Hyderabad woman alleges Swiggy Genie stole laptop, demanded Rs. 15,000

Hyderabad: A Hyderabad-based woman has accused a Swiggy Genie delivery person of stealing her husband’s laptop and later demanded a ransom of Rs. 15,000 for its return. The incident was highlighted on LinkedIn by Nishitha Gudipudi.

Nishitha Gudipudi said her husband used Swiggy Genie to transport his backpack, which contained a laptop, from one office to another in Madhapur. The delivery person allegedly opened the bag midway, discovered the laptop, and then turned off his phone. Initially, the family attributed the incident to be an error on their part for using the service to deliver the laptop. However, the situation took a troubling turn.

Nishitha reported that when they contacted Swiggy customer care, the company was unable to identify the delivery person involved. Instead, Swiggy sent two photos and asked Gudipudi to identify the individual. It appeared that the person registered with Swiggy had allowed someone else to use their login credentials, leading to the theft.

The next day, Nishitha managed to reach the delivery person via WhatsApp. He claimed that a friend had used his login and promised to investigate. Shortly after, Nishitha received a WhatsApp message from the same number, blackmailing her to pay Rs. 15,000 to have the laptop returned through a Rapido delivery.

On LinkedIn, Nishitha Gudipudi criticised Swiggy for its hiring practices and the security of its delivery system. She expressed concern over the potential risks posed by such incidents and the inadequacies in Swiggy’s identification and tracking processes. Nishitha Gudipudi also shared photos of the delivery person and the blackmail message, highlighting the discrepancy between the registered and actual individuals involved.

Nishitha questioned the company’s ability to ensure public safety and safeguard against criminal activities.

Swiggy has yet to respond to the incident.

In the wake of this incident, LinkedIn users have voiced their concerns. Anirban Sadhu commented, “In the hunger for growth, all these ride-hailing and food-delivery companies have stopped enforcing KYC norms. I was astonished when a hub manager from one of these companies openly threatened me on LinkedIn for posting about issues caused by their riders, and the social media team did not even reprimand their employee.”

Another user, Seemant Aggarwal, shared a similar experience, “I faced something similar two years ago with Wefast. My PS4 was stolen, but they had an internal ‘recovery team’ that ensured the delivery person returned my items to me.”