A deliveryman arrested for blowing his lid off at a bubble tea employee in Punggol outed himself online yesterday in a message admitting his mistake – and that he was fired for it.
Alvin Lee said he should not have erupted in public under intense pressure to fulfil the bubble tea orders which had spiked prior to such shops closing indefinitely. He suggested that being overworked probably contributed to Tuesday’s emotionally charged incident caught on tape at the Waterway Point mall, in which he tried to start a fight.
“For everyone info, I’m the grab food rider that is in the bubble tea saga. I would like to take this opportunity to admit that I am also in the wrong to act like this in the public,” he wrote on social media.
“But please understand that it is very difficult time for [riders] like us, we work [a minimum] 12 hour a day, rain or shine to bring food to you and also bring bread home. Sometime anger took over us as we overwork and tire the hell out of ourself.”
Lee was filmed shouting outside the Playmade bubble tea outlet, accusing an employee of calling him a “fucker” and taunting him to come out of the store. The next day, Lee posted that he had been “permanently banned” by GrabFood.
The encounter played out before a backdrop of panicked tea buying, with bubble tea purveyors and deliverymen under pressure to fulfill a flood of orders placed after the government announced they would have to cease operating as part of stricter COVID-19 measures.
“I’m not asking for sympathy as this is what I should do in order to feed my own little family. I don’t want [pinpoint] on who is at fault because I believe both parties are under a lot of pressure and stress in ordering to fulfil those nonstop bubble tea orders after the new circuit breaker measures [take] place,” Lee added in his statement.
Playmade said it was under immense pressure that night to make hundreds of bubble tea drinks, it said in a Thursday statement.
“During this time, our team had received over 150 different orders (an average of 600 cups) via delivery alone within the last hour of closing, despite efforts to stop orders from coming through,” the chain wrote online this afternoon. “This had brought immense pressure on both our team and delivery riders to complete within that short time frame to closing.”
Related:
F-bomb thrown during Singapore’s mad boba run leads to arrest of delivery guy
Singapore makes desperate dash for final haircuts and bubble tea. Here are the queues you missed. (Photos)
Reader Interactions