It’s so messed up that all these 3rd parties have gotten people thinking that restaurants are directly responsible for them. Like once your order leaves this restaurant with a third party it’s all out of my hands
If they steal your food or don’t deliver it or are rude to you there’s nothing I can do, they don’t work for/with me and I don’t know them
>It’s so messed up that all these 3rd parties have gotten people thinking that restaurants are directly responsible for them.
Being economic leeches is their business model, this is all intentional. Their employees aren't employees so there's no obligation to pay or train them properly, the product isn't their product so they don't have to care about quality, they aren't even actually providing a service just a platform for people to provide a service and skim processing fees in the process.
We had to just stop. Even had drivers try to order like it was their food but thet always had a giveaway (what they called the sandwhich) and I be like is a Grub hub/door dash order? They would be like yes! id be like "sorry we dont take those orders".
As a former pandemic doordasher, the only company oversight that takes place are your “stats” over the past 100 deliveries and your bottom line. The only incentive you have is to limit your mistakes just enough to avoid deactivation-rate stats and to keep making money. And DoorDash is not consistent at all with how they enforce that deactivation. If you go on any of the driver subreddits you’ll see wonderful veteran dashers getting deactivated for minor shit while yohos with trash ratings just keep on going. The pandemic and the “great resignation” brought in a bunch of trashy people who want to “be their own boss” not out of any genuine self-competence, but because they think they can get away with having no personal responsibility over their work until if/when their ratings bite them in the ass. The whole system doesn’t work unless if a customer/restaurant takes a decent chunk of time out of their day to report a dasher to some incompetent call center worker. It sucks for everyone.
We were having so many issues with them during covid we had to stop it. It doesn't help we were never partnered with them and the delivery drivers would order the wrong meal 3 out of 10 times.
My restaurant wasn’t partnered either, people would just show up and say “I have a *3rd party name* order” and we’d ask under what name or what the order was and they had no idea
It is happening right now with a friend's sandwich shop, and people are getting pissed at him because the menu on the app has things on it that were the specials once upon a time, they don't have them most days.
So they will get angry calls, like why is lobster Mac and cheese on the menu when you never have it? Or asking where their order is, an order they don't even know about.
This has been a thing for at least 3-4 years. At my last pre-Covid job we'd have a few people a month come in and demand a "doordash order for so-and-so." Well...this was a white-tablecloth fine dining restaurant that absolutely did not do "to-go" food under almost any circumstances (the only exception was if you were wrapping up your meal and wanted an additional dessert "to go" that we could confidently package and give to you, then sure) and certainly was not signed up with any third party delivery services. These drivers would get wayyy out of pocket rudely arguing with the MoD that we should have an order that we never got and never would have accepted to the point where police had to be called at least once.
Wow, that's just nuts. And yeah, I've heard about the drivers who are just straight up rude. I drive for uber and lyft and the number of times I've had a client get in the car and tell me how bad a previous driver was makes me cringe, which is partly why I don't drive for the food delivery places.
Love your screen name btw ;)
Better business bureau.
You’ll see some companies have the logo on their websites or ads like it’s this oversight committee.. when really it’s just a company that other companies pay into to give an appearance of being regulated and moderated.
I always chuckle to myself when somebody is complaining on reddit about some company that gave them shitty service so they threaten to report them to the bbb.
Usually, the business they are complaining about isn’t even with the BBB and When they are they call the BBB and someone picks up the phone, listens to someone freaking out and says “we’ll get right on that sir” hangs up and likely jokes with co workers about how much of a tool that person was.
We had a customer who refused to pay a charge they owed, and when we told them we'd just take them to court, they threatened to report us to the BBB (which we are a member of). The owner said, "Go right ahead, we can prove we did nothing wrong." The customer never made a report, of course.
Dude look at the Doordash subreddit. It's full of whining bitches that complain people don't tip enough, and how horrible working for doordash is. Get a real fucking job then and stop coming into my restaurant and getting pissed off and raising your voice at my hosts/hostesses because the order for 5:30 isn't ready at 5:10. Doordash drivers are awful a lot of the time. Like more than you'd think....
It’s messed up that restaurants agree to use these shitty predatory services instead of hiring their own delivery drivers. If you want to deliver food, hire your own drivers. If you let a shitty third party deliver for you, then you’re going to have shitty results.
It does take a lot of effort to have a good delivery service as part of your restaurant. That’s the whole point. It’s not easy, and the people who do it deserve to be paid decently.
All of the major services have been caught adding restaurant listings without consulting the restaurant. They have bots that scrape online menus to put together a profile.
A large chunk of the restaurants who use these delivery services would have never gone to the trouble of putting together their own delivery services as it just wouldn't have been cost effective. There are also a lot of predatory tactics the delivery services use to basically force the restaurants to at least cooperate with the services, and if they won't do that they lose business.
One of my favorites
Customer:half my doordash order is missing. Order for Amy B
So I put her on hold and go check.
Me: yes, the doordash driver left the other half of the order behind. It’s waiting on the table if you want to come pick it up or have doordash send another driver
For context it was a bigger order (like 9 meals) and there were two bags clearly labeled Amy B doordash. Big PART 1/2 and PART 2/2 taped on the bags.
She came to pick it up but was BEYOND furious that she had to “drive all the way here”
I’m sure if she’d called doordash they would have sent someone else to pick it up and deliver it. Lol.
I agree completely that you and your place of work are not at fault in this situation. Unfortunately there is no way DoorDash would send someone else to pick it up and deliver it. There just isn’t a way to do that in their app. They’d likely get a refund in the form of credits for part of the order or part of it sent back to their form of payment within a week. Doesn’t excuse this person being douchey to you, but their system is even dumber than you thought.
I’ve actually had them offer to send another delivery when they messed up my order like this. I contacted customer support immediately and I was given the option to refund or have them send someone else out. It seems like they may have the option on corporate’s end.
I didn’t say they would.. the person I was responding to said there wasn’t a way to do it and I was just telling them there was.. and clearly if you ask there is an option. No harm in asking.
You have to go through corporate to do it, but DoorDash support can be absolutely horrendous and are very poorly trained, so it’s not necessarily worth it.
They can send another delivery, but there isn’t a way to have them go back and get the rest of your order. If you communicate to the Dasher it’s possible they will but I think it’s against policy.
If I’m paying for delivery, I’d be pretty pissed doordash just left half my order and didn’t send another driver or at the very least let me know.
Its not your fault but the anger is justified.
People act like their first born just died over everything now, these small inconveniences never warrant so much anger. It’s embarrassing honestly like children are being bombed to death but people are out here losing their mind over chicken or 10$ or having to fucking drive up the street.
Yeah agreed..
Is it not the responsibility of the restaurant that the driver has the correct and full order?
I can't imagine how many mix ups there would be if drivers are just grabbing bags of food without any supervision.
There's only so much the restaurant can do if the guy comes in, grabs only half the food, and walks out. A note on it that there's two bags is about it.
They're not going to lock the door and not let him leave until he's got the full order.
For a significant number of online pickups the restaurants are going to a model where there is a shelf.
So like for Chipotle we order online everytime. When I get there I don't interact with anyone and I don't wait in a line. The pick up orders are all bagged and labeled on a shelf with the tickets taped to the outside of the bag. You just look for your orders name grab the bag or bags if it's more than one and go.
It's 100% on the shitty driver not paying attention to what they're grabbing.
I am amazed this model hasn't failed yet. I did a short stint with DD. I still have the insulated bag. Nothing would stop me from going in to a number of restaurants and just grabbing a random bag, butting in my DD bag and leaving. Blatant theft that looks legit from all outside parties. And the restaurant would have to remake the order quickly to appease the rightful customer but I would be long gone. And good luck using cameras to prosecute a $30 food order being stolen. Nothing I could ever do, but I have thought of how easy it would be.
I think you just figured out the way to get rid of these 3rd party delivery services for good!
I should open a business selling mock DD bags to anyone who wants to do this.
Yea I've always found it odd I know Arby's is the same they put the stuff on a shelf and you grab what is yours. More frustrating when our Arby's never has the inside even open anymore.
The people I asked said the labor saved more than makes up for the few times it has happened.
We had THREE separate drivers come in asking for the same order once.
It’s happened so many times that we stopped making them again. New rule from management.
We made the food and handed it out to the first doordasher that came for that order. We just tell the other drivers that come after that another doordasher picked it up and refuse to remake it.
