Starbucks Spelling

Didn't think it was neat to spotlight people's auditory and verbal comprehension or spelling errors. I guess ridicule continues to pass as entertainment. HAHAHAHA! Look at that! The buffoon made a mistake.

Nevermind all the not-so-neat advances made in the social and psychological sciences that push our understanding of ourselves and reality forward. Those aren't neat, they are tedious and boring, laughing at human error takes the cake.

I didn't really see it as mocking the workers so much as examples of what can go wrong when you're trying to communicate in a noisy, busy environment like Starbucks. As someone who struggles to hear in background noise I doubt I'd fare any better.

This struck a cord with me. I work as a cashier in a home improvement store. There is so much noise I have to contend with. I have congenital hearing loss which adds to the difficulty of hearing customers. The one thing I wish customers would do is SPEAK UP. If I ask for your name I want it spelled loud and slow. O-M-A-R, That spells Omar. I deal with a thousand to several thousand customers a day. I want to make the experience enjoyable for each person. The more of a production it is to help a single customer the more difficult the job becomes by a factor of a thousand.

I think in the case of Anji and Tyla being "misspelled" as Angie and Tyler, it is a case of the customers spelling their own names incorrectly.

A Starbucks here in the Philippines once wrote "Cluster" on my cup.

I just went over to Tim Horton's which, unless you live in Canada or New York, you probably don't know it. It is a coffee chain named after the hockey player Tim Horton. It is extremely popular in Ontario, Canada with locations on just about every corner, sometimes on opposite sides of the same intersection.

When I got to the counter a young man whose nametag read "Christian" was serving customers. Being a frequent customer of this particular location over the last 6 years means I recognize when new employees are hired. Christian was a new employee, today was his first day. I placed my order as "Two large double double" which means "Two large coffees with 2 cream and 2 sugar" to most people. He charged me less than what I thought it should be and asked for confirmation of the quantity "That's for two coffee right?" and he confirmed, but then when my coffee was ready I found they were medium, not large. So I said "I ordered larges..." and before I could finish he threw his hands up in the air and lamented "See, I've done it again..." at this point I interrupted his tantrum and said "It's okay, I'll be happy with medium."

Then I was reminded of this post and how utterly shallow-minded and ego-centric customer complaints can be.

As a barista I can tell you it can be pretty tough to get people's names right. We don't take names often in my store because we're not high enough volume to need it. But boy when we do it can be very frustrating. If we're busy enough to need names on cups it's usually going to be very loud between the noise of customers, the music, and the sound of the blenders going. And to top that off, a lot of people will say their name very quietly. I generally won't ask a person to repeat their name more than two times just because it can be embarrassing for me to be like "what? WHAT?" and can be annoying for the customer to have to keep repeating their name.

There's also the issue of coming across names I hadn't heard before because we do get a number of visitors from other countries as well as people who's parents just gave them very unique names. (we did have a regular named Blaze, it was her real given name and was on her driver's license.)

So it's not that we misspell your name because we're stupid. It's just 9 times out of 10 the barista probably misheard you. And if that's not the case, there's many different ways to spell most names so unless you let them know, there's a chance it's going to be misspelled. That and well, mistakes happen, we're only human.

Yeah, I can see how some of these are due to mishearing someone or someone having an unusual name, but spelling Steve as Steave? Arielle as Eriall? Christian as Kris Chin? Madelyn as Madellin? That's just dumb.

I love Starbucks and go there maybe three times a month. I once went to one and ordered a White Mocha to go. The guy asked me my name ("Edgar"), he looked puzzled and asked again ("Edgar"). He looked puzzled again but this time wrote it down on the cup. I paid for it, collected it and on my way to the office, as I happily drank my White Mocha, I saw what was written on my cup: "Erica".

I've gotten "Jeff" before at cafes and over the phone. It's not surprising as high frequency sounds especially, such as /s/ and /f/ can get lost in background noise particularly if somebody has even a slight hearing impairment, but I'm pretty certain I don't look or sound like a dude.

My name is misspelled so often (and mis-pronounced even more so, thanks to my husband's Creole heritage) that I don't even bother correcting. I really don't mind. The best Starbucks misspelling I ever got was "Andrew". Nearly every time I go it's "Adrian", but Andrew made me giggle. Are there women named Andrew? I feel like it's an untapped market.

"not-so-neat advances made in the social and psychological sciences that push our understanding of ourselves and reality forward. "

Ha ha, so laughing.

