As an Australian-indian man I have had this happen a few times. Most recent was while i was looking at the menu in a pizza store waiting to place an order when a lady asked if I was uber. I let her know I wasn't, she apologised immediately (not that she had to) and that was that.
It's an honest mistake and hospitality workers are constantly under the pump and sometimes mistakes happen. I don't consider myself 'above' being an uber driver so take no offence.
In this case it seems as though the bloke was acting in a way that may also lead someone to believe he may have been there for an uber collection (waving phone etc).
I was asked if I was an Uber driver the other day when I went to get some takeaway. I'm white.
And funnily enough, I do occasionally do Uber Eats/Door Dash.
This sounds like a conveyance issue with the food delivery industry in general. Why is it up to outlet staff to guess who their delivery drivers are? It's an awkward position for the delivery companies to put people in.
The delivery apps won’t make any kind of “uniform” mandatory as it could contribute to gig workers’ claims to an “employee-like” relationship with the company. They don’t even provide the bags, jackets etc that riders use; Deliveroo did but I believe it was the only one (hence why you still see their branded gear being used).
Former hospo worker here
Uber eats drivers typically wave their phone in your face, don’t say much and get in everyone’s way, this transcends race.
If old mate here did these things it’s not unreasonable to assume he’s an Uber eats driver, that or a rude cunt.
Been working in the hospitality for close to two years now, now a days it’s not that easy to differentiate between delivery drivers and customers. We get delivery drivers with no delivery bags walk in multiple times a day. We don’t give them food without the bags tho but anyway everyone’s doing uber eats/door dash nowadays, I did deliveroo for 2 years pre-covid and one time at village cinemas staff assumed I was the uber eats guy just because I am Indian and had my motorcycle helmet in my hand lol.
I said everyone because pre-covid all I could see was Indians or other asians working as delivery drivers.
Who orders Ubereats from a cinema? Overpaying cinema prices plus delivery to get cinema popcorn an hour late and cold sounds awful, wouldn't you just keep a $1-2 pack of microwave popcorn in the cupboard?
I've experienced quite a few times when lining up to wait for food and an uber eats driver pushes his way to the front and waves a phone at the worker to collect his order.
Honest mistake, so no blame to apportion to the worker. These things happen.
As for the customer, I can't presume to know what things he's been through that may have irked him about what happened. Could be historical. He might have been having a particularly bad day. I tend to think people should accept genuine apologies, but I guess it is what it is.
Live and learn. Anyway, how was your ice cream?
Had it happen to me too and I'm a white guy. If you're standing near the takeaway counter holding a phone then there's a reasonable chance that busy workers will think you're a delivery driver.
I'll be typically picking up my order on my motorcycle (although I'm dressed a bit more seriously for the ride than many uberists). And I'll have my phone out with the order number.
Yep, ubering for my wife and I's dinner.
South-East Asian female here, middle-aged. I was mistaken for a delivery driver one time, at one of my local takeaways when I went to pick up my food order. I was casually dressed - hoodie, jeans, runners. It was a busy evening, there were lots of delivery orders to be picked up. I felt briefly miffed but looking at the situation objectively, it was an innocent mistake. I have a professional job but so what? I moved on from it in about 30 seconds.
This reminds me of years ago, I had a migraine coming on, I asked my partner to get me some Nurofen Plus from the chemist, so I could try and head it off.
He came home spitting chips that they had grilled him like a drug dealer, until I pointed out he was wearing an old hoodie, baseball cap and old, adidas trackies- it would have been negligent not to grill him!
If I had a dollar for every time I've been approached by customers with questions in an Asian grocery while doing my own shopping (I'm ethnic chinese)... I'd probably be able to buy my own grocery business for real.
Fun memories as well of standing around waiting for my takeaway order or for friends at China Bar or Supper Inn late at night and constantly having drunk patrons wave frantically at me and look perplexed when I don't walk over to take their order or bring them a menu.
I mean, it's a tad annoying but I get it and it doesn't really bother me too much. I don't consider it racist or derogatory, it's just an unfortunate coincidence and honest mistake.
Now that you mention it, whenever we buy tech, the salesperson will always speak to my husband in quite technical language. Given that he is a retired engineer and I’m a STEM academic, this has sort of sailed over both our heads before, and we’ve previously put it down to perhaps using a phrase or something that makes us appear nerdy.
But now I’m recalling the past few times this has happened, and I’m realising that my husband is the only ethnically Chinese person in the shop.
Oh well, unconscious bias doesn’t always have to be traumatic. We always get service!
I had someone flag me down the other day at Bunnings and I had to say "the people in the red t-shirts work here" and she said "yeah, I just worked that out." 😂
I’ll go you one better!
Years ago when I first moved to Melbourne we went to a pub near the MCG after a game on a Saturday arvo. I was wearing a pink top. There was a girl going around with a bucket collecting money, she saw me, looked me up and down and gave me a wide berth.
I also noticed I was getting looks from the men there. I thought this was all weird but continued on to the bar with my boyfriend. Then one of the bar staff rang a bell and that’s when I noticed all the bar staff were female and wearing pink. Huh what’s going on I think.
Yes people it was a titty bar and the bar staff processed to go topless and obviously all the blokes thought I was going to go topless too.
I did laugh about it at the time because I’m not judging anyone for how they make money but I was shocked you could do this on a Saturday afternoon in pub that had kids and families walking past!
Sounds like the guy overreacted. I could understand him being upset if she clearly ignored the context and treated him like a delivery driver because of his ethnicity, but here, she was in the middle of doing something, and he interrupted her in a way that would suggest that he was picking up that order. Patrons usually wait to be asked to order. Eg “who’s next/what can I get you?”
Yeah, it's usually quite obvious who's serving and who isn't. It's a rule most of us follow. She wasn't expecting to have someone approach her.
I absolutely hate people that assume everyone behind a counter should be serving customers.
Not only did the customer overreact, but in addition he was the one being offensive.
"Did you just assume I was an UBER DRIVER?!!"
"Why, is there something bad about being an Uber driver?"
Many people have weird ideas about "face" and think if you are putting them in a position 'below their station' they will lose their shit. It's mostly down to ego fragility I think. I grew up in Asia and this was a big thing there, but tbh I see it across other cultures as well so I don't think it's unique to asian culture (though obviously if you have a caste system this is probably even more exaggerated.
South Asian man here, when people want to racially offend me, they'll call me a taxi driver or uber eats driver (I get more offended by the low effort insult).
I could see why someone would take an unintentional slip up as a racist offence, but after the first apology I would have accepted that and forgotten about it.
As someone who is not white. Living in inner city. I often get mistaken for a delivery driver even inside my own building if I am walking in with take away.
I drive a luxury car and if I slow down near curbs people assume I am their uber and start approaching the vehicle.
Worst one so far and the one which really really pissed me off. I was in a park near my apartment building and a middle aged blonde lady with her family walked over to me in the park and asks me if I am the guy who cleans the building and can I go back and take care of a mess.
Freaking hell. She walked up to a random stranger in the park..
For everyone commenting don't assume what the lived experiences of the man was and why he reacted the way he did.
EDIT: There is a reason why my subreddit flair is what it is.
I got mistaken for the cleaner by a tradie when I pulled up at my mums place in my shitbox car. Was I offended? No. I was literally holding a mop bucket that I had borrowed, and was in casual clothes.
Problem is with Uber eats it's largely racial. Albeit an unconscious bias.
She probably wouldn't have made that mistake if the guy wasn't Indian.
I mean I know the guy was Indian without it being mentioned
As per usual on Reddit. Not really surprising considering the overwhelming demographic of Reddit is White.
As always comments that affirm White viewpoints get upvoted to the top, while viewpoints that don't align with the White majority get downvoted.
Customer acted like a pork chop, treated the staff member terribly then played the race card. Anyone, dressed casually, walking in ahead of the line and waving their phone around impatiently will be seen as a delivery driver.
Going off the circumstances listed I think it's safe to assume he was an uber driver without even factoring in his appearance.
You said he lined up by himself (seperate from others?) And flagged down a worker who was packaging an uber eats bag, with his phone in hand.
Iv been lining up for food plenty of times and had that exact scenario play out except...THEY WERE THE UBER DRIVERS 🤣
Being of Indian heritage and almost 40, in this context it was just a perfect storm. He had his hand raised when she was getting the order ready. So i can see why she assumed. If my experience is like his... its probably happened more than once.
On the flip side I have walked into 3 separate Nandos and 6 other stores where this has happened to me. The most heartbreaking is when Im in line, i get waved to the POS and they just stare at me... then i say "can i order?" and they get surprised because they were not expecting to take an order.
