Starbucks sued for refusing to Serve the Deaf

rockin'robin

rockin'robin

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 22, 2007
Messages
24,430
Reaction score
551
Received this email today from my friend in Northern California....

Deaf News Today
More than 12 Years of Reporting

A dozen deaf New Yorkers say some Starbucks in the city are refusing serve them. They have even been thrown out of the coffee shop and made fun of them. The group's lawsuit says it has happened more than once, at more than one Starbucks.

The man taking the lead in the lawsuit, Lawrence Bitkower, organizes monthly coffee chats for the deaf. He says Starbucks refused to serve his group, telling them in writing that Starbucks doesn't serve deaf people. Another man involved in the lawsuit, Alan Roth, says last year he tried to get coffee at a Park Avenue Starbucks but was laughed at and then yelled at when he asked to see a manager. Roth says the manager did nothing in response to his complaint.

Another deaf person said they saw a Starbucks employee reprimanded for trying to communicate with a deaf customer using sign language. In once instance, police were called to remove a deaf group for causing a disturbance. The deaf plaintiffs say the police ended up reprimanding the Starbucks employees.

Starbucks CEO Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz apologized and send a gift card, but the lawsuit complains that no action has been taken by the company to educate its employees about deaf customers... and the problem continues. Starbucks has yet to respond to the lawsuit.

Deaf News Today: Starbucks sued for refusing to Serve the Deaf
 
Wow that's horrible! And insane. NYC has a strong Deaf population - I'd have thought people there would be more accustomed to running into a deaf person once in a while.

Actually, there's a Starbucks (not in New York, but still) that hired a Deaf barista. Starbucks Deaf Barista That makes it even stranger that other parts of the company are so backwards.
 
I love Starbucks in DC - a lot of bakery goods.

But cons are long lines. :ugh:
 
oh yea my friend told me about what happened to Alan. I believe them that I know Alan since we were kids. I m shocked.
 
Starbucks is over priced and their coffee always tastes burnt. Why anyone goes there amazes me...even McDonald sells better coffee.

Laura
 
That's actually pretty sad.Even fast food restraunts have a section about serving a person that is deaf or HoH.

In general, it's about being respectful and unfortunately IMHO most people do not know manners and have the awareness of what respect really is.
 
AlleyCat said:
Oh my. I hope Starbucks loses.
Click to expand...
Very clearly, Starbucks won't serve those people because they are deaf. That's an act of discrimination. Remember long time ago, black people had that problem and now we, deafies have the same problem. Starbucks WILL lose definitely.
 
CrazyPaul said:
Very clearly, Starbucks won't serve those people because they are deaf. That's an act of discrimination. Remember long time ago, black people had that problem and now we, deafies have the same problem. Starbucks WILL lose definitely.
Click to expand...

Aren't you at least curious as to what started it? None of us have the facts, we did not see exactly what happened.
 
Lau2046 said:
Starbucks is over priced and their coffee always tastes burnt. Why anyone goes there amazes me...even McDonald sells better coffee.

Laura
Click to expand...

Maybe so but when I go in there, which isn't often, I just get their regular brewed coffee. And I agree McDonnie's does make a good cuppa.....I get it for 85 cents, :giggle:
 
Tousi said:
Maybe so but when I go in there, which isn't often, I just get their regular brewed coffee. And I agree McDonnie's does make a good cuppa.....I get it for 85 cents, :giggle:
Click to expand...

I have gone in there and looked at their very confusing menu and told the person......uh I just want a regular coffee flavored coffee.

I'm with green on this one, we got a very one sided view. One sided views tend to be a bit slanted and exaggerated. The biggest problem I have is where it says they were told, in writing, that Starbucks does not serve deaf people. That's a pretty big pill to swallow, and it sounds really really fishy.
 
ambrosia said:
I have gone in there and looked at their very confusing menu and told the person......uh I just want a regular coffee flavored coffee.

I'm with green on this one, we got a very one sided view. One sided views tend to be a bit slanted and exaggerated. The biggest problem I have is where it says they were told, in writing, that Starbucks does not serve deaf people. That's a pretty big pill to swallow, and it sounds really really fishy.
Click to expand...

