[epylar]

I ordered some things from UberEats early on in the quarantine. The restaurants made several errors and eventually UberEats said they wouldn't refund because I was having too many issues with my food, and it was 'unlikely' that a person would have that many issues. So I don't use them any more.

[Nextgrid]

Same experience here, both with wrong food as well as a bug in the app which caused a cached, previous cart to be ordered instead of the new cart from a different restaurant. I actually provided detailed steps to reproduce this and screenshots and they couldn't care less.

Both cases ended up with a chargeback.

Deliveroo is similar, they banned a 2 year old account used multiple times every day (for both me and my flatmates) with over 2k spent on it for supposed fraud when I dared to ask for "too many" refunds because of cold/incorrect food (if you place many orders you have more probability that something goes wrong, but their "fraud" scoring algorithm - that also influences whether you can get one-click refunds directly in the app - doesn't seem to take that into account).

Both Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats also often lie and blame the restaurant for being slow when they can't assign a driver. I've had multiple occurrences where an order is stuck on "Driver waiting at the restaurant" for 20+ minutes but calling the restaurant reveals that the food was ready long ago and nobody is coming to pick it up.

[hombre_fatal]

Though I'm kinda glad people who refund delivery food for being cold get kicked off the platform so that more reasonable people who know how to heat food up don't have to subsidize you and your expectations.

Btw how many times did you heat up and eat the food anyways after getting your refund?

[lol636363]

I don't think you can make excuses for UberEats or whatever. Food delivery is not a new problem. I have been ordering pizza and Chinese food for more than 2 decades. It is very rare when we received cold pizza. And most of the time when it happened resturants proactively refunded us or gave coupons for another time.

It is kind of amazing how many times UberEats, GrubHub, etc deliver cold food. Not just for me but vast majority of my friends report same thing.

As a consumer, I rather get refund so bad companies can go bankrupt before becoming too big to fail.

[AmVess]

I've had a very high number of failures to deliver in a timely manner, and several times when I wasn't delivered anything at all.

Twice, I have been left food that I did not order. Mind you, my house number is plainly visible in three locations from the street. They didn't even ring the doorbell. Just dropped it off on the porch and left.

These problems span across all delivery services.

I don't know who does the delivery for groceries, but I am at an almost 100% failure rate for drivers to follow simple directions. "Leave the order by the large garage door" is all it says. I've only had ONE driver do that.

I've given up on food delivery except for the pizza place that has its own drivers.

As far as I am concerned, all these services can go out of business.

[onemoresoop]

A restaurant business owner friend of mine is struggling to stay open and he lowered his fees to accept more orders on Seamless/Grubhub. Quite a bunch of people order food, receive it on time only to then, in a couple of hours, cancel the order. He filmed himself handing the delivery in to the person who ordered and showed it to the customer reps at Seamless/Grubhub and they don't do anything about it, he basically has to take the loss, multiple orders a day already. He isn't delivering to that address again if they re-order. But, at least here in NYC, there's no shortage of people who cancel they orders hours after they eat it.

[ThePowerOfFuet]

How is it even possible to cancel an order hours after it's been delivered?

[Nextgrid]

Seems like a technical problem or a shortcoming of the platform, but regardless, someone refusing video evidence like that (especially from who is essentially their business partner and has little incentive to commit fraud) is unacceptable. The problem is that support is outsourced to monkeys with no real power to investigate or change things and it's cheaper to fob you off than to assign the issue to someone with at least half a brain to see what's going on and make it right.

[URSpider94]

Because like all customer-focused apps, they are focused on customer retention and satisfaction. It’s much better to let customers cancel orders or complain after the fact and just refund their money, than it is to fight with them and have them leave a bad review - or worse, have them request a chargeback, too many of which will get you canceled from your card processor.

Meanwhile, the delivery platforms just push the cost back to the restaurants.

If restaurants had the guts to cancel their service with the delivery platforms, they could squeeze them into doing a better job, but at this time no restaurant can afford not to participate in the delivery economy, at any cost.