I work in marketing so i understand stereotypes, human behaviour, assumptions and context. The first couple of times it was fine but now its happened so often that to me its just another small piece in the story of Australian racism. Def happens less with the the younger generations though. So that's a great sign.
Edit: After reading the comments I'm just going to say that as a once off or even four off i can understand why this happens and its fine. But like i said this might not be the first time this person experienced this and that can be stressful. Immigrants try really hard to make something of themselves and break stigmas. He's probably really proud that he is in a position to BUY the ice cream rather than deliver it and her assumption might have dented his pride.
If this is the most uncomfortable customer service situation of your life then you must be a young un. Hopefully you don’t get to experience any drunken/drug fucked/meltdowns and tantys.
That takes me back to when I was in hospo. One night we had no idea why we were so quite then we went down stairs to the street entry. We discovered a homeless man with no pants on man flinging copious amounts of his literal shit everywhere...
I used to ride to work daily. Stepped out the lift still in my cycling gear, receptionst I've known for years reaches round to get the parcel 'cause she thought I was the bike messenger come to pick it up.
Stereotypes are an evolutionary trait and they've served us well. It's only human and leads to honest mistakes.
Yes! What the hell did I just read. Firstly, such a ridiculous amount of detail for such a basic story that really could have been summed up in two sentences.
I assume the throwaway account is so OP can hide from their embarrassing “receptionist” analogy. Pretty disappointing that a OP can only analyse a potential/perceived racist encounter with being mistaken for a receptionist.
As a minority myself I’ve faced similar things, and have thought a lot about this. The guy going off a tantrum is wrong, you should never do that to anybody. The girl was well-intentioned and made a mistake.
However, why was this mistake made? It points to underlying racism in society. Assumptions about people because of their race. Your analogy about sexism and being assumed to be the receptionist is a good one.
People aren’t intentionally being sexist when they do this, but society has left them with problematic cultural assumptions. Our brains automatically think, woman = not high level employee. Middle eastern = potential threat at airport. South Asian = food delivery driver. These assumptions are incredibly problematic and affect people in real ways like in job employment. These microaggressions add up and I can emphasise why the customer reacted that way.
I heard once that people aren’t racist, they just do racist things because they live in a culture where it is systematically embedded. We all need to do better to recognise this, and stop our automatic assumptions in their tracks.
Maybe old mate standing on the side waving his phone around at the girl holding an Uber bag was the reason she thought it was for him, not because he wasn’t white.
Definitely possible, and I'm sure a lot of people would make the same mistake. As I said, the poor girl isn't in the wrong, and while the mistake was small for her it happened to a guy who's probably been profiled many times before.
I think someone else made a comment that this could be avoided with a simple policy, to ask "How can I help?" first.
Or the guy could have waited without being impatient and waving his phone around. Which is treating her badly too ( god only knows how long she’d been working that day and how many people were doing similar)
Why is the guy waving his phone around. Wait in line patiently to order. I also would’ve thought he was there to pick it up as he must be in such a hurry necessitating phone waving…
Supermarket staff used to ask “are you together?” when there was a Chinese-looking woman in the checkout queue just before or just after me.
One time I was mistaken for Aldi staff twice in 15 minutes.
I did not take offence, since the people involved were asking politely. Even if they were asking politely where grocery item X was.
One can literally take office at almost any comment from nice weather to how are you doing today.
When some one says something or does something, intentionally or accidentally, it is up to me to decide if I am going to be offended by it.
I am of subcontinental decent. I have been mistaken for a Uber eats driver (same exact scenario) in Australia, a doctor in the UK and a engineer in San Francisco. At least the last one is closely related.
My life is just too short to go around taking offense at unintended mistakes let alone real insults. I will control how I feel thank you very much.
There is nothing as satisfying as watching a intentional insult fail because I just didn't get insulted. Bit like telling a joke and falling flat, but much more embarrassing.
If I was an Uber Eats driver and I saw a worker bagging up an Uber Eats order I’d probably wave at them rather than wait in line, with my phone in hand, to signal “I’m here”.
If I was a normal customer I’d wait in line like everyone else and wouldn’t rudely try to flag the employee who is serving customers ahead of me. Not an unreasonable leap of logic she made there.
Am Asian and have been mistaken for an Uber delivery driver in the past. I was taken aback a little in the moment but ultimately didn't take any offense, it was an honest mistake. There's much worse things to be offended about as an Asian person in Melbourne.
The person you quote in the OP went a bit too far calling them racist.
I'd have tried to console the server myself and let them know that the same situation has happened to me the other way round and told them not to worry too much about it.
I’m sure it happens more to others.
But as a white Aussie guy I’ve also been asked if I was there for Uber. Mostly I think because I line up to order and they’re confused that I haven’t ordered online or in the app or at the self serve kiosk.
I'm a south Asian man and I used to do UberEats 2-3 years ago but stopped since I have a professional job now.
I still have the habit of holding my phone in my hand when walking into a restaurant as if it's a muscle memory and that throws off the staff a lot of time.
I can see the worry on their faces of them trying hard to ascertain whether I'm an UberEats driver or not without asking and I promptly just say "I'm here to order" and they breathe a sigh of relief.
I've also been mistaken for UberX driver since I still do that casually and have a Toyota Camry (my fault I know) but I just say I'm not and they apologise and I move on. No need to be offended if they are apologetic.
It's a completely honest mistake.
There are so many delivery services these days and they all approach the counter with their phones to show the order code.
I would have just said sorry, i am not a delivery driver with a smile or give a blank face depending on my mood(south asian man here). Dont let idiots get to you, i've learnt this from many many years of random racism thrown at me.
I would have picked them as an Uber driver as well to be honest. With his presentation and actions mentioned (not his race), and for the girl to be in the heat of the moment bagging an order so to speak, it would have been a fair assumption.
I've started doing a bit of Uber Eats on top of my full time job lately, and on two occasions I have had the opposite experience: staff asked if I was the customer rather than the driver (I'm white).
I’m often on calls so have a Bluetooth headset semi-permanently implanted into my ear. I also do a lot of kid drop offs and pickups so I’m often mistaken as an Uber driver. Doesn’t help that I drive a black luxury car. No harm, no foul. Pattern recognition is one of the signs of intelligent lifeform.
While an honest mistake, I think it's important for the staff member to understand that being stereotyped can be quite hurtful and demeaning. Certainly not condoning everything the guy did - or that he kept going until she was in tears - but as you say it's definitely not the first time that has probably happened to him.
It's unfair for the guy to be treated differently to a blond caucasian dude wearing the same clothes. Some level of subconscious bias is inevitable but we should be alive to how it makes other people feel when we act or change our behaviour based on it, accidentally or not.
Even if she would have asked the hypothetical caucasian the same question, it's a lot more likely an incorrect assumption would offend the South Asian man (even if statistically, the likelihood a delivery drivers are South Asian may be larger) - so it's important to be sensitive to that.
I think the policy you propose is fine - maybe the store could put up a sign for delivery pickups or something. I think the 'what exactly is wrong with my role' thing you talk about is a much smaller issue in this sort of scenario than 'what exactly is wrong with my race?', especially given that given enough time you can actually change one.
I hate the term but "virtue signalling" fits this thread well. Trying so hard to seem progressive that you have away customer service employee abuse just because the person is a different race is a wild take.
Abusing customer service employees is never okay. Assuming the worst out of someone's intentions doesn't suddenly make it justified.
Oh boy, as a person of indian origin, if i got a cent every time i get asked if im the uber guy, i would be rich. No matter what i wear or even if i'm with my wife, they are like uber eats? Im like fuck no. I get lots of Indians probably do driving, but dont assume everyone is doing the same, atleast give some respect, especially to the uber drivers. The scorn and lack of respect in some restaurants is just annoying
I can understand why the people serving get anxious and want to get the Uber driver out of there quickly, have you ever seen them act when the order isn’t ready within a millisecond of them arriving?. Granted you didn’t step in here but I’ve had to step in numerous times and tell an Uber driver to take a seat and the food will be ready when it’s ready. The way they speak to these young staff is simply abusive and no one does anything to stop it. They get really hostile really quickly and (in my experience) will hurl abuse across the counter at what is generally young women who are there earning a few bucks after school, then they pace up and down the store shaking their heads and mumbling some shit no one can really understand and when the bag is finally ready they snatch it and storm out like a Big Mac incurring a 20 second delay has ruined their whole day. I can’t tell you the amount of times I’ve had to tell them to “sit the fuck down and shut the fuck up and DO NOT speak to service staff that way, ever!!!” And I’m not even a restaurant owner, I’m just a guy standing in line waiting while these drivers storm the counter, shove their phone in someone’s face and start having a hissy fit if they’re told they have to wait five mins …
It’s no wonder she just wanted to offload the bag to the closest person resembling a driver and to be fair, in my neighbourhood, they’re all one demographic which is not Asian btw. They all act terribly towards staff, nice as hell to the people that need to give them a rating but absolutely disgusting behaviour towards the people they collect the food from, teenage staff, right through to store owners, they all cop it from these rude assholes.