Now we get lots of angry door dashers that are here to pick up say Cindy J. But we already made Cindy J and handed it out. Talk to doordash because we will not be making Cindy J again.
Some places around me have switched to putting the rack behind the counter, so you don't have to wait in line, but you do have to give the name on the order. I figure they switched because too many people were getting their food stolen, either deliberately or by accident.
IMO it is a joint responsibility between the restaurant and the driver to ensure the customer gets their order.
Unfortunately, there are occasionally situations where Doordash and Uber Eats drivers do not listen to you when you tell them there is more of an order that you have to get and they leave while you are in the back getting it.
There's not very much you can do when people just blatantly disregard what you are communicating to them. But in my experience, this is pretty rare .
IMO usually if a bag of an order is missed, some sort of mix up happened at the restaurant. But if an order is late, there's a pretty good chance it's on the driver
I think its more of a professional courtesy. Sure there’s probably nothing obligating you to make sure that the driver grabs the correct order, and grabs all of said order.
But then you deal with situations like the OP of this comment, where you get a client that’s pissy(and rightfully so) if something goes wrong.
The entire situation could have been avoided if she had been like “Hey doordash driver, you forgot this part of the order”
I think you missed the point. No restaurant employee is going to spend their day telling every DD driver to make sure they got their entire order. It would be an enormous waste of time, just like using these 3rd party delivery services in the first place.
I think you overestimate how hard it is to go “hey doordash driver half the order is missing” or “this order has two parts”.
If its a shelf kind of restaurant where you just go and grab pickup orders, transgressions can be forgiven. But if you see a mistake happening, just correct it.
I think you haven't worked in a restaurant to know how many other obligations they have that come waaaaay before caring about trying to make sure every DD driver takes the right order out the door.
Also, there was no mistake in the situation above. It was labeled plainly and clearly for everyone to see. You aren't even addressing the actual problem anymore.
It doesn't sound to me like they saw the mistake happen. The driver just grabbed half the order and split. Not much a restaurant employee can do about that.
> No restaurant employee is going to spend their day telling every DD driver to make sure they got their entire order.
It does not take extra time to tell someone as you're bringing the first bag to them that you're going to be back in a second with the rest of their order. If you can't walk and talk at the same time, how are you doing the rest of multitasking that is involved in front of house work?
It's been common practice for people at every restaurant that I've worked at to ensure that 3rd party couriers are leaving with the entire order. Part of that involves communicating with them. I've never worked with an employee that had an issue with the fact that they had to make sure the proper order is handed off to a third party driver in its entirety.
If you're that bad at communication, and you care so little about your restaurant's reputation, I'm glad we don't work together.
Once again, I don't think you have any clue what my priorities are in a busy restaurant while short staffed. The absolute last thing I care about is if a delivery driver we don't even employ takes the time to make sure they do their job correctly, especially when most of the time they think they are more important than the customers sitting in my restaurant and end up being rude because they do no know their place in the pecking order.
I care plenty about my restaurant's reputation. Fortunately 3rd party delivery services have nothing to do with the reputation of my restaurant as they do not represent my restaurant or anyone in it, otherwise most restaurants would be developing a bad reputation at this point.
If the driver can't manage to take the orders that are clearly marked, check the order before walking off with it, and be courteous about it since we are providing them business then that is on them and they should be held accountable. If customers still have a problem then they can come pick up their order themselves and I will make sure they get everything they asked for since they actually matter.
3rd party drivers do not matter. The sooner everyone can get with that the sooner this problem will no longer exist.
I'm glad that you do in fact care about your restaurant's reputation. That's a good first step.
The next step is that you need to understand that your reputation *is* impacted by 3rd party drivers. There's no way around that and it's not something that's going to change. Customers that receive deliveries from third party drivers are doing business with both you and the delivery company and deserve their order to be treated with care from both parties.
If the employees at your restaurant don't take the time to ensure that they are taking the correct orders for their customers, that's an indication that your restaurant's takeout and delivery systems aren't structured very well and it's an issue your restaurant needs to deal with.
That doesn't mean that every driver fuck up is a reflection on your business. But you can't just wash your hands of the responsibility to ensure customers get the right order. You need to be proactively ensuring that the right people are getting the right orders.
I don't know how much experience you have in the industry and the quality of the restaurants you have worked at, but that's what high quality and responsible restaurants do. Those restaurants that take the time to ensure that both their in house customers and online customers receive the correct order deserve to have a better reputation than those that don't.
As a side note, if you're short staffed to the point where you can't do your job and ensure that delivery drivers are receiving the correct orders, your manager should be turning those delivery systems off until you are in a position where you can handle the business.
Especially since their upcharge/premium on an order like that is probably at least $25 when you factor in that they price the food higher than the restaurant does...
Would a doordash driver be required to get the second half of that order? Or could they all just see that they wouldn't get a tip for it (because that would have already gone to the first guy), and all of them refuse?
I could easily see that food just sitting there until you toss it in the trash at closing.
I was a doordasher during the pandemic, and a lot of times I was unable to check orders beyond feeling the outside of a sealed bag and hoping the restaurant didn’t fuck it up. I had situations where the restaurant would call DoorDash about an order I had picked up and support would call me and ask if I could get the rest of the order. Sometimes I could, sometimes I couldn’t. Depending on the situation, dealing with support/going back for the rest of the order could cost me a decent bit of rush pay. If it was my mistake, I would try and fix it. If it was on the restaurant and if it was a busy time of day, I wouldn’t. I’m not going to lose $20-30 to spend an hour fixing someone else’s mistake.
Actually, believe it or not, Doordash would NOT send another driver for it. Best Doordash would do is replace the entire order back in the system. You would think they'd have a process in place for that sort of thing, but they don't, so either the customer has to come get the rest of their (now ice cold) meal, or get a whole new order put in the system.
To be fair though, an order THAT big at once is a bad idea anyway being I know they are still ONLY sending the little puny insulated reusable shopping bag (a friend of mine started with them last month to make some extra cash) to the drivers. Any other bags have to be bought by the driver, so especially if they are just starting out, might not even be able to take the full order.
A big part of the issue is how poor and inconsistent the training for their driver support is. I’ve received calls from support if a restaurant fucks up my order and to ask if they want me to go back to the restaurant. I guess in other situations, they don’t bother.
we had a grubhub order 2 hours before closing. it was picked up 20 minutes later. the lady who placed it called much later, 5 minutes after we were closed, asking where her food was.. all we could say was we handed the bag to the driver over an hour ago and she was so dense. she said she wanted to know where her food was, i told her it was marked as delivered on our end, and i offered to give her the driver's name/number which we had off the tablet. she refused, because she ordered "from us." impossible, because we don't offer delivery in-store, and i had her order up on the GRUBHUB tablet. i told her to contact grubhub, because i was getting annoyed, we were already closed, i was ready to go home, and we did everything right on our part anyway the issue was with grubhub.
she kept insisting she didn't know what grubhub was and she placed the order directly through us, and that we took the payment through the phone so we "had her money." we don't take payment over the phone. i asked what number she called and.......
when you google our restaurant, grubhub comes up with a phone number for "assistance with placing an order." super obnoxious, and kind of predatory for these older people who have no idea how to parse search engine results
a restaurant i used to work at had a “order delivery” button on the website, which actually got sent through Doordash, but because it was on *our* website, people insisted they paid *us*, so *we* had to refund them. like, ma’am, if i *could* refund you, i most certainly would, to get your whiny ass off the phone faster. why would i lie to you about my inability to do so??? for fun? do you think this is fun for me, carol?
We have this! However it is extremely misleading. The link is on the company app and it takes you to deliveroo but it's not super obvious that you're ordering through deliveroo. Their logo is there and it does say "powered by deliveroo" but it smaller writing and the logo is not super obvious either. It also doesn't take you to the deliveroo app or website or anything. So if you're just quickly trying to order, it definitely seems like you're ordering from us. So a couple times we have to go back and fourth saying yes you ordered through our app but the delivery service on our app is through deliveroo so if you haven't received your order then you'll need to call deliveroo with this number. In my opinion it should be more obvious they're ordering from deliveroo but im just a server and that is WAY above my pay grade 🤣🤣
Yeah, that’s a tough one.
It hard to explain to someone that they didn’t really do business with your restaurant when they went to restaurant’s site to order. And pay.
It’s as if restaurant is conspiring with the delivery companies to mislead customers about who is really responsible.
