This Disabled Woman Tipped 26% And Asked Her Grubhub Driver To Drop Her Food Where She Could Get It — He Purposely Left It Out Of Her Reach, And We Need To Hold Businesses Accountable For Disability Discrimination
Meet Hunter. She has incurable leukemia (a subset of chronic lymphocytic leukemia), along with Ankylosing Spondylitis. "I use a wheelchair for pain, as chemo has weakened my bones and the AS is fusing my spine. I also have significant fatigue from everything," Hunter told BuzzFeed.
And Hunter recently caught the attention of over 3.5 million people when she took to TikTok to share an awful experience she had ordering food from Grubhub. "When people talk about disability discrimination, this is kind of what they're referencing. Yesterday, I ordered some food from Grubhub, and when my food was delivered, I received this message from my driver. ... My driver, in retaliation for receiving a 26% tip — which he did not like — left my food in the middle of my driveway," she explains in her TikTok.
"I am in a wheelchair, so I couldn't go get my food in the middle of my driveway. I ended up having to wait an hour until my caregiver came home so I could eat. When I approached Grubhub about the issue, they decided it wasn't that big of a problem and didn't do a whole lot. So I am hoping we can spread some awareness here as to how this is discriminatory and hopefully things like this never happen again," she concluded in her TikTok.
Hunter said she wasn't shocked by the Grubhub driver's actions, she was just incredibly frustrated. "Not being able to get to my food meant I couldn’t take my pain medication, so I had to play catch-up with my pain later. Thankfully, I don’t have something like diabetes where not having food could’ve been an emergency," she said.
"I used to work as a server before I became sick, so I know that things have been incredibly difficult for people living on tipped wages. My caregiver/partner earns tips at her second job. I wasn’t aware that he could see the tip before ordering so he could’ve declined the order."
"He did deliberately leave my food where he did. I have a note, that hopefully comes off as polite, for anyone who delivers food to me asking them to place it by the door that’s easiest for me to get to. I don’t list that I’m in a wheelchair in the notes, as it’s a safety issue. However, as soon as I stated in the text that I was in a wheelchair, things could've been better addressed by him I think."
It looks like the driver just responded with a snarky message saying, "Glad to be of service" after Hunter stated that she was in a wheelchair.