Chick-fil-A Worker Writes ‘China’ in Place of Customer’s Name on Asian Woman’s Receipt

April 2, 2021

A Chick-fil-A customer in Houston was shocked to find the word “China” in place of her name on her receipt.

The customer, whose first name is Tina, ordered her meal at the drive-thru at a Chick-fil-A in Houston on March 22, Business Insider reported.

She noted that an employee placed her name in the store’s ordering system via an iPad. However, she was stunned to see her name listed not as Tina but as “China.”

“I always make a point to say ‘tee-na,’ especially when wearing my mask,” she was quoted as saying.

Tina, who has visited the establishment numerous times, shared that she scanned her app for the order, which meant the worker saw her real name.

“Usually when they scan the app my name pops up and they usually say like, ‘Oh, Tina,’ but that day (the employee) didn’t say anything,” Tina told Today. “I didn’t think anything of it. I rolled up to the second window, and then there was someone that handed me the food, but before they handed me the food they looked at the receipt to confirm my name and I didn’t know what they said, I just knew it wasn’t my name.”

She received an email from the local Chick-fil-A’s general manager a day after she reported the incident to the branch via a feedback form.

The email read: “We want our customers to have a great experience, but it sounds like that didn’t happen this time. We know we can’t undo what happened, but we’d love another chance to get it right. I spoke with my team members from that shift and they informed me that they misheard ‘Tina’ as ‘China’ and that it had nothing to do with your ethnicity.”

Noting that they were taking the issue seriously, the manager offered Tina a free meal to replace the one she ordered.

Tina did not care about the “free stuff” and preferred for the branch to take corrective action. She emailed them back, asking the manager how there could be any misunderstanding as her name and “China” does not sound the same. She also pointed out that the interaction was face-to-face with the employee and not through an intercom system.

“I don’t want to get anyone fired, I just want to know that they’re doing something,” she said.

According to Tina, the store manager later reached out to two friends of hers who shared her post and told them that the situation was a “misunderstanding” and “had been resolved.”

“He told my friend that I was eight feet away when the order was taken; it was not,” Tina said. “He also said … ‘If Tina had just scanned the app, then this wouldn’t have been an issue,’ and I did scan the app, because when I look at my rewards history, I can even see that I’ve got the points for that day.”

Feature Image via Thao Le

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