(NEXSTAR) – Dutch Bros. Coffee has responded after an employee in Texas allegedly called a deaf woman the “most difficult customer ever” in a message printed on her receipt.
Ashley Vallejo, who posts to TikTok under the handle @ashley_deafvibes, outlined the incident for her followers late last week.
“I read lips, I can talk a little bit, but my voice is not perfect,” Vallejo said in the clip. She went on to explain that she had just purchased a coffee at a Dutch Bros. location in Waco when she noticed a rude message printed on her receipt.
“Most difficult customer ever,” it said.
Vallejo explained that she often experiences communication difficulties at restaurant drive-thrus, and frequently gets “punished with the wrong order” as a result. But this time, the message on Vallejo’s receipt was just too much.
“This? Ouch,” Vallejo said of the receipt.
Dutch Bros. has since issued a statement in response Vallejo’s video, calling the message on the receipt “unacceptable.”
“The experience the customer had was deeply disappointing, unacceptable and against everything Dutch Bros stands for,” the company wrote in an email shared with Nexstar. “We’ve addressed this incident internally and have connected with the customer. 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.”
Vallejo has not posted any further videos concerning the incident, but she did say in her original post that she hoped to spread awareness for the deaf community by sharing her story.
“I wanted to say this on TikTok, for workers to have a lot of patience for people with disabilities. We are like you. We try to order food, and stuff like that, like everyone else. Don’t punish us. Please have a lot of patience with us.”
“You have no idea what it’s like being deaf,” she added at the end of her video. “Have patience.”