When the government imposed community quarantine in the whole Luzon area, they also suspended public transportation which greatly affected the PUV’s (public utility vehicles) as well as other private ride-hailing apps.
Their work is to transport people from one place to another, but since many public and private companies were also forced to close their respective offices during ECQ they also limited the vehicles that can continue with their operation.
One of them is the ride-hailing app called “Angkas” which is allowed to proceed with their transporting business. But instead of the usual motorcycle rides that they provide, they are now offering “Pasabuy” service, where their riders will be the one to buy your shopping needs.
Those who can’t go out of their home to personally purchase goods such as food, medicine, and other grocery items can avail of this service. All they have to do is patiently wait at their doorstep to pay for their requested items and the service/delivery fee.
Because of the current health crisis, a limited number of people are allowed inside stores and there’s also a few staff to serve them, that’s why most of the time, these riders had to spend a long time queueing at the store just to complete their customer’s order. Not to mention the possibility that their lives are also at risk since they are exposed to different people every day.
Aside from this, they also have to shell out money for cash-on-delivery orders and will only get this back the amount once the customer paid their orders. This is one of the disadvantages of this service because when their customers decide to cancel the order, it will be a big loss on their part.
Just like what happened recently in this poor Angkas rider who spent Php 7k to purchase some medicines and other grocery items at Mercury Drug Store. After he finished paying all the items, his customer suddenly canceled the order.
This heartbreaking incident was shared on Facebook by a concerned netizen earlier this week. Based on the post, the Angkas rider tried to return the items on the said store, but unfortunately, they cannot offer the rider a return/refund of the items due to their policy.
After reading his story, a lot of netizens got really mad at the heartless customer, some also called out the companies of this ride-hailing app to at least set policies that will protect their riders from such incidents.