Man Accidentally Yells at DoorDash Driver Instead of His Dog — Then Sets Out to Apologize in Person
GoFundMe
An Australian man unknowingly yelled at his food delivery driver when he actually meant to scold his dog — and then set out to make it right.
Mark Polchleb posted a now-viral TikTok on Thursday showing the unfortunate misunderstanding. "Can someone please tell this sweet sweet Uber Eats man I was yelling at my dog and not him," Polchleb writes at the start of the video, which has over 36.4 million views and 6.8 million likes.
In the video that quickly incited a viral saga, Polchleb is visibly upset laying in his bed. The TikTok then cuts to footage of a food delivery driver waiting to hand over a McDonald's order on his porch. Amid loud barking, Polcheb sternly yells, "Get away from the door mate!"
RELATED: Paris Hilton Joins the Irwin Family in New Uber Eats Campaign: 'That's So Crikey'
The directive led the delivery man named Sami to slowly back away from the bag he had just placed on the doormat until completely gone from the porch — assuming Polchleb's shout was directed at him. According to TODAY, this was definitely not the case.
"I didn't realize until I reviewed the footage that he could have misunderstood me yelling at my dog," Polchleb told the network in a direct message, adding that his heart sank when he viewed the footage. "It was too late to explain. I couldn't bear the thought of someone thinking I disrespected them for just doing their job!"
TikTok commenters were just as heartbroken for Sami, as well as impressed with how polite he acted even while being shouted at.
"He was trying to tell you he had to take a picture because he didn't physically hand it to you," one wrote.
"I WOULD BE IN TEARS FOR WEEKS IF I DID THIS OMG CAN YOU FIND HIM ON YOUR APP SOMEHOW," another user commented.
"I WOULD LOSE SLEEP FOR DAYS," reads another one of the 28,000 plus comments the video received.
"I've genuinely lost sleep over this," Polchleb says in a follow-up TikTok.
The follow-up videos continued, as Polcheb set out on a five-part journey to find Sami to apologize in person. The first step of Polchleb's journey was discovering that Sami worked for DoorDash, not Uber Eats, which he shared in his second TikTok.
Unfortunately, DoorDash's guidelines do not allow users to contact their dashers through the app after 24 hours. Luckily for Polchleb, Sami's daughter was one of the millions of viewers his original TikTok reached.
"It turns out, with the amazing thing that is TikTok, it took only two days to track him down," Polchleb said. "His daughter stumbled across my original TikTok after around 7 million views, and I was able to connect with her, and then her dad."
Polchleb arranged to meet with Sami, apologized, and even gave him a gift as both an apology and a thank you.
"This afternoon I got to head out and meet with my DoorDasher Sami to say thank you in person and make sure he was happy," Polchleb said in part five of the TikTok journey. "It was great to meet him and his family who were so so proud of him working to raise money to see his son overseas."
RELATED: Brothers Offer Food Delivery Service from Black-Owned Restaurants: 'We Wanted to Help'
Even DoorDash was in awe of Sami's "dashing" delivery skills and admirable behavior. "️We're so inspired by your love and kindness for Sami that we're going to award him Top Dasher status for life and extra Dasher pay," the company commented on the fourth TikTok update.
Though Polchleb and Sami may have gotten off on the wrong foot, they have promised to keep in touch with one another.
Following the viral videos, Sami's daughter Mary created a GoFundMe for her father to visit his son in France.
"I came to Australia 8 years ago as refugee and I haven't seen my son for 10 years. He lives in France, and I have to do some work to book for a (plane) ticket to see him," the page's description reads.
The GoFundMe has already raised over $6,000 Australian dollars, which is roughly $4,000 U.S. dollars.