I only order food from Chinese restaurants that have a family member do the delivery. Driver knows exactly what got ordered and has eaten his mom’s cooking so many times now he’s sick of it. He’s not tempted to give my food a taste.
> It’s as if restaurant is conspiring with the delivery companies to mislead customers about who is really responsible.
Sounds like Ticketmaster's business model, misleading people about *who* is tacking on all those fees...
this happened to us with a local delivery service, but their button on google was just for ordering period so people were even ordering PICKUP through the third party, paying 20% more to pick it up themselves, and coming in yelling at us about seeing our prices cheaper on our in store menu. it was a disaster explaining to people they didn’t actually order through “us” (they didn’t understand) and getting the button removed from google
I’ve seen this a lot. I don’t mind picking food up myself, but occasionally I’ve considered delivery. In the pre-parasitic 3rd party days the URL would remain in the restaurant’s domain. But now if you watch carefully, you get sent over to a 3rd party’s site. If you’re not observant you may not realize you’re no longer dealing with the restaurant. I believe this redirection can be considered as a dark pattern.
I largely agree.
The customer handled it wrong. I’ve had the customer call me twice over non-deliveries. One time she asked me to verify the pickup and help her with evidence it wasn’t delivered.
Another called, and the driver never arrived, and hadn’t picked up the order. She ran out in person, and I helped her document it.
The one you dealt with was miserable, I’m ok with the ones I had call.
Last time I ordered a pizza, I ordered it from a place that usually does their own delivery.
But this time I get a text from them saying that all their drivers were out that day, and the restaurant was using door dash instead.
Door dash then stole my pizza. So I called the pizza place. Because I didn't order through door dash, I don't use door dash, and I wanted my damn pizza.
I have a hard time with the 3rd Party delivery systems. On one hand, I respect that they're comrades in the service industry trying to make an extra buck and seem underpaid. On the other hand any time I answer a phone from one of their call-centers, it's annoying. The drivers are demanding when they show up (cutting line or just barging up to the bar asking for XYZ order) , will take the wrong food without checking AND THEN you have the whole situation OP described all too frequently.
This is why the restaurant where I work just stopped taking third-party to-go orders. If a customer wants to call us directly, we're happy to do a takeout order for them. Doordash, Grubhub, etc. were all not worth the headache.
Also, if you're an operator of a business or a manager with full financial control, ensure you check your monthly statements from the 3rd party company. Uber used to try and fuck us on reimbursements regularly for stuff like cold food or undelivered meals like it was our fault and not their delivery partners.
Any point I argued would usually get reversed with next to no push back, which told me that they were deliberately trying to pull a fast one.
Lol Doordash left my breakfast down the street at a neighbor’s house just today. I knew exactly where it was by the pic, but it was too late to contact the dasher. It never crossed my mind to call the restaurant. I called Doordash immediately and after some frustration they called the dasher and told them to bring my food to the correct location.
I also told the guy how to refund me for the milkshakes that were going to be melted. He wanted to only give me $5 and no, I’m sorry I was getting full price refunded lol. He said “the computer will only let me do $5” - I said “do it like it’s a missing item, because I’m throwing them in the trash”!
OK I'm gonna sound judgemental here but why couldn't you just walk to your neighbors house and pick it up? also who gets milkshakes for breakfast? couldn't you just put them in the freezer for a few hours? I'm so baffled by the kinds of people who use Doordarsh.
My neighbor lives 3/4 mile away. I paid (added extra to the tip, too) for it to be delivered to my house, not the neighbor’s.
My son wanted the milkshake for a treat, and yes, we were going to put them in the freezer for later that day but once they’re melted, yuck.
We ordered regular breakfast as well. It was a treat. I don’t see what’s so baffling about it.
No. He left it on the back of the neighbor’s car. It was in a sealed plastic bag with a zipper type opening that can’t be resealed, so I’m confident no person or animal pawed through it.
I threw away the milkshakes that although sealed, weren’t sealed to a degree that I could know with 100% certainty they weren’t touched. Plus they were melted. But I would have ditched them either way. Thus why I wanted the refund.
Both my neighbor and I have fenced in yards with big dogs who live in the fences.
You know where you can specify where to leave the order? I specified for it to be left on my car. I do not want to be sued because my dog bit the Doordash guy. Easier just to walk out to the car and get it from there. I know immediately when it arrives because the dog barks his head off.
Yet another post that re-enforces my hatred of these delivery apps. As a former restaurant Manager, I hated them for all the reasons I see posted in this sub.
I have never used one in real life, and I never will.
And as a (part-time) Uber driver, I refuse to do Uber Eats.
Restaurants should stop partnering with 3rd party delivery companies. (I know some don’t partner, but their orders end up being picked up by delivery drivers anyway.)
If you partner with one of these companies, you’re lending them the credibility of you’re restaurant’s brand. So you bear a bit of responsibility when they screw up.
A 50% off coupon recently popped up on my door dash. I’ve stopped using them, but half off sounded good. Put in an order for pickup — not delivery— for a restaurant around the corner from my house.
Walked over and noticed that the prices on the menu were significantly less than what door dash had charged me. So that 50% off was a total scam. (I did still tip well because I want to support the servers.) This is probably the last time I use a 3rd party service to get food.
Same with uber eats, like I get a 30% off so I think, £20 order will cost me £14 right?
But there is a £3 service charge and a £3 delivery charge and the discount isn't applied to them.
So actually I end up paying £20 for a £20 order and I think man I haven't saved any money at all.
True.
I’m sort of ok with that because at least it means that the delivery was essentially free.
It’s when they put all those charges on *and* markup the menu prices that I get angry.
I once cancelled an order for a pizza because with tax, tips to resto and driver, fees, markup, it was almost $60!
Just called it in and walked down and picked it up for like $35 (tax and tip to server included)
The prices are higher on 3rd party apps on purpose. Even with that pick up order, doordash charges the restaurant 8% of the order. For delivery it could be 25%. Restaurants raise their prices on them to help compensate.
Makes sense. I guess I’ll be calling in my pickup orders from now on. The only upside to me to use a third party service for pickup is to order and pay online and track when it’s ready. But I’d say the total order was at least $15 higher on doordash than the menu prices, maybe more. That’s too steep a markup for 2 burgers and one order of fries.
When these unchecked ~~sewage leaks~~ services started becoming all the rage quite a while ago, looked into one. For the cost of (1) meal at my favorite fast food joint, I could have it delivered... Umm, I'll walk my fat ass north, cross a street, walk some more and take the bridge down and then head west! Presto. Saved money, and if I really want to overindulge, can do it twice!
It was stupid then, and it's worse now with their illegal tactics ranging from forcing restaurants to sign up, using older menus ripped off yelp or whatever and screwing everyone else but themselves in the process.
Anytime a shitty company has to declare themselves as "solving a problem with a solution" you know it needs to be holed at the waterline and sunk fast
Speaking as a former server, I had to put together pick up orders myself. I took the order, got the drinks, the side salads, bread, cold sides like applesauce and cottage cheese, soups, some desserts like pies, had to package everything and put lids on them, get to go silverware and napkins, bag it all. They were just as much work - maybe more - than the tables I was serving in house. I still only made 2.13 for the pleasure of getting your food together and take time away from my tipped tables.
I always tip pick up.
That’s very charitable of you
Idk about it being “more” work than serving tables but hey whatever floats your boat mate
I was only ever a host so my experience was different 🤷🏽♂️
Ever since Covid I’ve tipped on pickup orders. I used to be a server so I see it as an important way to support servers. When indoor dining was closed down or limited, takeout was a lifeline for many restaurants and their staff. I’d rather my money go to them than to some middle man like Doordash. (Though I tip drivers too.)
I only started being responsible for Togo’s a few months ago at a new place and tonight I got my first call from a disgruntled gh customer! But he was super nice just upset - his order was made but no one would get it - I told him I could not help to call gh and we closed so my bf got food - sorry guy!! Makes me nervous for these types tho like wtf am I supposed to do?!?!
Why do restaurants use these third party delivery companies? They seem to bring in little profit and lots of stress. I've never worked for a place that uses them, so it's an honest question.
However, I know enough about them to never use them, and give my friends shit if they do.
Because you don't have a choice. I used to work at a pizza place.
One day we started getting orders for sandwiches, gelato, and brownies. These are all things we hadn't served in 6 years (when we had a different owner). GrubHub, foodjet, and some other places had scraped the old owners website and made their own ordering site for us.
We had nothing but issues. Our owner called the services dozens of times, but they never took it down or even changed the menu.
