
Ask HN: What's your worst Uber Eats/Door dash experience? - henrikm85
I&#x27;ve just had an UberEats food order canceled after waiting for 1 1&#x2F;2 hours. The food is actually at the restaurant and has been for 1h. Has anyone else seen this? Is that common?
======
jacobwg
Unlike many of the other replies, I have had largely positive experiences with
UberEats, especially compared to some of the other available services.
Doordash's wait time is long at 60-90 minutes usually. Postmates has some
insanely expensive delivery fees, sometimes as much as $25, fully doubling the
cost of the order. Grubhub doesn't have a large selection. And Amazon
Restaurants seems to be rolling out via zip code, so even restaurants in close
proximity are unavailable because my zip code hasn't been activated yet.

A few things that UberEats does well: the live-updating map of your driver,
which makes it seamless to anticipate the delivery time and meet your driver
at the curb in the event that their GPS doesn't accurately locate the address.
Speed of delivery, which may be due to having a larger network of cars and
drivers to pull from. And price / checkout flow - it's very easy to place an
order with pre-saved checkout information and the prices are usually lowest
(edit: even including raised menu prices - the total price is less).

I personally have no love for Uber as a company and have actively avoided it
for transportation, so I feel that UberEats UX has done a lot to retain my
business despite it being Uber. If there's ever a Lyft of restaurant delivery
(maybe an official Lyft offering?) I'll switch.

FWIW, my UberEats experiences have been in the Dallas area.

~~~
in_cahoots
At least Postmates has transparent pricing. UberEats and Doordash raise the
prices on the menu items 10-20% in addition to charging you a service and
delivery fee. And on Doordash you can’t even change the tip after delivery for
poor service.

------
pommers
Ordered a tub of ice cream using UberEats. ETA 45 minutes. after an hour and
15 minutes I start trying to contact someone because my driver was "3 minutes
away" dropping off someone elses order first.

Call my driver and am unable to communicate clearly with them. Get handed over
to the guy who's door he was at and have a quick chat because both of us are
annoyed (him for having someone knocking on his door at 11pm, and me for no
ice cream).

Call Uber support and they call the driver, then say he should be at my place
in 5 minutes or so.

A couple of calls back to Uber and about 2 hours after I ordered it, I finally
get my ice cream. At this point in time it is all liquid.

For Reference: Ordered around 10PM (Friday night from memory), located in
Perth Western Australia

Call Uber again and they say they will refund me. Still haven't seen the
refund...

------
d23
I had a postmates order cancelled after 8 hours -- twice. I went on twitter
and saw a ton of other people having the same issue. They did no postmortem,
no mass apology; instead, they offered me delivery credit. Yeah, that'll make
up for essentially not eating dinner til after 10pm. I told them to delete my
account.

Half the time my order was wrong anyway. Half the time they would delete the
food allergy notes I added. 80% of the page loads resulted in a 500 error -- I
basically just had to keep refreshing until something worked. Their UI jumps
all over the place and deletes everything from your cart once you sign in.

I know you only asked about two of the competitors, but I just had to rant.

------
nopassrecover
UberEats decided that I lived in the very center (i.e. GPS lookup) of my city
for a booking despite numerous bookings before and after. This meant I had to
drive in, park, and meet up with my my poor UberEats delivery driver who was
on a bike and had no chance of making it to my place anytime soon.

UberEats drivers who accept delivery of multiple orders, so you wait for
everyone else's orders to be cooked and delivered before your cold burger and
fries arrive. This problem is exaggerated by either these orders being on
opposite sides of the city or the delivery driver being on a bike (why either
of these are permitted I have no idea). Have even had my order delivered to
someone else and vice versa this way before.

In general, slow deliveries and the usual process of having to walk up the
street to find lost/lazy drivers. The ETA always being wildly wrong (I get
cooking delays, but delivery ETA from pickup should be spot on, and is usually
off by 100%). Then add in general restaurant problems with mixing up orders,
missing items, or selling food that doesn't transport.

Would happily pay $10 (maybe even $15) per delivery rather than the $5 they
charge now if all of these problems went away (e.g. guaranteed prompt and
direct delivery).

~~~
kiwidrew
_UberEats drivers who accept delivery of multiple orders, so you wait for
everyone else 's orders to be cooked and delivered before your cold burger and
fries arrive. This problem is exaggerated by either these orders being on
opposite sides of the city or…_

Unfortunately the Eats drivers (of which I am one) don't have a choice. If the
Uber dispatch algorithm determines that we should pick up two orders at the
same time, then it gives us instructions to that effect. It also decides which
of the two orders to deliver first. We don't even get to see where the second
order is going until the first has been dropped off.

