Should I Give a Delivery Rider a Bad Review?

This is a question I have wrestled with for a long time, especially after repeated bad experiences with food delivery. Before discussing it, let me put up a poll:

Rating delivery riders, who work in a service industry, ought to be a basic consumer right. Yet it has become a sensitive topic in society. Public figures in particular cannot show the slightest dissatisfaction with workers. I am not a public figure, but my so-called sense of morality still compels me to consider the matter from different angles.

I. The He Tongxue ride-hailing incident

This has nothing to do with food delivery, but it arrives at the same psychological and social sense of being held hostage as feeling unable to leave a bad review for a rider.

In short, He Tongxue is socially anxious and would not refuse when a ride-hailing driver asked him for a good review. But he would often forget, then suddenly remember and feel guilty that he had not kept a promise. Leaving a good review itself takes time and effort. He therefore proposed that, unless a driver truly inspired him to leave a good review of his own accord, he would refuse future requests. It would also help him practice social courage.

I see nothing wrong with his idea. He was simply brought down by this rotten climate of public opinion (though perhaps it cannot be called rotten, since it has never been good). The so-called netizens understood only that “He Tongxue refused to give a ride-hailing driver a good review.” Without looking into the matter, they began denouncing him. I find this spectacularly mindless. What I hate most is passing blind judgment with only half an understanding of an issue. But persuading someone with little patience or understanding is hard.

II. My experience and thoughts

Yesterday Beijing had its first snow. There was a lot of snow on the roads today. After finishing the CET-4 exam in the morning, I planned to return to my dorm, eat and rest.

I understand that deliveries are slower in these conditions. But why mark an order as delivered almost half an hour early, when there was still plenty of time before its estimated arrival? Twenty minutes after it had supposedly arrived, I went to the delivery lockers. I have several phone numbers and tried both sets of lockers repeatedly; the app even restricted my attempts, yet there was nothing there. I hoped he had entered the pickup code incorrectly (that happens to me once or twice a month), so I called him. He said he would be there in two minutes at most. Four minutes later I was still standing in the cold with nothing...

I find this behavior hard to understand and really wanted to give a bad review. This was not the first time an early “delivered” notification had left me standing there foolishly. I wanted to leave a bad review last time, and again this time, but the “weakness” in my nature kept me from even opening the review page. My thinking is simple: they earn only about five yuan per delivery, while my actively leaving a bad review might cost them more than ten yuan. Why do that? Especially given today’s road conditions.

So whose fault is this? What did I do wrong to deserve standing in the freezing wind? Is the rider taking advantage of my sympathy? Should I not have the right to leave a bad review? And under these circumstances, do I really have that right?

So I still do not know whether I “should,” or even “may,” leave a bad review for a delivery rider.

To give a bad review, or not to give a bad review—that is the dilemma we are left with.