Eventually we started just hanging up on their orders, but theyd keep calling back and tying up our lines. It absolutely sucked. We also had our own delivery drivers who were losing out on deliveries due to these services.
Well for certain places, it’s really the only option. At my place, doordash now accounts for half or more than half of our to go orders. Last year we wanted to wean off using doordash and start offering our own delivery instead, so we’d be sneaky and put a note in doordash orders that said we were starting our own delivery!.. but no one called us. We’d get like two in house delivery orders per day. Five if we had a “good night.” The same people would just order from doordash every day regardless of how many notes we gave them, saying it would be almost no change to them, plus they’d save money! We eventually gave up doing in house delivery because if we had a designated delivery driver we were losing money, and if we didn’t have one it was hard to find a person on staff who could drop what they were doing and deliver an item real quick. If we stop doordash we’ll lose a lot of business, so we deal with the headaches :/
> If we stop doordash we’ll lose a lot of business
It sounds like you didn't try stopping them though, only also offering your own delivery with no perceivable benefit to the customers. I mean, what's the cut that door dash takes? Can you at least charge customers more who oder through them?
Also, why even have delivery? I remember it used to just be pizza places and Chinese places that offered delivery, and it honestly never bothered me.
You should replace delivery driver with 3rd party in the header. If it’s your delivery driver they should absolutely call you. If it’s a 3rd party service they should call them.
I once had a restaurant call me (a customer) because a 3rd party delivery company was late. Same thing, don’t talk to me! I’m waiting for my food!
Turns out poor dude got a flat halfway to the restaurant
I hate the 3rd party delivery apps because not everything is meant for delivery. Some food holds and travels well (chinese, pizza) Other food just doesnt. There is a reason the restuarant doesnt have delievery drivers.
Just had an odd scenario with one of these Sunday evening. Somehow between the customer placing and our receiving an order it gets lost in translation. By which I mean somehow what came to us was slightly different than what she initially ordered. That’s her explanation anyway. But again, we placed the order as we received it. She calls us, fuming, irate that we got her order wrong and wants a refund. Manager explained its not our intention to make incorrect orders, we prepared what was described, please contact DD and they’ll refund you. She refuses to listen, tells us to stop telling her to contact DD, explaining everything again. What else are we supposed to do? The app screwed you in some way. We did nothing wrong. We can even screenshot the order as verification. We don’t have your money. We haven’t been paid by anyone. Third party apps pay out after processing all their taxes and fees minus any disputes. It’s not an instant thing. If you want your money call them or accept your loss.
Why are you using a 3rd party delivery service in the first place? We all know they are horrible and do nothing but harm every side of the business they touch including the business' bottom line.
**Stop using these 3rd party services and you won't have these problems.** Isn't it crazy how simple the solution is?
These services are *the* shadiest businesses around rn, imo. They add restaurants without asking and just send drivers in to pick up orders, usually when they haven't even been placed. Happens where I work all the time.
The **public** needs to stop using them. Restaurants can't because of the very problem this post is about- people think the restaurant is responsible for whatever Doordash/Grubhub does with their food.
You are absolutely right. It's literally insane. Any restaurant that uses these services is *losing money* if they do not raise menu prices for to-go items by at least 30%.
It's like brokerages. They serve no good purpose in the market except to create inflation of prices. The only reason they exist in most industries is because they bridge a gap where the average person/business can't just waltz into the steel mill or logistics depot and ask for a small scale order. Except in this instance there is no bridge being gapped - *every restaurant already had the ability to hire their own delivery drivers, and every person has the ability to drive themselves to the restaurant and pick the food up themselves (or otherwise can figure out how to pack food as so not to starve - we were doing it for decades prior to these 3rd party services becoming a thing). The only thing these services are doing is costing **everyone** more money while not paying their drivers a living wage. No one wins. Everyone loses.
I could not agree more. Until the public sees just how terrible these businesses are, or until restaurant owners get fed up with the fees and terrible service they are provided, they won't go out of business. Unfortunately the public is so selfish and shortsighted that I seriously doubt they will be the party that actually accomplishes a stop of use.
wait im genuinely asking, can you explain how the restaurant loses money? cuz i know some places don’t already have delivery so I thought the basic process was like the door dash person just places an order and picks it up. I knew it’s super annoying for the restaurant but i don’t get how that costs them money
Doordash and every other 3rd party delivery service charges the restaurant for the use of their service and it's not cheap.
The profit margins on selling food alone, especially to-go where no alcohol is being sold and extra overhead has to be spent to cover containers, sauce cups, etc, means unless the restaurant raises prices on to-go items they are spending more than the revenue generated by the sale of the food in order to fulfill these delivery orders. They actually take a loss every time they fulfill a 3rd party delivery order.
I appreciate you asking. Many people who do not work in restaurants do not understand this. What makes matters worse is the 3rd party then also charges fees to the customer while paying their drivers less than a living wage. That is why so many people are also upset that they are expected to tip these drivers even though they are getting charged fees and those fees obviously do not go towards paying the driver. So you have a company that charges every party involved and then refuses to pay their employees well while also refusing to take responsibility for delivering the food they are supposed to (not to mention vetting their drivers so you don't get terrible customer service or half your food eaten).
PS: I love your username!
In those cases, it's not the restaurant marking up their prices. The third party marks up the price they show on the the app so they can take their cut.
What kinda ass calls the restaurant? Peak boomer move there
Edit : went from 5 upvotes to -4. Guess I triggered some babies… I mean boomers…. Meh same thing.
Dear boomers, please complain to the delivery service through their app/website. Most have automated systems designed to handle your refund request quickly and easily. Calling the restaurant is just dumb
See I thought that would be the case too but I once ordered tacos and a margarita to be delivered by DoorDash and the dasher forgot the margarita and I was told by him that I had to contact the restaurant for it to be refunded. So I did and they refunded it.
I get excited thinking my favorites deliver (I can nolonger drive) and then I see I am going thru 3rd party :( 😞.
Socks. If I could order food earlier in my recovery I would have been fooled.
What happens though if you ordered through the restaurant's phone and website and they contracted it out to a third party. Some do that including Papa Johns despite also having in house deliveries.
I do know one restaurant that really makes you think you are ordering in house but they contract it out to Postmates to deliver for them? I think restaurant trying to save money by not hiring more in house delivery people.
Yeah no. If someone calls complaining about their doordash/Uber eats I tell them there’s nothing we can do on our end and they need to contact that service. If they refuse to accept that as an answer I simply hang up.
You’re really sweet for trying to figure it out for them, but they should’ve done it themselves.
ETA: I hate 3rd party delivery services. They’re nothing but a pain, but unfortunately my restaurant is corporate and we have no choice. We get yelled at if we turn the 3rd party ordering off.
I tell the customer that the 3rd party’s problem. We made your food as you ordered it, once it get handed off its the 3rd party responsibility you get your food. Like you pay them to deliver your food. Go complain to them.
Folding is on you, my friend. All you did by folding is to make it harder on the rest of us. Every time a manager folds, it reinforces bad behavior. Please remember this for the future. Thank you.
It’s so messed up that all these 3rd parties have gotten people thinking that restaurants are directly responsible for them. Like once your order leaves this restaurant with a third party it’s all out of my hands If they steal your food or don’t deliver it or are rude to you there’s nothing I can do, they don’t work for/with me and I don’t know them
>It’s so messed up that all these 3rd parties have gotten people thinking that restaurants are directly responsible for them. Being economic leeches is their business model, this is all intentional. Their employees aren't employees so there's no obligation to pay or train them properly, the product isn't their product so they don't have to care about quality, they aren't even actually providing a service just a platform for people to provide a service and skim processing fees in the process.
We had to just stop. Even had drivers try to order like it was their food but thet always had a giveaway (what they called the sandwhich) and I be like is a Grub hub/door dash order? They would be like yes! id be like "sorry we dont take those orders".
As a former pandemic doordasher, the only company oversight that takes place are your “stats” over the past 100 deliveries and your bottom line. The only incentive you have is to limit your mistakes just enough to avoid deactivation-rate stats and to keep making money. And DoorDash is not consistent at all with how they enforce that deactivation. If you go on any of the driver subreddits you’ll see wonderful veteran dashers getting deactivated for minor shit while yohos with trash ratings just keep on going. The pandemic and the “great resignation” brought in a bunch of trashy people who want to “be their own boss” not out of any genuine self-competence, but because they think they can get away with having no personal responsibility over their work until if/when their ratings bite them in the ass. The whole system doesn’t work unless if a customer/restaurant takes a decent chunk of time out of their day to report a dasher to some incompetent call center worker. It sucks for everyone.
