A deaf woman has told her TikTok followers it was “awkward” to discover she was described as the “most difficult customer ever” by a cafe employee.
Ashley Vallejo shared a video to express her frustration with the service she received at Dutch Bros Coffee in Texas, US, earlier this week.
She revealed that her receipt for a coffee included a note at the bottom that read “most difficult customer ever”, left by an employee.
“It was a little bit awkward,” she told her followers.
“I can talk a little bit but my voice is not perfect,” Vallejo said.
“Workers should have a lot of patience for people with disabilities. We are like you. We try to order like everyone else. Don’t punish us. Please have a lot of patience with us.”
Vallejo said that food service employees “have no idea what it’s like being deaf”, and urged them to “have patience”.
The coffee company said the incident was “deeply disappointing” and “unacceptable”.
In a statement to KWXT Dutch Bros said it had addressed the incident internally and reached out to Ashley.
“The experience the customer had was deeply disappointing, unacceptable and against everything Dutch Bros stands for,” the statement read.
“It’s our hope we can work with her and the deaf community to ensure we always provide an excellent experience and meet the exceedingly high bar we’ve set for ourselves.”
Dutch Bros is an American drive-through coffee chain with franchises across the country.
Vallejo also voiced frustration with service she received at a McDonalds in Texas in October last year.
Speaking to KWTX about an employee, she said: “I gave him a note and he rejected our drive-thru note and said we had to go all the way around.”
“I looked at him and just tried to explain what was going on a few times and, again, he rejected service to us and told us that we had to keep going through, which wasn’t fair and wasn’t right.”
In Middlesbrough, a 103-year-old man became the oldest person in the world to undergo a life-changing operation to receive a cochlear implant.
Last month, Leslie Hodgson regained his hearing after 10 years of silence.
Deafness is the second most common disability in the UK. One in six of UK adults have a hearing loss and many suffer in silence.
