Taco Bell Fires Employee For Refusing To Serve English-Speaking Customer

After a Taco Bell employee was filmed last week in Miami refusing to serve a customer because she did not speak Spanish, the company announced it had fired the worker.

"This does not meet our customer experience expectations. We have worked quickly to resolve with the customer to ensure this doesn't happen again. The individual no longer works for the brand,” a statement from Taco Bell said, CBS News reported.

The incident took place Wednesday when Alexandria Montgomery drove up to a Taco Bell drive-thru in Hialeah, Miami. After failing to place an order of quesadilla over the intercom because the employee did not understand what she was saying, Montgomery pulled up in front of the store window with the hope she will have better luck communicating face to face.

However, the situation just got worse as the employee kept telling Montgomery she could not take her order because there was no one working at the fast food joint who understood English.

“Honey, I have a car behind you,” a restaurant employee was heard saying in Spanish in the over three-minute long video that Montgomery recorded and uploaded on Facebook. “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 replied: “That doesn't mean nothing, 'Because this is Hialeah,' This is America! Y'all don't take over the whole population."

After apologizing for not understanding what Montgomery was saying, the employee threatened to call the police if the customer did not leave.

“She doesn't want to help me because she don't speak English. But you know the menu,” Montgomery was heard saying to another employee who appeared after a while in the hopes of diffusing the situation. “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 because you don't speak English, that's not fair.”

After trying in vain to make the employee understand, Montgomery was left with no other choice but to leave without ordering.

Montgomery recognized Miami had one of the largest Hispanic populations in the country and about 89 percent spoke Spanish as a first or second language, but she said no one deserved to be treated in that manner just because they did not speak the predominant language.

"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 said, AJC reported.

"It really made me feel like I don't belong here and I grew up here my whole life," she added.

Montgomery said she got in touch with the manager of the store and got an apology and a $100 gift card. However, she said, being offered the card was not the solution.

"A gift card is not gonna just solve the problem, it's not gonna give me justice," she said. "Don't try to like sweep it under the rug. … I want this to get out so people can know and be aware of situations like this so it does not happen again."