TikTok influencer tries to bully patisserie owner into free meal but wasn’t expecting them to stand up to her

Ever since the concept of the influencer became a thing, the internet has been regaled with tales of entitled people trying to use their fame to get out of paying for things, often at the expense of small businesses. With the dawn of TikTok influencers, things have only gotten worse.

Influencers often promise to pay the business owner in “exposure,” offering a positive review in exchange for getting free stuff. While it may work with big companies or big influencers, in today’s age, where influencers are a dime a dozen, the offer of free publicity often doesn’t really benefit the business owner. Despite this, many influencers still think they’re entitled to free stuff.

In this case, Jenna Leurquin, a woman who runs a patisserie on TikTok found herself being contacted by an influencer who wanted to do a collab with her. They offered to give a kind review but requested items for free according to the owner of JLPatisserie. 

@jlpatisserie

I will forever dedicate my time and energy to continue to make it right to the people who value my teams hard work and have respected us and supported us since day one. #review #influencer #bakery

♬ original sound – JLPATISSERIE

Jenna explained that she wasn’t in a position financially to be able to accommodate the influencer’s request, however, this did not deter them.

The TikTok influencer showed up anyway

The person did not give up, Jenna claims the influencer “essentially tried to blackmail us” promising her that if she offered the food for free they would write a good review. Then, without warning she showed up the next day despite the owner telling her she would “think about it.”

While the staff and Jenna were still accommodating to the influencer, the refusal to offer free food led to them giving a poor review, complaining about the pistachio paste not being natural among other nitpicks. The owner refuted the claims in her video and gave viewers a tour of the kitchen to disprove them.

The influencer responds

Standing up to an influencer takes a lot of confidence but the person Jenna calls out in the video wasn’t about to let it go until she’d said her piece. Responding to the accusations made by JLPatisserie the influencer addresses the video. For those wondering, her name is Glamorama and her TikTok is dedicated to restaurant reviews.

@glamoramaaaa

I never said I would write a good review. I said I would do an honest review. I said if it was terrible, I wouldn’t do a review at all for the hospitality. I gave her a chance to respond to my feedback before I posted the reel to be fair. Which, I have never done before. But because she is a woman owned business I wanted to give her a little extra slack. All she said was thanks for the feedback. No questions of what went wrong or what they could have done better. I have received terrible meals for free, and never posted them because I could not say they were good. I have also been offered a lot of money to post nice things about restaurants and turned it down every single time. I always make sure the server is covered with a 20% tip whether that comes out of my pocket or the restaurants. I came here because I heard it was great and I wanted to do a positive review. I still said nice things about the pastries. I do think they are a bit rich and sweet for my taste. But I did love the pumpkin one.

♬ original sound – glamorama

She starts out her video by commending the small business for standing up to her, before accusing Jenna of lying in her original video. “I never said that I would leave a good review for a free meal,” she tells her viewers, however, in the text exchanges she shows, she writes, “meals would need to be comped,” she also denies the bullying claims from Jenna as she points out that the JLPatisserie TikTok account is way bigger and “cooler” than hers anyway.

Unfortunately for Glamorama, the people weren’t buying her side of the story. “Naw that video was full disrespectful,” one person commented, “anyways team bakery.” Another rightfully pointed out, “Everything you showed backs up the bakery,” while a third added, “I can’t wait until influencer era ends.”