Always fun times delivering to New Jack City (Not NYC but my way of saying any poor urban area known for not tipping).
Typically, I try to not deliver in Wesley Snipe's neck of the woods. I like to camp out at least 6 to 10 miles from the city border in Pleasantville (what I call safe middle class suburbia). But you all know how it goes. They bait you. You get a delivery that takes you closer then the next one takes you closer. If you do not turn off the app and and do some dead miles heading away from New Jack City, you are bound to be sent there and then be stuck there all day taking BS deliveries from bodegas that make you wait, to customers who do not tip and also try and report you for no reason. So yea.
So this one, I really screwed up on. Had a pickup 5 miles from the border to a location on a street that is on the border. I turn off my app from receiving any new deliveries and head to pick it up. I pick it up and I get a call that they have the wrong address in there. It is their place of work but they are home today. I asked for the new address then told them to hold on. I punch it in the GPS. What a surprise! 🙄 Deep into New Jack City. Fifteen to twenty minutes into the city from the border, to be exact. Being I already had the order, I figured, I will take the consequences. I tell the customer to hang tight and I am on my way. She says just knock when you get here. I said, "Ok be there most likely in the area of 20 minutes". She replied, "Alright great I will watch for you on the app".
I would like to remind everyone, this is an area of the city you see on the news all the time where there is a shooting with no suspects and no arrests. So I am really looking forward to it. 🤦♂️
I get to the location and its one of those homes with a front door and screen door in front of it. I walk up and the door is open but screen door is shut. Before I knock, I can hear a few of them talking. There is a girl on the phone with Uber Support. So I pause and listen because I am very curious. She is going off about how she was waiting soooooo long for her food 🤷♂️🍕🌭 and that the driver never showed up and did not deliver the food and that they must have delivered it to the wrong house and they want a refund. So..... 🤔 I look at my app. Yep, still an active delivery. I go into my settings and force stop the app then restart it just to make sure. Yep, still an active delivery. So I text the customer, "Arriving in a moment" thinking, they do not know I am here yet and if they do catch me, I can say the text must have been delayed. The girl on the phone with support yells to them to hold on then she stopped to read the text. A minute goes by and she texts back "Just leave it at the door". So she goes back to support and says, "So what are going to do? I didn't get my food??".
Here comes the fun part. So here I am thinking, this is going to be a problem. More likely, a problem for me. And of course, support does not put her on hold and call me like the other apps do. So I said, "screw this" and start walking back to my car with my hot bag with her order in it. I then cancel the order and feel this is my best course of action. Some of you may disagree or argue that and that is fine but this was my choice.
I am almost to my car and I hear, "Hold on.... The order is canceled?? Why is the order canceled??". I hear support tell her (she has speaker phone up so loud), "It looks like on my side, the driver has canceled". Just then, she looks outside and sees me walking back to my car. She shouts, "Dare he iz! Hez gotz the food go giiiiiit him!". So I pick up the pace and jump in my car as three guys and one girl run out of the house. I hit the gas and high tail it out of there. I get to the corner at a stop sign and I see them jumping in a car and pulling out. At this point I am like, "Oh jesus christ here we go....". 😧
So the next few minutes involves me running stop signs and red lights trying to get away from these fools while one guy on the passenger side and one guy sitting in the back on the drivers side were throwing things at my car. Bottles, cups, whatever they had apparently, while yelling and cursing at me and a few slurs while they were at it. I finally make it across the border and they are still in chase. On the other side, there is somewhat of a stretch with minimal traffic lights until we reach the next commercial center. As I approach that commercial area, there is a cop sitting in the closed gas station, like they usually do. I pull in towards the cop and they pull in then see the cop and make a quick u-turn in the parking lot and speed off. The cop recognizes me and my car as we have seen each other a lot before since I deliver in the area. He looks at me in his cruiser and says, "What the hell was that all about? Were they chasing you?". I said, "Yea I just did a delivery over the line and they were not happy about something". The cop says, "You guys got to stay out of there. It is nothing but problems. You good?". I said, "Yea man, I'm good". He then said, "Alright be safe". Then I left and went about my business.
Never got a call or notification from Uber either. Oh well. I am not going to dwell on it. Life goes on.
I did eat the order later too. I do not like to ever do that as I am in the business to deliver but I had it so why give it to someone else or throw it away?
