Go-Jek Driver Passive Aggressively Scolded Passenger, Got Blasted Online, Apologised & Made a Police Report

This morning, as I woke up happily in my room, waiting to start the new season of The OA in Netflix, my editor suddenly opened the door.

Me: Eh, wait, why are you here…

Editor: Don’t talk. Watch this video.

He showed me a video on his phone, and 6 minutes and 31 seconds later, we looked at each other and for the first time in our lives, we agreed on something.

“Jovina’s bae has been found,” we said together, our eyes sparkling and before I could say anything, he sent the link of the video to me.

“I’m going to queue up for Tiger Sugar now,” he muttered. “Write about this; it’s not every day that a video about Go-Jek went viral so quickly.”

“But it’s a Sunday—”

“Don’t make my problem your problem. See you.”

And he vanished into thin air, and here I am.

But like what he said, it’s not every day that a video about Go-Jek went viral so quickly, so let’s dive into this story that’s set to be yet another story that’ll provide even more free publicity for the new ride-hailing firm in Singapore.

Enter Aaron Heng

Before you think it’s yet another “Is it because I’m a Chinese”, hold your horses: this story isn’t just about online shaming. It’s about technical glitches, highly subtle passive aggressiveness, reverse delegation (??) and most importantly, betrayal from close friends.

So, Mr Heng is a Go-Jek driver who wears a pair of frameless glasses with neat dyed hair. A typical Singaporean, he tends to fold his arms when problems arise, and just like a typical boss, he hates it when he has to solve people’s problem.

Therefore, he seems to have a motto in life: “Don’t make your problem my problem.”

Sounds so much like our boss and my Enick in NS, but anyways.

Yesterday, this video went viral.

Note that it’s uploaded by Facebook Page SBS – Sure Boh Singapore (and other Facebook Pages), because the initial uploader has deleted the video.

But who’s the initial person who uploads the video then?

Read on and you’ll be…erm, shocked.

So, if you’ve watched through the 6 minutes 31 seconds video, you can scroll down to the sub-header of “What Really Happened”. If not, here’s a summary of a few key dialogues that has struck the nerves of some netizens.

In the video, it started with the male elderly passenger calling Go-Jek customer service hotline, as on his app, it has shown the price to be at $14.10, but the driver’s app showed that the price is $21.10.

During the call, the driver regularly passively aggressively scolded the elderly couple, but the elderly couple kept their cool.

Here are a few sentences from the driver that made him the next Jovina:

“$7 you want to make an issue? You waste my time. Eh! You’re driving Mercedes one is it?”

“I’m not a millionaire like you.”

As the driver got more aggressive, the elderly told the Go-Jek customer service officer to “get your driver to bear with it”.

And then the driver went, “Bear with it? I’m driving to earn the incentive, you know that? I don’t earn $2,000 a day, you know? The incentive is only $205 for your info, you know?”

Finally, this was what made him the next big thing on the Internet: “It’s okay. I already got a recording…Don’t worry, I’ll make it very big…If you can find on Facebook, I’ll make sure I’ll remember you.”

He then kept on emphasizing that the elderly couple shouldn’t make their problem his problem, adding this: “Wait you know why? Because if you sort out with Go-Jek, Go-Jek will minus out the $7 from my account. Let me put it clear to you, anything it becomes driver’s problem. Always driver’s problem. That is the problem.”

Well, pretty clear what’s happening, right?

Passive aggressiveness + self-pity + everything your damn fault

What Really Happened

Pretty sure after the “Is it because I’m Chinese?” incident, no private hire driver would dare to film a passenger and post it online.

And Aaron Heng allegedly got that memo, as he wasn’t the one who posted it online.

Because out of nowhere, the hero of the video decided to come out and told us what happened.

Apparently, he had sent the video to a group of close friends, and one of them posted it online.

He then, unlike Jovina, apologised for his actions as he was “facing a lot of stress to meet the targets.”

But unfortunately, he added a whole lot of other things that are irrelevant, like how he tried looking for other jobs (?), how he paid a meal for a disabled person (??), how he’s got mouths to feed (???), how the terms are challenging (????) and whatnot.

However, despite that, I thought his last paragraph was sincere enough: “Lastly, I want to apologise for my behaviour as shown in the video as time is precious to us as a private hirer driver. I was unnecessarily rude. I was not respectful. I did not explain myself clearly. I pray for a chance to make good.”

While there are too many unnecessary points in his apology, you’ve got to admit to this: he did apologise.

However, as I am writing this and editing the entire content, the post somehow vanished, and I could not find his Facebook account anymore.

Made Police Report 

In the latest twist of event, the driver made a police report, and even listed down the names of those people in the WhatsApp Group.

His reason for the police report? He wanted to know what to do next. Definitely not to show the authorities that he wasn’t the one who leaked the video.

That escalated fast.