A deaf customer’s recent incident at a Taco Bell Drive-Thru in Rochester, NY has renewed attention on the need for employee training and understanding for deaf and hard of hearing customers.
Deaf Customer Denied Service
On November 19, Karen Putz, who is a deaf author, speaker and coach, approached a drive-thru at a brand new Taco Bell. Putz says she just wanted a quick meal and to treat a new friend who was a Korean War vet. Knowing that she would be unable to communicate via the intercom, she drove past it and pulled up to the window instead. Putz explained to the customer assistant that she was deaf and wished to place her order. She had done this number of times previously.
Putz was told to drive back to the intercom. After the assistant spoke with her manager, she told Putz that if she wanted to place an order, she would have to come inside to do so. Standing her ground, Putz said that she didn’t want to go inside. Instead, she wanted the order brought to her. She told the employee that this was her legal right.
In a video she posted online, Putz says just wanted an accommodation. After being told a second time she had to come inside, Putz said she was going to stay until she got her tacos. At this point, the Taco Bell employee called the police.
Putz and her friend sat there for 30 minutes. The employees inside looked at them and ignored them, she says. Putz’s friend said to beep the horn so they could ask for the manager. Again they were ignored. At one point, she was able to get the attention of the previous employee. When asked to speak to the manager, the employee said the manager was busy at another window.
“The manager refused to come and discuss it with me,” Putz said in her video.
When the police came, they asked Putz to move her car into the parking lot. After she explained her side of the story, they went inside to talk to the manager. The manager said, “I’m not discriminating against her because she’s deaf but she needs to follow protocol and order at the speaker.”
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