HIALEAH, FLA. (WSVN) - A Hialeah Taco Bell employee is now out of a job after a customer’s video went viral online.
Alexandria Montgomery told 7News she was trying to place an order at the drive-through window of a Taco Bell at 785 East Ninth St. in Hialeah around 10:30 p.m. on Wednesday night.
“She was saying something in Spanish that I didn’t understand,” Montgomery recalled. “I replied and said, ‘No habla español,’ and she replied and said, ‘No habla ingles.'”
When she could not order through the speaker, Montgomery decided to drive up to the window and started recording video on her cell phone when the worker still refused to take her order because she wasn’t speaking Spanish.
“I simply wanted a quesadilla and that’s not hard to understand in Spanish, because I think it’s a Spanish word,” she said.
“Do you have a manager here?” Montgomery can be heard asking in the video.
The employee replied in Spanish, “She is in her house sleeping.”
The worker then told Montgomery to leave because there was another car behind her.
“There is no one who speaks English,” she said in Spanish. She then shut and locked the window.
When Montgomery continued recording and waiting at the window, the employee came back and again told her to leave the drive-through.
“This is Hialeah, I’m sorry,” she said in Spanish.
“This is America!” Montgomery replied.
That’s when two other employees could be seen walking up to the window, but neither person stepped in to assist. At one point, the worker said she was going to call the police.
Montgomery eventually left and posted the video to Facebook that night. It quickly gained traction, getting 120,000 views in just over a day.
She said the company later apologized to her and told her the woman in the video was fired.
A representative at the Hialeah Taco Bell told 7News they had no comment and said to contact the corporate office.
Taco Bell Corp. provided this statement: “This does not meet our customer experience expectations. We have worked quickly to resolve with the customer to ensure this doesn’t happen again … This individual no longer works for the brand.”
A Taco Bell spokesperson offered Montgomery an apology and a $100 gift card. She said she did not take it.
Copyright 2024 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.