Delhiites fight and that’s the delivery guys’ plight! They share their unpleasant stories

Remember the news about a woman stabbing a delivery boy 20 times for delayed phone delivery? As shocking as it was, the incident was a nasty reminder of the rage that delivery guys are subjected to in Delhi-NCR every other day — be it a stink-eye, verbal abuse or threats to life.

We speak to delivery guys to know what all they experience.

‘Sorry is my favourite word’

Is it too late to say sorry? Certainly not for Mohammad Shahid, a delivery agent for an e-commerce site, who has been working in Delhi for 18 years. “Log gaali-galoch karne lag jaate hain (people abuse us a lot)... Jab delivery late hoti hai, phir ladkiyaan badtameezi karti hain. Par hamara sirf ek jawab hota hai, ‘Sorry’. Uske alawa hum kuch bhi nahin kehte (Girls, misbehave with us when their delivery reaches late. Whenever someone hurls abuses at us, we just say ‘Sorry’ to calm the situation),” he says.

Awkward much?

Some situations are difficult to get out of. “Two-three women made advances at me during a delivery, and asked me to spend the night with them. Main bhaga order deke, ki main duty pe hoon (I refused saying that I’m on duty),” remembers Mahinder Singh, a food delivery guy with a leading company in Gurugram.

‘We have to deal with drunk callers, too’

Some just don’t drunk dial their ex, but delivery guys, too! For what, you may wonder. Well, demanding the delivery of their order at odd hours. Akash Verma, a delivery boy with an e-commerce site, says: “I got a call at 11:30 in the night by a customer. He was drunk dialling me, and said ‘Mujhe abhi chahiye mere mobile ka packet’, main tujhe aisa kar doonga, yahan se uthwa loonga tumhe. I switched off my phone, and complained to my officer in the morning.”

Rajesh, another delivery boy with an e-commerce website, shares, “Jab behez baazi badh jaati hain toh darr lagta hain ki humein marein na lag jaaye (We fear for our life when they start arguing).” The mode of payment is another bone of contention. “Kuch customers badtameezi karne lagte hain, agar unko card se payment karane ki request karte hai toh. Hum pyaar se baat karte hain aur kayi log sar pe chadh jaate hai,” adds Rajesh, sharing that the company gives delivery guys incentives if they get more than 50% customers to pay through debit or credit card.

Abuses, threats and a lot more

Talking about the instances when people get angry with delivery guys, Mohammed adds: “Agar customer bolta hai ki unhe emergency mein kahi jaana hai, aur delivery ladka nahin pahuchta time pe, toh log gussa ho jaate hain. Ya delivery ladke ke paas cash hain aur card machine nahi par customer card se payment dena chahte hain, toh bhi! (If a customer has to go out for an emergency, and the delivery guy reaches late or when they want to do a card payment, but we don’t have the card machine at that time, they get angry).

The reason for altercation could be just about anything, shares another delivery boy, wishing to not be named. “People misbehave when we say no to an open delivery, too. And, if they have asked us to reach at 5pm, some people expect us to reach their place sharp at that time. Ek baar maine request kari ki ‘Sir, aap neeche aa jao, samaan bahut heavy hai’. Phir unhone dhamkiyan dena shuru kar diya, ki agli baar mil mujhe (Once, I politely requested the customer to help me carry the heavy parcel upstairs, but to my surprise, he threatened to beat me up),” he recalls.

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