Burger King employee allegedly refuses to serve deaf woman at drive-thru: 'It's too busy'

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

An employee at a fast-food restaurant has reportedly been fired after claiming he was too busy to take a deaf woman’s order.

Rachel Hollis says that she had her order written down on her phone before she pulled into the drive-thru at an Oklahoma City Burger King. Despite that, the man working the window reportedly refused to serve her.

The employee told Hollis that it was too busy and that he couldn’t do “a full order at the window,” KFOR 4 reports. Hollis told the outlet that she was grabbing dinner for her two sons in the car with her, who she had recently taken to hockey practice.

“I had my order ready, I had it typed on my phone. I do that often when I go through drive-thrus, it hasn’t ever been an issue," Hollis told KFOR. "I show him my order, and he gives me this face of frustration.”

The employee reportedly gave Hollis a note that said, “Can’t do a full order at the window. Too busy.” When she refused to leave, the man reportedly came back and began arguing with her.

Hollis recorded footage of the incident, which shows the man repeating that "it’s too busy" for “a full order at the window.” He then says, “It has nothing to do with your disability, I have a disability, too.”

When Hollis still didn’t leave, the restaurant called the police, Newsweek reports.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/foodanddrink/foodnews/burger-king-employee-allegedly-refuses-to-serve-deaf-woman-at-drive-thru-its-too-busy/ar-AAGjh62?li=BBnbfcL

[not_the_one]

1. I have NEVER heard that a drive thru is only for limited orders.

Does it state that on the menu kiosk where the microphone is?

[LisaL]

2. I think the issue is that people who can hear and talk order ahead before showing up at the window,

which a deaf person obviously can't do.

[SCantiGOP]

3. No, that's why it notes

in the first sentence that he was fired.

[Demovictory9]

4. its not. Employee got on a power trip

[MiniMe]

6. Is it possible that the employee can't read?

[Maraya1969]

8. Wow. Good pickup there.

[LisaL]

10. No, because he gave her a written note.

If he can write, he certainly can read.

[MiniMe]

12. You're right

[tanyev]

5. I've seen a lot of drive thrus that have an additional area where customers

are directed to pull up and wait if there is some reason their order is going to take a little longer. Someone brings their food out to them when it’s ready and the drive-thru lane isn’t held up. Seems like that would have worked for this situation.

[obamanut2012]

14. Yup, I was just going to say this

I've seen Starbucks employees run out food sand drinks, too.

[LiberalFighter]

7. He was too busy to do a full order at the window...

But he wasn't too busy to argue about taking her order. And write a response and hand it to her.

[LisaL]

11. My feelings exactly. He had time to argue with her but not to do the order?

[Takket]

9. that's absurd

most drive throughs now when very busy with a large order just ask the large order to pull into a parking space so they can keep pushing through smaller orders while the larger one gets ready, then bring the bag out to the parking spot where the larger order is waiting.

he could easily have punched in her order, taken her payment, then told her to pull into a parking spot while they made her order, and kept on serving everyone behind her.

he just couldn't be bothered

[912gdm]

13. isn't that an ADA violation?

[obamanut2012]

15. Yes

[GeorgeGist]

16. That's alright buddy...

TacoBell is replacing human cashiers with machines. BurgerKing won't be far behind.

[RobinA]

17. I'm Thinking

that when you speak your order at the drive-through it goes to somebody different from this guy. This guy takes money, maybe hands out orders. Lady comes along with this phone order and he short circuits because he can’t figure out how to handle it. Some people are just too easily flustered to work busy retail. Having worked at McDonalds many moons ago, busy McDonalds is not for the faint of heart.

[Skittles]

18. I guess I don't understand

what difference in time is it to hear someone's order or read it? Heck, reading would be faster because you would not have to confirm it.

[LisaL]

19. Because someone who can hear orders through a speaker before pulling to the window.

Obviously deaf person can not do that, so she pulled to the window with her order on her cell phone.

[W_HAMILTON]

20. I actually have a different take on this.

Maybe someone that has actually worked in a drive-thru recently can provide more information, but as someone that visits drive-thrus a little too frequently, I believe the drive-thru people are "timed" or something like that on their orders. I have placed large orders before and had no one in front of me or behind me and have been asked to pull up away from the drive-thru window. One time, I even had someone ask me to back up and pull forward again so their timer would reset (???). I've even had to pull up for a small, relatively standard order before, and it seems like this can create a backup, because even smaller orders are being herded through to get off this timer or whatever it is.

So, I'm wondering if that might have been the root cause of this.