Angry Customer Attacks Delivery Rider For Allegedly Not Sending Food Right To His Doorstep
The customer had insisted for his food to be delivered to his door so that he did not have to go outside.
By May Vin Ang — 27 Nov 2020, 06:07 PM
A foodpanda rider was recently assaulted for allegedly not sending a customer's delivery right up to the doorstep
A Twitter user, simply known as Daniel, took online to share a video of the incident that he received from a friend in a foodpanda rider group chat.
In the 20-second video, a man can be seen angrily holding a delivery rider to the ground and repeatedly trying to choke him.
Speaking to SAYS, Daniel said that according to his friend, the customer had insisted for his food to be delivered to his door so that he did not have to go outside.
However, likely due to COVID-19 standard operating procedures (SOP), the security guards did not allow the rider to go upstairs, which was when the customer lost his temper and came down to start a fight.
While he acknowledged there could be another side to the story, Daniel, a food delivery rider himself, said that his colleague should not have been attacked
He continued writing in a thread about how it was all too common for food delivery drivers to be treated badly by customers.
"I know some have said that it could be the rider's fault, but as a rider myself, I don't see myself wanting to get into a situation as bad as this," he tweeted.
"Let's say, even if the rider had argued with the customer, you wouldn't have thrown yourself at a delivery rider and started throwing punches at him like in a wrestling match, would you?"
Daniel reminded people that food delivery riders would never want to arrive late or make their customers angry on purpose
"This is our income, why would we want to mess with it?" he pointed out.
Instead, he asked people to consider that there are times when vendors may be behind schedule in preparing the food or the rider could be fulfilling three to four orders at the same time. He said riders do not take complaints lightly as they often get wrongfully fired.
"I don't see any rider who would want to simply get terminated. We are doing it for a living, to earn money, and not for fun. Applying for this job was not easy too, so many of us won't throw it away just like that."
Daniel's thread, along with the video, was retweeted over 7,000 times and started a discussion among netizens about working with difficult customers
"I hate the saying 'the customer is always right'. People who have worked in retail knows that there are many customers with attitudes like pigs," said a netizen.
Another said, "Customers like these are stupid. In my case, if I order from foodpanda, I will always be ready to apologise to my rider for the hassle, especially when it suddenly rains."
"I will even give them double the tip for sending the food if that happens," they added.
Meanwhile, others watching the video could not believe that the person recording it did not help to stop the fight.
"Whoever took this footage was the worst, they must have taken it just to go viral," replied a Twitter user.
SAYS has reached out to foodpanda to verify the incident but has yet to receive a reply.