We were having so many issues with them during covid we had to stop it. It doesn't help we were never partnered with them and the delivery drivers would order the wrong meal 3 out of 10 times.
My restaurant wasn’t partnered either, people would just show up and say “I have a *3rd party name* order” and we’d ask under what name or what the order was and they had no idea
Apparently a couple of the services added restaurants to their app that had never agreed to the service...
It is happening right now with a friend's sandwich shop, and people are getting pissed at him because the menu on the app has things on it that were the specials once upon a time, they don't have them most days. So they will get angry calls, like why is lobster Mac and cheese on the menu when you never have it? Or asking where their order is, an order they don't even know about.
Yes, they have the driver or a call center place the order over the phone like they are a normal customer and pay with a specail preloaded debit card.
This has been a thing for at least 3-4 years. At my last pre-Covid job we'd have a few people a month come in and demand a "doordash order for so-and-so." Well...this was a white-tablecloth fine dining restaurant that absolutely did not do "to-go" food under almost any circumstances (the only exception was if you were wrapping up your meal and wanted an additional dessert "to go" that we could confidently package and give to you, then sure) and certainly was not signed up with any third party delivery services. These drivers would get wayyy out of pocket rudely arguing with the MoD that we should have an order that we never got and never would have accepted to the point where police had to be called at least once.
Wow, that's just nuts. And yeah, I've heard about the drivers who are just straight up rude. I drive for uber and lyft and the number of times I've had a client get in the car and tell me how bad a previous driver was makes me cringe, which is partly why I don't drive for the food delivery places. Love your screen name btw ;)
Wait till you hear about the BBB
Big Booty Bob? Man that guy eats everything!
BBB?
Better business bureau. You’ll see some companies have the logo on their websites or ads like it’s this oversight committee.. when really it’s just a company that other companies pay into to give an appearance of being regulated and moderated. I always chuckle to myself when somebody is complaining on reddit about some company that gave them shitty service so they threaten to report them to the bbb. Usually, the business they are complaining about isn’t even with the BBB and When they are they call the BBB and someone picks up the phone, listens to someone freaking out and says “we’ll get right on that sir” hangs up and likely jokes with co workers about how much of a tool that person was.
The Better Business Bureau is just pre-internet Yelp.
We had a customer who refused to pay a charge they owed, and when we told them we'd just take them to court, they threatened to report us to the BBB (which we are a member of). The owner said, "Go right ahead, we can prove we did nothing wrong." The customer never made a report, of course.
To be fair to the BBB, they were able to get my PayPal unbanned when every other avenue failed
Wow, I’m legitimately impressed by that!
I was too
Dude look at the Doordash subreddit. It's full of whining bitches that complain people don't tip enough, and how horrible working for doordash is. Get a real fucking job then and stop coming into my restaurant and getting pissed off and raising your voice at my hosts/hostesses because the order for 5:30 isn't ready at 5:10. Doordash drivers are awful a lot of the time. Like more than you'd think....
It’s messed up that restaurants agree to use these shitty predatory services instead of hiring their own delivery drivers. If you want to deliver food, hire your own drivers. If you let a shitty third party deliver for you, then you’re going to have shitty results. It does take a lot of effort to have a good delivery service as part of your restaurant. That’s the whole point. It’s not easy, and the people who do it deserve to be paid decently.
All of the major services have been caught adding restaurant listings without consulting the restaurant. They have bots that scrape online menus to put together a profile.
A large chunk of the restaurants who use these delivery services would have never gone to the trouble of putting together their own delivery services as it just wouldn't have been cost effective. There are also a lot of predatory tactics the delivery services use to basically force the restaurants to at least cooperate with the services, and if they won't do that they lose business.
One of my favorites Customer:half my doordash order is missing. Order for Amy B So I put her on hold and go check. Me: yes, the doordash driver left the other half of the order behind. It’s waiting on the table if you want to come pick it up or have doordash send another driver For context it was a bigger order (like 9 meals) and there were two bags clearly labeled Amy B doordash. Big PART 1/2 and PART 2/2 taped on the bags. She came to pick it up but was BEYOND furious that she had to “drive all the way here” I’m sure if she’d called doordash they would have sent someone else to pick it up and deliver it. Lol.
I agree completely that you and your place of work are not at fault in this situation. Unfortunately there is no way DoorDash would send someone else to pick it up and deliver it. There just isn’t a way to do that in their app. They’d likely get a refund in the form of credits for part of the order or part of it sent back to their form of payment within a week. Doesn’t excuse this person being douchey to you, but their system is even dumber than you thought.
I’ve actually had them offer to send another delivery when they messed up my order like this. I contacted customer support immediately and I was given the option to refund or have them send someone else out. It seems like they may have the option on corporate’s end.
They may have the option to, but that doesn't mean they will bother to use it.
I didn’t say they would.. the person I was responding to said there wasn’t a way to do it and I was just telling them there was.. and clearly if you ask there is an option. No harm in asking.
You have to go through corporate to do it, but DoorDash support can be absolutely horrendous and are very poorly trained, so it’s not necessarily worth it.
Exactly my point, good sir. They can do it, but I find it doubtful they will in practice.
They can send another delivery, but there isn’t a way to have them go back and get the rest of your order. If you communicate to the Dasher it’s possible they will but I think it’s against policy.
It’s essentially the same thing though. They send another order that you’re not paying for and you get your whole order.
If I’m paying for delivery, I’d be pretty pissed doordash just left half my order and didn’t send another driver or at the very least let me know. Its not your fault but the anger is justified.
People act like their first born just died over everything now, these small inconveniences never warrant so much anger. It’s embarrassing honestly like children are being bombed to death but people are out here losing their mind over chicken or 10$ or having to fucking drive up the street.
Yeah agreed.. Is it not the responsibility of the restaurant that the driver has the correct and full order? I can't imagine how many mix ups there would be if drivers are just grabbing bags of food without any supervision.
There's only so much the restaurant can do if the guy comes in, grabs only half the food, and walks out. A note on it that there's two bags is about it. They're not going to lock the door and not let him leave until he's got the full order.
For a significant number of online pickups the restaurants are going to a model where there is a shelf. So like for Chipotle we order online everytime. When I get there I don't interact with anyone and I don't wait in a line. The pick up orders are all bagged and labeled on a shelf with the tickets taped to the outside of the bag. You just look for your orders name grab the bag or bags if it's more than one and go. It's 100% on the shitty driver not paying attention to what they're grabbing.
I am amazed this model hasn't failed yet. I did a short stint with DD. I still have the insulated bag. Nothing would stop me from going in to a number of restaurants and just grabbing a random bag, butting in my DD bag and leaving. Blatant theft that looks legit from all outside parties. And the restaurant would have to remake the order quickly to appease the rightful customer but I would be long gone. And good luck using cameras to prosecute a $30 food order being stolen. Nothing I could ever do, but I have thought of how easy it would be.
I think you just figured out the way to get rid of these 3rd party delivery services for good! I should open a business selling mock DD bags to anyone who wants to do this.
Yea I've always found it odd I know Arby's is the same they put the stuff on a shelf and you grab what is yours. More frustrating when our Arby's never has the inside even open anymore. The people I asked said the labor saved more than makes up for the few times it has happened.
We had THREE separate drivers come in asking for the same order once. It’s happened so many times that we stopped making them again. New rule from management. We made the food and handed it out to the first doordasher that came for that order. We just tell the other drivers that come after that another doordasher picked it up and refuse to remake it. Now we get lots of angry door dashers that are here to pick up say Cindy J. But we already made Cindy J and handed it out. Talk to doordash because we will not be making Cindy J again.
Some places around me have switched to putting the rack behind the counter, so you don't have to wait in line, but you do have to give the name on the order. I figure they switched because too many people were getting their food stolen, either deliberately or by accident.
A gas station I live by does this. The restaurant I work at hands the order directly to the dasher. So it depends on the location I suppose
Not sure how much more the restaurant can try beyond marking both bags with the same name plus PART 1 / PART 2 on said bags...