Reminds me about an article I read years and years ago about a company that was put out of business by Wal-Mart because Walmart would take almost anything back as a return and just forward it back to the company for a refund. They described getting tractor trailer loads back with empty boxes, boxes with most of the pieces missing, etc - all debited from their sales.

[Nextgrid]

> more reasonable people who know how to heat food up

If the food was advertised as potentially cold or wrong upfront with no guarantees it would be one thing and the market will adjust (only people who want to take the gamble would order).

It is not advertised as such, and the prices don't reflect it either. You are offered a deal where you pay money for warm, or at least correct food to be delivered. The problem is that one side doesn't want to uphold their part of the deal but still expects the other side to uphold its part (aka paying the money). That sounds like false advertising to me and we have laws against it for a reason.

> how many times did you heat up and eat the food anyways after getting your refund?

Cold food actually results in a partial refund which is fine by me (though the option for the full refund should still be offered IMO, as some foods might not taste the same after reheating though I haven't experienced this personally). For me cold food was never a big deal, it was the incorrect food that made up the majority of the problems, often they wouldn't respect the extra options like "no cheese", the food would be completely different from the description (I guess the restaurant changed the dish but didn't update the menu on the app) or outright receiving the wrong order with someone else's order receipt attached to it.

[hombre_fatal]

It's likely not the restaurant's fault it's cold. And the guy making $6/hr to deliver it to you tried their best, or got there later than they wanted to.

Once again, if you can't suck up the gamble that is delivery food, I'm glad you get kicked off the platform. I just wanted to give a response from another pov since you felt like you were wronged: I read your account of events and think "nice, the system is working."

[drevil-v2]

This is worst kind of argument one makes. You are constructing it in a manner that only serves to make the other person look like a jerk while the reality is much more nuanced.

Without any prior knowledge of the actors involved you assign all good traits to one side; the restaurant created a hot meal and the delivery person really tried their best to deliver on time, and then assign bad traits to the customer, they were unreasonable and should be more understanding.

There are people who don't do the right thing and if I am paying for something then I expect to receive what I paid for. You don't know me. Maybe I am struggling financially and the meal I ordered was a once in month treat for my wife and children and we can't afford the luxury of eating out. Maybe we were all looking forward to a family dinner. Maybe the restaurant fucked up. Maybe the driver is running multiple delivery apps and making a killing in these while the orders go cold.

So you can just fuck off.

[apatters]

His argument is faulty, but the fact of the matter is that Deliveroo owns the relationship with the customer. It's ultimately Deliveroo's job to make sure good food shows up in the right place at the right time. Failing that in a competitive market they will likely lose customers.

There's lots of examples in this thread and elsewhere that frankly most of these delivery companies aren't great at what they do.

Additionally a lot of them are shitty to their vendors (restaurants) - the post that spawned this whole debate being a perfect example. It's not necessarily Deliveroo's job to treat their vendors like royalty, but we give Walmart plenty of well deserved shit for abusing its vendors, no reason Deliveroo should be immune to criticism.

[randallsquared]

This viewpoint is bizarre to me.

I get that it's difficult to reliably deliver food from restaurant to apartment in a time which is short enough that the food is still hot (or still frozen, or whatever). But I notice that some restaurants from which I order on Seamless are always correct, always hot, and typically delivered within 20-25 minutes. Others are hit or miss with some or all of those considerations. If some restaurants always get this right, it's hard to imagine that the fault lies with Seamless or gambling.

[Nextgrid]

> It's likely not the restaurant's fault it's cold. And the guy making $6/hr to deliver it to you tried their best.

I never said it was either those people's fault (although I have seen drivers do other stupid things, like keeping pizzas vertically in their delivery backpack).

However it is the fault of the platform for advertising something and not delivering on its promise. The platform should be aware of how long it takes to deliver (taking traffic into account, especially for Uber which has access to that data already) and shouldn't risk offering deliveries if they can't reasonably guarantee the food won't be cold (or at least make it clear upfront - "this restaurant is far away and this might be cold - continue anyway?").

Again the problem here is we're talking about "move fast and break things" scum so being upfront and doing business fairly isn't part of their textbooks. Instead they hope most people don't kick up too much of a fuss and kick the ones that do. For what it's worth, I've never lost a chargeback case on these problems so seems like at least MasterCard agrees with me?

