Yesterday we planned on doing mulch after work so the wife decides to order dinner on GrubHub. She placed the order at 4pm for a 630 delivery.

Around 630 we get an update the order is pushed back to 645 then another update its pushed back to 7pm. Wife calls the restaurant directly and asks if they are busy or if its GrubHub. They tell us our order is ready and waiting for pickup. Huh...?

Get another update from GrubHub its now a 730 delivery. No where on the app to cancel the order. Wife then gets the chatbot and luckily gets puts through to customer service. They tell us they are still looking for a driver to assign the order.

So let me get this straight. My food has been sitting for over an hour and you still dont even have anyone to pick it up yet? Its a solid 10-15 min drive to get to my house. Best part is my wife ordered a milkshake too (guess it would have been just milk by the time it got here).

I understand you have staffing issues but be honest with upfront so I can decide if I dont want to place an order. Hour and a half old food is unacceptable. They did refund our money but its also a waste of food.

Never done it myself, but was never too keen on the idea either- a stranger in their personal vehicle with their hands on my food out of sight of anyone else.

quote:

Originally posted by flesheatingvirus:
Never done it myself, but was never too keen on the idea either- a stranger in their personal vehicle with their hands on my food out of sight of anyone else.

My thoughts as well.

How is it different than any other food delivery driver?

I did Uber Eats (as a driver) a few times.

For most fast food type places, they didn't start the order until the driver got there.
These usually had the bag 'sealed' shut with a sticker of some sort.

Sit down places, it was usually ready or near ready when the driver got there.

I imagine there a far fewer drivers out right now. Saw an article last week that Uber/Lyft were reporting a pretty large drop in revenues.

quote:

Originally posted by ryan81986:
How is it different than any other food delivery driver?

Probably not much, but someone who works for the restaurant would at least be directly accountable to the owner.

^^^
Especially if you order Italian...

I suppose I'll be the dissenter. I like it, and I've used it. The only time I've not used it, it was because that particular locale charged high delivery fees.

The service offers a great deal more variety than your typical delivery joints too which was great when I was on "house arrest" in Portland for two weeks doing reserve last month.

As far as the potential of people messing with food...I just don't worry about it. But, I also drink coffee made from the water on the airplane, so I'm not overly squeamish, I suppose.

Normally it works fine. I’m guessing current circumstances are affecting service.

Pretty much all the restaurants around here are slammed with takeout orders. Yesterday, two restaurants actually turned us away and couldn’t take our order because they were so busy.

The same thing happened to me as to OP. 1 1/2 hours wait after the estimated delivery time. Utter bs. That was 2 yrs ago. The driver apologized, but shit, my food was cold and soggy. He told me they only had 1 driver for my area.
I learned my lesson.

location, location, location.

I'm in the North County of San Diego and my wife has the whole process down to refund/refuse to accept - due to food being cold or late.

We've also noted a few places have dropped specialized delivery places and formed up a co-op within a specific shopping area

Lots of our now closed restaurants are trying to do home deliveries.
So who is it doing the deliveries? Has there been some mad rush to become a delivery driver?
Our Jimmy Johns went completely closed. And they deliver during the non-apocalypse. Until my local folks advertise they have many drivers standing by to haul ass to my door, I will be leery of delivery promises.

Reason enough I don't order delivery- If 25% admit to eating your food it's higher.

quote:

1 In 4 Food Delivery Drivers Admit To Eating Your Food

https://www.npr.org/2019/07/30...-to-eating-your-food

Most of these delivery services screw local restaurants over.

quote:

Originally posted by a1abdj:
Most of these delivery services screw local restaurants over.

How so?

Steep discounts to the Service. Damn near charging the deliver service food cost. Then Service is charging full boat price to the customer with a "delivery charge".

Similar to Yelp, Open Table and the like. They take 7-10% of the entire bill.... tax and tip included as their fee.

Last time I talked with a restaurant manager and told him I looked on Yelp for the avail times.... then called direct for a reservation. His reply - "Fuck'm" and sent a nice bottle of wine to the table as a thank you for avoiding Yelp.

I'll pass on using a service when I can swing by and pick it up.

Andrew

I thought I was the only one. I have seen Ring videos of delivery persons doing "quality control checks" even by the doorstep.

quote:

Originally posted by flesheatingvirus:
Never done it myself, but was never too keen on the idea either- a stranger in their personal vehicle with their hands on my food out of sight of anyone else.

quote:

Originally posted by ryan81986:
How is it different than any other food delivery driver?

It's not. I have ordered delivery once in my entire life and likely will not again.
I had an HVAC crew at my house and was running late so I had pizza delivered for them.
When I have folks at my house doing work full day or multiple day jobs.
I always provide lunch for the crew. You let them know when the day starts you will be buying lunch.
I find work gets done with more care and they don't waste time leaving to go get food.
If something goes wrong down the line they tend to remember and treat you well on fixing issues that may pop up.

Having food delivered is out of pure convenience. Its definitely not my preferred option.

I would rather pick it up which is usually twice as quick as waiting for delivery.

However, working in yard I knew I would be filthy and there was no way I could pick up food. Wife was watching the kiddo and I could not stop in the middle of work to take over baby duty. There were not many options left.

quote:

How so?

They (and similar companies) act like a drug dealer. Try them for "free" to get you hooked, then they start with the high fees. Now if it stopped there, then you may have simply made a bad business decision.

But then they go on to hijack your web presence so that any search for the restaurant leads searches to them instead, they are known to make changes to your menu without your input, and when they screw up (by being late, eating your food, etc) its your reputation on the line.

I've talked to many restaurant owners that use these services. I'd say only about 10% are happy with their relationship.

As an example:

https://thinktank.pmq.com/t/doordash/17356