Post global outage, CrowdStrike’s compensation of $10 Uber Eats voucher draws criticism

CrowdStrike compensation of $10 Uber eats vouchers after the global outage drew criticism. CrowdStrike’s cybersecurity software led to widespread disruption on July 19. This interrupted operations of major companies such as Delta Airlines. 

As a measure to compensate for the error, CrowdStrike gave a token of appreciation, a $10 Uber Eats voucher to its affected third party vendors. This move drew strong criticism and disbelief, according to a report by MoneyControl.

The vouchers were given on Wednesday afternoon, which led to multiple reactions, according to reports. Some appreciated the gesture saying that it was the perfect end to a challenging week whereas some were unhappy with the inadequate gesture, the report said.

Several business partners directly in contact with the clients are still under pressure to resume smooth operations.

The report cited social media users who compared the $10 dollar vouchers with office pizza parties that is mostly considered as an inadequate gesture of appreciation.

"Can $10 on Uber Eats even get you anything?" a social media user was quoted. According to research it was revealed that after deducting taxes and fees, the $10 voucher would hardly cover small products such as a can of Coke or a chocolate bar without tip, the report said.

Apart from the inadequacy of the gesture, a lot of people were skeptical about the legitimacy of the vouchers. For some users, the codes had stopped working.

The report cited a CrowdStrike spokesperson confirming that the vouchers were legitimate and said, "Uber flagged it as fraud because of high usage rates," as many attempts were made to use the same voucher.

Apart from partners, the customers also faced losses due to disruption in operations. The report also quoted Parametrix, a cloud monitoring and insurance firm, that the outage would have cost almost $5.4 billion in revenues and profits for Fortune 500 companies.

CrowdStrike has not yet given a structured compensation plan for its customers. The company might face financial remediation or lawsuits according to the experts cited in the report.