
Amazon leads $575M investment in Deliveroo - mmq
https://techcrunch.com/2019/05/16/amazon-takes-a-bite-into-deliveroo/
======
morrbo
I hope to god Deliveroo takes some of Amazon's customer service
tips/experience. Deliveroo's customer service is the absolute worst of any
company i've ever experienced. So much so that they've had news articles[1]
published in the UK about how much they try and screw people over.

Deliveroo, Uber Eats, Just Eat also (again, speaking for the UK) do not list
restaurants' food safety/hygienic ratings, which is a requirement to run a
restaurant in the UK[2]. This has lead to people like a comedian here (Joe
Lycett) making a restaurant in a skip (a big industrial waste disposal unit)
and getting food delivered to himself to see if it would work[3]...and it did.

If that wasn't bad enough, in London, Deliveroo actively masks restaurants'
locations. For example, you order from "my 5 star restaurant" but the food
might not actually come from the restaurant, instead it comes from a metal
shipping container, under a bridge, next to a train track. These, are made by
Deliveroo and, again, have no safety ratings/hygienic information.[4]

[1] (example) [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/deliveroo-
food-o...](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/deliveroo-food-order-
refund-customer-support-asks-for-forgiveness-a7530486.html)

[2]
[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-45888709](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-45888709)

[3]
[https://twitter.com/joelycett/status/1085924299339452420?lan...](https://twitter.com/joelycett/status/1085924299339452420?lang=en)

[4]
[https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/oct/28/deliveroo-d...](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/oct/28/deliveroo-
dark-kitchens-pop-up-feeding-the-city-london)

This has been my experience, several times, it really isn't a unique
experience. Their policy seems to be to cut corners and hold on to money as
much as physically possible. Don't get me wrong, i love the idea, and
convenience of it all and use all 3 apps pretty regularly. Given the amount of
money they make they should all seriously step up their game in terms of just
not being shady bastards.

~~~
dintech
This hasn’t been my experience. Any problems with an order, they refund
immediately no questions asked and add an extra £5 as an apology. Over the
years, this has been consistent.

Uber Eats customer service is like pulling teeth. Never had a refund after
several incidents and we try not to use them any more.

~~~
jquery
Not my experience with Eats at all. Refunds always, no questions except during
a brief stint I was asking for a lot of refunds in a short time. YMMV.

------
skilled
With the speed that delivery services are growing, I am under the impression
that I soon won't need to leave my chair to have everything I need at my
doorstep in less than a few hours.

I have recently had to use a grocery delivery service so I can't complain. The
time saved does add up if you're busy.

~~~
dogma1138
This been the case for London for a while now.

That said I’m not sure it’s a good thing.

~~~
PunchTornado
why? because something forces you to move?

~~~
cameronbrown
The resources needed to transport stuff are not free, and they usually involve
petrol instead of legs.

~~~
johannes1234321
It is not that easy. One delivery truck delivering to multiple people can be
more efficient over them driving individually.

A warehouse can be more efficiently cooled and enlighted than a shop for
individuals.

A big kitchen preparing menu after menu can be more efficient than heating up
the oven for a single use. A restaurant using larger supply packs can be more
efficient than household sizes in packaging and transport.

It's a case by case thing, but average for a few domains might not be that
bad.

~~~
ghaff
Cooking meals at home probably takes fewer resources and creates less waste
overall.

However, assuming that there's driving involved in either case, I wouldn't
think having an order delivered from a big facility is much different from you
going to a restaurant and picking up takeout.

------
kayoone
I work for a competitor of Deliveroo and in asia you already have these all
encompassing delivery apps that started with food and now deliver almost
anything. Some also started as Uber competitors branching out into delivery
like Uber does with UberEats. Grab, Go-Jek in Asia or Rappi in South America
are moving fast into this direction.

~~~
k__
In Germany there was a consolidation this year. Lieferando bought some
competitors. Didn't even know Deliveroo was a big thing, thought this was some
Berlin only thing.

~~~
kayoone
Yeah, Lieferando (takeaway.com) bought the german business of Delivery Hero
(Lieferheld, pizza.de, Foodora) for close to a billion. They had a long fight
in Europe but DH is now focusing on Asia, but they still have a considerable
share in takeaway.

------
keymone
has there ever been a delivery service that is food focused rather than food-
vendor focused? i just want to order a good burrito, i don't care who makes
it. or i'm having a party and we want to order a few burritos, couple pizzas
and some sushi - we don't want to make separate orders for all of that. which
vendor executed the order can be than rated and future vendors selected by
rating and personal preferences.

is this even viable?

~~~
dogma1138
As long as you can convince different restaurants to produce the same thing
exactly sure it can work but thats rather a tall task.

Most people I know would select the place they want to get food from first
since there is a huge variance in quality and personal tastes.

~~~
icebraining
I don't think you need to convince them to produce the same thing. The
delivery company would just have single preferred suppliers for each different
kind of meal.

Curiously another post on the frontpage is about the success of Aldi, which
has a similar model as a grocery store (very limited selection of good quality
products). I could see the Aldi of meal delivery working.

~~~
dogma1138
Aldi isn’t a high quality grocery store it’s a discount supermarket it’s in
house brands are god awful when compared to the likes of M&S and Waitrose.

~~~
icebraining
Comparisons are irrelevant; Aldi products are of quality enough that a very
large swathe of the population shop there, not just poor people.

------
naveen99
Does this increase the reputation of Uber? In the past people contrasted
amazon reinvestment of profits to uber’s expenses. Now Amazon is following
uber eats...

------
jmkd
Deliveroo have the ambition to own food, so it's no surprise this appeals to
Amazon. Delivery is just their first tactic in a far larger strategy.

