CrowdStrike Apologizes With $10 Uber Eats Gift Card for Tech Outage, Then Revokes It

UPDATE: A CrowdStrike spokesperson has issued the following statement: "CrowdStrike did not send gift cards to customers or clients. We did send these to our teammates and partners who have been helping customers through this situation. Uber flagged it as fraud because of high usage rates."

Less than a week ago, CrowdStrike released a defective update to its security software, triggering worldwide computer outages that disrupted air travel, banking, broadcasting, and more. In the aftermath, the cybersecurity firm's stock plummeted, and CEO George Kurtz took a hit of over $300 million in his net worth.

In an attempt to win back public favor, CrowdStrike reportedly offered clients a $10 Uber Eats gift card as an apology. However, when some attempted to redeem the voucher, an issue arose. Keep reading for the full story!

In an email obtained by TechCrunch, addressed to "CrowdStrike partners," the troubled cybersecurity firm apologized for "the additional work the July 19 incident has caused."

"To express our gratitude, your next cup of coffee or late-night snack is on us!" stated the email, which included a promo code for Uber Eats. For those wondering, the email was allegedly sent by CrowdStrike's chief business officer Daniel Bernard.

On July 24, several X (formerly known as Twitter) users posted that when they tried to redeem their offer, they encountered an error message indicating that the voucher had been canceled.

"Two hours later the code is canceled and the $10 removed from Uber Eats account," one person said in a since-deleted post on X. "That's an uhh…interesting way to apologize to partners."

A second X user shared, "A friend received it and then said they revoked it, which sounds about right haha," to which someone else replied, "Same thing happened to me."

TechCrunch reported that upon checking the voucher, the Uber Eats page showed an error message stating that the gift card "has been canceled by the issuing party and is no longer valid."

Wow, talk about a betrayal!