Ready for a story that will scare you away from freaky fast delivery for a hot second (…at least until it’s 3AM and you’re craving a cheap sando)? This Washington Post story about a Jimmy John’s food allergy order gone wrong is pure nightmare fuel.
TLDR: Woman knows she has a food allergy to Dijon mustard. Orders Jimmy John’s without Dijon mustard. Except it comes with Dijon mustard, making her violently ill.
The Michigan woman worked at a loan office, in a job that “involves a great deal of telephone contact with prospective customers,” according to the documents. She suffers from allergies and started to notice that she was allergic to ingredients in Dijon mustard about a year earlier.
On June 2, she called in an order for a “Billy Club unwich” — a breadless sandwich that usually consists of roast beef, smoked ham, provolone cheese, Dijon mustard, lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise. (Ordering an “unwich” means that the sandwich doesn’t include bread and instead is wrapped in lettuce.)
However, when Bresnahan placed her order in Grand Rapids, she asked that it not include Dijon mustard and mayonnaise, the documents state.
“When the order was delivered to her office by the Jimmy John’s employee, Plaintiff sat at her desk and began to eat her lunch,” the complaint reads. “After taking one bite of the sandwich, Plaintiff began to experience an allergic reaction, including coughing, eyes watering, and her throat beginning to close. She opened the sandwich and saw that the sandwich contained Dijon mustard, contrary to her specific instructions when she placed the order.”
This allergic reaction from Jimmy John’s negligence literally ruined her life: According to The Post she started coughing violently and vomiting. Her doctor was unable do anything about the reaction and now she’s unable to speak about a whisper, forcing her to leave her job and lose her apartment. So now she’s suing the sandwich shop:
The complaint claims that Jimmy John’s was negligent in taking her order, and training its employees “on the importance of accurately taking orders, especially with respect to customers with allergies.”
“It is not unreasonable to expect a sandwich shop to make the sandwich according to the order,” her attorney, Wolf Mueller, wrote in an email. “Sometimes no harm results, other than annoyance. Other times, like here, serious harm can result. Either way, Jimmy John’s is accountable for its negligence.”
…
“It’s five months now,” he said. “You and I can speak in a whisper, but we can have intonation and inflection. Hers is just a flat, affectless whisper. And that’s five months later, because of the damage to her vocal cords. Certainly, if it’s permanent, this is a very significant case.”
Sometimes there’s a downside to freaky fast delivery in the form of customer negligence. Food allergies are terrifying.