A woman living in a condominium ordered food from Newton Food Centre at around 6:30pm on Jun. 6.
After waiting for an hour, she checked her app and discovered that the rider had marked her food as "delivered".
Confused, she messaged the rider to ask what happened.
The conversation evolved into a heated argument, with the delivery rider declaring, "I'll throw the food."
The rider then left the food on a grass patch outside her condominium.
What happened
Ellie, 31, shared with Mothership that she had ordered dinner for her daughter from Newton Food Centre via the Grab app.
Ellie received a notification an hour later that the food had supposedly arrived.
When her daughter checked, their food was not at their doorstep.
Ellie then texted the rider to ask where her food was and the rider grew upset, saying, "I can't fin[d] your condo."
She then replied that the rider shouldn't have marked the food as delivered and then asked, "Where exactly are you?"
Photo courtesy of Ellie
"Downstairs"
The rider then replied, "Downstairs."
Soon, the rider added: "lol, [why] not you cancel [your] order[?]"
Ellie, replying to the rider's previous message, asked, "Downstairs where?"
The rider then typed: "I'll throw the food."
Ellie replied, "What?"
Photo courtesy of Ellie
"I was cycling around your condo"
Ellie then stated that she's waiting for her food and also tried to call the rider.
A few minutes of silence later, the rider replied: "You could have been nice. Your distance [already] very far, yet I was cycling around your condo."
The rider also claimed Ellie reprimanded her.
Bewildered, Ellie replied, "Where did I reprimand?"
After another exchange of words, the rider said: [sic] "Go read your own town."
Photo courtesy of Ellie
Photo courtesy of Ellie
Ellie then replied with a screenshot of what she saw on her app showing the rider's location, prompting the rider to reply in all caps.
Photo courtesy of Ellie
"Pick it yourself"
The conversation then ended with a photo of the food left outside the condo complex.
Photo courtesy of Ellie
"The rider literally left it on the outside of the condo on the grass," Ellie said, adding that they didn't eat the food because they didn't know if the rider had done anything to it.
She shared that the meal cost approximately S$60.
Ellie called Grab to complain and decided to order food from another platform.
First time she encountered a rude Grab rider
Ellie said this was the first time she had encountered a rude Grab rider, which is why she was surprised by the incident.
She said this was also the first time a Grab rider struggled to find her residence.
Grab apologises for the unpleasant encounter the customer had with their delivery-partner
In response to Mothership's queries, a Grab spokesperson said they are sorry for the unpleasant encounter the customer had with their delivery-partner.
"The delivery-partner's actions are not reflective of the vast majority of our partners who treat our users with respect," the spokesperson said.
Upon reviewing the incident, Grab determined that the delivery-partner mishandled the situation and issued a strong warning to the partner and provided a full refund to the affected customer.
"We would also like to take this opportunity to remind both our delivery-partners and customers to treat each other with respect in all their interactions.
They can contact Grab if they require assistance at any point in time."
Top image via Grab and courtesy of Ellie.