My mom orders a diet service that mails you pre-made meals you heat up. Due to a light dusting of snow, her order is delayed. She has been waiting ALL DAY for her package and hasn’t eaten anything, and when it finally arrives… it’s not her order.

We’re Mary Smith at [Address] Street, and the box says Jane Smythe [Same Addess] Court. Mom calls the company while I prowl the White Pages looking for Jane’s number. I get lucky; she’s listed! Sadly, she has NO package.

I drive the mile and a smidge to her house to give Jane her food because it’s faster and easier than Jane getting a credit, reordering all her food, and getting it next week.

Meanwhile, Mom manages to get the company to call the driver to turn around; he still has our package! He gets to our house after 6:00.

Delivery Driver: “Okay, here’s your right package! Where is the other package?”

Mom: “Oh, my daughter already delivered it.”

Delivery Driver: “Why would she do that?!”

Mom: “It was close by and we didn’t know when you would get here.”

Delivery Driver: “But we get paid by the package!”

Mom: “But you delivered the wrong package. You wanted to be paid twice for delivering the same package?”

The delivery driver mumbled something and walked away. Seriously?

In the early 2000s, I was a delivery driver at a locally-owned pharmacy. Most of our customers had been with us for years or even decades and never gave us any problems.

However, there was this one guy who seemed to thrive on being a jerk. He repeatedly refused to pay the $2.00 delivery fee and often called the store to complain that they had gotten his prescription wrong (which they never did).

The one time he actually came to the store, he asked to use the bathroom. He couldn’t get in there because the doorway was too narrow, so instead, he peed from the doorway in the general direction of the toilet. His aim was less than perfect.

Finally, the owner of the pharmacy wrote this guy a letter to the effect of:

Owner: “It is obvious that nothing we do will ever satisfy you. As such, we have decided to no longer accept your business. You are not to contact us again under any circumstances.

And because he knew how much crap I had taken from that guy, the owner made sure I got a copy of the letter.

We’ve had problems in the past with food delivery drivers taking our orders to our neighbours. Because we’re on an intersection, it’s somewhat understandable. For context, if our house is 13 Main Street, the house across the intersecting street and down one is 13 General Street. It’s an understandable mix-up, so I’ve started putting in the description for delivery drivers that we are on the corner and have no vehicles; the neighbours in question are bikers and have multiple cars. It has mostly fixed the problem… except for one day.

I’m at home waiting for an order when the phone rings with an unknown number.

Me: “Hello?”

Delivery Guy: “Yeah, I’m outside your house, but you’re not on a corner and there are cars here.”

I look outside and can see him parked across from the neighbour. I sigh deeply.

Me: “That’s because it’s the wrong house.”

Delivery Guy: “Oh.”

Seriously?!

I’m a delivery driver who uses an app for food delivery. One order has me going to this plaza where there are a lot of offices. I find the right one and the instructions say to leave the food by the door, but there are a lot of random people around, so I go in.

I see no one, so I leave the food on a desk near the door, put a note saying where I left it, and leave.

Later, I find out that the customer was mad because she wanted me to leave it outside where the people were! It could’ve been stolen!

You can’t win.

I work in a Chinese restaurant. I sometimes deliver and sometimes do the front desk. Today, I am delivering.

I knock on a lady’s door who has a $64 order. The entire time, I have my nice customer service voice.

Me: “Hello, your total is [total].”

The customer reaches her hand out for the bag but doesn’t motion to grab any money or anything.

Me: “I’m sorry, I need the money before I can hand the bag over.”

Customer: “I’ve ordered from you guys before. Just give me the bag.”

She holds her hand out aggressively.

Me: “I’m sorry, I just need the money first.”

Customer: “Just give me the bag so I can go get you the money.”

Me: “I’m sorry, I need the money before I can give you the bag.”

Customer: “Do you want me to call your office? Just give me the bag!”

Me: “You can, ma’am. I just need the money first before I give you the bag.”

She huffs and walks away to grab the money. When she comes back, she gives me $70.

Me: “Would you like any change back?”

Customer: *In an angry tone* “No.”

Me: “Have a good day!”

She said something incoherent as I got to the bottom of her steps. I don’t think this woman had any intention of stealing; however, I don’t deliver to her often and I don’t want to take any sort of risk of someone stealing the food from me like people have from some of my other drivers.