Swiggy has not yet commented on the incident. (Representational photo)
A woman from Hyderabad recently alleged that a Swiggy Genie delivery partner stole her laptop and then demanded Rs 15,000 to return it. Nishitha Gudipudi, a civil engineer, took to LinkedIn to share the details of the shocking incident. She said that a few days ago, her husband had booked Swiggy Genie to pick up his backpack from one office and deliver it to Madhapur area of another city. The delivery partner picked up the backpack with the laptop inside, but he switched off his phone in between trips, the woman said.
“He stole the laptop and initially we thought it was partly a mistake on our part to use Genie to deliver the laptop. But the twist that happened after that really surprised and scared us,” Gudipudi said.
The LinkedIn user said that when her husband contacted customer service, they were unable to identify the delivery person listed on their booking and ended up sending two photos asking who was picking up the parcel. Ms Gudipudi and her husband suspected that Swiggy’s system allows someone to register using their Aadhar or PAN and then lets anyone use their credentials.
The “scariest part of all”, according to Ms Gudipudi, was when the couple contacted the Swiggy agent on WhatsApp and the delivery boy claimed that his friend had used his login. “I will check and get back to you later,” the agent told the couple. However, immediately after the call, they received a message from the same number demanding them to pay Rs 15,000 to get the laptop delivered through Rapido.
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In her post, Ms Gudipudi shared screenshots of the WhatsApp conversation between her husband and the person demanding the money. She also shared photos of the man who registered with Swiggy, the other man who accepted Swiggy to log in using facial recognition.
Swiggy has not yet commented on the incident.
Meanwhile, a user wrote in the comments section, “I regret the situation; but the Swiggy team should take action and resolve it. Otherwise, public trust, human ethics and customer satisfaction have all declined.”
“This is appalling and absolutely unacceptable, Nishitha. 'Middlemen' companies like Zomato, Swiggy, Ola, Uber etc. need to understand that it is extremely important for them to focus on security,” said another.
“In their hunger for growth, all these taxi and food delivery companies have stopped maintaining KYC norms. I was surprised when one of their hub managers openly threatened me on LinkedIn a few months ago for posting about the inconvenience their riders and social media team were causing,” wrote a third user.