Woman Records Drive-Thru Employee Refusing To Take Her Order Because Her Toddler Was 'Screaming'
She did not get the support she was expecting.
The customer is always right — except when they’re not.
One customer caused an uproar on social media after posting a video of a Panera employee refusing her service, and people are siding with the employee.
The Panera employee refused to take the woman’s order since her toddler was screaming in the background.
In a TikTok video that has been viewed over 5 million times, a woman placing an order in a Panera Bread drive-thru filmed the employee behind the mic from inside refusing to take her order after he was distracted by her screaming toddler in the car and was having difficulties comprehending her order.
After the employee refused service, the woman refused to leave and pressed him repeatedly on why he was denying her.
“So you are gonna refuse to take my order because my child was screaming?” the woman asks.
“Yes, I have the right to do that,” the employee can be heard arguing back. He then offers the woman alternatives to placing her order where her noisy toddler will not intervene.
“You’re more than welcome to come inside or you can place an order online and we can make it for you,” he informs her.
The woman refuses to take the employee up on his recommendations and threatens him by letting him know that she is capturing their entire interaction on camera.
“I will be emailing corporate because that’s just like completely rude,” the woman adds.
As to why she cannot come inside the establishment to place her order, she claims it is because her daughter is not wearing shoes.
“I understand that, but you are also more than welcome to order through online as well,” the employee says.
Still, the woman is dissatisfied. “So you want me to take an extra 20 minutes and order online?” she says.
When she is met with silence, she continues arguing. “That’s not convenient to me. It’s your job to take orders and stuff like this is ridiculous,” she says.
The woman insists that the employee take her order, which he finally agrees to with one condition.
“I will be happy to take your order as long as your daughter does not scream,” he says.
“I think that’s a pretty good decision on your part,” the woman fires back, to which the employee calls her out on her attitude.
“What child doesn’t make noise??” the woman captioned her video. However, she did not receive the response from other TikTok users that she was hoping for.
TikTokers in the comments appeared to agree with the Panera employee.
“Team Panera guy on this one,” one user commented.
“This guy needs a promotion!” another user wrote.
“Dude handled this perfectly,” another added.
Others noted that drive-thru employees wear earphones to hear customers’ orders and noises like a screaming child can be painful on their ears and extremely difficult for them to properly hear orders.
“Keep in mind that employees have EARPHONES on,” one user pointed out.
“It doesn’t matter how tough your ears are people screaming in the mic it’s gonna be unpleasant,” another user shared.
Maybe the woman will ditch her toddler for the remainder of her drive-thru trips.
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.