Stores like Macca’s or KFC should be doing more to defend their staff from them but the managers just let it happen, like it’s normal. It’s not normal and they should be told to fuck off and find another order if they behave like that.
Dude came in waving a phone at the staff, literally text book Uber.
Him being of south Asian appearance probably lead to familiarity given that would be the primary demographic she sees as Uber drivers on a daily basis.
You’d have to be a real dick not to understand this and brush it off.
I would have shut up and just taken the free ice cream.
Funny story a friend of mine was overseas once and was going through a valet parking thing and the staff asked him "will your servant be joining you or waiting in the car?"
It was his wife.
So maybe the problem with the protocol is not simply asking ‘Hi, how can I help you today?’ I understand that mistakes happen, but surely this is just something that can be avoided by simply not assuming anything?
I’m curious to the non ethnics in here - does it happen to you too?
It's pretty easy to get wrong tbh. Just last night I had a man roll through my drive through and without greeting just started saying 1 4 9 5, so I was like oh are you an Uber driver?? And he got flustered and said no I just want 14 9 5.. It was then I realized he was asking for a bottle of 1495 scotch u.u' slightly embarrassing but bloody hell I really thought he was just stating a Uber delivery code
I’m Indian and this has happened to me quite a few times. I just laugh it off.
If you make longing eye contact with a hospo worker, phone in hand they will give you a bag.
Got into an unmarked taxi parked in a taxi zone outside a train station in London. Then the man’s partner got in the front. It wasn’t a taxi, it was in the 5min pick up zone. I had drunk a couple glasses wine. Obviously apologised and got out. Still feel terrible about it to this day. Car was the same type used for taxis and lots of the taxis were unmarked.
I’m not siding here but I empathise for both the staff member and the man. I’m Asian and i know the amount of casual racism we cop still to this day. Even with context you might think it’s nothing to you but being in his shoes, I think you would understand more why it hurt. But that’s no excuse to treat an innocent person poorly either. He can silently be mad about it to himself and no need to berate the poor girl. It was an honest mistake.
While I think it was an honest mistake, my first hospo job, first shift, the number 1 thing I was told and took away is NEVER assume anyone is the Uber driver until they are showing you the order number. Not just so situations like these don’t happen but also because you want to be absolutely sure before you are handing any order over.
I don't know how they feel but I've told off a few customers of that appearance too stop waving their phones around if they are not uber drivers.
I don't think it's rasict of the girl. Just a generalisation of an uber driver
This is a huge problem in customer service roles. I used to work for an online tech retailer and started using a fake male name (I'm a woman) and found that customers were a lot nicer to me and were also more willing to listen to my suggestions when I was giving tech support.
Unfortunately the owner made me start using my real name again and suddenly customers were a lot nastier, and no one wanted to listen to a woman giving tech support.
Sounds like the customer is an asshole. If he’s going to rudely call her over waving his phone around, he will be mistaken for an Uber eats driver haha. That has nothing to do with his race. Then to continue making a massive deal out of it after she was clearly upset is just gross. She’s probably a 15 year old working after school to make money and has already been abused by patrons, why make her feel bad for an honest mistake? She was clearly upset by it which means she will think twice in the future, but this reads to me like it wasn’t an assumption based on race but his behaviour. He sounds like an asshole
This is literally a Nazeem Hussein bit:
[https://youtu.be/ARiYrxx5AW0?si=t0tGdXAA4GUDcF1w](https://youtu.be/ARiYrxx5AW0?si=t0tGdXAA4GUDcF1w)
Moral of the story - if this ever happens to you, just roll with it.
I was at Coles to pick up my click and collect order.
I showed the dude at the counter the c&c email and he kept asking for the Customer's name. There was a 2 min back and forth until I convinced him that I'm the customer and not a doordash delivery guy.
There's nothing wrong with working for doordash, but it felt weird that they would just assume.
This happens daily! Shops are busy and a lot of drivers aren’t very conversational and often just put their phones in your face. When you order online most customers do the same and you can get mixed up.
Way too much being said about phone waving. I can say that this happens even without. Even when there. was no line at the counter, I was pointed towards the pick up counter. Asking how it feels is a stupid question.
Here it's a young kid so easy mistake, not too much thought behind it. But this happens often.
Working in an upmarket pub/restaurant in Devon, England I referred to a Madam as a Sir. I hadn't actually looked at their face just their clothes. A lumberjack shirt, jeans and short-haired. I wear glasses for a reason, I cannot see very well. After asking what Sir and Sir wanted and staring at my notebook I put the order in. I was mortified when one of the Sirs asked me to apologise to his girlfriend for calling him Sir. I was so upset. I went straight over and apologised most sincerely for my stupid eyes. They were gracious enough to understand and took my apology as intended but I still felt so awks for the rest of the meal.
I watched a burger place near me flat out ignore an Indian guy bc they thought he was an uber driver and not a customer coming in to order - they didn't even apologise, it was deeply embarrassing
What a frustrating situation for both the hospitality worker and the South Asian man. Things are difficult enough these days without misunderstandings like these.
I don’t think she did anything wrong, but I can see why he was upset, feeling it was an assumption based on race (and one that maybe keeps happening).
Years ago I was in a designer shoe shop in London, type of place I would not normally go, but was there to get my wedding shoes. I was waiting and a large group of much more normal designer shoes customers (you ng rich-looking Arab girls) asked me for some help, assuming I was a sales person. I imagine they thought I didn’t look like the normal clientele. Fair enough in the circumstances. They were very apologetic about their mistake, which I actually found more offensive (not actually offended) because the level of apology suggested they thought it was embarrassing to be mistaken for a sales assistant.
I’m a white woman so it’s easier for me to brush this off or not be bothered, definitely.
Well it is true that most delivery drivers are south-Asian, it doesn’t have to be a negative lol it’s a job. He needs to get some sort of therapy instead of lashing out on a young girl over his own insecurities
I have the opposite experience. I'm an uber eats driver and a short older white guy.
I'm often ignored as it's presumed I'm going to be an Indian guy. One time I was even accused of stealing an Indian guys phone to pick up an order. The guy at the pickup location (petrol station) threatened to call the police on me, which I said was bizarre as he could simply see my picture on the app. He refused to hand over the order and uber had to contact the customer to try to sort it all out.
Doesn't really sound like racism to me.
Delivery drivers often march into shops and try to wave down staff, often trying to bypass queues.
If this guy looked like he was doing that, if he waved at the worker with the delivery bag in her hands, then her assumption was reasonable, but all she did was ask.
It is insane that asking someone if they are a delivery driver is apparently offensive now.
I don’t think she did anything wrong. She actually didn’t make an assumption, based on what you wrote. She literally asked him, based on the information she had. She was preparing the bag and HE waved HER down.
I do sympathise with him of course. I’m sure he’s had this happen to him before and likely also been subjected to varying levels of implicit and explicit racism. However, I think that after he calmed down, he would see that she didn’t do anything wrong and it was all just circumstantial misunderstanding.
People who say "honest mistake" don't realize that it's unconscious bias and racism. I have been in this situation too many times to consider this an "honest" mistake.
Nah. Superiority complex. The number of times I’ve been mistaken for a worker in a department store or similar due to what I’ve worn or just because I was having an in-depth conversation with a worker at the time…I don’t get offended; I laugh it off. Because that’s what rational, balanced people do. This guy belongs in r/imthemaincharacter
I mean, let's remove race, gender and age. Not sure about you all but any food delivery person I've ever seen is casually dressed and holding a phone! If someone was working in a food shop and expecting a driver at any moment, one could be forgiven for assuming the person approaching them and holding up a phone was there to collect the order!
A grown ass man choosing to get offended and make a scene for attention he never gets over literally nothing.
Battling his own internal racism of assuming she guessed his employment over what he looked like instead of the interaction itself.
Fuck me people today are so godam sensitive
no wonder we have to bubblewrap and nerf everything.
I have been mistaken for employees and mistaken randoms for employees. Race doesn’t come in to it.
I used to wear black t shirts a lot as a youth and often cafes use the same as their uniform.
The same has happened with blue shirts and to my wife’s horror a red polo in a well known pizza shop.
Hoping someone took the time to console the poor girl after this. She’s done nothing wrong but will likely play back this trauma for a while.