Anyway, I am sure everyone will have thoughts on this. Fire away.
Typically, I try to not deliver in Wesley Snipe's neck of the woods. I like to camp out at least 6 to 10 miles from the city border in Pleasantville (what I call safe middle class suburbia). But you all know how it goes. They bait you. You get a delivery that takes you closer then the next one takes you closer. If you do not turn off the app and and do some dead miles heading away from New Jack City, you are bound to be sent there and then be stuck there all day taking BS deliveries from bodegas that make you wait, to customers who do not tip and also try and report you for no reason. So yea.
So this one, I really screwed up on. Had a pickup 5 miles from the border to a location on a street that is on the border. I turn off my app from receiving any new deliveries and head to pick it up. I pick it up and I get a call that they have the wrong address in there. It is their place of work but they are home today. I asked for the new address then told them to hold on. I punch it in the GPS. What a surprise! 🙄 Deep into New Jack City. Fifteen to twenty minutes into the city from the border, to be exact. Being I already had the order, I figured, I will take the consequences. I tell the customer to hang tight and I am on my way. She says just knock when you get here. I said, "Ok be there most likely in the area of 20 minutes". She replied, "Alright great I will watch for you on the app".
I would like to remind everyone, this is an area of the city you see on the news all the time where there is a shooting with no suspects and no arrests. So I am really looking forward to it. 🤦♂️
I get to the location and its one of those homes with a front door and screen door in front of it. I walk up and the door is open but screen door is shut. Before I knock, I can hear a few of them talking. There is a girl on the phone with Uber Support. So I pause and listen because I am very curious. She is going off about how she was waiting soooooo long for her food 🤷♂️🍕🌭 and that the driver never showed up and did not deliver the food and that they must have delivered it to the wrong house and they want a refund. So..... 🤔 I look at my app. Yep, still an active delivery. I go into my settings and force stop the app then restart it just to make sure. Yep, still an active delivery. So I text the customer, "Arriving in a moment" thinking, they do not know I am here yet and if they do catch me, I can say the text must have been delayed. The girl on the phone with support yells to them to hold on then she stopped to read the text. A minute goes by and she texts back "Just leave it at the door". So she goes back to support and says, "So what are going to do? I didn't get my food??".
Here comes the fun part. So here I am thinking, this is going to be a problem. More likely, a problem for me. And of course, support does not put her on hold and call me like the other apps do. So I said, "screw this" and start walking back to my car with my hot bag with her order in it. I then cancel the order and feel this is my best course of action. Some of you may disagree or argue that and that is fine but this was my choice.
I am almost to my car and I hear, "Hold on.... The order is canceled?? Why is the order canceled??". I hear support tell her (she has speaker phone up so loud), "It looks like on my side, the driver has canceled". Just then, she looks outside and sees me walking back to my car. She shouts, "Dare he iz! Hez gotz the food go giiiiiit him!". So I pick up the pace and jump in my car as three guys and one girl run out of the house. I hit the gas and high tail it out of there. I get to the corner at a stop sign and I see them jumping in a car and pulling out. At this point I am like, "Oh jesus christ here we go....". 😧
So the next few minutes involves me running stop signs and red lights trying to get away from these fools while one guy on the passenger side and one guy sitting in the back on the drivers side were throwing things at my car. Bottles, cups, whatever they had apparently, while yelling and cursing at me and a few slurs while they were at it. I finally make it across the border and they are still in chase. On the other side, there is somewhat of a stretch with minimal traffic lights until we reach the next commercial center. As I approach that commercial area, there is a cop sitting in the closed gas station, like they usually do. I pull in towards the cop and they pull in then see the cop and make a quick u-turn in the parking lot and speed off. The cop recognizes me and my car as we have seen each other a lot before since I deliver in the area. He looks at me in his cruiser and says, "What the hell was that all about? Were they chasing you?". I said, "Yea I just did a delivery over the line and they were not happy about something". The cop says, "You guys got to stay out of there. It is nothing but problems. You good?". I said, "Yea man, I'm good". He then said, "Alright be safe". Then I left and went about my business.
Never got a call or notification from Uber either. Oh well. I am not going to dwell on it. Life goes on.
I did eat the order later too. I do not like to ever do that as I am in the business to deliver but I had it so why give it to someone else or throw it away?
Anyway, I am sure everyone will have thoughts on this. Fire away.
