SINGAPORE: A video of a security guard at a condominium throwing a bag of boba tea drinks that a food delivery rider placed on a chair outside the guardhouse has gone viral.
The video, posted on the Facebook and TikTok accounts of SG Road Vigilante on Monday (Sept 16), has gotten over a million views.
@sgroadvigilante 5sep2024 1640hrs central view food delivery rider ignored security officer instruction & insisted on placing the order at guardhouse quoted this customer never give me unit number, I even called the customer but still never answer. So my best solution is to leave at the guard house and ask the customer to come and collect. But this security don’t accept food at guard post.
The incident occurred on Sept 5 at the Central View condominium.
According to the caption on the video, the delivery rider ignored the instructions of the security officer and “insisted” on putting the order of drinks at the guardhouse.
The rider pleaded with the guard not to throw the drinks as the customer had already paid for them; the guard, an older man, can be heard getting more irate until he reached such a point that he threw the bag of drinks onto the road in front of the condominium gate.
The caption to the video, however, also contains the delivery rider’s side of the story. According to him, the customer had failed to give him the number of his condominium unit. Also, when he tried to call the customer, the customer did not answer.
“So my best solution is to leave at the guard house and ask the customer to come and collect. But this security doesn’t accept food at the guard post,” he added.
Commenters on the video have been divided, with some siding with the condominium security guard and others with the food delivery rider.
Some Singaporeans said the rider has “no right to transfer responsibility or liability to the guard!!” However, others argued that the attitude of the security guard is “really not acceptable.”
One commenter, who works as a delivery rider himself, asked whether they should wait for “10 hours” when customers don’t answer the phone, and added that they also have to earn a living and eat.
Some TikTok users cautioned against hastily judging, as what happened before the argument could give important context for the situation.
At least one official has spoken out on the matter. Stomp quoted Raymond Chin, the general secretary of the Union of Security Employees, as saying that by-laws regarding placement of deliveries in common areas are determined by the management, in this case of the condominium, and not security agencies or their guards.
Going against these laws would result in fines levied on the security agencies.
“The food order was a contract between the platform, the customer, and the delivery rider. It is, therefore, unfair for the rider to insist on leaving the order at a common area and insist that it is now under the care of the security officer,” he is quoted as saying.
Mr Chin, however, also admitted that the guard could have handled the matter better and that “Throwing the order in the manner captured on video is not the best solution.” /TISG