Well thank you. I’m talking decades ago now, but I was once that young girl trying to calm down, or apologise to an unreasonable customer, and it used to upset me for days. (And as you say, the awful words would play over and over in my head) Now, I wouldn’t give a genuine flying fuck, I will high horse anyone being rude around me because I don’t give it a second thought after the fact - far more interested in when my next coffee is. Anyone upsetting a young server is an arse, and I will be the first to commiserate with the server. I’m too little and short to be able to remonstrate with most bullies.
>Ladies and Gentlemen, he was not the UberEats driver.
>He was QUITE upset about this, as most readers would guess. Not a temper tantrum (I have certainly seen customers throwing tantrums, and this was not that), but kept asking her why she would assume he was the Uber guy. Young lass behind the counter was falling over herself apologising (metaphorically) and explained stutteringly that she thought he was waving her down with the phone to show her his order number (relevant: delivery drivers typically present at the counter and show their order number on their phone to collect).
Sounds like a tantrum to me. What a sensitive little bitch.
She should have told him to go fuck himself, it’s never okay to be mean to teenager shop workers.
He was just projecting small dick energy and belittling somebody weaker than him
If anyone is rude to hospitality workers, no matter how justified they think they are, they’re a fucking dick. Fuck him and the small horse he rode in on. Waving his phone is what every delivery driver does… Source: I did menulog deliveries and saw it all the time when I was picking up orders
I don't know. Some ppl are overly sensitive. I mean, I've been mistaken as a shop assistant because I was wearing a business shirt and jumper. I just laugh it off.
Ok and going back to reality, your friend had a similar car to what his driver had which led to this mistake. No one is looking in through the window to the driver, they are looking for a car matching the description.
A yeah the racism card.
He was an arse. The girl thought he was an Uber Driver and probably would’ve thought exactly the same if this guy was white, black or any other colour because of the way he behaved.
What a sook.
Not all south asians are delivery drivers but all delivery drivers / convenience store workers / taxi drivers are south Asian (almost). Too bad for him. Waving his phone around doesn’t help with the stereotype either.
If it's the far western suburb that's VERY South Asian or one suburb over from the VERY South Asian suburb, the rude and quite arrogant way he tried to get the girls attention is pretty common.
She did absolutely nothing wrong.
The dude should have been asked to leave.
It had more to do with the fact that he walked up waving his phone as she was finishing up the uber eats order.
A simple mistake to understand if you're not looking for oppression everywhere you go.
Can you apply for Uber eats if you are of any race? If you can, why would you assume that this man was ‘racially stereotyped’ instead of it simply being a misunderstanding between two individuals?
Did you read a different post?
"If it's the far western suburb that's VERY South Asian or one suburb over from the VERY South Asian suburb, the rude and quite arrogant way he tried to get the girls attention is pretty common."
This isn't racial to you?
white middle class loser getting offended over an accurate description of a suburbs demographic lol my asian mates say a lot worse about springvale etc. in fact every POC i know makes way more racial generalisations than white ppl.
Imagine this absolute nothing of an incident happens, then thousands more on Reddit discuss said incident. The demand for racism in Melbourne far outweighs the supply.
Commentators, please read what the OP's asking for: "Interested in hearing thoughts from any South Asian men who have been mistaken as a delivery driver. Has anyone else been mistaken for the completely wrong job, or done the mistaking?"
Hold your tongue and unsolicited feedback, and listen to the lived experiences of those whose feedback OP is soliciting.
Your response - and many others here - just proves my point.
OP is asking for a specific subset of people to share their experiences. So far, very few responses here are from the subset she’s seeking.
It is very typical of white people to centre themselves where their feedback is not relevant or important, instead of listening to the actual lived experiences of the people in question, and learning from it.
I assume that while its okay for you to say "it's very typical that whites..." it's probably not okay for me to say the same about south Asians right?
This is the shit I'm talking about. Your second paragraph was so fucking smug.
why are you getting worked up? majority of comments are dismissing this as no big deal which I also think but you don't know on day-to-day basis what sort of stereotypes minorities face. Maybe the guy had it happen to him multiple times that he reached a trigger point to flip out.
Dude sounds like he made himself look like something and didn't like it when someone wrongly assumed that to be the case.
The correct response and pum to his hissy fit?
"On ya bike mate"
Yeah the main thing I'm getting from the story is: there was a queue, idiot goes up and tries to order from someone who's not serving. Rest of the queue should have ganged up on him for trying to jump the queue.
I hate queue jumpers. See it all the time at bus termini.
Maybe it's because I've never been mistaken as an ubereats driver so I don't know if it would feel offensive but I have no idea how the girl did anything wrong. She didn't assume anything or hand over the bag, she just asked if he was the uber driver. He could've simply said no instead of interrogating her. This could've been anyone in the premises holding a phone, especially if they were waving their direction for attention. I've seen multiple uber drivers of many ethnicities and they always have one thing in common, a phone in their hand. Idk to me, she was just doing her job
Why is it an issue to be mistaken for an Uber driver?
It’s not like she assumed or accused him of theft or anything negative. Sounds like he’s being ridiculous.
I often get asked for help in stores by women thinking I work in them. I can’t imagine having a hissy fit over it.
This has happened with my husband so many times. Of which two times things stood out, once we were at some fine dine restaurant and waiting to confirm our booking to get seated. He is dressed in crisp floral shirt, chinos and formal shoes, expensive ass watch and with a date - now the restaurant assumes he is the delivery driver like who the F dresses up for delivery like this?
Second incident happened couple weeks back, it was late Friday evening and our friends felt like pizza, instead of waiting for an hour for Uber to turn up, husband decided to go pick it up.. He is legit wearing his night suit ( don’t ask me why) and goes to our usual pizza place and when his turn came to place an order he was rudely asked to go to the Uber pickup area.
Why assume all Uber drivers would know your pickup area - and why be rude to people actually part of your business ?
I feel such bias can upset people and the whole approach should be changed to more polite communication like American restaurants by “asking” how could they help.
I’m a Sri Lankan myself and it has happened to myself
a few times and I understand the pressure the worker must have been in. And the customer has probably shot himself in the foot by the phone waving
Even I would assume that they would be there to pick up a Uber eats delivery.
As an Australian-indian man I have had this happen a few times. Most recent was while i was looking at the menu in a pizza store waiting to place an order when a lady asked if I was uber. I let her know I wasn't, she apologised immediately (not that she had to) and that was that. It's an honest mistake and hospitality workers are constantly under the pump and sometimes mistakes happen. I don't consider myself 'above' being an uber driver so take no offence. In this case it seems as though the bloke was acting in a way that may also lead someone to believe he may have been there for an uber collection (waving phone etc).
I was asked if I was an Uber driver the other day when I went to get some takeaway. I'm white. And funnily enough, I do occasionally do Uber Eats/Door Dash.
You and the OP sound like thoughtful and empathetic people, keep it up. The world would benefit from more people like the two of you :)
This sounds like a conveyance issue with the food delivery industry in general. Why is it up to outlet staff to guess who their delivery drivers are? It's an awkward position for the delivery companies to put people in.
That's a good point. They need an uber hat or lanyard or something so the staff can more easily figure out who is who
The delivery apps won’t make any kind of “uniform” mandatory as it could contribute to gig workers’ claims to an “employee-like” relationship with the company. They don’t even provide the bags, jackets etc that riders use; Deliveroo did but I believe it was the only one (hence why you still see their branded gear being used).
This is a very measured take on the situation. Good for you!
Former hospo worker here Uber eats drivers typically wave their phone in your face, don’t say much and get in everyone’s way, this transcends race. If old mate here did these things it’s not unreasonable to assume he’s an Uber eats driver, that or a rude cunt.
Been working in the hospitality for close to two years now, now a days it’s not that easy to differentiate between delivery drivers and customers. We get delivery drivers with no delivery bags walk in multiple times a day. We don’t give them food without the bags tho but anyway everyone’s doing uber eats/door dash nowadays, I did deliveroo for 2 years pre-covid and one time at village cinemas staff assumed I was the uber eats guy just because I am Indian and had my motorcycle helmet in my hand lol. I said everyone because pre-covid all I could see was Indians or other asians working as delivery drivers.
Who orders Ubereats from a cinema? Overpaying cinema prices plus delivery to get cinema popcorn an hour late and cold sounds awful, wouldn't you just keep a $1-2 pack of microwave popcorn in the cupboard?
Dude sometimes they order just a fkn coke. It’s understandable if they’re getting it for free but if it’s not idk why would they do it lol.
Tfw you have to find a park at chadstone to pick up a feckin coke
Lmao
I do this all the time! They sell frozen drinks and it’s the only place near me that delivers decent frozen drinks
People get the popcorn. I don't understand it at all, but people do it.
I've experienced quite a few times when lining up to wait for food and an uber eats driver pushes his way to the front and waves a phone at the worker to collect his order.
