I’ll say I live in a big city and have never once used Doordash/Uber Eats/any other exploitative meal delivery app for that reason. But even then you’re not safe.
I once placed an online order for takeout, ordered on the actual site for the restaurant (not any of those branded online order services hosted by the meal delivery companies), picked the option that said I’d walk over and pick it up, and then was told when I got there that Doordash already came by and grabbed it.
I then get a call on my phone from a Doordash driver asking where I live, because it wasn’t included with the order for some reason (gosh I can’t imagine why that would be). After spending 5 minutes explaining that I would not give them my address because I was at the restaurant and never ordered delivery, they show up 10 minutes later and hand me a cold bag of takeout.
Outlier maybe, but definitely something that only happened because of the fact that delivery drivers are allowed to walk right up to wherever prepared orders are kept and take whatever is there with no questions asked.
It’s usually not that messed up, but yes, some restaurants do delivery through DoorDash/Uber. I’ve had that happen at multiple places: get excited that a restaurant offers delivery but then cancel when I find out it’s uber eats.
Sounds fun. Maybe I’m missing something but I wouldn’t expect a local restaurant to have rolled their own takeout backend. Are you actually seeing places that do? The branding might be subtle, but I’d be really surprised if they weren’t using a canned service.
They’re mostly contracted services, but I meant more that it wasn’t the services managed directly by the big food delivery companies like Grubhub/Uber Eats/Doordash etc.
If I don’t order through Doordash, I would expect no involvement from a Doordash driver whatsoever.
I’m a fairly nonconfrontational person so I just took my cold food without argument and heated it up again at home. The restaurant at least comped part of the bill by way of apology.
Can’t say I’ve ever left reviews online, either. Not looking to shame or name drop a struggling restaurant, just to commiserate about the flawed and exploitative system of gig labor.
i assumed it was a bigger chain-type restaurant. the owner would probably actually appreciate a kind call to let them know what happened.
edit - like, a call where you say something like ‘sorry, i’m not calling to complain, but something weird happened the other day that might bother some of your other customers if it happened to them’
sounds like they’re just trying to figure out how to slot all the uber-important orders into their workflow.
I’ll say I live in a big city and have never once used Doordash/Uber Eats/any other exploitative meal delivery app for that reason. But even then you’re not safe.
I once placed an online order for takeout, ordered on the actual site for the restaurant (not any of those branded online order services hosted by the meal delivery companies), picked the option that said I’d walk over and pick it up, and then was told when I got there that Doordash already came by and grabbed it.
I then get a call on my phone from a Doordash driver asking where I live, because it wasn’t included with the order for some reason (gosh I can’t imagine why that would be). After spending 5 minutes explaining that I would not give them my address because I was at the restaurant and never ordered delivery, they show up 10 minutes later and hand me a cold bag of takeout.
Amazing service.
I would have made them remake it, since they let someone run off with my food.
That sounds like a real outlier. Never had anything like that happen on a pickup order.
Outlier maybe, but definitely something that only happened because of the fact that delivery drivers are allowed to walk right up to wherever prepared orders are kept and take whatever is there with no questions asked.
Um, no, that’s the restaurant who flagged your order for delivery. Not the drivers fault.
It’s usually not that messed up, but yes, some restaurants do delivery through DoorDash/Uber. I’ve had that happen at multiple places: get excited that a restaurant offers delivery but then cancel when I find out it’s uber eats.
Sounds fun. Maybe I’m missing something but I wouldn’t expect a local restaurant to have rolled their own takeout backend. Are you actually seeing places that do? The branding might be subtle, but I’d be really surprised if they weren’t using a canned service.
They’re mostly contracted services, but I meant more that it wasn’t the services managed directly by the big food delivery companies like Grubhub/Uber Eats/Doordash etc.
If I don’t order through Doordash, I would expect no involvement from a Doordash driver whatsoever.
please tell me you got a refund and ate elsewhere
I’m a fairly nonconfrontational person so I just took my cold food without argument and heated it up again at home. The restaurant at least comped part of the bill by way of apology.
sounds like you might be more of the google review type…
Can’t say I’ve ever left reviews online, either. Not looking to shame or name drop a struggling restaurant, just to commiserate about the flawed and exploitative system of gig labor.
i assumed it was a bigger chain-type restaurant. the owner would probably actually appreciate a kind call to let them know what happened.
edit - like, a call where you say something like ‘sorry, i’m not calling to complain, but something weird happened the other day that might bother some of your other customers if it happened to them’
sounds like they’re just trying to figure out how to slot all the uber-important orders into their workflow.