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by autoexec 1422 days ago
My guess is that either DoorDash doesn't want to invest in preventing what is basically fraud on their platform or they've discovered that they actually make more money if they enable it and let it continue no matter how terrible the experience is for the people who order food.

Uninstall DoorDash and the problem goes away for you, and if enough people uninstall DoorDash the math changes and the problem goes away for everybody. As a bonus you'll save a fortune by not paying the higher food prices and fees and you'll stop giving up some personal information in the process.

3 comments

> DoorDash doesn't want to invest in preventing what is basically fraud on their platform or they've discovered that they actually make more money if they enable it

The latter. Of course, it drives users to uninstall. But it juices today’s returns. (Uber Eats does the same. Sometimes I report it to zero effect.)

Caviar used to be a high-quality service in New York; I uninstalled it after DoorDash bought them. There is an open niche for a real-restaurants-only delivery service. Also, support for legislation requiring restaurants use the name on their food license on apps. (Using fake names makes tracking down food poisoning difficult. I assume someone lying about their brand is more likely to be sloppy elsewhere.)

> There is an open niche for a real-restaurants-only delivery service

... but not at a sustainable price for workers and consumers. The trajectory of this industry is birthing crazy illogical things like ghost kitchens, weird liminal areas of food service that's not quite restaurant, not quite food-delivery, shaping bad human behaviors and creating dark patterns due to excess capital and perverse incentives.

Food costs. Making it, serving it, cleaning up. It costs more than people are willing to pay, maybe there's a strata of the market for whom the value is worth it, but not for the majority. Pizza delivery within a radius is successful but not everything can scale.

what do you use now? caviar is still alright in my neighborhood but I'm looking for the next thing...
> what do you use now?

Call the restaurant or go out.

We had a window of honesty. But when purveyors lie about from where their food comes, and everyone from the delivery people to the restaurants and developers go along, the chain is morally bankrupt.

See, obviously they just left out the blocks. If that chain was blocked? BOOM BABY! Absolute true fucking truth and the best Indian food you ever tasted.

Just add some blocks.

> or they've discovered that they actually make more money if they enable it and let it continue no matter how terrible the experience is for the people who order food.

This seems like the most likely case, considering the other ethical problems with doordash.

Totally, I imagine they incentivize / encourage bad restaurants to appear as ghost kitchen brands on their platform, and to algorithmically inflate reviews so that most averages appear to be over 4.0.