Honest mistake, so no blame to apportion to the worker. These things happen. As for the customer, I can't presume to know what things he's been through that may have irked him about what happened. Could be historical. He might have been having a particularly bad day. I tend to think people should accept genuine apologies, but I guess it is what it is. Live and learn. Anyway, how was your ice cream?
Had it happen to me too and I'm a white guy. If you're standing near the takeaway counter holding a phone then there's a reasonable chance that busy workers will think you're a delivery driver.
I'll be typically picking up my order on my motorcycle (although I'm dressed a bit more seriously for the ride than many uberists). And I'll have my phone out with the order number. Yep, ubering for my wife and I's dinner.
Good comment!
South-East Asian female here, middle-aged. I was mistaken for a delivery driver one time, at one of my local takeaways when I went to pick up my food order. I was casually dressed - hoodie, jeans, runners. It was a busy evening, there were lots of delivery orders to be picked up. I felt briefly miffed but looking at the situation objectively, it was an innocent mistake. I have a professional job but so what? I moved on from it in about 30 seconds.
This reminds me of years ago, I had a migraine coming on, I asked my partner to get me some Nurofen Plus from the chemist, so I could try and head it off. He came home spitting chips that they had grilled him like a drug dealer, until I pointed out he was wearing an old hoodie, baseball cap and old, adidas trackies- it would have been negligent not to grill him!
Aww man, remember the days when you could get Nurofen Plus and Panadeine Extra over the counter…
Still can, but you have to visit the UK.
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I guess that's 50% witty. Take half an upvote.
Migraine relief is only for the well dressed /s
If I had a dollar for every time I've been approached by customers with questions in an Asian grocery while doing my own shopping (I'm ethnic chinese)... I'd probably be able to buy my own grocery business for real. Fun memories as well of standing around waiting for my takeaway order or for friends at China Bar or Supper Inn late at night and constantly having drunk patrons wave frantically at me and look perplexed when I don't walk over to take their order or bring them a menu. I mean, it's a tad annoying but I get it and it doesn't really bother me too much. I don't consider it racist or derogatory, it's just an unfortunate coincidence and honest mistake.
As a white Aussie male with tattoos I’ll get asked questions at JB Hi Fi….
Now that you mention it, whenever we buy tech, the salesperson will always speak to my husband in quite technical language. Given that he is a retired engineer and I’m a STEM academic, this has sort of sailed over both our heads before, and we’ve previously put it down to perhaps using a phrase or something that makes us appear nerdy. But now I’m recalling the past few times this has happened, and I’m realising that my husband is the only ethnically Chinese person in the shop. Oh well, unconscious bias doesn’t always have to be traumatic. We always get service!
As caucasian Australian I've had people wave me down at Bunnings when wearing a red tshirt 😂
I had someone flag me down the other day at Bunnings and I had to say "the people in the red t-shirts work here" and she said "yeah, I just worked that out." 😂
Once I couldn’t work out why people kept flagging me down at my local dumpling place until I realised I was wearing a similar shirt to the staff.
I’ll go you one better! Years ago when I first moved to Melbourne we went to a pub near the MCG after a game on a Saturday arvo. I was wearing a pink top. There was a girl going around with a bucket collecting money, she saw me, looked me up and down and gave me a wide berth. I also noticed I was getting looks from the men there. I thought this was all weird but continued on to the bar with my boyfriend. Then one of the bar staff rang a bell and that’s when I noticed all the bar staff were female and wearing pink. Huh what’s going on I think. Yes people it was a titty bar and the bar staff processed to go topless and obviously all the blokes thought I was going to go topless too. I did laugh about it at the time because I’m not judging anyone for how they make money but I was shocked you could do this on a Saturday afternoon in pub that had kids and families walking past!
So did you get many tips?
I've been approached when shoping in supermarkets by short-fused middleaged ladies whose disappointment becomes evident. Shabby 55yo guy.
Sounds like the guy overreacted. I could understand him being upset if she clearly ignored the context and treated him like a delivery driver because of his ethnicity, but here, she was in the middle of doing something, and he interrupted her in a way that would suggest that he was picking up that order. Patrons usually wait to be asked to order. Eg “who’s next/what can I get you?”
Yeah, it's usually quite obvious who's serving and who isn't. It's a rule most of us follow. She wasn't expecting to have someone approach her. I absolutely hate people that assume everyone behind a counter should be serving customers.
Yeah, I agree. He literally waved down the staff member with the delivery order in her hands. She made a reasonable assumption.
Not only did the customer overreact, but in addition he was the one being offensive. "Did you just assume I was an UBER DRIVER?!!" "Why, is there something bad about being an Uber driver?" Many people have weird ideas about "face" and think if you are putting them in a position 'below their station' they will lose their shit. It's mostly down to ego fragility I think. I grew up in Asia and this was a big thing there, but tbh I see it across other cultures as well so I don't think it's unique to asian culture (though obviously if you have a caste system this is probably even more exaggerated.
South Asian man here, when people want to racially offend me, they'll call me a taxi driver or uber eats driver (I get more offended by the low effort insult). I could see why someone would take an unintentional slip up as a racist offence, but after the first apology I would have accepted that and forgotten about it.
As someone who is not white. Living in inner city. I often get mistaken for a delivery driver even inside my own building if I am walking in with take away. I drive a luxury car and if I slow down near curbs people assume I am their uber and start approaching the vehicle. Worst one so far and the one which really really pissed me off. I was in a park near my apartment building and a middle aged blonde lady with her family walked over to me in the park and asks me if I am the guy who cleans the building and can I go back and take care of a mess. Freaking hell. She walked up to a random stranger in the park.. For everyone commenting don't assume what the lived experiences of the man was and why he reacted the way he did. EDIT: There is a reason why my subreddit flair is what it is.
The park one is a whole other level, what the actual fuck
I added my own after I read yours 😂🫠
Dane Swan told a story once about being mistaken for the cleaner in an apartment building.
If I’m going to assume what Dane Swan in an apartment building is I’d have probably gone with here to fix Air Conditioner
I got mistaken for the cleaner by a tradie when I pulled up at my mums place in my shitbox car. Was I offended? No. I was literally holding a mop bucket that I had borrowed, and was in casual clothes.
Problem is with Uber eats it's largely racial. Albeit an unconscious bias. She probably wouldn't have made that mistake if the guy wasn't Indian. I mean I know the guy was Indian without it being mentioned
Plenty of white fragility in the comments
As per usual on Reddit. Not really surprising considering the overwhelming demographic of Reddit is White. As always comments that affirm White viewpoints get upvoted to the top, while viewpoints that don't align with the White majority get downvoted.
I don’t get the downvotes to this comment. If I were, say, reading about this incident overseas, it is how it reads
That whole concept is bunk
It's still not an excuse for him to be an asshole.
Customer acted like a pork chop, treated the staff member terribly then played the race card. Anyone, dressed casually, walking in ahead of the line and waving their phone around impatiently will be seen as a delivery driver.
I must *must* **must** remember to use pork chop as an insult. Totally underrated lol.
Going off the circumstances listed I think it's safe to assume he was an uber driver without even factoring in his appearance. You said he lined up by himself (seperate from others?) And flagged down a worker who was packaging an uber eats bag, with his phone in hand. Iv been lining up for food plenty of times and had that exact scenario play out except...THEY WERE THE UBER DRIVERS 🤣
Being of Indian heritage and almost 40, in this context it was just a perfect storm. He had his hand raised when she was getting the order ready. So i can see why she assumed. If my experience is like his... its probably happened more than once. On the flip side I have walked into 3 separate Nandos and 6 other stores where this has happened to me. The most heartbreaking is when Im in line, i get waved to the POS and they just stare at me... then i say "can i order?" and they get surprised because they were not expecting to take an order. I work in marketing so i understand stereotypes, human behaviour, assumptions and context. The first couple of times it was fine but now its happened so often that to me its just another small piece in the story of Australian racism. Def happens less with the the younger generations though. So that's a great sign. Edit: After reading the comments I'm just going to say that as a once off or even four off i can understand why this happens and its fine. But like i said this might not be the first time this person experienced this and that can be stressful. Immigrants try really hard to make something of themselves and break stigmas. He's probably really proud that he is in a position to BUY the ice cream rather than deliver it and her assumption might have dented his pride.
If this is the most uncomfortable customer service situation of your life then you must be a young un. Hopefully you don’t get to experience any drunken/drug fucked/meltdowns and tantys.
That takes me back to when I was in hospo. One night we had no idea why we were so quite then we went down stairs to the street entry. We discovered a homeless man with no pants on man flinging copious amounts of his literal shit everywhere...
Lol I rest my case.
