- A man claims a Starbucks employee mocked his speech impediment.
- Starbucks says it has since fired the employee involved, who worked at a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, location of the chain.
- Tan Lekwijit, whose original Facebook post about the situation went viral, told INSIDER he just wanted to raise awareness.
Starbucks has fired an employee accused of mocking a customer's speech impediment, a representative for the company confirmed to INSIDER.
The incident occurred at a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Starbucks on June 27, according to Tan Lekwijit, who chronicled his friend Sam's experience in a now-viral Facebook post.
"My friend Sam who is a stutterer stuttered on his name when ordering a coffee at Starbucks," Lekwijit wrote in his post. "The barista said, 'Okay, S-s-s-sam.' When he received his coffee, he was shocked to see that his name on the cup was written as 'SSSAM,' which was disrespectful."
Lekwijit told INSIDER that Sam emailed Starbucks to alert them of the situation, but they initially downplayed the incident, offering him a "generic response" and a $5 gift card. That's why Lekwijit decided to take things a step further by sharing the story on Starbucks' public Facebook page.
However, the coffee chain ultimately deleted his post from its page, leading Lekwijit to share the post on his profile, where it gained a great deal of traction online.
But Lekwijit and Sam never imagined things would get this far.
"Getting this kind of treatment from service employees is unacceptable, whether it is intentional. However, we do not want to generalize one person's behavior and impugn an entire organization because of one person," Lekwijit said. "All we wanted was to raise awareness among Starbucks employees, or any service employees, of speech impediments."
Following the online buzz, Starbucks reached out to Sam again to say it had fired the employee involved in the situation.
"There is no tolerance for this type of behavior. We've taken immediate corrective action and have apologized to the customer," a Starbucks spokesperson confirmed in a statement to INSIDER. "We want our stores to serve as a welcoming place for everyone who visits and strive to ensure our partners provide a positive experience."
This situation comes just over a month after Starbucks closed 8,000 stores across the country for racial-bias training following the arrest of two black men who were trying to use the restroom in a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, location of the chain.
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