Food delivery in Singapore is at an all time high, with many of us camping at home thanks to ‘Circuit Breaker’ measures.
And with all deliveries, comes the impatience of waiting for orders.
While most customers are understanding of delays during this Covid-19 season, one food seller found herself being accused of “negative attitude” when she couldn’t commit to the customer’s request of “delivery before 4pm”.
The seller, Ms Salwah, chronicles the unpleasant exchange in her Facebook post on Tuesday (12 May).
She highlights challenges that sellers face, and says it’s not right for customers to bully and use “harsh words” on others.
As her post involves multiple Whatsapp screenshots and is rather lengthy, we break it down for you below.
The saga starts off when the customer asks if delivery could be done before 4pm.
However, Ms Salwah operates on a bulk-delivery system. This is unlike the 1-to-1 deliveries that GrabFood, foodpanda and Deliveroo offer. Instead, drivers receive a list of addresses and plan their own route accordingly.
Unable to commit to the additional request, Ms Salwah apologised to the customer, explaining that drivers cannot give specific timings.
The customer persisted in the request, and mentioned living nearby, saying delivery would take less than 30 minutes.
Ms Salwah responded by reiterating that how drivers plan their route is out of her control.
Not giving up, the customer tried to manipulate Ms Salwah into telling the driver to deliver their order first, with the magic words “show ur interest on handling customer needs”.
Ms Salwah’s reasoning that the driver’s route is out of her control was also condemned to be “negative attitude”.
At this point, Ms Salwah decided that enough was enough.
She clapped back at the customer, saying that she does not have a negative attitude, and shared that she tried putting in requests with drivers before. However, she was told multiple times that it was inconvenient – something she wanted to be understanding of.
She then asked the customer to abstain from making unnecessary remarks and judgement without understanding the situation.
Ms Salwah also decided not to follow through with the order, and requested for the customer’s PayNow details to officiate a refund.
To end her post on a poignant note, Ms Salwah shared a picture showing a past quote of PM Lee.
In PM Lee’s eternal words,
And customers have to know, that the person serving you doesn’t mean he or she is a slave or servant.
Presumably, this reflects her innermost thoughts on the situation.
Ms Salwah’s situation highlights a common everyday occurrence of the ever-dreaded entitled customer. It really debunks the saying that “the customer is always right”.
Props to Ms Salwah for standing her ground against an entitled customer, and seeking understanding for all customer-facing service staff out there.
Customer or not, we should heed her words and always try to be considerate of others. Kindness and respect are 2 qualities that will never be in excess, so let’s treat others how we would like to be treated ourselves.
Featured image adapted from Facebook and Facebook.
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