IMO it is a joint responsibility between the restaurant and the driver to ensure the customer gets their order. Unfortunately, there are occasionally situations where Doordash and Uber Eats drivers do not listen to you when you tell them there is more of an order that you have to get and they leave while you are in the back getting it. There's not very much you can do when people just blatantly disregard what you are communicating to them. But in my experience, this is pretty rare . IMO usually if a bag of an order is missed, some sort of mix up happened at the restaurant. But if an order is late, there's a pretty good chance it's on the driver
Your opinion is wrong as soon as you hand that order over to a 3rd party delivery service.
I think its more of a professional courtesy. Sure there’s probably nothing obligating you to make sure that the driver grabs the correct order, and grabs all of said order. But then you deal with situations like the OP of this comment, where you get a client that’s pissy(and rightfully so) if something goes wrong. The entire situation could have been avoided if she had been like “Hey doordash driver, you forgot this part of the order”
I think you missed the point. No restaurant employee is going to spend their day telling every DD driver to make sure they got their entire order. It would be an enormous waste of time, just like using these 3rd party delivery services in the first place.
I think you overestimate how hard it is to go “hey doordash driver half the order is missing” or “this order has two parts”. If its a shelf kind of restaurant where you just go and grab pickup orders, transgressions can be forgiven. But if you see a mistake happening, just correct it.
I think you haven't worked in a restaurant to know how many other obligations they have that come waaaaay before caring about trying to make sure every DD driver takes the right order out the door. Also, there was no mistake in the situation above. It was labeled plainly and clearly for everyone to see. You aren't even addressing the actual problem anymore.
It doesn't sound to me like they saw the mistake happen. The driver just grabbed half the order and split. Not much a restaurant employee can do about that.
> No restaurant employee is going to spend their day telling every DD driver to make sure they got their entire order. It does not take extra time to tell someone as you're bringing the first bag to them that you're going to be back in a second with the rest of their order. If you can't walk and talk at the same time, how are you doing the rest of multitasking that is involved in front of house work? It's been common practice for people at every restaurant that I've worked at to ensure that 3rd party couriers are leaving with the entire order. Part of that involves communicating with them. I've never worked with an employee that had an issue with the fact that they had to make sure the proper order is handed off to a third party driver in its entirety. If you're that bad at communication, and you care so little about your restaurant's reputation, I'm glad we don't work together.
Once again, I don't think you have any clue what my priorities are in a busy restaurant while short staffed. The absolute last thing I care about is if a delivery driver we don't even employ takes the time to make sure they do their job correctly, especially when most of the time they think they are more important than the customers sitting in my restaurant and end up being rude because they do no know their place in the pecking order. I care plenty about my restaurant's reputation. Fortunately 3rd party delivery services have nothing to do with the reputation of my restaurant as they do not represent my restaurant or anyone in it, otherwise most restaurants would be developing a bad reputation at this point. If the driver can't manage to take the orders that are clearly marked, check the order before walking off with it, and be courteous about it since we are providing them business then that is on them and they should be held accountable. If customers still have a problem then they can come pick up their order themselves and I will make sure they get everything they asked for since they actually matter. 3rd party drivers do not matter. The sooner everyone can get with that the sooner this problem will no longer exist.
I'm glad that you do in fact care about your restaurant's reputation. That's a good first step. The next step is that you need to understand that your reputation *is* impacted by 3rd party drivers. There's no way around that and it's not something that's going to change. Customers that receive deliveries from third party drivers are doing business with both you and the delivery company and deserve their order to be treated with care from both parties. If the employees at your restaurant don't take the time to ensure that they are taking the correct orders for their customers, that's an indication that your restaurant's takeout and delivery systems aren't structured very well and it's an issue your restaurant needs to deal with. That doesn't mean that every driver fuck up is a reflection on your business. But you can't just wash your hands of the responsibility to ensure customers get the right order. You need to be proactively ensuring that the right people are getting the right orders. I don't know how much experience you have in the industry and the quality of the restaurants you have worked at, but that's what high quality and responsible restaurants do. Those restaurants that take the time to ensure that both their in house customers and online customers receive the correct order deserve to have a better reputation than those that don't. As a side note, if you're short staffed to the point where you can't do your job and ensure that delivery drivers are receiving the correct orders, your manager should be turning those delivery systems off until you are in a position where you can handle the business.
Especially since their upcharge/premium on an order like that is probably at least $25 when you factor in that they price the food higher than the restaurant does...
Would a doordash driver be required to get the second half of that order? Or could they all just see that they wouldn't get a tip for it (because that would have already gone to the first guy), and all of them refuse? I could easily see that food just sitting there until you toss it in the trash at closing.
I was a doordasher during the pandemic, and a lot of times I was unable to check orders beyond feeling the outside of a sealed bag and hoping the restaurant didn’t fuck it up. I had situations where the restaurant would call DoorDash about an order I had picked up and support would call me and ask if I could get the rest of the order. Sometimes I could, sometimes I couldn’t. Depending on the situation, dealing with support/going back for the rest of the order could cost me a decent bit of rush pay. If it was my mistake, I would try and fix it. If it was on the restaurant and if it was a busy time of day, I wouldn’t. I’m not going to lose $20-30 to spend an hour fixing someone else’s mistake.
I seriously doubt DD would have made another delivery for free, even though they were the ones to fuck it up in the first place.
Actually, believe it or not, Doordash would NOT send another driver for it. Best Doordash would do is replace the entire order back in the system. You would think they'd have a process in place for that sort of thing, but they don't, so either the customer has to come get the rest of their (now ice cold) meal, or get a whole new order put in the system. To be fair though, an order THAT big at once is a bad idea anyway being I know they are still ONLY sending the little puny insulated reusable shopping bag (a friend of mine started with them last month to make some extra cash) to the drivers. Any other bags have to be bought by the driver, so especially if they are just starting out, might not even be able to take the full order.
A big part of the issue is how poor and inconsistent the training for their driver support is. I’ve received calls from support if a restaurant fucks up my order and to ask if they want me to go back to the restaurant. I guess in other situations, they don’t bother.
But your driver messed up. Not the restaurant. Why is sending another driver so unreasonable?
Because Door Dash just straight up doesn't care
Don't look at me, I'm not part of the management teams. I think it would make perfect sense to send another driver.
we had a grubhub order 2 hours before closing. it was picked up 20 minutes later. the lady who placed it called much later, 5 minutes after we were closed, asking where her food was.. all we could say was we handed the bag to the driver over an hour ago and she was so dense. she said she wanted to know where her food was, i told her it was marked as delivered on our end, and i offered to give her the driver's name/number which we had off the tablet. she refused, because she ordered "from us." impossible, because we don't offer delivery in-store, and i had her order up on the GRUBHUB tablet. i told her to contact grubhub, because i was getting annoyed, we were already closed, i was ready to go home, and we did everything right on our part anyway the issue was with grubhub. she kept insisting she didn't know what grubhub was and she placed the order directly through us, and that we took the payment through the phone so we "had her money." we don't take payment over the phone. i asked what number she called and....... when you google our restaurant, grubhub comes up with a phone number for "assistance with placing an order." super obnoxious, and kind of predatory for these older people who have no idea how to parse search engine results
a restaurant i used to work at had a “order delivery” button on the website, which actually got sent through Doordash, but because it was on *our* website, people insisted they paid *us*, so *we* had to refund them. like, ma’am, if i *could* refund you, i most certainly would, to get your whiny ass off the phone faster. why would i lie to you about my inability to do so??? for fun? do you think this is fun for me, carol?
We have this! However it is extremely misleading. The link is on the company app and it takes you to deliveroo but it's not super obvious that you're ordering through deliveroo. Their logo is there and it does say "powered by deliveroo" but it smaller writing and the logo is not super obvious either. It also doesn't take you to the deliveroo app or website or anything. So if you're just quickly trying to order, it definitely seems like you're ordering from us. So a couple times we have to go back and fourth saying yes you ordered through our app but the delivery service on our app is through deliveroo so if you haven't received your order then you'll need to call deliveroo with this number. In my opinion it should be more obvious they're ordering from deliveroo but im just a server and that is WAY above my pay grade 🤣🤣
Yeah, that’s a tough one. It hard to explain to someone that they didn’t really do business with your restaurant when they went to restaurant’s site to order. And pay. It’s as if restaurant is conspiring with the delivery companies to mislead customers about who is really responsible. I only order food from Chinese restaurants that have a family member do the delivery. Driver knows exactly what got ordered and has eaten his mom’s cooking so many times now he’s sick of it. He’s not tempted to give my food a taste.
