SINGAPORE: A man took to social media to highlight a problem he encountered when his ordered food was left on the floor outside his home. By the time he got to it, a drink had spilled and wet the bottom of the paper bag, causing it to tear and the food to fall.
Mr Raguvaran Naidu’s biggest issue is not that the drink had spilled but that the foodpanda delivery rider did not bother to inform him that his order had arrived and that there had been some spillage. “He could have prevented the rest of the food from dropping out of the paper bag,” he told The Independent Singapore.
Mr Raguvaran, whose Oct 21 post on the COMPLAINT SINGAPORE Facebook page has gotten much attention, had ordered food from VeganBurg via foodpanda, with no instructions to leave it outside his door. Therefore, he was surprised when the rider just came and left.
When he was notified that his food had arrived, he went outside. He first checked the hook where past deliveries had been hung, but nothing was there. Mr Raguvaran finally found the food order by the wall at the side of his house. However, when he carried the bag, it tore, and the items inside fell onto the ground.
“We ordered a meal that came with a burger, a cup of broccoli, and fried mushrooms as well as a drink. The broccoli and the mushrooms already touched the floor when we tried to pick them up. The burger was a little scattered within the box due to the impact. The drink already spilled into the plastic bag that was placed within the big paper bag. And the plastic bag was already leaking the drink out so the base of the paper bag was wet. So when I carried the paper bag, the bottom tore and everything dropped on the floor. The drink was a total waste,” Mr Raguvaran told us.
Having worked as a food delivery rider himself in the past, he wrote that he’s aware this is not an easy job but appealed for “some dignity. People order food to eat. Not to eat it from the floor. People order drink not to drink from plastic bag. All the rider had to do was just tell me what had happened and I wouldn’t even have bothered putting up this post. What irritates me is that the rider has no dignity nor integrity to inform the customer. Extremely disappointed and disgusted.”
Mr Raguvaran has ordered food through foodpanda before, even recently. A rider had been given the wrong order but explained the situation to him, so there was no trouble. He just waited patiently for the next rider to bring his food.
“No job is better or worse than another. So there’s nothing to look down on delivery riders. I just hope the delivery riders will take pride in their job and have some integrity to own up or communicate instead of leaving torn bags on the floor or throwing the food around and stuff like that,” he added.
VeganBurg responded to Mr Raguvaran’s post, which he also put up on his own account, saying, “We understand we can work on our packaging and will make adjustments to improve our take away experience so delivery personnel have an easier time and our customers can receive their food in good condition. Thank you for your feedback and kind understanding.”
foodpanda also left a message on his wall, asking for his order number to look into the matter. When The Independent Singapore contacted foodpanda, we were told that the company was aware of the incident.
“While our delivery partners are advised to inform our support team should they notice any spillage, most of the time, spillages are only discovered upon unloading of food from carriers. In these instances, customers should reach out to our support team through the in-app Help Centre so that appropriate action can be taken based on the extent of spillage,” a spokesman for foodpanda told us.
However, Mr Raguvaran said, “We did immediately send the feedback via the app. Till today there is no response from the app.” /TISG
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