An employee of an Uber Eats restaurant has been blasted over an unprofessional and somewhat rude exchange with a customer who queried where their order was.
Joe Stephen ordered a bite to eat from a pizza shop in the US state of New Jersey on Friday evening, but came to regret the decision after querying a longer than expected wait.
In a text message to the restaurant, Stephen said he had not received his order yet despite having waited 45 minutes – what he received back was the beginning of an ugly spat that ultimately saw the establishment go viral for all the wrong reasons.
The employee responded saying, "checking it's rush hour", to which Stephen informed them he hadn't received the order still, but would check his front desk just in case.
A passive-aggressive reply came next, asking Stephen if he would "like us to get somebody to jump into a helicopter" for him due to delays caused by flooding and heavy traffic.
Notably gobsmacked, Stephen responded saying: "excuse me?".
"It's rush hour and pouring outside … don't be a douchebag," the employee wrote back.
Stephen replied saying he couldn't believe what he had just been sent, saying: "I have never in my life experienced this. I was respectful and just asking if everything was OK".
He went further to explain he ordered from the restaurant because it had an estimated delivery time of 25-45 minutes, and called on the employee to "be a better person".
"Run a more efficient business. Absolutely the most rude customer service text I've ever gotten in my entire life," he wrote.
His stern message did little to dissuade the employee from continuing their nasty tirade though.
"We're doing fine Karen. Literally the only person that would complain during a flood event before Uber's ETA," they wrote.
Stephen hit back saying that because he had been indoors working all day, he had no idea about the flooding outside.
"I also wasn't complaining, ever. Don't know what your issue is," he added.
The employee sent back a screenshot of current weather warnings in place for the area, with Stephen responding saying he hadn't received any alerts to his phone.
"I'm sorry I ordered. Understand its barely raining by me," he wrote.
The worker came back for more, telling Stephen, "you must live under a rock. This has been top story all over the news".
Stephen remained shocked at what he was reading, writing, "again with you being extremely rude!" and explaining he had been stuck behind his computer working his sales job and hadn't had a chance to watch any news.
He recommended the business consider giving someone else the customer service reins if they continued to be "bitter and a douche to your customers".
Again the worker claimed the business was functioning perfectly, and its "four stars or higher" rating was evidence it was doing fine.
Stephen eventually reported that his meal had finally arrived, and told the employee not to get excited about a "rave review" from him.
The worker continued with their unsavoury approach, telling him, "we love when men write bad reviews" and threatening him with sharing his review "all over our social media".
"Short man small penis syndrome," they wrote.
Stephen sarcastically remarked: "awesome, keep going", and revealed he had never bothered to leave a review, but intended to make an exception.
The worker then claimed his address and phone number would be spread across the shop's social media, and that he was "furious that a driver didn't speed through floodwater during rush hour".
"We need this type of content to help with the algorithm," they added.
Stephen accused the worker of being "delusional", given they had the same messages on their phone as he did which clearly showed he hadn't been "furious" like they accused him.
The worker responded sarcastically saying they couldn't wait for his review.
In a wild twist, the business ultimately received far more than just Stephen's negative review after he shared a Facebook post with screenshots of their entire exchange.
Hundreds of negative reviews have been left on the business's Google page in recent days, many making reference to the unprofessional language used in the text exchange.
While the business's Facebook page has been removed, its Instagram page remains active but with no comments allowed.
It has also been repeatedly sharing previous positive reviews from "existing customers".
The restaurant and UberEats have been contacted by news.com.au for comment.