Woman Threatens To Sue Starbucks For Getting Her Name Wrong On Cup

The Starbucks sign is seen outside one of its stores in New York — Reuters

KEY POINTS

The woman said that misspelling her name as "Babi" meant that the barista was calling her a pig
She deleted the original post, but it has been reposted on Twitter
Some users said that filing a lawsuit was unnecessary

An unhappy customer at a Starbucks in Malaysia is threatening to sue the company after her name was allegedly misspelled on a cup and written as a derogatory word.

The customer, identified as Bavitra Ramachandran, claimed in a social media post on May 15 that a Starbucks barista wrote the word "Babi" on her drink instead of "Bavi," The Rakyat Post reported.

She insisted that the Starbucks Malaysia employee should have known that no name starts with "Babi" as it translates to "pig" in Malay and is usually used as an insult. She said that the mistake was unacceptable.

The incident was said to have occurred at either Starbucks Sunway Medical Center or Starbucks Sunway Velocity.

"Starbucks Malaysia, I'm going to sue you! Starbucks Sunway Medical Center [and] Starbucks Sunway Velocity Mall, [it is] impossible that your Malay staff doesn't know that there is no human name that starts with 'babi'!" Bavitra posted.

Although the post has since been deleted, a Twitter user took a screenshot of it and then reposted it on Twitter, where several users joined in on the conversation.

Many netizens shared Bavitra's sentiments, saying that Starbucks should teach its employees to be more responsible in taking customers' names.

Some also said that such basic mistakes are unacceptable in the food and beverage industry.

"You should do it! This is unacceptable! Even if you misheard, at least ask one more time for the name," one user said, per Malaysian news outlet WeirdKaya.

"[It] happens to me too because [my] name starts with B," another user claimed.

However, other users suggested to Bavitra to cool her jets instead, as the incident could've been an honest misunderstanding.

They also said that taking legal action is completely unnecessary and could be an overreach.

"It's crazy to hire an RM10K ($2,200) [lawyer] just because the Starbucks staff misspelled the name 'Babi' instead of 'Bavi,'" one user tweeted in Malay. "You can [instead] complain directly to the counter."

"[The Starbucks barista] did not intend to do it," another user said.

Starbucks Malaysia has yet to issue a statement regarding the matter, and it is unclear if it reached out to Bavitra to solve the issue privately. Bavitra has yet to say if she will follow through with her plan.