In a viral TikTok, a fast food exec shows a man yelling at the drive-thru window and calling her like an “idiot” — all because she couldn’t apply multiple discounts in one transaction.
The original clip was posted on Friday by Sam Aguirre (@samwars42), who didn’t specify where she works. “Just a little glimpse of what I go through on a daily basis,” reads the text overlay.
The clip shows Aguirre opening the drive-thru window from inside the grocery store. The man in the car by the window says, “If the cops show up, my son will be a cop.”
“Thank you. Have a nice day,” Aguirre replies.
“Hey, are you a manager?” asks the man.
“Yeah, have a nice day, okay? I’m sorry we couldn’t help you,” says the TikToker tersely. “Thank you for cursing us. We appreciate it.”
“You’re an idiot, I hope you get fired,” says the man.
In a later TikTok explaining the situation, Aguirre says it started out as “a super normal exchange.”
“He said he wanted to do multiple discounts, which you can do per receipt with a discount adjustment,” Aguirre says in the clip. She said employees could take advantage of the multiple discounts, but they would have to make multiple transactions.
“No, I don’t want that, listen, don’t argue with me,” the man said, according to Aguirre.
After some back and forth, she says the two have agreed on a veteran’s discount. Then he drove to the window, “and threw the receipts around,” says Aguirre. “Stop being an idiot, do what I want, listen to me,” Aguirre said, taunting the man.
According to Aguirre, the man said his son works there and he will have her fired. “I personally know upper management, so I’m like, ‘No, your son doesn’t work here,'” she says. “I didn’t tell him that, but I think so.”
She then told him that she would no longer serve him because of his inappropriate language. In a TikTok continuing the story, Aguirre says he also called her “stupid.”
“I will not tolerate that,” she says in the clip. “Especially because I have minors on duty.”
She says she closed the window but he yelled that he wasn’t going and threatened to block the driveway. She told him she was going to call the police, and he replied, “What are the cops going to do with a man like me?”
The TikToker went outside to take a picture of the man’s license plate, she says, and wanted to give him a few minutes to get driving. She says he told her he just wanted to talk, and she agreed, taking out her phone to record the situation, which was shown in the original TikTok.
Aguirre says if she doesn’t follow the policy of one discount per transaction, she could get in trouble or be fired. “I’m not going to do this for someone I don’t know, because someone is inappropriate for me,” she says. She also says that her regional manager was at the restaurant that day to do paperwork.
In an update video released Monday, Aguirre says the man has returned. Per Aguirre, another manager told him he had been banned from the business for being “inappropriate” and he threatened to sue the employees.
In the comments of the four TikTok videos, people supported Aguirre, saying she was “amazing” at dealing with the man.
“You have patience, I would have argued sooo hard,” one person wrote.
“Great job being patient and calm and standing up for yourself!!!” wrote another TikTok user.
Others who have worked in customer service positions and also faced difficult customers sympathized with her.
“Having to explain coupons/discounts to adult adults when the restrictions were usually printed directly on them has been the most frustrating part of retail,” wrote one commenter.
The Daily Dot reached out to Aguirre via TikTok comment.
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*Initial publication: January 31, 2022 8:17 pm CST
Kathleen Wang
Kathleen is a Honolulu-based freelance writer, editor, and communications strategist published by The New York Times, Vice, Huffington Post, Hana Hou! and others was published. She has worked in the communications departments of the Honolulu Museum of Art, the ACLU of Hawaii, and the Hawaii Community Foundation. When she’s not writing, you can find her in the ocean, walking her rescue poi dog, or painting oil paintings.
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