‘I have Tourette’s, and she wants to not serve me?’: Customer says Tim Hortons workers ran away from him because he has Tourette Syndrome
A Tim Hortons customer with Tourette Syndrome accused a store's staff of discriminating against him, saying they ran away from the counter after seeing signs of his condition.
The man posted the clip under the TikTok account @myfamily_withtourettes, which shows him calling out workers in the store as a singular employee comes out to the front to help him while he's recording.
@myfamily_withtourettes Seeing staff run away and point and laugh at you is an awful feeling. I hope none of you have to feel this kind of hate. Really messes with you over time. @Tim Hortons ♬ original sound - My family with Tourette’s
"They all ran away and sent out a young man instead. In front of my kid," he wrote in the overlay text. The TikTok user confronts the Tim Horton's workers, saying, "Hey guys, hey guys, that's not cool," the man then yelps, presumably as a result of his condition before continuing, "that's not cool, I have Tourette's and she wants to not serve me she wants to send you? Like that's crazy, man."
He then moves the camera around the store as a child talks in the background; the employee sounds like he asks the TikToker what he can get for him. "An apology," he replies, before shouting two more times.
The father with Tourette's adds in a caption for the video, "Seeing staff run away and point and laugh at you is an awful feeling. I hope none of you have to feel this kind of hate. Really messes with you over time. @Tim Hortons please do better."
The Centers for Disease Control defines Tourette Syndrome as "a condition of the nervous system. TS causes people to have 'tics'." The government agency explains that these tics often come in two forms: "motor" and "vocal" and can sometimes develop into specific patterns of uncontrollable repetitive behavior. These tics are usually first noticed in children between the ages of 5-10, and the CDC states that the likelihood of them occurring ramps up whenever an individual becomes excited, anxious, or agitated. Conversely, the tics begin to subside when a person is calm or focused on a specific task.
The Daily Dot has reached out to the @myfamily_withtourettes TikTok account and Tim Horton's via email for further information.
Other users on the application had a variety of responses to the TikToker's post, some of which he replied to. One individual quipped that the father "has a demon in him."
@myfamily_withtourettes Replying to @TrvpVee ♬ original sound - My family with Tourette’s
The creator also called out another TikToker, @xobane, in a follow-up video who said it was unfair of the dad with Tourette's to expect employees to react in a calm and collected matter after he entered the store and started yelling. @Xobane remarked that he was not on the dad's side, stating that he would need to see other videos of him entering the premises and announcing that he has Tourette's.
@Xobane ultimately deleted his videos, which @myfamily_withtourettes pointed out in another video as well.
Other commenters, however, sympathized with the father and tagged Tim Hortons in an attempt to get the coffee-and-donut chain to address the issue and give the TikToker an apology.
"Don’t listen to haters, don’t give up, always keep going even if your different from other people," someone wrote.
Another commenter who said they were a Tim Horton's employee wrote, "I would have served you I work at Tim Hortons and have tourettes."
But some viewers said that the entire situation seemed like a misunderstanding, and while they sympathized with the TikToker, they also acknowledged that interacting with someone who has Tourette's for the first time without knowing their condition could be jarring.
"Sorry you had to experience that," one user said. "Though, some people aren't familiar with tourettes & find it alarming/scary at first."
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