Shocked': Starbucks Refused to Let Woman Use the Bathroom, Even After She Revealed Why She Had to Go Suddenly

Like many pregnant women, when the need to use the restroom hit Ilana Scheinker, it was sudden.

"The urge hit me as it does many women who have two weeks to go," Scheinker told KPNX-TV.

She had to go and she had to go right then. So she ducked into a nearby Starbucks in Phoenix. When she asked to use the restroom though, she was refused.

"I said, 'I'm pregnant, I really have to use the bathroom now,' " Scheinker told KPNX.

Ilana Schneiker was denied the use of a Starbucks restroom even after offering to make a purchase. The company says the employee who refused her did so wrongly. (Image source: KPNX-TV)

The mother-to-be told her husband waiting outside what happened. He went into the coffee shop and offered to make a purchase in exchange for the code that was needed to enter the restroom. Even another customer already planning on buying something offered to get the code on Scheinker's behalf, the news station reported.

All requests were denied.

The worker "said that we should leave, go to the Fry's grocery store and use their bathroom. If we don't leave, he's calling the police," Schneiker said.

The restroom at the Phoenix Starbucks location required a code. refused her did so wrongly. (Image source: KPNX-TV)

KPNX reported that Schneiker was forced to walk down the street where a Subway restaurant allowed her to use its restroom.

Watch the news station's report:

KPNX reached out to Starbucks and was told by the company that it was working to right this wrong.

"We failed to meet this customer's expectations of us, and we have apologized and are working to make it right," Starbucks told the news station in a statement. "This experience is unacceptable and not indicative of the welcoming and respectful service we strive to offer our customers in our stores."

The manager of the specific Starbucks location where the incident occurred reached out to Schneiker and told her she was "shocked" by her employee's behavior.

Still, Schneiker said she still plans on boycotting the coffee shop and wants to prevent a situation like this from happening to other pregnant women.

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Front page image via bogdan ionescu / Shutterstock.