If only the food delivery rider had warned him that the bag was wet, some of his meal wouldn't have gone to waste.

One irate customer took to the Complaint Singapore Facebook group on Saturday (Oct 21), claiming that a Foodpanda delivery rider had left his bag of food on the floor and "ran away".

The customer, Raguvaran Naidu, claimed that this was after the rider knew that the contents of the drink in the bag had spilled, thereby causing the bottom of the wet paper bag to tear.

Raguvaran shared in his post that he'd ordered some items from Veganburg via the Foodpanda app, and did not instruct for it to be left outside the house.

He only realised that the food had arrived after receiving a notification from the app.

Raguvaran opened the front door only to realise that the food was left on the floor, "by the wall at the side of my house", which meant he wouldn't have seen it had he not come out of the house to check.

He added that he usually has a hook left on his door gate for food delivery riders who are in a rush to hang on the gate and leave.

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

To his dismay, however, when he picked up the bag, the contents immediately fell out.

Wrote Raguvaran: "The bag tore and everything dropped on the floor. That's when I realised that the drink has already spilled inside the bag, made the paper bag wet and weak to carry the weight of the items inside. Since the handle too was already torn, the rider decided to leave it on the floor and run away."

Speaking to AsiaOne on Sunday (Oct 22), Raguvaran, 39, shared that the incident happened yesterday, and some of the food items had to be thrown away.

"The broccoli and the mushrooms already touched the floor when we tried to pick them up. The burger was a little scattered within the box due to the impact. The drink already spilled into the plastic bag that was placed within the paper bag," said Raguvaran, a freelance stage and TV actor and drama teacher.

He wrote in his post: "I have totally nothing against delivery riders. I've done this job before so I know it's not an easy job. But please have some dignity. People order food to eat. Not to eat it from the floor. People order drink not to drink from plastic bag."

He shared that if the rider had told him what had happened, he "wouldn't even have bothered putting up this post".

"What irritates me is that the rider has no dignity nor integrity to inform the customer. Extremely disappointed and disgusted."

Raguvaran told AsiaOne that if he had been informed about the bag being wet, he could have been more careful with it, "then [he] could have avoided the food dropping on the floor".

He added that as a delivery rider himself previously, he knows that the job is not easy having to deal with the many drop-off points as well as the "humps and bumps on the roads". "But I definitely would have the integrity to inform the customer to be cautious when handling the bag. Not just leave it on the floor and run away," he reiterated.

"People order food for various reasons. Sometimes, people can be extremely tired after a long day of work and hungry so they might order food so that they can freshen up before the food arrives and then eat it. How do you think anyone would have the appetite to eat this food?"

In the comments, several shared in Raguvaran's sentiments, with some stating that food items should not be left on the floor and another shared a similar experience.

Raguvaran stated that he'd contacted Foodpanda with his feedback and photos but has yet to receive a reply.

AsiaOne has reached out to Foodpanda for more information.

ALSO READ: Man orders food from restaurant 1km away, receives it 2 hours later

candicecai@asiaone.com

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