While I didn't touch the deaf part, ya, I agree....
 
ambrosia said:
I have gone in there and looked at their very confusing menu and told the person......uh I just want a regular coffee flavored coffee.
Click to expand...

Ditto! They have too many choices when all I want is regular coffee. Maybe we are not normal. :lol:

ambrosia said:
I'm with green on this one, we got a very one sided view. One sided views tend to be a bit slanted and exaggerated. The biggest problem I have is where it says they were told, in writing, that Starbucks does not serve deaf people. That's a pretty big pill to swallow, and it sounds really really fishy.
Click to expand...

Yeah, if they really got that in writing, that would be unbelievable. Perhaps it was an inexperienced barista writing that on a coffee napkin or the like. (Meaning not a formal company policy.)

I have run into my fair share of ignorant employees that have laughed at me or snickered, etc. so I can almost see how this would have happened. Don't think I ever had anyone refuse me service, though.

On a different note: A law was just passed here in MN and signed into law that no business can ask disabled people for proof that the dog they are bringing in with them is a service dog, or even a trained one. It was passed unanimously. It was on KSTP yesterday. A blind woman brought her seeing-eye dog into a restaurant and was refused service by a manager or waiter (I forget which now, but I can go find the link.) She sued and won. The moral: there are some stupid employees out there.
 
I think there is more to this situation than is being said. I've been to some Starbucks where the employee and manger are nice and have great hospitality with the deaf patrons that go there. There are even some employees that know ASL. So this might be more of an exclusive thing for certain stores.

I get a slight feeling this incident is not about serving the deaf at Starbucks, but that some store/Managers are getting fed up with the unofficial deaf Starbucks meets because of the crowd of people?
 
Lau2046 said:
even McDonald sells better coffee.
Click to expand...

When they were doing it for free back in the winter I tried it. You know how you sometimes use the dregs at the bottom for an impromptu ashtray? It tasted like that had already been done to mine!

Don't forget this episode of What Would You Do? where a Deaf girl tries to apply for a job in a coffee shop.

 
I wonder if there's a way to contact a deaf org in that particular vicinity of NYC that might be promoting a Deaf Coffee Night At Starbucks and maybe give them a lecture about courtesy, etc, etc.....to be a little more circumspect about being there vs going there en masse, making a mess, halting service to the general public, etc,?????

Then again, the deaf group might have a legitimate beef if they were being ridiculed, discriminated against, etc......will just have to wait and see how this fleshes out.
 
Tousi said:
I wonder if there's a way to contact a deaf org in that particular vicinity of NYC that might be promoting a Deaf Coffee Night At Starbucks and maybe give them a lecture about courtesy, etc, etc.....to be a little more circumspect about being there vs going there en masse, making a mess, halting service to the general public, etc,?????

Then again, the deaf group might have a legitimate beef if they were being ridiculed, discriminated against, etc......will just have to wait and see how this fleshes out.
Click to expand...

Agree on both counts....the Coffee Chat at Starbucks on my side of town is no longer meeting....many deafies just went there for "social" and not buying anything....the manager complained.
 
rockin'robin said:
Agree on both counts....the Coffee Chat at Starbucks on my side of town is no longer meeting....many deafies just went there for "social" and not buying anything....the manager complained.
Click to expand...

I was going to mention this yesterday but didn't want to spend all day on it. The Deaf Happy Hours around here have been having problems with this. They will meet in restaurants and many of them will not order anything but water and some have a tendency to tip poorly. This actually happens a lot with groups of any kind. I know a pretty good verbal "war" broke out in the Deaf community here between "working deaf" and "SSDI deaf." The working deaf were claiming the SSDI deaf were the people who were attending and not ordering/tipping. I don't know if this is fact, but I saw much of the war. A lot of places wouldn't let them come back as a group. I have seen this at deaf coffee too. A lot of people just ordering water or cups of ice. It's a tough situation because you don't want to exclude people for being poor, but at the same time you don't want to establish a bad name for your group. Some groups added a "Professional" to the name of their happy hour groups. :dunno:
 
Back
Top