HIALEAH, Fla. — A Taco Bell employee was fired after refusing to serve a customer who did not speak Spanish.
Alexandria Montgomery went to a Taco Bell drive through around 10:30 p.m. Wednesday hoping to get a two chalupas supreme combo No. 6 but was stopped by a language barrier, WTVJ reported.
"Honey, I have a car behind you," a restaurant employee is heard saying in Spanish in the more than three-minute long video before closing the drive through window, the Miami Herald reported. "Can you move please? I have an order behind you. There is no one who speaks English. It's not my problem. It's Hialeah"
Montgomery replies:
“That doesn't mean nothing. Cuz this is Hialeah. This is America. Y'all don't take over the whole population."
Another restaurant employee comes over to diffuse the situation.
"She doesn't want to help me because she don't speak English. But you know the menu,” Montgomery said. “You work here, so you would know what I'm talking about if I say I want No. 6 on the menu. You understand what I'm saying? Like, you just don't completely shut me out cuz you don't speak English, that's not fair.”
Montgomery eventually drives off without making her order.
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"I contacted the manager and after explaining to her what happened all she did was apologize and say thank you and the call was disconnected," Montgomery told el Nuevo Herald.
Taco Bell did respond.
"(The incident) does not meet our customer service expectations," Taco Bell told el Nuevo Herald. "We have worked quickly to resolve with the customer to ensure this doesn't happen again."
Montgomery said the employee was fired and she was offered a $100 gift card.
"A gift card is not gonna just solve the problem, it's not gonna give me justice," she told WTVJ. "Don't try to like sweep it under the rug."
Hialeah, near Miami, has one of the largest Hispanic populations in the country. About 89 percent speak Spanish as a first or second language and 94 percent of the residents are considered Hispanic or Latino, the Miami Herald reported.
"I understand everyone in Miami doesn't speak English, and that's fine, but if she was willing to work with me, I think the outcome would've been different," Montgomery later told WTVJ.