“I respect those who work for couriers and accept Cash on Delivery (COD). Their mental strength is amazing because they often get stood up by customers.”
We often hear of how our food and package delivery riders get treated with disrespect from impatient and rude customers as well as less than helpful restaurants. However, another common struggle that couriers have to face is when customers do not answer their calls or reply to messages during a delivery.
This is especially even worse for COD couriers who often have no choice but to wait for the customer in order to receive payment.
Recently, a Twitter user highlighted this struggle in his post. Rudy Akhbar said via Twitter on 6 September, “For those of you who buy things and order food online. Be more alert.”
Rudy shared a picture of an uncle looking confused and distressed and said, “This uncle is working with a courier which accepts COD. He called the customer so many times but received no answer. I feel so bad for him since it’s already late and he still has a number of other deliveries to do.”
He continued his post with, “I respect those who work for couriers and accept Cash on Delivery (COD). Their mental strength is amazing because they often get stood up by customers.”
“If it was me, I would just return tomorrow. If the same situation happens more than three times, I will return the item,” he added.
“Waste of time. You should be prepared since you’re purchasing things online.”
Rudy explained that “A lot of fancy condominiums and apartments now have a reserved table or place specifically for couriers to drop parcels/food. For things that are pre-paid, the riders can just proceed to leave the item. However, those customers that purchase via COD waste time when they do not pick up their phones.”
His post has garnered plenty of attention and is currently on more than 10,000 likes and 13,000 shares. Many users have taken to the comments section to share their similar experiences.
One user urged riders to only call the customer a maximum of five times. “If they don’t pick up, just leave as we have our set working times as well. There’s always tomorrow.”
“Customers please always check the delivery status of your items. If you don’t manage to, the least you can do is answer the call! If you’re afraid of scammers, pay attention to the call, if they ask for unnecessary details then you can hang up!”
Another said, “The worse thing is when you call them multiple times and they don’t pick up. But when you text them they reply.”
“When asked why they did not pick up the call, they’d say that they don’t pick up calls from unknown numbers.”
One commenter shared their experience, “I have seen a similar case like this. The uncle was waiting for almost three hours as the person was not answering their phones.”
“I even had time to go buy groceries and come back and he was still there.”
“When I got home, I just paid the uncle then I called and messaged the owner of the item. I asked them to either transfer online or pay by cash. If they wanted the item, they would have to pick it up from me,” said the user.
All of this goes to show that we need to respect and treat our delivery riders and couriers better. Let’s not waste their time as they are merely trying to work as hard as they can in order to survive.
What do you think of this? Let us know in the comments.
