GrabFood rider receives order from Seletar Island, asks if he is expected to “swim” there

Singapore – A GrabFood delivery rider took to Twitter to share how he was expected to “swim” to a customer located in Seletar Island, making him “GrabFood’s first submarine operator.”

In a series of tweets on Sunday (July 26), the rider, @rxzhael on Twitter, shared his experience of receiving an order with an unreachable destination and the initial support received by Grab’s administration. The rider was supposed to pick up an order from Kimly Seafood outlet in Yishun Avenue and deliver it to a customer located in Seletar Island. The order cost S$6.70 and was tagged as cash on delivery.

For those not acquainted with the location, the offshore island is located in the Straits of Johor, off the northern coast of Singapore. The island is uninhabited and is home to mangrove trees, based on Google research. One would also need to paddle on a kayak to reach the island.

The rider was aware that he would not be able to accomplish such an order, so he contacted Grab’s Delivery Partner Support for assistance in cancelling the order or reassigning it to another rider, perhaps one with a submarine and not a bike, suggested @rxzhael in a screenshot of his conversation with Grab support.

However, the support staff replied and said it was impossible to accommodate the rider’s request. “Truly apologise, but the distance for the order is within the acceptable range for your mode of vehicle, and so I am not able to reassign the order. Kindly proceed to deliver (the) order to the stated delivery address,” said the Grab support staff. “…So I’m supposed to swim there…?” replied @rxzhael.

In a follow-up tweet, @rxzhael apologised for the late update as his “arms were really tired from swimming.” Jokes aside, he added that Grab support didn’t respond after his question, so he manually cancelled the order and went home to sleep. Manually cancelling a job from the rider’s side may affect their Cancellation Rating, though, as the only valid reasons included in their policy are: “restaurant is closed” or “item is unavailable.”

The following day, @rxzhael tweeted some good news:
OKAY UPDATE, A GRAB REPRESENTATIVE CALLED ME TO APOLOGISE AND AS AN ACT OF GOOD WILL THEY’LL DEPOSIT $15 INTO MY GRAB WALLET SIJWIILLLJWOWHIDHWIQHS
As for the customer? Grab tried to call them but they never responded.

Grab Singapore also responded via tweet, saying “Yikes, Seletar island is definitely not within the acceptable range! We have since flagged the above to our support team, and the agent will be undergoing additional coaching. So sorry about this! ? – Heather”

Yikes, Seletar island is definitely not within the acceptable range! We have since flagged the above to our support team and the agent will be undergoing additional coaching. So sorry about this! ? – Heather

— Grab Singapore (@GrabSG) July 27, 2020

To honour his experience and his tweet going viral, @rxzhael added “GrabFood’s first Submarine operator” in his bio.

In honor of this tweet going off https://t.co/5cSOwt135t pic.twitter.com/eNkIi0dIIJ

— Ｒｕｚｚｙ (@rxzhael) July 26, 2020