The woes of customer service are a popular topic among content creators on TikTok, where new challenges faced by workers are brought to viewers to weigh in on.
From customers inventing new items that are not anything close to what is actually on the menu, to those who place massive orders in the drive-thru, service industry workers have told viewers just about everything they can do to tick off fast-food employees.
A former Starbucks barista has taken to the platform not to advise customers against ordering certain items, or describe which tasks they hate doing the most, but to tell the story of the time she ended up throwing a customer’s food order at them.
Known on TikTok as bhadbarista (@jorlala), the former employee of the coffee chain shared that during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Starbucks was an essential business that remained open.
A customer came through the drive-thru, sailing past the speaker box and menu screen straight to the window, she says, and demanded that the employees serving him use a bottle of hand sanitizer that he provided.
When she declined to use the hand sanitizer provided by the customer in favor of what they already had in the store, the customer did not take too kindly to that.
“He has his change, he’s got his straw,” @jorlala says, setting up what is about to happen. “The window is open. He throws his change back through the window at me, and then he throws his straw wrapper at me. At this point, I have the butter croissant. I’m like—’ What the f*ck? Don’t throw sh*t at me.’ I threw that sh*t through my window, into his car, hit him in the chest … and then I slammed the f*ckin window closed. That’s one thing I miss about Starbucks—slamming the window on someone like that.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to @jorlala and Starbucks via email regarding the video.
@jorlala what would u have done 🥲 not my proudest moment but oh well #baristalife #baristaproblems #customerserviceproblems #customersbelike #customerstories #customerstorytime ♬ original sound – bhadbharista
Many viewers agreed that the poster absolutely had the right to throw his croissant at him through the window, as he threw the first coin.
“I’m on your side , you weren’t even in the wrong just matching his energy,” one commenter wrote.
“You had every right to throw it at him,” another user said.
“U had every right to throw that damn croissant at him,” one echoed.
Others shared their own horror stories of working in customer-facing jobs during the height of the pandemic.
“I worked at Walgreens during Covid. I can still clearly picture the lady that went to open a bunch of deodorants, pull her mask down and smell them,” one commenter wrote.
“No cuz post pandemic but still masks – I worked at Wendy’s at some guy did the pull all the way forward thing and screamed at us thru the window,” another said.
“I once watched a man spray his food with hand sanitizer spray during covid.
a commenter wrote. “his bare food.”