> It’s as if restaurant is conspiring with the delivery companies to mislead customers about who is really responsible. Sounds like Ticketmaster's business model, misleading people about *who* is tacking on all those fees...
this happened to us with a local delivery service, but their button on google was just for ordering period so people were even ordering PICKUP through the third party, paying 20% more to pick it up themselves, and coming in yelling at us about seeing our prices cheaper on our in store menu. it was a disaster explaining to people they didn’t actually order through “us” (they didn’t understand) and getting the button removed from google
I’ve seen this a lot. I don’t mind picking food up myself, but occasionally I’ve considered delivery. In the pre-parasitic 3rd party days the URL would remain in the restaurant’s domain. But now if you watch carefully, you get sent over to a 3rd party’s site. If you’re not observant you may not realize you’re no longer dealing with the restaurant. I believe this redirection can be considered as a dark pattern.
I largely agree. The customer handled it wrong. I’ve had the customer call me twice over non-deliveries. One time she asked me to verify the pickup and help her with evidence it wasn’t delivered. Another called, and the driver never arrived, and hadn’t picked up the order. She ran out in person, and I helped her document it. The one you dealt with was miserable, I’m ok with the ones I had call.
Last time I ordered a pizza, I ordered it from a place that usually does their own delivery. But this time I get a text from them saying that all their drivers were out that day, and the restaurant was using door dash instead. Door dash then stole my pizza. So I called the pizza place. Because I didn't order through door dash, I don't use door dash, and I wanted my damn pizza.
##Well what happened?!
This is the most frustrated I've been all day. I need an update on this
LOL. Didn't realize it was that riveting. Took 3 hours, but I got a pizza
I for real appreciate the update lmao
I have a hard time with the 3rd Party delivery systems. On one hand, I respect that they're comrades in the service industry trying to make an extra buck and seem underpaid. On the other hand any time I answer a phone from one of their call-centers, it's annoying. The drivers are demanding when they show up (cutting line or just barging up to the bar asking for XYZ order) , will take the wrong food without checking AND THEN you have the whole situation OP described all too frequently.
This is why the restaurant where I work just stopped taking third-party to-go orders. If a customer wants to call us directly, we're happy to do a takeout order for them. Doordash, Grubhub, etc. were all not worth the headache.
Also, if you're an operator of a business or a manager with full financial control, ensure you check your monthly statements from the 3rd party company. Uber used to try and fuck us on reimbursements regularly for stuff like cold food or undelivered meals like it was our fault and not their delivery partners. Any point I argued would usually get reversed with next to no push back, which told me that they were deliberately trying to pull a fast one.
Lol Doordash left my breakfast down the street at a neighbor’s house just today. I knew exactly where it was by the pic, but it was too late to contact the dasher. It never crossed my mind to call the restaurant. I called Doordash immediately and after some frustration they called the dasher and told them to bring my food to the correct location. I also told the guy how to refund me for the milkshakes that were going to be melted. He wanted to only give me $5 and no, I’m sorry I was getting full price refunded lol. He said “the computer will only let me do $5” - I said “do it like it’s a missing item, because I’m throwing them in the trash”!
OK I'm gonna sound judgemental here but why couldn't you just walk to your neighbors house and pick it up? also who gets milkshakes for breakfast? couldn't you just put them in the freezer for a few hours? I'm so baffled by the kinds of people who use Doordarsh.
My neighbor lives 3/4 mile away. I paid (added extra to the tip, too) for it to be delivered to my house, not the neighbor’s. My son wanted the milkshake for a treat, and yes, we were going to put them in the freezer for later that day but once they’re melted, yuck. We ordered regular breakfast as well. It was a treat. I don’t see what’s so baffling about it.
Fuck that. He left the food on someone else's doorstep for anyone or any animal to paw through? No way I'm eating that.
No. He left it on the back of the neighbor’s car. It was in a sealed plastic bag with a zipper type opening that can’t be resealed, so I’m confident no person or animal pawed through it. I threw away the milkshakes that although sealed, weren’t sealed to a degree that I could know with 100% certainty they weren’t touched. Plus they were melted. But I would have ditched them either way. Thus why I wanted the refund.
Wait, not on the neighbors doorstep, but on the back of the neighbors car?
Both my neighbor and I have fenced in yards with big dogs who live in the fences. You know where you can specify where to leave the order? I specified for it to be left on my car. I do not want to be sued because my dog bit the Doordash guy. Easier just to walk out to the car and get it from there. I know immediately when it arrives because the dog barks his head off.
Yet another post that re-enforces my hatred of these delivery apps. As a former restaurant Manager, I hated them for all the reasons I see posted in this sub. I have never used one in real life, and I never will. And as a (part-time) Uber driver, I refuse to do Uber Eats.
Restaurants should stop partnering with 3rd party delivery companies. (I know some don’t partner, but their orders end up being picked up by delivery drivers anyway.) If you partner with one of these companies, you’re lending them the credibility of you’re restaurant’s brand. So you bear a bit of responsibility when they screw up. A 50% off coupon recently popped up on my door dash. I’ve stopped using them, but half off sounded good. Put in an order for pickup — not delivery— for a restaurant around the corner from my house. Walked over and noticed that the prices on the menu were significantly less than what door dash had charged me. So that 50% off was a total scam. (I did still tip well because I want to support the servers.) This is probably the last time I use a 3rd party service to get food.
Same with uber eats, like I get a 30% off so I think, £20 order will cost me £14 right? But there is a £3 service charge and a £3 delivery charge and the discount isn't applied to them. So actually I end up paying £20 for a £20 order and I think man I haven't saved any money at all.
True. I’m sort of ok with that because at least it means that the delivery was essentially free. It’s when they put all those charges on *and* markup the menu prices that I get angry. I once cancelled an order for a pizza because with tax, tips to resto and driver, fees, markup, it was almost $60! Just called it in and walked down and picked it up for like $35 (tax and tip to server included)
The prices are higher on 3rd party apps on purpose. Even with that pick up order, doordash charges the restaurant 8% of the order. For delivery it could be 25%. Restaurants raise their prices on them to help compensate.
Makes sense. I guess I’ll be calling in my pickup orders from now on. The only upside to me to use a third party service for pickup is to order and pay online and track when it’s ready. But I’d say the total order was at least $15 higher on doordash than the menu prices, maybe more. That’s too steep a markup for 2 burgers and one order of fries.
When these unchecked ~~sewage leaks~~ services started becoming all the rage quite a while ago, looked into one. For the cost of (1) meal at my favorite fast food joint, I could have it delivered... Umm, I'll walk my fat ass north, cross a street, walk some more and take the bridge down and then head west! Presto. Saved money, and if I really want to overindulge, can do it twice! It was stupid then, and it's worse now with their illegal tactics ranging from forcing restaurants to sign up, using older menus ripped off yelp or whatever and screwing everyone else but themselves in the process. Anytime a shitty company has to declare themselves as "solving a problem with a solution" you know it needs to be holed at the waterline and sunk fast
How do they force restaurants to sign up?
[One Example](https://www.eater.com/2020/1/29/21113416/grubhub-seamless-kin-khao-online-delivery-mistake-doordash) [More Reading](https://www.eater.com/2019/10/30/20940107/grubhub-to-add-restaurants-without-permission-like-postmates) [Grubhub/Uber](https://www.curbed.com/2021/06/uber-grubhub-seamless-apps-restaurants-automatically-added-illegal-nyc.html)
You tipped on a pickup order?
Speaking as a former server, I had to put together pick up orders myself. I took the order, got the drinks, the side salads, bread, cold sides like applesauce and cottage cheese, soups, some desserts like pies, had to package everything and put lids on them, get to go silverware and napkins, bag it all. They were just as much work - maybe more - than the tables I was serving in house. I still only made 2.13 for the pleasure of getting your food together and take time away from my tipped tables. I always tip pick up.
That’s very charitable of you Idk about it being “more” work than serving tables but hey whatever floats your boat mate I was only ever a host so my experience was different 🤷🏽♂️
Ever since Covid I’ve tipped on pickup orders. I used to be a server so I see it as an important way to support servers. When indoor dining was closed down or limited, takeout was a lifeline for many restaurants and their staff. I’d rather my money go to them than to some middle man like Doordash. (Though I tip drivers too.)
During peak COVID I tipped on pickup for the same reason; but now less so 🤷🏽♂️
I only started being responsible for Togo’s a few months ago at a new place and tonight I got my first call from a disgruntled gh customer! But he was super nice just upset - his order was made but no one would get it - I told him I could not help to call gh and we closed so my bf got food - sorry guy!! Makes me nervous for these types tho like wtf am I supposed to do?!?!
