Update on July 5, 10:43am: The police have confirmed that investigations are ongoing.

Their statement in full:

"The police has confirmed a report was lodged and investigations are ongoing."

Food delivery services, while convenient, have their perils.

Like your food arriving ruined, for example.

Or having the rider fake an accident, arrive late, claim to have re-brought the food ruined in the accident, and request that you to pay for it.

Which is exactly what one Jasmine Tan claims to have experienced.

Tan wrote in a Facebook post on July 4, 2019 that she had ordered S$34.09 worth of Popeyes from Waterway Point on July 3, at 7pm.

The food was expected to arrive at 7:30pm.

At 8pm, however, Tan and her family were still waiting for the delivery.

Upon checking her app, Tan realised that the food was reflected as "delivered" at 7:45pm.

Arrived limping

At 8:15pm, the Foodpanda rider finally arrived.

He was limping and had blood on his scraped knees.

According to Tan, the delivery personnel claimed that a Mercedes had collided with his e-scooter near Oasis Primary School.

The Mercedes driver then left the scene, the rider allegedly also claimed.

As a result, Tan's order was supposedly damaged, and the Foodpanda rider had to go back to Waterway Point to repurchase the Popeyes food.

The delivery personnel then asked Tan to pay for the second order of food in cash totalling S$34.09, and reportedly said that Foodpanda would reimburse her within six days.

As the family was hungry by then, Tan didn't think too much, and got her husband to pass the rider the sum.

The rider then left their house while Tan was still messaging another Foodpanda personnel on their chatline to seek assistance.

Insisted he didn't take money

However, after the chatline personnel contacted the dispatched team, the rider had reportedly insisted that he did not take any cash from Tan.

The family was so angry that Tan and her husband, along with two children, went to make a police report.

The officer had apparently said this was tantamount to a cheating case.

Tan then described the rider as a Chinese male between 20 to 30 years old, and had tattoos all over his legs.

He was also wearing plenty of gold accessories such as rings, bracelets, and necklaces.

Tan ended her post by warning Punggol residents to be careful.

More residents with similar experiences

In response to Tan's post, two residents have related similar experiences.

In response to Mothership queries, Foodpanda acknowledged the allegations and said that they are currently investigating the matter.

“This is an allegation we take very seriously and are investigating the matter as an immediate priority.”

We have reached out to the Singapore Police Force and will update this article when they reply.

Original post:

Top image via Jasmine Tan/Facebook