Not to mention if these were one-offs and everything else was great it would be somewhat excusable, but the other scummy things I've noticed (like lying about the restaurant being slow for their failure to have enough capacity) seems like this is not a one-off and the entire business plan is to be as scummy as they can get away with, preying upon unsuspecting customers who might not know they can do chargebacks.

> if you can't suck up the gamble that is delivery food

The problem is that it is not advertised as a gamble, quite the opposite actually. When a supplier sells me a product/service I expect them to deliver on their promise or compensate me if they get it wrong (I have been on the other side of this and made sure to compensate my client to make up for my failure). This is how business works in most industries, there's no reason why it should be different here IMO.

[blotter_paper]

I feel that both you and the commenter you've been arguing with are making mostly reasonable statements. I also think that for this particular industry you're probably part of the 20% of customers who cause 80% of the problems, and that this is why you're being booted from these platforms. Note that I have not made any statements about the ethics of the platforms' advertising.

[lnanek2]

> The platform should be aware of how long it takes to deliver (taking traffic into account, especially for Uber which has access to that data already) and shouldn't risk offering deliveries if they can't reasonably guarantee the food won't be cold

In my experience, the platforms are doing the exact opposite. A lot of times the driver is there, the food is there, and the driver is being told to wait for more orders. I've called and asked before on some of the platforms where you have the phone number.

That said, I've never seen someone bothered by having to put some delivery food in the microwave, though. It's sort of expected. About the only case where I've seen that is for pizza, and pizza places have their own drivers anyway.

So it's probably a good bet for the platform doing what they do. If you can serve twice as many customers this way, and have to ban 1/5 customers who have no microwave, you'd still come out ahead as a business.

[zerocrates]

> keeping pizzas vertically in their delivery backpack

This is a failstate in the recent video game Death Stranding, which yes, sometimes involves pizza delivery.

[random314]

Here is a tip - If you don't own a microwave, you should not use any delivery app.

[koolba]

Hot food that arrives cold is the same thing as cold food that warmed up. I wouldn’t expect to pay for late food that arrives cold any more than I’d be expected to pay for a melted ice cream cone.

[vkou]

I've never had cold food arrive when ordering directly from a restaurant.

If the food arrives cold, it's the platform's fault. If the platform can't figure out how to get food to arrive warm, its providing, in one dimension, a worse service than you would get without the platform.

[throwqqq]

I too enjoy a soggy burrito and think anyone who complains about being glopp is unreasonable.

[paranoidrobot]

UberEats's customer service, even prior to this has been awful.

While I'd prefer not to use UberEats, they've basically become the only option for a large number of restaurants around.

I've ordered food from a variety of places, including large internationally recognised chains.

About 20% of orders have something wrong. Sometimes it's minor things. Othertimes it's significant - like drinks and dishes missing.

So, I report them to Uber, and get a refund.

However now I get these snarky customer service form emails a few days later that gives these snide tips like "To better improve your delivery experience - make sure to be ready to collect your order promptly" followed by a semi-veiled threats of "We take fraud seriously and will terminate any suspicious accounts"

I'd be more than happy to submit photos or videos showing that the delivery driver gave me one bag when it's marked "1 of 2", or what items were actually in the bag - but no, just shit customer service.

e: I forgot to add - there's also zero way to contact them other than for a specific order.

I wanted to report to them a number of fake restaurants that someone is running out of their apartment. (The restaurant address is an actual residential apartment building, there's no commercial kitchen) There's no way to do that.

[rajup]

This. I've found UberEats customer service to be severely lacking compared to other food delivery services. I stopped using them after getting yet another completely wrong order (I'm vegetarian and was sent a dish containing meat) and having customer service rudely close my ticket without even an explanation or refund.

[ccktlmazeltov]

Honestly I find all delivery services to be pretty poor. Maybe it's because I don't tip but my food always get there pretty late and it is cold. I've tried tipping and it doesn't change much, it's just better to go to the restaurant and eat it while it's fresh.