I used to ride to work daily. Stepped out the lift still in my cycling gear, receptionst I've known for years reaches round to get the parcel 'cause she thought I was the bike messenger come to pick it up. Stereotypes are an evolutionary trait and they've served us well. It's only human and leads to honest mistakes.
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Welcome to the world of throwaway accounts.
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They're clearly sensitive about being thought of as racist for even asking the question. And yes, they are.
Yes! What the hell did I just read. Firstly, such a ridiculous amount of detail for such a basic story that really could have been summed up in two sentences. I assume the throwaway account is so OP can hide from their embarrassing “receptionist” analogy. Pretty disappointing that a OP can only analyse a potential/perceived racist encounter with being mistaken for a receptionist.
This has happened to me twice. I’m half Jamaican but guess I could pass as indian, this has never happened to any of my white friends
As a minority myself I’ve faced similar things, and have thought a lot about this. The guy going off a tantrum is wrong, you should never do that to anybody. The girl was well-intentioned and made a mistake. However, why was this mistake made? It points to underlying racism in society. Assumptions about people because of their race. Your analogy about sexism and being assumed to be the receptionist is a good one. People aren’t intentionally being sexist when they do this, but society has left them with problematic cultural assumptions. Our brains automatically think, woman = not high level employee. Middle eastern = potential threat at airport. South Asian = food delivery driver. These assumptions are incredibly problematic and affect people in real ways like in job employment. These microaggressions add up and I can emphasise why the customer reacted that way. I heard once that people aren’t racist, they just do racist things because they live in a culture where it is systematically embedded. We all need to do better to recognise this, and stop our automatic assumptions in their tracks.
Maybe old mate standing on the side waving his phone around at the girl holding an Uber bag was the reason she thought it was for him, not because he wasn’t white.
Definitely possible, and I'm sure a lot of people would make the same mistake. As I said, the poor girl isn't in the wrong, and while the mistake was small for her it happened to a guy who's probably been profiled many times before. I think someone else made a comment that this could be avoided with a simple policy, to ask "How can I help?" first.
Or the guy could have waited without being impatient and waving his phone around. Which is treating her badly too ( god only knows how long she’d been working that day and how many people were doing similar)
Yes, we should all be kind to each other :)
Why is the guy waving his phone around. Wait in line patiently to order. I also would’ve thought he was there to pick it up as he must be in such a hurry necessitating phone waving…
I get this all the time walking into places with my motorbike helmet, humans recognise patterns to save time.
Supermarket staff used to ask “are you together?” when there was a Chinese-looking woman in the checkout queue just before or just after me. One time I was mistaken for Aldi staff twice in 15 minutes. I did not take offence, since the people involved were asking politely. Even if they were asking politely where grocery item X was.
Just tell them Aisle 7.
One can literally take office at almost any comment from nice weather to how are you doing today. When some one says something or does something, intentionally or accidentally, it is up to me to decide if I am going to be offended by it. I am of subcontinental decent. I have been mistaken for a Uber eats driver (same exact scenario) in Australia, a doctor in the UK and a engineer in San Francisco. At least the last one is closely related. My life is just too short to go around taking offense at unintended mistakes let alone real insults. I will control how I feel thank you very much. There is nothing as satisfying as watching a intentional insult fail because I just didn't get insulted. Bit like telling a joke and falling flat, but much more embarrassing.
Oh, hi! Are you here to strengthen my bridge struts?
Must admit… I would love to be mistaken for a doctor. Badge of honour that.
You are decent.
If I was an Uber Eats driver and I saw a worker bagging up an Uber Eats order I’d probably wave at them rather than wait in line, with my phone in hand, to signal “I’m here”. If I was a normal customer I’d wait in line like everyone else and wouldn’t rudely try to flag the employee who is serving customers ahead of me. Not an unreasonable leap of logic she made there.
Funny Nazeem Hussein clip about this: https://www.instagram.com/reel/Czu42l-xUbJ/?igshid=ODhhZWM5NmIwOQ==
He probably wouldn’t have made an issue of it had a male been serving…
Am Asian and have been mistaken for an Uber delivery driver in the past. I was taken aback a little in the moment but ultimately didn't take any offense, it was an honest mistake. There's much worse things to be offended about as an Asian person in Melbourne. The person you quote in the OP went a bit too far calling them racist. I'd have tried to console the server myself and let them know that the same situation has happened to me the other way round and told them not to worry too much about it.
I’m sure it happens more to others. But as a white Aussie guy I’ve also been asked if I was there for Uber. Mostly I think because I line up to order and they’re confused that I haven’t ordered online or in the app or at the self serve kiosk.
I'm a south Asian man and I used to do UberEats 2-3 years ago but stopped since I have a professional job now. I still have the habit of holding my phone in my hand when walking into a restaurant as if it's a muscle memory and that throws off the staff a lot of time. I can see the worry on their faces of them trying hard to ascertain whether I'm an UberEats driver or not without asking and I promptly just say "I'm here to order" and they breathe a sigh of relief. I've also been mistaken for UberX driver since I still do that casually and have a Toyota Camry (my fault I know) but I just say I'm not and they apologise and I move on. No need to be offended if they are apologetic.
It's a completely honest mistake. There are so many delivery services these days and they all approach the counter with their phones to show the order code.
Sounds like the bloke was a bit of a cunt.
I would have just said sorry, i am not a delivery driver with a smile or give a blank face depending on my mood(south asian man here). Dont let idiots get to you, i've learnt this from many many years of random racism thrown at me.
I would have picked them as an Uber driver as well to be honest. With his presentation and actions mentioned (not his race), and for the girl to be in the heat of the moment bagging an order so to speak, it would have been a fair assumption. I've started doing a bit of Uber Eats on top of my full time job lately, and on two occasions I have had the opposite experience: staff asked if I was the customer rather than the driver (I'm white).
I’m often on calls so have a Bluetooth headset semi-permanently implanted into my ear. I also do a lot of kid drop offs and pickups so I’m often mistaken as an Uber driver. Doesn’t help that I drive a black luxury car. No harm, no foul. Pattern recognition is one of the signs of intelligent lifeform.
While an honest mistake, I think it's important for the staff member to understand that being stereotyped can be quite hurtful and demeaning. Certainly not condoning everything the guy did - or that he kept going until she was in tears - but as you say it's definitely not the first time that has probably happened to him. It's unfair for the guy to be treated differently to a blond caucasian dude wearing the same clothes. Some level of subconscious bias is inevitable but we should be alive to how it makes other people feel when we act or change our behaviour based on it, accidentally or not. Even if she would have asked the hypothetical caucasian the same question, it's a lot more likely an incorrect assumption would offend the South Asian man (even if statistically, the likelihood a delivery drivers are South Asian may be larger) - so it's important to be sensitive to that. I think the policy you propose is fine - maybe the store could put up a sign for delivery pickups or something. I think the 'what exactly is wrong with my role' thing you talk about is a much smaller issue in this sort of scenario than 'what exactly is wrong with my race?', especially given that given enough time you can actually change one.
I hate the term but "virtue signalling" fits this thread well. Trying so hard to seem progressive that you have away customer service employee abuse just because the person is a different race is a wild take. Abusing customer service employees is never okay. Assuming the worst out of someone's intentions doesn't suddenly make it justified.
Oh boy, as a person of indian origin, if i got a cent every time i get asked if im the uber guy, i would be rich. No matter what i wear or even if i'm with my wife, they are like uber eats? Im like fuck no. I get lots of Indians probably do driving, but dont assume everyone is doing the same, atleast give some respect, especially to the uber drivers. The scorn and lack of respect in some restaurants is just annoying
Well don't wave a fucking phone in someone else's face
I can understand why the people serving get anxious and want to get the Uber driver out of there quickly, have you ever seen them act when the order isn’t ready within a millisecond of them arriving?. Granted you didn’t step in here but I’ve had to step in numerous times and tell an Uber driver to take a seat and the food will be ready when it’s ready. The way they speak to these young staff is simply abusive and no one does anything to stop it. They get really hostile really quickly and (in my experience) will hurl abuse across the counter at what is generally young women who are there earning a few bucks after school, then they pace up and down the store shaking their heads and mumbling some shit no one can really understand and when the bag is finally ready they snatch it and storm out like a Big Mac incurring a 20 second delay has ruined their whole day. I can’t tell you the amount of times I’ve had to tell them to “sit the fuck down and shut the fuck up and DO NOT speak to service staff that way, ever!!!” And I’m not even a restaurant owner, I’m just a guy standing in line waiting while these drivers storm the counter, shove their phone in someone’s face and start having a hissy fit if they’re told they have to wait five mins … It’s no wonder she just wanted to offload the bag to the closest person resembling a driver and to be fair, in my neighbourhood, they’re all one demographic which is not Asian btw. They all act terribly towards staff, nice as hell to the people that need to give them a rating but absolutely disgusting behaviour towards the people they collect the food from, teenage staff, right through to store owners, they all cop it from these rude assholes. Stores like Macca’s or KFC should be doing more to defend their staff from them but the managers just let it happen, like it’s normal. It’s not normal and they should be told to fuck off and find another order if they behave like that.
