My First Hiccup
So I’ve been delivering close to a year now, had no hiccups so far until this happened. I got a delivery to a familiar house, nice and easy drive. I got to the door and heard the mom yell out, “I’ll be just a minute.” Anyway, I’m greeted with the face of a six-year-old when the door opens, no mom in sight. Now, I don’t really care about kids answering the door in regards to tips, as in Australia we don’t have a tipping culture and don’t rely on tips.
I tell the little girl it was $18 all up, and she looks at me puzzled and hands a $50, saying, “Is this enough?” Of course, I’m not going to take from a little kid, so I carefully count back her change to the exact cent. I think it’s going smoothly. How wrong I was. I attempt to give her the pizza, and she is obviously struggling to hold the box.
I hesitate and say, “I think it would be best if you got your mom to carry it just in case.” However, she shakes her head and said her mom said she had to carry it back. This annoyed me a bit, since I don’t want to be blamed if she drops the pizza. The little girl gets a good grip of the pizza and walks down the hallway as I’m closing the door.
Just as I was about to close the door, the little girl drops the pizza, topping side down, all over the floor. At this point, I’ve shut the door fully and can see a bit of the action through the glass pane next to the door. The little kid is trying to scrape all the toppings into the box, and failing horrendously. I’m in an awkward position as I’m just standing there at the door, helpless.
I wait there for another good two-three minutes waiting at the door to see if her mom came to rectify the situation with me. I was prepared to talk it over with her and see if she wanted a new one, however all I could hear was the mom scolding her daughter about the mess she made. At that point, I was actually angry. The little girl must have felt so embarrassed about the situation, and the mom didn’t have the decency to help her struggling kid with the pizza.
As I went to my car, which was a good 20 meters away, I could still hear the mom yelling. I got back to the store and told my manager what happened just to cover my butt if the mom phoned up and tried to blame anything on me. Fortunately, we didn’t hear from her. Throughout the whole shift, I felt awful about the situation and felt sorry for the girl. I knew what I had to do.
At the end of our shift, we get to make and take home a pizza for free. I decided to make the same pizza as the one that the little girl dropped and drop it off on my way home to their house. This wasn’t because I felt bad for the mom, who probably had to cook her own dinner, but I felt as if it would take the stress off the little girl. So I went back to their house, pizza in hand and some ice cream for the kid.
I explain to the mom that I saw what happened and decided to tell her how little kids shouldn’t answer the door, as money can be easily taken and food easily dropped. I say that in the future she should at least watch her child when answering the doors for deliveries at the very least. She ended up apologizing profusely and thanking me for my troubles. The mom has answered the door ever since.
Story credit: Reddit / i_like_lurking9