GrabFood rider, upset over delivery that was ‘too far’, allegedly threw his order onto shoe rack ‘out of spite’

SINGAPORE: A man was shocked at the behaviour of a Grab Food delivery rider who threw his family’s order from McDonald’s at the shoe rack outside his door, appearing to do so out of spite.

After Mr Asher Alvin placed his order from McDonald’s Serangoon, “almost immediately, the rider texted me and said it’s too far for him,” Mr Asher wrote in a Friday (June 30) Facebook post that went viral.

He posted screenshots of messages between him and the rider, who said he was asking Grab to reassign the order to another rider.

The rider also messaged that McDonald’s at Potong Pasir is nearer Mr Asher’s home, and that he would have to wait long because the Serangoon branch is full.

Mr Asher told the rider twice that he could cancel.

Long story short, the driver needed to deliver Mr Asher’s order anyway.

He still scolded Mr Asher, writing, “Next time wanna order McDonald see properly.”

“And so happens that I kena ur order… Very suey (unlucky),” he added.    Mr Asher posted two videos of the delivery. They showed brown paper McDonald’s bags that were waterlogged and torn. One portion of the order had fallen to the floor. They also showed that the drinks had spilled from inside the bags and some of the items looked crushed, suggesting that they had been handled with force.

Additionally, Mr Asher told mustsharenews that he heard the sound of items being thrown onto the shoe cabinet.

Mr Asher and his wife ended up having to clean the mess, especially since the spilled beverages made the cabinet sticky.

When he reached out to Grab, the staff he spoke to apologised and issued a full refund, adding that he would report the rider’s behaviour to appropriate channels.

But Mr Asher asked to personally speak to those in charge of the matter, and when a representative from the Driver Experience department called him, he was told that others had complained about this particular driver and that he would be banned from Grab.

The Independent Singapore also reached out to Mr Asher, who told us that he had worked as a food delivery driver himself during the pandemic.

While he felt that Grab had handled the situation relatively well, he expressed the concern that the rider could still be doing deliveries for other platforms, and could therefore repeat his bad behaviour.

He told us he wants to know what Grab is doing to ensure that this does not happen again on its platform or others.

And because of his experiences, Mr Asher showed empathy toward other delivery riders. “You know sometimes customers receive food in bad condition, it isn’t always the rider’s fault. Sometimes it’s the way they are being packaged for delivery.

I know how difficult the job is as I have also done this for a while during the Covid lockdown period. I know its ups and downs and how important the job of the rider is to hungry customers.

But to throw the food at the customer’s shoe rack/entrance, out of spite, is a huge no-no.

I think during covid, we have learnt a very valuable lesson. Whatever that we used to take lightly, was not readily available to us during the lockdown. And I think a lot of us have either lost jobs or some sort of income drop.

These delivery jobs, which were one of the very few that were allowed, have humbled us and taught us something valuable. It’s a means to put food on the table for you and your family.”

/TISG

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