[snake42]

> Maybe it's because I don't tip

I think that without tipping, you can expect your food to be delivered cold and late every order.

[CamperBob2]

The drivers don't know in advance what tip they're getting, do they? Doesn't seem to be the case on UberEats, anyway. Failure to tip will eventually result in fewer available drivers and later/colder deliveries, but it's a statistical thing rather than an individual consequence.

I live out in the middle of nowhere and consider myself lucky that they deliver at all, so if the food is a bit on the cold side I don't normally take it out on the driver. I've had other complaints with UberEats, but overall the service works about as well as can be expected.

[ccktlmazeltov]

I have tried tipping, then removing the tip after the delivery, same stuff.

[jboydyhacker]

Totally had the same experience. Ordered Starbucks and they forgot the coffee. Was 3rd order in a row that was messed up. It's a cluster of mismanagement over there.

[mathattack]

I hear you. I hosted an event for one of Uber’s earliest investors and UberEats f@cked up the order and showed up 90 mins late. I even called the restaurant a day in advance. Lots of finer pointing. Never trust them again.

[victor106]

This whole food delivery app business is a rip off for small restaurant owners.

The owners of a few restaurants I frequent all seem to hate these apps for how much they charge them. I heard approximately 30-40%. Sure they do bring in customers specially now but 30-40% seems too high if you consider what it costs the apps.

[prostoalex]

How does it compare to cost of hiring a web guy to build out an order system (admittedly, a one time expense) and a full time delivery guy? Pizza places have been doing it for ages, so can’t be that prohibitive.

[joking]

That you have your own website , app or accept request by phone doesn’t matter, the customers already have Uber or deliveroo app installed with their payment details saved and will use that because is more convenient than signup in another site.

What those apps charge to the restaurant is the money they expend on advertising to have those customers on first place. And the more money you expend on them, more money they will have to outbid you on marketing.

If you are searching on google for any place , you will see almost always advertising from those platforms before the owners site, just like booking does with the hotels, and like that the solution is to give some perks to people that reserve on your own site with reward cards or similar things, and also expend your own money on advertising instead of letting those platforms profit from you.

[prostoalex]

> That you have your own website , app or accept request by phone doesn’t matter, the customers already have Uber or deliveroo app installed

I dunno, one rarely wants just some generic burger/sandwich/pizza/sushi, brand loyalty in restaurant business tends to be strong.

I might be in the minority, but I usually start off with the restaurant Web site, and then just end up using whatever takeout/delivery app they link to.

[mifreewil]

Similar - I use DoorDash all the time and refuse to use UberEats ever again, absent they change their refund policy. UberEats treats customers like garbage.

Just read the App Store reviews for UberEats. If a driver isn’t able to deliver successfully they just cancel the order and blame the customer by default. Contacting customer support is met with robotic replies and they refuse refund.

Last time I just did a chargeback and won’t use them again.

[koolba]

If you get banned from UberEats do they blacklist you from Uber as well?

[timc13]

the inverse is true. I am banned from Uber and cannot sign up for UberEats

[thr0w__4w4y]

Appreciate the candor. Can I ask — what does it take to get banned by Uber?

[rajup]

Chargebacks usually result in Uber banning you till you pay them back.

[mifreewil]

I’m not banned, just refuse to be treated like garbage.

My guess is not.

[Teever]

I've always wondered what happens if you take a bigco like Ubereats to small claims court over issues like this.

[kube-system]

You waste your time, and small claims throws out your case because you agreed to arbitration with UberEats.

[htrp]

They usually don't show up and you get a default judgement

[quacker]

All of these comments make me thankful to have Favor as an option in Texas: https://favordelivery.com/cities. It's owned by HEB and does grocery delivery from HEB as well.

[pm90]

Favor is awesome, I used them a lot when they were a startup. HEB made a really good decision in acquiring them.

[PunchTornado]

Maybe you are too picky? Mistakes happen in restaurants and we shouldn't expect everything to be as we want. I never asked for refunds even when my food was completely different than what I ordered.

[Nextgrid]

Why not? In a physical restaurant you would casually mention it to the waiter and they'd apologise and offer to replace it for free. Similarly, if you order something online and get the wrong items delivered you'd send it back.

