The Daily BuzzThat’s Virginia, not ‘Vagina’: Starbucks barista has trouble spelling woman’s name
Once up on a time, Starbucks coffee shops implemented a policy that led baristas to begin, and then persist, in writing customers' names on cups to manage orders.
Then one day, a barista in Hong Kong wrote "Vagina" on a woman's cup and her sister became very, very angry.
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The Consumerist blog reports that a woman posted on Starbucks Hong Kong's Facebook page, saying her sister, Virginia, received a coffee from a local branch with her name misspelled, offensively, as Vagina. Someone appears to have deleted the original post, though it is quoted widely.
This is my sister’s cuppa from your HKU branch. Fancy your staff not being able to spell an American name like Virginia. Forgiving she has been with every misspelled cup. Her cup was once ‘Virgin’. Every Starbucks experience for her has been coupled with fear and anticipation. But THIS is just UNACCEPTABLE. Starbucks HK, you have to buck up or just not spell your customer’s name anyway. It is a derogatory attitude even if it is unintentional. What do you have to say about this?
There are several collections of similar mistakes, including "Cats" for "Cass" and "Pole" for "Paul." There are at least two Tumblr blogs dedicated to documenting the embarrassment caused by this attempt to combine organization with friendly service.
Still, Virginia's spelling of the barista's name likely wouldn't have been much better, given that she speaks English.
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But anyone who's ever cringed while watching a Starbucks employee scrawl letters that only vaguely resemble her name knows, perhaps better than the company's management, that the policy could use revision.
Now might be a good time.
