Hyderabad Woman Claims Swiggy Genie Agent Stole Laptop, Company Reacts

A Hyderabad woman recently claimed that a Swiggy Genie delivery partner stole her laptop and then demanded Rs 15,000 to return it. Nishitha Gudipudi, a civil engineer, took to LinkedIn to share the details about the shocking incident. She said that her husband booked Swiggy Genie a few days ago to pick up his backpack from one office to drop at another city's Madhapur area. The delivery partner picked up the backpack with the laptop inside, however, in between the ride he switched off his phone, the woman said. 

"He basically stole the laptop and intitially we thought okay partially error at our end too to use genie to deliver the laptop but how things took a turn after is what really surprised and scared us," Ms Gudipudi said. 

The LinkedIn user said that when her husband reached out to customer care, they were unable to identify the delivery agent who was on their booking and ended up sending two pictures asking which one came to pick up the parcel. Ms Gudipudi and her husband suspected that Swiggy's system allows a person to register using his Aadhar or PAN and then permits anyone to use their credentials. 

The "most of all the scariest part," according to Ms Gudipudi was when the couple contacted the Swiggy agent via WhatsApp and the delivery executive claimed that his friend used his login. "I'll check and get back,' the agent told the couple. However, immediately after the call they received a message from the same number demanding Rs 15,000 to have the laptop delivered through Rapido. 

Also Read | Pic Of Old Plane Boarding Passes Goes Viral, Internet Spots Shocking Detail

In her post, Ms Gudipudi shared screenshots of the WhatsApp conversation between her husband and the person who demanded the money. She also shared pictures of the man registered with Swiggy, the other man who Swiggy accepted to log in through facial recognition. 

Swiggy has issued an official statement regarding the incident. "At Swiggy, safeguarding our consumers' safety and trust is our top priority. This incident breaches our code of conduct, and the delivery executive involved has been removed from our platform. We are in contact with the customer and are supporting the authorities investigating the matter to resolve this issue promptly" the e-commerce platform said in a statement to NDTV. 

Meanwhile, in the comments section, one user wrote, "I regret the situation; however, the Swiggy team should take action and resolve it. Otherwise, the public's trust, human ethics, and customer satisfaction have all decreased". 

"That's horrible and absolutely unacceptable, Nishitha. 'Middlemen' companies like Zomato, Swiggy, Ola, Uber etc need to understand that focusing on security is extremely important for them," commented another. 

"In the hunger for growth, all these ride-hailing and food-delivery companies stopped enforcing KYC norms. I was amazed when a few months ago, one if their hub managers openly threatened me on LinkedIn for posting against the nuisance created by their riders, and the social media team," wrote a third user.