[blotter_paper]

That depends. When I didn't eat meat, I would definitely mention it if the special preps were skipped. But if it's not an issue of dietary restriction and the waiter brings me soup instead of salad as a side, I'll take the soup. I'm not slowing down the whole production line and getting a line cook chewed out so that I can have salad instead of soup.

[lol636363]

This is really amazing, I never thought that there are people who would accept wrong food in a resturant. Also finding it kind of unbelievable that there are so many people who accept cold food. Is it because right now a lot of us are feeling bad for resturants or is it normal behavior for some people?

If you are in a resturant with friends and get a wrong food, would you tell your friends? I am wondering because I have never seen anyone stay quite if their food order was wrong. Just wondering if it may have happened among my group of friends, and they quitely ate their food.

If Amazon ships you a wrong product, would you keep that instead of what you had ordered?

[fiblye]

Personally, I've made mistakes in daily normal tasks and know how it feels to have people make an issue out of little things. If the end result is the same (it goes in my gut and doesn't taste horrible), I'm not going to complain unless it's completely wrong. Paying for a $25 steak and getting chicken nuggets would be too far, but messing up a side won't ruin my day. It’s stressful working in a kitchen and I’d rather the workers not have too much trouble so long as the things I got taste fine.

I'm also unable to eat a certain common ingredient in cooking, and it's one that virtually every person on earth loves. I've found that complaining just results in them doubling that ingredient and I have no clue why. I've even gotten visible spit in my food before. Picking that ingredient out myself instead of mentioning it is usually better. I've grown a bit of tolerance for not getting what I want.

If I get a different package, it's probably not serving the same role, so I'll complain.

[blotter_paper]

In most situations I would probably note the mistake to my friends after I was sure that the waiter was out of ear shot, but not make a big deal out of it. I can think of one person who I wouldn't say anything to until we'd left the restaurant; I know from previous experience that he would bring it up to the waiter.

I think my treatment of the service industry changed significantly in high school, when I actually knew people who were working at restaurants and heard their stories of horrible customers. Having since worked at a restaurant and eaten out with lots of food service people, I believe that food service people tend to treat food service people better than others do (though I've seen exceptions both ways). I'm not trying to say this in a claiming-moral-superiority-via-kindness way, it's just a pattern I think I've seen in the world, and I think it kinda makes sense given the nature of granfalloons.

[yibg]

Isn't it better to point out a mistake so it can be fixed? In my work if I make a mistake I definitely don't want people to ignore it, otherwise how do I get better? You don't have to make a bit fuss or be rude about it, but I don't see anything wrong with pointing out something is wrong. At least it's better than just having a bad experience and not go back next time.

[blotter_paper]

>You don't have to make a bit fuss or be rude about it, but I don't see anything wrong with pointing out something is wrong.

In industries where people tend to treat each other sanely, I would agree. I believe that most kitchens are managed by assholes who chew out their cooks over minor mistakes, so this is a particular case where I don't think I have a choice about how feedback is given. I can be nice to the server, but the only way I can be nice to the cooks is to not make my issue known. If the restaurant industry wants my feedback, the restaurant industry needs to fix this horrible work culture problem. If they could stop sexually assaulting their staff on a regular basis that would be cool, too.

[vokep]

I honestly consider it a virtue to complain in such a situation. It might seem like it has negative consequences, but the reason I went to the restaurant and not another is because of an expectation they'll do their job as advertised. Bringing the wrong food is doing their job wrong, and letting it slide is indicating that that's ok. It isn't a big deal that has any major meaningful consequence usually, but just because its a small thing doesn't mean its ok. However I agree in not being too frustrated. If I got a wrong order and the restaurant refused to correct it, I'd try to enjoy whatever I got and then plan on that being the last time I visit that place.

[yibg]

That's a weird stance to me to be honest. If I order something I expect to get that thing. Otherwise why even order? Just sit down and get served something random. Especially if it's a correctable mistake. I mean if the style of cooking is just not to my taste, fine. But if the actual order is wrong, it can be fixed and I expect it to be fixed.