The pandemic has indeed changed our lives to a great extent. Reminiscing the pre-Covid days, each weekend would be spent walking around in shopping malls, and having a fun time with our loved ones. However, the existence of Covid-19 has resulted in us, being unable to leave our houses — deeply fearing the virus and the safety of our loved ones. Luckily for us, food delivery services were readily available even before the pandemic. With the existence of GrabFood and FoodPanda, getting daily meals from our favourite restaurants is not a big deal and we could get it delivered right to our doorsteps. We could finally enjoy meals without compromising anyone’s health and safety! However, none of this would be possible without the riders in charge of delivering the food to us.
Rain or shine, these riders risk everything to deliver our food without an ounce of exhaustion on their face. Their sacrifices are not just limited to their quality time with their loved ones. In fact, they risk their lives on the road just to get food delivered on time. But sometimes, due to unforeseeable circumstances, some deliveries would be late. This depends on the restaurant preparing the orders as well as the numerous traffic jams that they must encounter.
While many users of food delivery applications would understand the plight of these riders, some can’t seem to be empathetic towards the riders — hurling insults at them when their food gets delivered late. Recently, an Instagram user, @esthererin, revealed a true story faced by her own father, as a Grab driver and it was absolutely sad to witness the trials and tribulations faced by them!
Summarising her post, she stated that her father received an order from a Korean restaurant — right before he went back home for dinner time. After a less than 5 minute journey to the restaurant, he went in to greet the owner and inform him of the orders. The owner, instead of greeting him back, looked at him up and down with a displeased look and said, “Grab drivers wait outside.”
30 minutes later, the first message from the customer was received saying, “Why the f**k is my food taking so long to arrive?” Her father, panicked and went into the restaurant to follow up with the order, just to be greeted with a glare. The owner raised his voice and said, “Not ready! Grab drivers outside!”
Her father then apologised and explained to the customer that his order was still in preparation. The reply from the customer, was, “I’m going to give you a low rating.”
After another 20 minutes, the food was ready and he drove as fast as he could to the customer’s location. As soon as he met the customer to deliver the food, her father apologised and said, “I’m sorry, sir. The kitchen was busy and I tried my best.” However, instead of being understanding and empathetic towards the father’s situation, the customer proceeded to cut off the driver and exclaimed, “Don’t be rude to me!”
Not only that, the customer proceeded to take the packaging that includes a piping hot bowl of soup and threw it back at the driver! He then said, “So f***ing long better don’t deliver it next time!” The father appeared for dinner 2 hours late, with damp clothes, burnt spots on his skin and puffy eyes.
In light of this incident and the user’s posting on Instagram, GrabFood Malaysia has reached out to the family. Their comment on her post reads, “Thank you for sharing this. I hope your dad is fine and we are truly sorry that your dad had to go through this. We would like to look into this matter, can we trouble your dad to report this to the Grab Support team (with that said booking ID in the app officially) so the team can have this investigated accordingly please?
Another comment from them reads, “Please know that we have this escalated on the teams accordingly as well on our end. Alternatively, you may also share your dad’s info via DM, for us to cross check with your dad’s formal complaint (once it is lodged) for further investigation. Thank you, and please stay safe.”
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The restaurant has also reached out to her via the comment section. Adding on, their comment reads, “First of all, we deeply apologise for our staff’s bad behaviour. We hope your dad is fine. We will look into this matter immediately. Can you share more information via DM? (Grab order number. Branch, Personal info etc.) We will teach basic manners to all our staffs and branch owners. And also do your best to cooperate in GRAB’S investigation. (We) will make efforts to prevent the recurrence of accidents. Once again, we are truly sorry for the bad experience.”
Albeit this issue being investigated by the relevant authorities, it is indeed important to treat our dear drivers and riders with kindness and respect. Without them, we might not have been able to survive this pandemic. These drivers are just like us — with many mouths to feed and a heap load of bills to pay every month. They’re humans too. Please have empathy towards them!
Update:
The restaurant released a statement on 22nd August after conducting an internal investigation.
Source: esthererin’s Instagram.
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