The popular delivery app DoorDash allows buyers to opt for their order to be placed at their doors rather than handed to them in person. However, some shoppers have found that this is easier said than done.
Many women have reported difficulty getting drivers to simply leave their food at the door, with several claiming that their driver insisted they hand the food over in person.
Now, another story of this nature has sparked discussion—with an interesting twist.
A DoorDash driver named Brittany
In a video with over 887,000 views, TikTok user Angel Ardito (@thelousypoledancer) says she placed an order via DoorDash. When her Dasher, who was identified as Brittany, finished collecting her order, Ardito says she sent detailed instructions on how to get to her apartment to ease the delivery process.
“It’s not hard to find my apartment or my apartment building, but I like to send step-by-step instructions every time just to be kind and helpful, because I know that Dashing is not a fun job,” Ardito explains.
However, from here, things got a bit weird. Ardito noticed that “Brittany” was sitting in her parking lot for about 5 minutes without delivering her order; then, Ardito received a message saying that she “need[ed] to come down.”
“I sent a message back and I was like, ‘Why?’ She told me that she couldn’t find my apartment, so I looked at her location on the map and I just texted her and told her how to get to my apartment from where she was at. Really simple,” Ardito states. “”A couple minutes passed by and then she said, ‘Can you just come get it? I’m having a hard time.’”
Annoyed, Ardito put on shoes and went downstairs—only to discover that “Brittany” was really a 40-year-old man.
“So I go, ‘Are you Brittany?’ And this man goes, ‘Um, yeah, yeah, I’m Brittany,’” Ardito recalls in disbelief.
As she’s processed what was going on, she says the Dasher’s behavior became even more suspect.
“Precisely when I paused, this man looks around, looks up, and then back down at me and goes, ‘Oh, you guys have security cameras here,’” Ardito says.
“So I just laughed and played it off. I was like, ‘Yeah, they’re trying to beef up security here. We’ve had some people breaking into cars.’ I walked forward, I grabbed my stuff, and I booked it out of there,” she continues. “I don’t even want to know what would have happened if we didn’t have security cameras here.”
She closes her video by warning people to be “extra cautious whenever you order anything on any kind of app where someone has to physically bring you something.”
How does this happen?
There are a few reasons why one’s name on the DoorDash app might not match their appearance—some more nefarious than others.
First, DoorDash allows Dashers to have others assist in their orders. While this second person also needs to have a DoorDash account, they might not always show up on one’s order—meaning that if your order is assigned to someone, they can then delegate that task to an employee or subcontractor.
Next, there is a black market for delivery accounts on various apps. These are used by people who cannot pass a background check or would be otherwise unable to work for the app; for example, the New York Times detailed the story of a Venezuelan immigrant who, “for the privilege of using an Uber Eats profile under the name ‘Jessica,’…pays a weekly cut of $150 to a Venezuelan woman.”
Doing this goes against DoorDash’s terms of service. Regardless, name and gender-based issues have posed problems for the app in the past.
For example, one DoorDash driver said she quit because she claimed men began to change their names on the app to women’s names. A female driver also alleged that she dressed up “as a man” in order to feel safer delivering food at night.
@thelousypoledancer You can never be too cautious when it comes to this!! #fyp #doordash #staysafe #becareful #iykyk #forthegirlies ♬ original sound – Angel Ardito
Commenters share similar stories
In the comments section, users offered their own food delivery experiences, with many revealing comparable issues to Ardito.
“One dasher specifically always knocks on the door and waits for me to open the door so he can hand it to me even though I have it set to leave it at my door. I changed my name to a man’s. He stopped,” wrote a user.
“Omg this literally happened to me too. I was arguing with the doordasher for about 10 minutes to leave the food at my door. They were parked in front of my house and their excuse the entire time is that they wanted to make sure it was the right house and I kept reassuring them that it was but they kept refusing,” recalled another. “Sketchy af. Eventually they dropped it off at the door but d*mn. So scary.”
“I’ve had a doordasher post a picture of my order on my porch and stayed. I watched from the peephole and front window for TWENTY MINUTES before he finally gave up and left,” alleged a third.
The Daily Dot reached out to DoorDash via email and Ardito via Instagram direct message.
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