DoorDash Adventures
Desperation can drive people to do crazy things, things they never thought they would do. Personally, my own desperation, both for money and to not have to work with one of my least favorite people, drove me to deliver food on strangers’ doorsteps. Yes, I spent the summer of 2020 working as a DoorDash delivery driver.
Now, don’t get me wrong, it isn’t necessarily a bad job. You can make quite a bit of money in small amounts of time, especially if your vehicle is a tiny piece of junk that gets fantastic gas mileage, like mine. Plus, with the presence of all-mighty Covid, interactions with customers are kept to a minimum. Truly, that is Covid’s only blessing. However, I will point out your job security is almost nonexistent, and your pay and hours depend on the whims of people in your area to blow way too much money on food delivery. Luckily, the people around me were somewhat dumb, so I had a steady flow of orders.
Of course, even with limited interaction, there will always manage to be incidents. It’s like in any customer service position, the laws of basic human decency seem to break down. Karens of the world just can’t help finding any excuse they can to yell at the underpaid for minor inconveniences. Ironically, some of my strangest experiences delivering came not from customers, but environmental circumstances around the delivery.
One incident, in particular, happened while I was delivering to a house on a cul-de-sac. Since the house numbers were small, I accidentally went past it and there were no more spaces on that side of the road. I thought that it would be fine since I could just swing around, park, and cross the street. Easy, right? You and past me would be wrong. As I pulled up, I noticed a woman come towards me from off her porch, waving her arms erratically. I was in front of her house, so I pulled up, going much further down the street. Apparently, this wasn’t enough for her, as she then came to my car window. I rolled it down to hear her.
“You can’t park here! This side of the road needs to be clear!”
To say I was surprised would be an understatement. It was more like incredible confusion mixed with being a little pissed off. I tried explaining that I was a delivery driver, dropping off an order then immediately leaving. But she continued her yelling.
“Well, it doesn’t matter! You need to move! It’s not my fault you don’t know how to parallel park!”
I had really tried to be polite with this lady, but she came over with a bone to pick. So instead, I rolled my eyes as far back as humanly possible and moved. By the time I finished the order and left the street, there was still no one parked there. I could have honestly just shut off my car and stayed from the beginning, but I was in a hurry. I had another order to drop off, or I would have at least stopped and made some snide comment. I’m not sure why this woman thinks she owns the street and can tell me not to park in front of other people’s houses, but I do know this order wasn’t worth the $8.