An Uber Eats driver was left baffled after he asked a Chick-fil-A employee for a plastic bag for a customer he was delivering to. The request ended up becoming quite a dramatic affair, with the store allegedly outright refusing to hand over the additional item.
The driver recorded the incident and uploaded it to TikTok under the account @LifeOftheOwl, where their interaction with Chick-fil-A staff went viral, racking up more than 692,000 views as of Mar. 19.
What made matters more confusing, the driver explains, was that he never previously had issues getting extra bags, sauces, napkins, or plastic cutlery in the past.
@lifeoftheowl Serious question: Am I tripping or overreacting? I do Ubereats during some weekends. Have been since May of last year. This has been the first issue ive ever dealt with picking up an order. The plastic bag was for a customer, who asked me to make sure they had a plastic bag around her food and drink. Ive never had issues getting an extra bag, napkins, sauces, straws, etc etc for customers that asked for extras. My job is to make sure theyre happy with my service and I got everything they needed. #lifeoftheowl #ubereats #deliverydriver #chickfila #disabledtiktok #handicapped #terribleexperience #storytime #ubereatsstories #ubereatstiktok #customerservice #amitripping #wtf #idkanymore #deliverydriverproblems ♬ original sound – LifeOfTheOwl
The video begins with the Chick-fil-A worker explaining to the Uber Eats driver that the delivery persons are supposed to bring bags to pick up the order, but the driver explains the bag is for his customer, who is handicapped.
The Tiktoker adds more context in the caption, writing, “Serious question: Am I tripping or overreacting?…This has been the first issue ive ever dealt with picking up an order.”
“The plastic bag was for a customer, who asked me to make sure they had a plastic bag around her food and drink,” he continued. “I’ve never had issues getting an extra bag, napkins, sauces, straws, etc etc for customers that asked for extras. My job is to make sure theyre happy with my service and I got everything they needed.”
In the clip, the Chick-fil-A worker calls over another employee, who appears to be the manager on duty, who then directly addresses the TikToker.
“So we are just adhering to our store’s policy that we can only give out the plastic bags for the items that go in them for things such as salad, side salads, and cold products,” he says.
He further explains the policy is to avoid “unnecessary waste.”
The TikToker didn’t seem satisfied with this response and wanted to know what kind of waste that the Chick-Fil-A worker was referring to. “Paper products,” the employee clarifies. “That’s just our operator’s policy,” the manager says with a smile.
The Uber Eats driver keeps recording the worker, saying, “So a handicapped woman can’t get a plastic bag…” they ask. The employee interrupts that they don’t discriminate when it comes to their customers but repeated that their policy strictly indicates that plastic bags only come with particular items that are ordered in an effort to reduce waste.
“It’s just a plastic bag,” the Uber Eats driver says before the manager acquiesces that while he understands where he’s coming from, that’s just company policy.
The Uber Eats driver says that he was going to show the video to the customer before the clip cuts out.
In a previous video, the driver explains that although he’s usually not the type of person to “complain about something so mundane like this” he nonetheless wanted to expound upon what happened at the Chick-Fil-A while completing his Uber Eats order.
He says the customer specifically requested an additional plastic bag to wrap the drinks in since they were handicapped and were worried the styrofoam cups would spill.
The Tiktoker states that they were told by Chick-fil-A employees that their store policy prevents them from handing out additional plastic bags to DoorDashers/Uber Eats/delivery drivers.
He says he asked Chick-fil-A what the deal with their policy is, stressing that the bags aren’t for drivers to hoard, but for their customers. The driver caps off his video by stating that the primary reason he was so miffed by the situation was that the employees’ denial of the bag request prevented him from fulfilling a customer’s order to their liking.
Some viewers said his complaint about the plastic bags wasn’t mundane at all, as there are individuals with disabilities where having a single bag to carry in items makes a world of difference.
“It’s not mundane,” one viewer commented. “I’m an amputee and I can’t imagine carrying in an order with a drink or any liquid without a plastic bag.”
Another questioned, “If the bag isn’t for customers to carry their orders then what are they for?!”
One TikTok user applauded the TikToker’s dedication to going above and beyond for their customer, writing, “thank you for respecting the customers request and going to so much effort to accommodate that. you are not trippin, you are fantastic.”
Someone else said it was blatantly “disrespectful” of Chick-fil-A to deny that request and had they been in the same situation they would’ve assisted the customer in bringing their food indoors.
The Uber Eats driver responded to them, stating that this is exactly what they ended up doing.
“Yeah, that’s what ended up happening,” he wrote. “I messaged her about the situation and told her I’d help bring her food to where she’d want it.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to @LifeOfTheOwl via TikTok comment and Chick-fil-A via email.