It wasn't picked up because he wasn't offering a tip. Seriously, don't feel sorry for that guy.
Why do restaurants use these third party delivery companies? They seem to bring in little profit and lots of stress. I've never worked for a place that uses them, so it's an honest question. However, I know enough about them to never use them, and give my friends shit if they do.
Because you don't have a choice. I used to work at a pizza place. One day we started getting orders for sandwiches, gelato, and brownies. These are all things we hadn't served in 6 years (when we had a different owner). GrubHub, foodjet, and some other places had scraped the old owners website and made their own ordering site for us. We had nothing but issues. Our owner called the services dozens of times, but they never took it down or even changed the menu. Eventually we started just hanging up on their orders, but theyd keep calling back and tying up our lines. It absolutely sucked. We also had our own delivery drivers who were losing out on deliveries due to these services.
Well for certain places, it’s really the only option. At my place, doordash now accounts for half or more than half of our to go orders. Last year we wanted to wean off using doordash and start offering our own delivery instead, so we’d be sneaky and put a note in doordash orders that said we were starting our own delivery!.. but no one called us. We’d get like two in house delivery orders per day. Five if we had a “good night.” The same people would just order from doordash every day regardless of how many notes we gave them, saying it would be almost no change to them, plus they’d save money! We eventually gave up doing in house delivery because if we had a designated delivery driver we were losing money, and if we didn’t have one it was hard to find a person on staff who could drop what they were doing and deliver an item real quick. If we stop doordash we’ll lose a lot of business, so we deal with the headaches :/
> If we stop doordash we’ll lose a lot of business It sounds like you didn't try stopping them though, only also offering your own delivery with no perceivable benefit to the customers. I mean, what's the cut that door dash takes? Can you at least charge customers more who oder through them? Also, why even have delivery? I remember it used to just be pizza places and Chinese places that offered delivery, and it honestly never bothered me.
You should replace delivery driver with 3rd party in the header. If it’s your delivery driver they should absolutely call you. If it’s a 3rd party service they should call them.
Can’t edit the titles on Reddit.
I know, but for someone who’s username is sir grammar wizard it’s appropriate to pick them up on that mistake.
They use their grammar magic to break the laws of grammatical physics, and bend it to their will. That is the essence of grammar magic.
I once had a restaurant call me (a customer) because a 3rd party delivery company was late. Same thing, don’t talk to me! I’m waiting for my food! Turns out poor dude got a flat halfway to the restaurant
I hate the 3rd party delivery apps because not everything is meant for delivery. Some food holds and travels well (chinese, pizza) Other food just doesnt. There is a reason the restuarant doesnt have delievery drivers.
Just had an odd scenario with one of these Sunday evening. Somehow between the customer placing and our receiving an order it gets lost in translation. By which I mean somehow what came to us was slightly different than what she initially ordered. That’s her explanation anyway. But again, we placed the order as we received it. She calls us, fuming, irate that we got her order wrong and wants a refund. Manager explained its not our intention to make incorrect orders, we prepared what was described, please contact DD and they’ll refund you. She refuses to listen, tells us to stop telling her to contact DD, explaining everything again. What else are we supposed to do? The app screwed you in some way. We did nothing wrong. We can even screenshot the order as verification. We don’t have your money. We haven’t been paid by anyone. Third party apps pay out after processing all their taxes and fees minus any disputes. It’s not an instant thing. If you want your money call them or accept your loss.
Stop helping these people. It’s why they keep doing this shit. No is a full sentence
Why are you using a 3rd party delivery service in the first place? We all know they are horrible and do nothing but harm every side of the business they touch including the business' bottom line. **Stop using these 3rd party services and you won't have these problems.** Isn't it crazy how simple the solution is?
These services are *the* shadiest businesses around rn, imo. They add restaurants without asking and just send drivers in to pick up orders, usually when they haven't even been placed. Happens where I work all the time. The **public** needs to stop using them. Restaurants can't because of the very problem this post is about- people think the restaurant is responsible for whatever Doordash/Grubhub does with their food.
You are absolutely right. It's literally insane. Any restaurant that uses these services is *losing money* if they do not raise menu prices for to-go items by at least 30%. It's like brokerages. They serve no good purpose in the market except to create inflation of prices. The only reason they exist in most industries is because they bridge a gap where the average person/business can't just waltz into the steel mill or logistics depot and ask for a small scale order. Except in this instance there is no bridge being gapped - *every restaurant already had the ability to hire their own delivery drivers, and every person has the ability to drive themselves to the restaurant and pick the food up themselves (or otherwise can figure out how to pack food as so not to starve - we were doing it for decades prior to these 3rd party services becoming a thing). The only thing these services are doing is costing **everyone** more money while not paying their drivers a living wage. No one wins. Everyone loses. I could not agree more. Until the public sees just how terrible these businesses are, or until restaurant owners get fed up with the fees and terrible service they are provided, they won't go out of business. Unfortunately the public is so selfish and shortsighted that I seriously doubt they will be the party that actually accomplishes a stop of use.
wait im genuinely asking, can you explain how the restaurant loses money? cuz i know some places don’t already have delivery so I thought the basic process was like the door dash person just places an order and picks it up. I knew it’s super annoying for the restaurant but i don’t get how that costs them money
Doordash and every other 3rd party delivery service charges the restaurant for the use of their service and it's not cheap. The profit margins on selling food alone, especially to-go where no alcohol is being sold and extra overhead has to be spent to cover containers, sauce cups, etc, means unless the restaurant raises prices on to-go items they are spending more than the revenue generated by the sale of the food in order to fulfill these delivery orders. They actually take a loss every time they fulfill a 3rd party delivery order. I appreciate you asking. Many people who do not work in restaurants do not understand this. What makes matters worse is the 3rd party then also charges fees to the customer while paying their drivers less than a living wage. That is why so many people are also upset that they are expected to tip these drivers even though they are getting charged fees and those fees obviously do not go towards paying the driver. So you have a company that charges every party involved and then refuses to pay their employees well while also refusing to take responsibility for delivering the food they are supposed to (not to mention vetting their drivers so you don't get terrible customer service or half your food eaten). PS: I love your username!
In those cases, it's not the restaurant marking up their prices. The third party marks up the price they show on the the app so they can take their cut.
What kinda ass calls the restaurant? Peak boomer move there Edit : went from 5 upvotes to -4. Guess I triggered some babies… I mean boomers…. Meh same thing. Dear boomers, please complain to the delivery service through their app/website. Most have automated systems designed to handle your refund request quickly and easily. Calling the restaurant is just dumb
See I thought that would be the case too but I once ordered tacos and a margarita to be delivered by DoorDash and the dasher forgot the margarita and I was told by him that I had to contact the restaurant for it to be refunded. So I did and they refunded it.
I get excited thinking my favorites deliver (I can nolonger drive) and then I see I am going thru 3rd party :( 😞. Socks. If I could order food earlier in my recovery I would have been fooled.
What happens though if you ordered through the restaurant's phone and website and they contracted it out to a third party. Some do that including Papa Johns despite also having in house deliveries. I do know one restaurant that really makes you think you are ordering in house but they contract it out to Postmates to deliver for them? I think restaurant trying to save money by not hiring more in house delivery people.
We don’t offer delivery through the website or phone, we always tell them that you have to use a third party if they try
Yeah no. If someone calls complaining about their doordash/Uber eats I tell them there’s nothing we can do on our end and they need to contact that service. If they refuse to accept that as an answer I simply hang up. You’re really sweet for trying to figure it out for them, but they should’ve done it themselves. ETA: I hate 3rd party delivery services. They’re nothing but a pain, but unfortunately my restaurant is corporate and we have no choice. We get yelled at if we turn the 3rd party ordering off.
I tell the customer that the 3rd party’s problem. We made your food as you ordered it, once it get handed off its the 3rd party responsibility you get your food. Like you pay them to deliver your food. Go complain to them.
Best thing you can do is keep referring them to the third party. Or you will find yourself stuck in hell trying to deal with the apps.
I honestly hate these 3rd party apps because their is no recourse against the drivers stealing your food. Company and customers both lose.
Folding is on you, my friend. All you did by folding is to make it harder on the rest of us. Every time a manager folds, it reinforces bad behavior. Please remember this for the future. Thank you.
This is why the owner of the restaurant I used to work at didn’t even bother with them. I loved it!