons’ Customers Accidentally Told They Won $10,000 Due to Faulty App Notification

A Tim Hortons employee hands out coffee from a drive-thru window to a customer in Mississauga, Ont., on March 17, 2020. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press)

A small number of Canadians were told they won $10,000 playing Tim Hortons’ “Roll Up the Rim to Win” game, and then found out the message was due to a technical error.

The glitch, according to the coffee and donut chain, incorrectly told some customers they won a $10,000 daily prize on March 6. The issue is, only one such prize is awarded per day, to one customer.

Luc Massé, a paramedic from Moncton, New Brunswick, said he thought he won a big prize, specifically a $10,000 prepaid American Express card.

Massé, who regularly buys a coffee while on shift at work, said that Tim Hortons “is recognized as a nationwide brand that people love and cherish. Everybody waits every year for this, Roll up the Rim To Win... and then the first day this happens,” he said.

“It kind of leaves a bad taste in your mouth, so to speak. Glitch or not, it shows that I won and I’d like them to honour it.”

Another man, Jeremy McDougall from Ingersoll, Ontario, told Global News he also was told he won the $10,000 American Express prepaid gift card on March 6. When no further email confirmation arrived, he contacted the coffee chain.

He received a letter signed by Markus Sturm, senior vice president and head of digital, loyalty, and consumer goods for Tim Hortons, stating that a technical error caused an incorrect award message to go to various customers.

Tim Hortons has offered $50 gift cards to those customers who were falsely notified they won, and said the company is in the process of contacting individuals “to express our regret for the disappointment caused by this error.”

McDougall told Global he had “no intentions of taking anything that isn’t the $10,000.”

Josh Rose, of St. Catherines, Ontario, was also under the impression he won the $10,000 prize. He said he immediately began thinking of debts he could cover with his winnings. He told reporters he then received the same email from Sturm, and the bad news that the program had glitched.

Tim Hortons used to offer prizes through “rolling up the rim” on the paper coffee cups, but stopped that practice in 2021 and told customers to scan a loyalty card or use the coffee chain’s online app. The coffee chain did not immediately return requests for comment.

Last year, Tim Hortons reached a proposed settlement after multiple class action lawsuits were filed against the chain. Some of the coffee chain’s customers alleged that Tim Horton’s mobile app violated customer privacy. The app allegedly collected customer location information without adequate, informed consent.

Federal and provincial privacy officers found the app tracked the movements of customers every few minutes and recorded them, even when the app was closed.

The settlement, which did not admit liability or guilt, offered customers a free hot beverage and baked good.

The Canadian Press contributed to this report.