After spilling a drink inside a paper bag with a customer's food order, a foodpanda rider allegedly left the bag outside the customer's flat without informing them.

When the customer, Raguvaran Naidu, finally picked up his food, the soiled paper bag tore, further spilling its contents onto the floor.

The 39-year-old then took to Facebook group Complaint Singapore to air his grievances on Oct. 21.

Delivered without knocking or ringing the customer's doorbell

In his post, Raguvaran shared that he only realised his food was delivered after receiving a notification on the foodpanda app.

Although he had not instructed the deliveryman to leave the order outside the house, the rider had "quietly came, delivered, and left" without ringing his doorbell or knocking.

Upon opening the door, he did not find any food at his gate, which had a hook that some riders would use to hang his food orders.

"Riders have left food at my gate before and I never made an issue about it as long as the food was safe," Raguvaran said.

This time, however, was different.

Speaking to Mothership, Raguvaran said that when he opened his door, he was confused because there was no food hanging at his gate or outside it.

He opened the gate to check if the rider was still around and noticed that the bag of food was placed on the floor by the side of the gate.

"If I had not opened the gate, I wouldn’t have known," he added.

Bag was wet and prone to tearing

Raguvaran added that when the drink spilled, it made the bag wet and susceptible to tearing.

"Since the handle too was already torn, the rider decided to leave it on the floor and run away," Raguvaran claimed.

Regrettably, parts of his VeganBurg meal met an unfortunate end on the ground.

Disappointed and disgusted

Raguvaran expressed his disappointment at the deliveryman, saying that he would have appreciated a heads up.

"All the rider had to do was just tell me what had happened and I wouldn’t even have bothered putting up this post," he wrote.

"What irritates me is that the rider has neither dignity nor integrity to inform the customer. Extremely disappointed and disgusted."

Having worked as a delivery man before, Raguvaran acknowledged that it was not an easy job.

However, he hopes that riders can be better at communication.

As an example, he recounted a more amicable experience with another foodpanda rider who received the wrong order from the restaurant.

This rider came right up to Raguvaran's doorstep, explained the mix-up, and assured him that another rider would soon arrive with the correct order.

Raguvaran explained that he was more than content with this turn of events. The key was simple — open communication.

"I just hope the delivery riders will take pride in their job and have some integrity to own up or communicate instead of leaving torn bags on the floor or throwing the food around and stuff like that."

foodpanda and VeganBurg's response

After the disappointing experience, Raguvaran reached out to foodpanda to give his feedback. However, he did not receive a response.

Two days later on Oct. 23, foodpanda commented on Raguvaran's post, asking for his order number so they could look into the issue.

In response to Mothership's queries, foodpanda said they were aware of the incident and were in touch with the customer to resolve the issue.

They stated that delivery partners are regularly reminded of proper food handling processes, including not to place orders on the floor to ensure food hygiene.

Delivery partners who do not follow these processes will be warned or potentially suspended, they said.

They also explained that food spillage can be the result of multiple factors like improper packaging or unforeseen circumstances on the road.

"While our delivery partners are advised to inform our support team should they notice any spillage, most of the time, spillages are only discovered upon unloading of food from carriers. In these instances, customers should reach out to our support team through the in-app Help Centre so that appropriate action can be taken based on the extent of spillage."

VeganBurg also responded to Raguvaran's post, explaining that they are working on their packaging to improve customers' takeaway experience.

Top photos from Raguvaran Naidu via Complaint Singapore