u/Not_a_Termite

First of all, I am suffering from a serious illness that makes it extremely difficult for me to gain weight. To give you an idea, I’m 5’ 10” and weight 118-120lbs. I am an adult male. I am fully aware of how messed up I look due to my illness, and the fact that I’m a weird looking guy to begin with doesn’t help. I am in constant pain, and doordashing (which I consider an easy job relative to my previous positions, given I’m basically sitting the whole time listening to podcasts) has even become very difficult due to extreme malaise and abdominal pain that frequently takes me down to the floor crying. I doordash to help my family pay for my medical bills, as I literally cannot do anything else for work at the moment. I even had to withdraw my anatomy 2 course because of this illness, as it’s effecting my ability to remember anything (I imagine from malnutrition, and the fact that I wake up 5 times a night from pain/having to urgently run to the bathroom).

Anyways, I was at a store today, waiting for an order. To give you an idea of my interactions with the staff, prior to their non-subtle remarks, here is exactly what occurred. I promise this is important. I arrived, said hello with a smile, and showed them my order. They told me it was still being prepared, so I sat down at the bar to wait. While I was sitting there, I began to hear the owner of the store and the bartender (20ft away from me) very clearly discussing my sickly appearance, and laughing to themselves. At first I thought I was mistaken, but they began to say very specific things, thinking I could not hear them. Both owners of the store were involved (wife and husband), and the bartender. One by one, they glanced back at me, as if viewing a freak show, and since I was looking at them in shock, each made eye contact with me for a moment, before doing that thing where you look around elsewhere to act like you weren’t just judging someone. What is so interesting about the ceiling? After a minute or two of offensive remarks that they clearly didn’t know i heard, my order was ready. The bartender gave it to me with a scowl (being ugly and a doordash driver doesn’t warrant kindness I guess). I took the bag without saying anything and left. A totally mundane interaction that should be unremarkable for a restaurant that sees a good deal of business. When I got to my car, I started crying, and realized I should say something. So, I left a review (I have eaten here with my family in the past, and have ordered takeout from them before, mind you. I wouldn’t have left a review otherwise).

I don’t leave bad reviews, ever. I think that doing so is silly, but in this case I just had to say something, because it felt cosmically messed up in the context of my illness, and being stuck doordashing like a wage slave (I frequently make less that minimum wage for my city, and gas being what it is) to pay my medical bills. Being mocked in this situation is just such a slap in the face.

As I was about to submit my review, I considered waiting a few hours or days, as it would have made it harder for them to potentially retaliate, jeopardizing my account. However, I then realized that there was a chance these people would reply by accusing me of being a driver.

1. How often do drivers leave reviews relative to customers?
2. Reviews can be left years after a visit.
3. Many drivers and customers visit this store daily, and it was Friday.

I hoped that they would inadvertently admit that I was telling the truth. Well, a few hours after they closed, they friggin replied, and pinpointed me as their main suspect. Enjoy the screenshots (they are split up, as I can’t fit all of it into one screenshot).

I obviously contacted support to block this store from ever being recommend to me again. They said that they opened an investigation, and “upper management” profusely apologized to me for having to deal with that. I’m aware that their investigation will not help me in any way. I just wanted to block the store, which they did for me.

Hopefully my counter is logically sound. If I did something wrong here, please let me know! I figure maybe some of you might relate to this, and just want to be heard by others who might understand.

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Edit: Just want to thank everyone for your support and want to acknowledge some things.

First, thank you so much to everyone who has said nice things here. I’ve been very depressed for months now, and the amount of support this has gotten has made me feel heard and appreciated for the first time in a while. Doordashing is mentally draining as it is, to have people then blatantly insulting you over something you cannot control is just the icing on the cake. I don’t have many friends who would listen to me complain about something like this, so I really do appreciate everyone who took a moment to read this and reply.

I’ve received a few criticisms here which I think are fair.

1. A few people now have told me I’m overreacting.

I actually agree with you on that. I never do stuff like this, and often role my eyes at similar posts on Reddit. I am a grown man, and at this point should be able to just role with the punches. If at all, I probably should have just said something to them while it was happening. IMO, leaving a bad review is petty and vaguely immature no matter how you slice it. Posting the entire situation, and spending my entire night formulating this Reddit post is also petty, and at its core I was probably subconsciously looking for complements. I’ll just say that I have never felt so disrespected by a restaurant, and their one big gaslight/threat of a reply was so wild that I thought I might share. I just couldn’t believe that the owners would reply with something so stupid, and that my prediction panned out. I’m honestly sorry if my post bothers some of you, it sort of bothers me too.

2. “Post the name of the restaurant”

Although I would like for these people to suffer consequences for being complete and utter a-holes, and I appreciate people’s willingness to take action on another persons behalf, I also recognize that this is their entire life. I would not be happy if this small business had to close because of what happened with me. It is human nature to be a prick sometimes, and we all make mistakes. These people may have children, and large bills of their own that they need to pay. Furthermore, I’m vaguely aware of people being sued for leaving negative reviews. I didn’t record what they were saying, so I imagine I could lose in court, regardless of the fact that they essentially admitted to doing what I accused them of. The last thing I need right now is to pay for a lawyer on top of 5 MRIs, 2 CT, a colonoscopy, upper-endoscopy, HIDA scan, medication, and other procedures. I would literally be homeless if that happened lol. I would like this to end here, with the recognition that us drivers do experience the worst in people on a daily basis. Additionally, my name is tied to that review. I am a mildly well known individual within a field of science, and in other parts of Reddit (this is a burner). I’d rather not have this tied to the work I am doing in that area. Even though, objectively, I am right to be upset, it could potentially cloud people’s opinions of me.

If any of you happen upon my review in the wild, please don’t post the name of the restaurant!

This sticky brown, goo like substance was on some of the fries. Some of the fries themselves also had holes going through them, with texture and color like in the second image. I noticed after I bought them that the bag had a very small hole through which air could escape. Can’t find anything like the goo mentioned anywhere online, and I’m concerned.

The brand is Russet House and I got these at Costco.