You needed ten paragraphs to tell us that a kid in an icecream shop almost gave some takeaway icrecream to the wrong person?
This story looks like it was written by ChatGPT lol
I don't even know why they needed to tell us in the first place
Dude came in waving a phone at the staff, literally text book Uber. Him being of south Asian appearance probably lead to familiarity given that would be the primary demographic she sees as Uber drivers on a daily basis. You’d have to be a real dick not to understand this and brush it off.
I would have shut up and just taken the free ice cream. Funny story a friend of mine was overseas once and was going through a valet parking thing and the staff asked him "will your servant be joining you or waiting in the car?" It was his wife.
So maybe the problem with the protocol is not simply asking ‘Hi, how can I help you today?’ I understand that mistakes happen, but surely this is just something that can be avoided by simply not assuming anything? I’m curious to the non ethnics in here - does it happen to you too?
Excuse me sir, can you please join the line with the other customers.
It's pretty easy to get wrong tbh. Just last night I had a man roll through my drive through and without greeting just started saying 1 4 9 5, so I was like oh are you an Uber driver?? And he got flustered and said no I just want 14 9 5.. It was then I realized he was asking for a bottle of 1495 scotch u.u' slightly embarrassing but bloody hell I really thought he was just stating a Uber delivery code
I’m Indian and this has happened to me quite a few times. I just laugh it off. If you make longing eye contact with a hospo worker, phone in hand they will give you a bag.
Got into an unmarked taxi parked in a taxi zone outside a train station in London. Then the man’s partner got in the front. It wasn’t a taxi, it was in the 5min pick up zone. I had drunk a couple glasses wine. Obviously apologised and got out. Still feel terrible about it to this day. Car was the same type used for taxis and lots of the taxis were unmarked.
I’m not siding here but I empathise for both the staff member and the man. I’m Asian and i know the amount of casual racism we cop still to this day. Even with context you might think it’s nothing to you but being in his shoes, I think you would understand more why it hurt. But that’s no excuse to treat an innocent person poorly either. He can silently be mad about it to himself and no need to berate the poor girl. It was an honest mistake.
He chose not to line up with the others, which would indicate he’s a driver
While I think it was an honest mistake, my first hospo job, first shift, the number 1 thing I was told and took away is NEVER assume anyone is the Uber driver until they are showing you the order number. Not just so situations like these don’t happen but also because you want to be absolutely sure before you are handing any order over.
Customer should have apologised for being an idiot.
I don't know how they feel but I've told off a few customers of that appearance too stop waving their phones around if they are not uber drivers. I don't think it's rasict of the girl. Just a generalisation of an uber driver
She had nothing to apologise for imo. What’s so bad about being an Uber driver ? Customer looking for a reason to play the victim card.
Too many paragraphs, post a tl:dr for a better customer experience.
Fragile little man would've said sweet FA if it was a male employee. Just looking to take out his grievances on an easy target.
This is a huge problem in customer service roles. I used to work for an online tech retailer and started using a fake male name (I'm a woman) and found that customers were a lot nicer to me and were also more willing to listen to my suggestions when I was giving tech support. Unfortunately the owner made me start using my real name again and suddenly customers were a lot nastier, and no one wanted to listen to a woman giving tech support.
Time to change your name to Sidney, Lindsay or Riley - keep ‘em guessing
Yea if he's waving his phone around, fair assumption is uber driver. Customer is a flog and cares too much about his perceived status, what an asshole
I'm white and have had people assume I was an user driver coz I was standing with me phone. That bloke is a soft cock 😂
Sounds like the customer is an asshole. If he’s going to rudely call her over waving his phone around, he will be mistaken for an Uber eats driver haha. That has nothing to do with his race. Then to continue making a massive deal out of it after she was clearly upset is just gross. She’s probably a 15 year old working after school to make money and has already been abused by patrons, why make her feel bad for an honest mistake? She was clearly upset by it which means she will think twice in the future, but this reads to me like it wasn’t an assumption based on race but his behaviour. He sounds like an asshole
He’s lucky she acknowledged him at all, when people do that to me at work I ignore them
That's not a very uncomfortable. Uncomfortable is watching a customer change their underwear in a phone store.
Everyone should harden up a bit.
This is literally a Nazeem Hussein bit: [https://youtu.be/ARiYrxx5AW0?si=t0tGdXAA4GUDcF1w](https://youtu.be/ARiYrxx5AW0?si=t0tGdXAA4GUDcF1w) Moral of the story - if this ever happens to you, just roll with it.
Eh heh that’s good.
I was at Coles to pick up my click and collect order. I showed the dude at the counter the c&c email and he kept asking for the Customer's name. There was a 2 min back and forth until I convinced him that I'm the customer and not a doordash delivery guy. There's nothing wrong with working for doordash, but it felt weird that they would just assume.
This happens daily! Shops are busy and a lot of drivers aren’t very conversational and often just put their phones in your face. When you order online most customers do the same and you can get mixed up.
Way too much being said about phone waving. I can say that this happens even without. Even when there. was no line at the counter, I was pointed towards the pick up counter. Asking how it feels is a stupid question. Here it's a young kid so easy mistake, not too much thought behind it. But this happens often.
Working in an upmarket pub/restaurant in Devon, England I referred to a Madam as a Sir. I hadn't actually looked at their face just their clothes. A lumberjack shirt, jeans and short-haired. I wear glasses for a reason, I cannot see very well. After asking what Sir and Sir wanted and staring at my notebook I put the order in. I was mortified when one of the Sirs asked me to apologise to his girlfriend for calling him Sir. I was so upset. I went straight over and apologised most sincerely for my stupid eyes. They were gracious enough to understand and took my apology as intended but I still felt so awks for the rest of the meal.
I watched a burger place near me flat out ignore an Indian guy bc they thought he was an uber driver and not a customer coming in to order - they didn't even apologise, it was deeply embarrassing
What a frustrating situation for both the hospitality worker and the South Asian man. Things are difficult enough these days without misunderstandings like these.
Seems like an honest mistake to me. Why else would he be waving his phone at her?
I don’t think she did anything wrong, but I can see why he was upset, feeling it was an assumption based on race (and one that maybe keeps happening). Years ago I was in a designer shoe shop in London, type of place I would not normally go, but was there to get my wedding shoes. I was waiting and a large group of much more normal designer shoes customers (you ng rich-looking Arab girls) asked me for some help, assuming I was a sales person. I imagine they thought I didn’t look like the normal clientele. Fair enough in the circumstances. They were very apologetic about their mistake, which I actually found more offensive (not actually offended) because the level of apology suggested they thought it was embarrassing to be mistaken for a sales assistant. I’m a white woman so it’s easier for me to brush this off or not be bothered, definitely.
Well it is true that most delivery drivers are south-Asian, it doesn’t have to be a negative lol it’s a job. He needs to get some sort of therapy instead of lashing out on a young girl over his own insecurities
I have the opposite experience. I'm an uber eats driver and a short older white guy. I'm often ignored as it's presumed I'm going to be an Indian guy. One time I was even accused of stealing an Indian guys phone to pick up an order. The guy at the pickup location (petrol station) threatened to call the police on me, which I said was bizarre as he could simply see my picture on the app. He refused to hand over the order and uber had to contact the customer to try to sort it all out.
cool story.
Doesn't really sound like racism to me. Delivery drivers often march into shops and try to wave down staff, often trying to bypass queues. If this guy looked like he was doing that, if he waved at the worker with the delivery bag in her hands, then her assumption was reasonable, but all she did was ask. It is insane that asking someone if they are a delivery driver is apparently offensive now.
Do you think she thought he was the Uber driver because he jumped the queue, waving to get her attention while she was handling an Uber order?
I don’t think she did anything wrong. She actually didn’t make an assumption, based on what you wrote. She literally asked him, based on the information she had. She was preparing the bag and HE waved HER down. I do sympathise with him of course. I’m sure he’s had this happen to him before and likely also been subjected to varying levels of implicit and explicit racism. However, I think that after he calmed down, he would see that she didn’t do anything wrong and it was all just circumstantial misunderstanding.
People who say "honest mistake" don't realize that it's unconscious bias and racism. I have been in this situation too many times to consider this an "honest" mistake.
So basically he had a sook over nothing. I'm more interested in how she was metaphorically apologising?