I don't get what the big deal is? I mean, if people want to complain because their names were misspelled, then they're idiots for thinking that the people can hear them over all the background noise, especially the espresso machines! But I know, if I had to give my name to the cashier, I give them a nickname rather then my real one (it can be difficultly heard and I've seen it many times spelled weird, so when they call it out, I wouldn't know it was my name because of how the cashier would have spelled it on the cup). It's almost like that childhood game where you whisper in one ear by the time it comes back around, the last person would say some weird and random thing.
I say, it's not so funny yet it is in the fact that it is interesting to see what they heard over all that noise, like that old childhood game. What will your name be at the end, when you get your coffee order and it says something else then the name you gave them? I liked the last photo though, "rory = worrry", it's all how you say your name (if you don't spell it to the cashier, it's no one's fault but your own)

No Starbucks where I live, but wouldn't it be easier and more useful to label the cup with what's in it instead of the customer's name?

There's only one way to spell Starbuck's coffee and that's "CRAP". As Abraham Lincoln said: "If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee."

There's only one way to spell Starbuck's coffee and that's "CRAP" As Abraham Lincoln said: "If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee."

Wouldn't it just be easier giving people a number?
Anyway, I don't think is very amusing.
As others have pointed out, I'm sure there is a lot of noise so it's difficult to hear what someone is saying.
Plus a few of the names I saw on that site weren't exactly common either, so it's no wonder why someone would mispell it.

I have a one-in-a-million name so I tend to just use whatever common name I feel like on the day - Holly, Sarah, Rachel, something like that.

My friend Angela once had a barista spell her name "Angular".

I think some reactions are a bit oversensitive.

(Obviously there are limits, but the best jokes are often politically incorrect.)

Conspiracy theory #1: The baristas are having a laugh. Best 'interpretation' without a customer complaint wins half the tips.

Conspiracy theory #2: Starbucks coffee contains volatile petroleum by-products (but why???) which adversely affects the baristas' cognitive abilities.

...

I like "Hai Wei" as "Highway" best. S/he could have a gonzo journo show on cable (like CNN): It's My Way with Hai Wei. McLaughlin Group format.

...

I have an aunt who labeled my Christmas gifts "Polly".

Conspiracy Theory #3: The mistakes are Freudian.

Hai Wei as "Highway": Hurry up, your bus is leaving.
Stephanie as "Estefoni": She's Latina.0
Alexis as "A-Lexus": Nice car.
Elise as "Felice": What a happy young lady.
Katy as "Heini": Nice heinie.

Low intelligence theory: People with low intelligence find this entertaining.

Let's test the hypothesis using Clifford's criteria for the ethics of belief: It is wrong in all cases to believe on insufficient evidence; and where it is presumption to doubt and to investigate, there it is worse than presumption to believe.

But isn't it fun to fabricate assumptions that propel ourselves to superior heights, from whence we can peer down on our less endowed brethren and laugh.

On another note; I was just annoyed that everywhere I turn there appears to be a bunch of infantile fools frantically foraging for funny facts and figures to flit their fancy. We are doomed. The Rock is going to fall.

Crazy boy--
Everybody knows the rock leans over the town
Everybody knows that it won't tumble to the ground
We've more important studies than your fantasies and fears
You know that rock's been perched up there for a hundred thousand years

"The rock is gonna fall on us." He told the magistrates
"I believe that we can stop it but the time is getting late
You see I've done all the research my plans are all complete."
He was showing them contingencies when they showed him to the street

- Harry Chapin, The Rock

I can't look at this. These people have no common sense. I understand a few of them, but seriously, do they think what they're writing is actually a name?
Deb > Death?
Molly > Pollen?
Matt > Brath?
Ben > Men?

ugghhhh I am so mad thanks to this post

This may sound like a bit of an odd suggestion; but if you are made mad by this, maybe you have an unjust sense of superiority and entitlement.

I made a similar mistake last night, I was laying in bed with my girlfriend, but had my wallet in my pocket. I was laying on my wallet which was ontop of her hand, and I said "Oh, I'm laying ontop of my hand that is ontop of your wallet."

We both knew what I meant, but it came out wrong. Remember the "Have a good meal." "You too" bit. People are prone to making errors, it really shouldn't surprise you or upset you unless you fancy yourself error free, and that is probably a delusion.

put a 3 or 4 digit on receipt, write digits on cup, end of problem.