Delhi entrepreneur turns delivery agent, slammed for reaction to woman’s tip

A Delhi-based business owner of a mobile accessories brand faced backlash after he shared his experience of making a delivery to a customer and how he felt when she thought he was a regular delivery agent. Akash Bansal took X on Monday to share his cash-on-delivery experience in the national capital.
In his post, he said that his company received a COD (cash-on-delivery) order of ₹3,200 recently. When he realised that the delivery address was near his office, Bansal decided to deliver this order himself as the location was just 10 minutes away.
When he delivered the order, the woman who received the package gave him ₹3,500 in cash and told him to keep the change.
“The excitement level went from 100 to 0 in a flash,” Bansal said.
He added that he let the woman keep ₹500 and that they both ended up being delighted.
“She literally said, ‘Why you guys are so fast?’ Always wanted to this, glad it happened today,” he said.

A Delhi-based business owner of a mobile accessories brand faced backlash after he shared his experience of making a delivery to a customer and how he felt when she thought he was a regular delivery agent. Akash Bansal took X on Monday to share his cash-on-delivery experience, which he termed “disappointing”.
In his post, he said that his company received a COD (cash-on-delivery) order of ₹3,200 recently. When he realised that the delivery address was near his office, Bansal decided to deliver this order himself as the location was just 10 minutes away.
When he delivered the order, the woman who received the package gave him ₹3,500 in cash and told him to keep the change.
“The excitement level went from 100 to 0 in a flash,” Bansal said.
He added that he let the woman keep ₹500 and that they both ended up being delighted.
“She literally said, ‘Why you guys are so fast?’ Always wanted to this, glad it happened today,” he said.
This post quickly went viral on X. However, some users were not amused by the entrepreneur’s description of how he felt when the woman first asked him to keep the change, assuming that he was a delivery agent.
A section of X users who read the post felt that his reaction was classist and that the founder was embarrassed when the customer assumed that he was a delivery agent and that he does not believe in the concept of dignity of labour.
“So sorry to hear that. I suggest you get an ‘I am the company’s founder, please make me feel special’ t-shirt for yourself. Might work next time,” X user, Priyanka Lahiri, said on a sarcastic note.
Another user, Inderpal Singh, commented, “I don’t really understand why your excitement went down? For an actual delivery person, this was a good tip given the number of orders they deliver every day.”
Successful entrepreneurs like Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal stay connected to the ground reality by stepping in as delivery agents on peak days when their apps are flooded with orders. Goyal served as a delivery agent last New Year’s Eve and delivered as many as four orders for Zomato customers.
“Going to deliver a couple of orders on my own right now. Should be back in an hour or so,” he had written on December 31 evening.
“My first delivery brought me back to the Zomato office. Lolwut!” his next post read.
Goyal had turned into a Zomato delivery executive on Friendship Day last year as well.