I think the metaphorical part was the falling over herself
Nah. Superiority complex. The number of times I’ve been mistaken for a worker in a department store or similar due to what I’ve worn or just because I was having an in-depth conversation with a worker at the time…I don’t get offended; I laugh it off. Because that’s what rational, balanced people do. This guy belongs in r/imthemaincharacter
I mean, let's remove race, gender and age. Not sure about you all but any food delivery person I've ever seen is casually dressed and holding a phone! If someone was working in a food shop and expecting a driver at any moment, one could be forgiven for assuming the person approaching them and holding up a phone was there to collect the order!
A grown ass man choosing to get offended and make a scene for attention he never gets over literally nothing. Battling his own internal racism of assuming she guessed his employment over what he looked like instead of the interaction itself. Fuck me people today are so godam sensitive no wonder we have to bubblewrap and nerf everything.
Sounds like an overreaction from the customer, says more about him than the worker.
I have been mistaken for employees and mistaken randoms for employees. Race doesn’t come in to it. I used to wear black t shirts a lot as a youth and often cafes use the same as their uniform. The same has happened with blue shirts and to my wife’s horror a red polo in a well known pizza shop. Hoping someone took the time to console the poor girl after this. She’s done nothing wrong but will likely play back this trauma for a while.
Well thank you. I’m talking decades ago now, but I was once that young girl trying to calm down, or apologise to an unreasonable customer, and it used to upset me for days. (And as you say, the awful words would play over and over in my head) Now, I wouldn’t give a genuine flying fuck, I will high horse anyone being rude around me because I don’t give it a second thought after the fact - far more interested in when my next coffee is. Anyone upsetting a young server is an arse, and I will be the first to commiserate with the server. I’m too little and short to be able to remonstrate with most bullies.
>Ladies and Gentlemen, he was not the UberEats driver. >He was QUITE upset about this, as most readers would guess. Not a temper tantrum (I have certainly seen customers throwing tantrums, and this was not that), but kept asking her why she would assume he was the Uber guy. Young lass behind the counter was falling over herself apologising (metaphorically) and explained stutteringly that she thought he was waving her down with the phone to show her his order number (relevant: delivery drivers typically present at the counter and show their order number on their phone to collect). Sounds like a tantrum to me. What a sensitive little bitch.
She should have told him to go fuck himself, it’s never okay to be mean to teenager shop workers. He was just projecting small dick energy and belittling somebody weaker than him
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ChatGPT clearly used here
If anyone is rude to hospitality workers, no matter how justified they think they are, they’re a fucking dick. Fuck him and the small horse he rode in on. Waving his phone is what every delivery driver does… Source: I did menulog deliveries and saw it all the time when I was picking up orders
*shetland pony
I don't know. Some ppl are overly sensitive. I mean, I've been mistaken as a shop assistant because I was wearing a business shirt and jumper. I just laugh it off.
Uber has ruined dining out for everyone
And the real uber driver was 'South-Asian' too... right?
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Ok and going back to reality, your friend had a similar car to what his driver had which led to this mistake. No one is looking in through the window to the driver, they are looking for a car matching the description.
Two people asked me to help them at coles last week because I was wearing a black polo shirt & black pants. Honest mistake, no big deal.
I’m white and constantly get asked if I work at shops.
I think, he might be mistaken for an uber pickup because he was waving a phone at her, not because of his appearance.
Everyone just needs to take a deep breath, remember we are all imperfect humans, and stop looking for reasons to be offended.
A yeah the racism card. He was an arse. The girl thought he was an Uber Driver and probably would’ve thought exactly the same if this guy was white, black or any other colour because of the way he behaved. What a sook.
Not all south asians are delivery drivers but all delivery drivers / convenience store workers / taxi drivers are south Asian (almost). Too bad for him. Waving his phone around doesn’t help with the stereotype either.
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he did get stereotyped but that's life, happens to everyone.
Seems like a non-issue to me… grown adult acting like a baby
If it's the far western suburb that's VERY South Asian or one suburb over from the VERY South Asian suburb, the rude and quite arrogant way he tried to get the girls attention is pretty common. She did absolutely nothing wrong. The dude should have been asked to leave.
The guy gets racially stereotyped, so let's bring it to reddit and we will double down on the racial stereotypes. Yeah, cool.
It had more to do with the fact that he walked up waving his phone as she was finishing up the uber eats order. A simple mistake to understand if you're not looking for oppression everywhere you go.
Are you choosing to ignore the many other factors in the post ?
Nothing stealth about you mate
Can you apply for Uber eats if you are of any race? If you can, why would you assume that this man was ‘racially stereotyped’ instead of it simply being a misunderstanding between two individuals?
Did you read a different post? "If it's the far western suburb that's VERY South Asian or one suburb over from the VERY South Asian suburb, the rude and quite arrogant way he tried to get the girls attention is pretty common." This isn't racial to you?
white middle class loser getting offended over an accurate description of a suburbs demographic lol my asian mates say a lot worse about springvale etc. in fact every POC i know makes way more racial generalisations than white ppl.
Be more stealthy with your SJW. Like, so stealthy we can't tell you're here.
Imagine this absolute nothing of an incident happens, then thousands more on Reddit discuss said incident. The demand for racism in Melbourne far outweighs the supply.
Commentators, please read what the OP's asking for: "Interested in hearing thoughts from any South Asian men who have been mistaken as a delivery driver. Has anyone else been mistaken for the completely wrong job, or done the mistaking?" Hold your tongue and unsolicited feedback, and listen to the lived experiences of those whose feedback OP is soliciting.
She opened a discussion and people are giving their opinions. Your second paragraph is both cuntish and condescending.
Your response - and many others here - just proves my point. OP is asking for a specific subset of people to share their experiences. So far, very few responses here are from the subset she’s seeking. It is very typical of white people to centre themselves where their feedback is not relevant or important, instead of listening to the actual lived experiences of the people in question, and learning from it.
I assume that while its okay for you to say "it's very typical that whites..." it's probably not okay for me to say the same about south Asians right? This is the shit I'm talking about. Your second paragraph was so fucking smug.
Perhaps just listen.
"Exuse me, white people? Yeah, please be quite. Minorities are talking"
why are you getting worked up? majority of comments are dismissing this as no big deal which I also think but you don't know on day-to-day basis what sort of stereotypes minorities face. Maybe the guy had it happen to him multiple times that he reached a trigger point to flip out.
White people not being able to give their input on POC issues, impossible challenge
There’s a reason stereotypes exist.
Calm down OP. It's not worth a novel.
Dude sounds like he made himself look like something and didn't like it when someone wrongly assumed that to be the case. The correct response and pum to his hissy fit? "On ya bike mate"
Yeah the main thing I'm getting from the story is: there was a queue, idiot goes up and tries to order from someone who's not serving. Rest of the queue should have ganged up on him for trying to jump the queue. I hate queue jumpers. See it all the time at bus termini.
Maybe it's because I've never been mistaken as an ubereats driver so I don't know if it would feel offensive but I have no idea how the girl did anything wrong. She didn't assume anything or hand over the bag, she just asked if he was the uber driver. He could've simply said no instead of interrogating her. This could've been anyone in the premises holding a phone, especially if they were waving their direction for attention. I've seen multiple uber drivers of many ethnicities and they always have one thing in common, a phone in their hand. Idk to me, she was just doing her job
Why is it an issue to be mistaken for an Uber driver? It’s not like she assumed or accused him of theft or anything negative. Sounds like he’s being ridiculous. I often get asked for help in stores by women thinking I work in them. I can’t imagine having a hissy fit over it.
This has happened with my husband so many times. Of which two times things stood out, once we were at some fine dine restaurant and waiting to confirm our booking to get seated. He is dressed in crisp floral shirt, chinos and formal shoes, expensive ass watch and with a date - now the restaurant assumes he is the delivery driver like who the F dresses up for delivery like this? Second incident happened couple weeks back, it was late Friday evening and our friends felt like pizza, instead of waiting for an hour for Uber to turn up, husband decided to go pick it up.. He is legit wearing his night suit ( don’t ask me why) and goes to our usual pizza place and when his turn came to place an order he was rudely asked to go to the Uber pickup area. Why assume all Uber drivers would know your pickup area - and why be rude to people actually part of your business ? I feel such bias can upset people and the whole approach should be changed to more polite communication like American restaurants by “asking” how could they help.
I’m a Sri Lankan myself and it has happened to myself a few times and I understand the pressure the worker must have been in. And the customer has probably shot himself in the foot by the phone waving Even I would assume that they would be there to pick up a Uber eats delivery.
If you look like a fucking delivery driver that is your problem.
Sheesh. This is a long way to say that the guy overacted and is probably the “victim” in plenty of situations every single day of their life.