Woman Orders DoorDash To Her Hotel. Then The Front Desk Almost Calls The Cops: ‘I Cannot Fathom This Man Coming To My House’
Ordering food from a service like DoorDash means placing a lot of trust in a stranger, especially if you order from your permanent living situation. It means that the person now has access to your name, address, phone number, and other sensitive information tied to the order.
One woman on TikTok shared a scary DoorDash story, saying she was thankful it all happened while she was staying at a hotel.
In a storytime video that got over 546,000 views, travel and van life content creator Abby Joselyn (@abby.joselyn) recounted the unsettling behavior she says she experienced from a DoorDash driver.
What Did The DoorDash Driver Allegedly Do?
“I DoorDashed food to my hotel last night, and the lady that worked at the front desk almost called the police,” Joselyn starts. “So glad that I’m staying in a hotel, because I actually cannot fathom this man coming to my house,” she says.
According to Joselyn, she ordered food around 8:15 p.m., and the app said it should arrive between 8:58 and 9:14 p.m.
Then, she says, she got a strange message from the driver.
“I am notifying you,” the message read. “And I do it if I’m going to be late. To avoid problems.”
It’s worth noting that if the grammar seems questionable, it’s because these messages are being automatically translated from Spanish to English in-app.
Joselyn says she initially told him it was OK. At that point, it was around 9:17 p.m., meaning her food should have already arrived.
By 9:30 p.m., she checked his location and says he appeared to be stopped at a house. According to her, he stayed there for around 20 more minutes.
So she messaged him.
“Are you done with the other order?” she wrote. “The time keeps increasing. Are you on your way?”
Joselyn says that right after she sent the message, the driver started moving again. He then sent her a photo taken from his car and asked whether she could see that he was moving. He did so rather aggressively.
The DoorDash Driver Starts Sending Scary Messages
“Please, are we all crazy or what?” one message read. “I’m not in the mood for games. Or do you want to get me in trouble?”
Joselyn says she tried to calm the situation down and explained that she was just checking when he would arrive.
But then, according to her, the driver stopped again and started sending several more messages, including saying he was going to cancel her order.
At that point, Joselyn says she no longer wanted him to come up to her hotel room.
“I’ll just meet you in the lobby,” she recalls telling him.
When he got to the hotel, she says he sent her a photo from the lobby. But she says the DoorDash map still did not show him as being there.
Joselyn asked him to leave the food at the front desk. According to her, he refused.
“Just come get your food, and that’s it,” she recalls him saying.
When she again asked him to leave it at the desk, he allegedly replied, “No, I have to hand it to you. Come on, hurry up.”
By then, Joselyn says he was sending messages back-to-back, and she was scared.
“Why does this man need me to come downstairs?” she asks. “Why can’t you just leave it at the front desk?”
Joselyn’s mom came down with her because neither of them wanted the other to go alone.
When they got to the lobby, Joselyn says the driver was standing there with the food and staring at them.
“He hands us the DoorDash,” she says.
As he walked out of the hotel, she says he began swearing.
“He’s like, ‘These [expletive] [expletive], they’re gonna cost me my job,’” she recalls.
His Behavior Alarmed the Hotel Receptionist
Later, Joselyn says her mom went back downstairs to ask the hotel for silverware. That is when the front desk worker allegedly told them she was already pulling the footage.
“She was like, ‘Oh my God, are you OK?’” Joselyn says.
According to Joselyn, the hotel worker was nervous because the driver had her room number.
“I called DoorDash, and I’m like, this man should not be going to anyone’s home,” she says.
She says the messages were all sent through the DoorDash app, and the hotel allegedly had video of him screaming profanities.
According to Joselyn, DoorDash told her he would be blocked from the platform. But that did not completely reassure her.
“He’s probably just gonna go to Uber Eats or something,” she says.
Joselyn says the scariest part was thinking about what could have happened if he had been delivering to her real address.
“You order an Uber, that person now has your address,” she says. “When you order DoorDash, that person now has your address. How scary that is.”
She says she kept thinking about what might have happened if the driver blamed her for getting removed from DoorDash.
“What if he would have had my address and come back to my house or something?” she says. “This is your sign to be careful.”
Do ‘Scary DoorDash Stories’ Happen Often?
DoorDash says it verifies Dashers’ identities and uses third-party background checks for prospective and existing drivers.
But customers still sometimes report frightening or inappropriate experiences involving delivery drivers.
On TikTok, one woman warned other women not to use their real name on the app, saying a DoorDash driver followed her on Instagram after she picked up her food. This means the driver saved and later looked up the customer’s name, which goes against DoorDash rules.
On r/doordash, a customer said they ordered breakfast at around 10 a.m. and tipped $10 on a roughly $25 order. At 3 a.m. the next morning, they claimed they recognized the same Dasher on their apartment building’s camera. According to the post, the Dasher returned with two other men and buzzed the customer’s apartment.
Another customer said their Dasher became angry when asked to follow the “leave at door” instruction, grabbed the doorknob, and attempted to open the customer’s door. The poster caught the whole event on their Ring camera.
While most deliveries happen without incident, unsafe situations are not unheard of.
Commenters Shared Their Safety Practices
In the comments, several viewers said they have changed how they use delivery apps.
“I changed my name to Mike and have had zero problems since,” one commenter wrote. “No bs.”
Another person worried that being blocked from DoorDash would not necessarily stop someone from delivering elsewhere.
“He’ll just sign up for another DoorDash account,” they wrote. “They do it all the time.”
Others said they also avoid using a visibly feminine name on food delivery orders.
“This is why I use a male name on my orders and only do leave it at the door and then wait until I see them drive away to I get it lol,” one commenter wrote.
</script@abby.joselyn Also just got a message from DoorDash saying HE reported ME
♬ original sound – Abby Joselyn
The Mary Sue has reached out to DoorDash via email and Joselyn via TikTok messages for comment.
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