Hawker Prepares 20 Pax Of Ban Mian Only For Order To Be Cancelled By GrabFood Customer
Delivery apps like GrabFood, Deliveroo and Foodpanda have undoubtedly made the lives of Singaporeans easier in recent years, allowing them to order food in without leaving their doorstep.
However, things aren’t as rosy as they seem, as one hawker found out on 28 Dec (Sat).
A GrabFood customer decided to make and then cancel a large order late at night, allegedly because the order was taking too long to arrive.
This left the hawker with 20 packets of tomato ban mian, and no money received.
A netizen shared on Facebook her fiance’s encounter with this customer and we really have to feel for the poor guy who went the extra mile and even offered to deliver the order himself.
Hawker confirmed order personally with customer before preparing
An 11pm order for 20 packets of anything seems suspicious in itself, the netizen notes.
Hence, the hawker decided to confirm the order personally with the customer by calling him, and received his full address.
No drivers available, customer cancels after hawker said he’d be on his way
However, there were no drivers available to pick up the order. This appears understandable considering the late hour and large amount of food.
A driver arrived after 2 minutes, but cancelled the 20 pax order as he did not have the capacity.
Another cancelled for the same reason 10 minutes later.
So the hawker decided he would personally deliver the food, with the condition that he needed 20 minutes to pack the food and drive over.
But at 11:48pm the customer messaged to cancel the order.
This was 48 minutes after the order was first placed, and the hawker was about to leave.
Regardless, the customer was persistent in cancelling the order, sarcastically messaging the hawker that Grab’s service was “too good”.
There was nothing the hawker could do, so they were left with 20 packets of uneaten ban mian, and no money.
The netizen also lamented the lack of patience of some customers, who were willing to queue for several hours for items like bubble tea, fast food chains like A&W or hotpot restaurant Hai Di Lao, but cancel hawker orders after less than an hour.
Irresponsibility of customers leaves hawkers in a bind
GrabFood told the hawker that the matter would be settled quickly and the payment team will get back to them, but the netizen isn’t sure as to when that will happen.
The customer is being irresponsible and unfair to the hawker who’s already made the food.
So while GrabFood is convenient to customers, the merchant and riders are doing all the work and are at the mercy of cancelled orders.
We hope that the hawker can get back their money from GrabFood and that they do not encounter such a customer again.
Featured image adapted from Facebook.
