Please check to make sure your driver can leave ;-;

Disclaimer: I’m on mobile.

I was having a good night so far. Only had a couple more hours left and needed to make $60.

I got an order that I thought was going to be pretty easy. Less than 5miles and over $10 which sounded great. I picked up the order and saw that the delivery instructions said “Hand it to me: please call (xxx-xxx-xxxx) once you arrive so I can open the gate for you.” Okay cool easy enough. I got to the customer’s place, call them with *67, they opened the gate, I drove down their driveway to their house, handed them the order, and went back to my car. Drove back to the gate and waited. The gate didn’t open. I pulled forward. The gate doesn’t open. I pulled forward some more.

The. Gate. Doesn’t. Open.

Okay, no need to panic, I’ll just call the customer to open the gate. I can’t call them since the order has been delivered. Okay I’ll just message them.

No response.

That’s fine I’ll just go knock on their door and ask them to open the gate. I walk back to their house and knock on the door. No response. I see that they have a camera doorbell. I ring the doorbell. The doorbell doesn’t work. I knock again. No response. I try the doorbell again.

No response. Where did she go?

Since this wasn’t working I figured I would just call support and they could call the customer:

DDS: “Hello this is DD support, how can I help you”

Me: “Hi I’m stuck on the customer’s property. Can you call them to let me out?”

DDS: “Yes I see that you marked the order as delivered. The order is a hand it to me order so just hand it to them.”

Me: “No the customer already has the order. I’m stuck on the customer’s property and can’t get out. Their gate won’t open”

DDS: “Okay well maybe see if you can hand them the order?”

Me: “They already have the order. Can you please call them so they can open the gate so I can leave?”

DDS: “Since the order is already delivered I can’t call the customer. Let me transfer you to a supervisor”

They transfer me to a supervisor who tried to call the customer. They then let me know that since the customer isn’t answering there isn’t much they can do. They try calling the customer again and then they hang up on me. Of course they hang up on me.

Shit. I wanna cry.

I’m still stuck and it’s been 15-20 minutes. I start honking my horn and no response. I then walk back to the house and try pounding on the door. My car alarm is blaring. Still no response. I start yelling the customer’s name asking them to please let me out.

Still no response. Should I just break the gate?

It’s been 30 minutes and nothing is working. I’m convinced that the customer was a ghost and evaporated after I handed her the order. Was there even a customer in the first place?? I remembered that I called the customer with *67 and try calling them again. I get sent to voicemail and leave the most pitiful message ever, “Hi this is Op, I’m stuck at your gate still and can’t get out. Please let me out or call me back. Thanks ;-;”

It’s been 40 minutes. No amount of door banging or horn honking is going to get me out. Fuck it. I’m calling the cops.

I call the non emergency number and get transferred a few times. I get a hold of an operator. Explain the story again and get told that they’ll be dispatching an officer shortly. Finally. Some help.

At the 50 minute mark the officer arrives. My savior. He kind of laughs as I’m standing at the gate. He tells me that he’s going to try a code to open the gate. It doesn’t open. Of course it doesn’t open. He then tells me to wait a moment and he gets back in the car. Sir I promise you I’m not going anywhere.

Finally after an hour of involuntary imprisonment/ borderline kidnapping, the officer lets me know that dispatch called the customer and that they’re opening the gate now. I’m good to go. I can taste freedom. I turn around to wave at the customer.

They were in the back yard the whole time.

TLDR: I was trapped on a customer’s property for an hour. The customer wasn’t responding to my cries for freedom. DoorDash support hung up on me when I asked for help and I had to call the cops. Please make sure that your drivers can leave your property.