And yes, the algorithm is terrible. Sometimes we drop off the first order all
the way across town, and the second order turns out to be for a customer a few
blocks away from the original pickup location! It's also quite common for a
new order coming in result in the driver (who has just arrived at the
restaurant to pick up your food) needing to wait an extra 10 minutes while the
new order is prepared and cooked.

The end result is customers getting cold food. I'm amazed that Uber Eats has
repeat customers.

(And here in New Zealand, the restauarnt pays Uber 35% of the menu price -
plus the customer is still paying a delivery fee on top! It's again amazing
that any restaurant would even bother with Uber Eats.)

~~~
throwaway155480
In my city, if you're a driver, you're not required to accept a double
delivery, and if you do accept, you aren't required to follow through. (After
accepting, you have the choice to either pickup and confirm receipt or opt out
by canceling, in any combination.)

As a driver, doubles are overwhelmingly not worth it in my city. For example,
if I get paged for an order it may be for delivery from restaurant A to
dropoff C. At any time before I arrive do the pickup, I may get paged to pick
up an additional order. There only a narrow set of circumstances where it is
worth it to me, the driver, to accept a double. Here's a list of things that
would make a double unfavorable for a driver:

\- The dropoff for the additional order may be at some point B that more or
less lies somewhere along your route from A to C. Uber will route you to B
first and then C. You're essentially delivering to B for free; you could have
rejected the second order, forgone the double workload, and delivered directly
from A to C and get paid the ~same amount.

\- The first order, i.e., the one you originally accepted, is ready, but the
second is not. The kitchen may or may not lie to you about how much longer it
will take. As a driver, you have no insight into the final destination of the
orders until you confirm receipt, so you cannot tell whether you're dealing
with a a pathological case for B as above, or whether the order will actually
be worth your while. Both customers pay the full delivery price AFAIK, so the
only party benefiting here is Uber.

\- The first order is ready, but the second one is not, the kitchen knows
this, and they know that it will be 5-10+ minutes longer for the second order
to be ready, but they never communicate this to you to give you the option of
opting out of the second order. So the first order sits cold while the second
is prepared, with you the driver believing that your choice is actually
between waiting for the first thing available from the kitchen or canceling
the whole thing altogether, which would mean being unable to recoup anything
of your sunk costs for the trip to the restaurant (and possibly back to a "hot
zone" if the restaurant is outside the city).

\- You cancel one of the orders, and the staff gives you a bad review
(unprofessional) as if you've robbed them of something. You haven't. If a
driver sits idle for 10 minutes waiting for the order to be completed, the
driver pays that cost while the restaurant gains _nothing_. This is
infuriating, and I was strongly reminded of it by front page link to "Basic
Laws of Human Stupidity" a couple weeks ago.

There are exactly two scenarios where a double is "worth" it:

\- Geographically speaking, the second order is well past the first one that
you would have delivered. This means you don't have to bear the costs of
waiting for the next request to come in nor the cost of travel for pickup,
because you already have work queued up.

\- Geographically speaking, the route between A, B, and C are disjoint (i.e.,
B and C are in opposite directions from the restaurant). Congratulations, you
actually end up making more than if you had made the same two deliveries as
individual trips. This is fairly rare, not good for the (second) customer, and
it still doesn't eliminate the risks above about arriving at the restaurant to
find the orders aren't ready.

------
synicalx
Had a couple of good encounters with UberEats;

1\. Ordered some burgers and milkshakes, guy rocks up quite late, quickly
hands me my bag and shouts (very loudly) "BEWARE". Turns out "BEWARE" meant,
"I've spilled both your milkshakes all over the rest of your food". To their
credit, Uber refunded me the whole order.

2\. Looked at the app and noticed the driver was sitting at the end of my
street and had been for about 10 minutes. I called and got no answer, so I
wandered down to see what was up. He was angrily pounding on some random door,
apparently thinking it was my house. Then he got mad at me for not coming down
to find him sooner?

These days I prefer to use apps like EatNow that let the restaurants use their
own delivery drivers - much more reliable in my experience as the drivers are
actually accountable for what they do and have a direct relationship with the
restaurant.

------
bobbytherobot
The driver picked up my food and drove home with it. I didn't know it was
UberEats until I completed ordering it. The place was nice enough to refund me
and resend my order. But I'm not ordering delivery from them again.

------
thisisit
Food delivery service by city:
[https://www.recode.net/2017/10/3/16384050/food-delivery-
serv...](https://www.recode.net/2017/10/3/16384050/food-delivery-service-
ubereats-grubhub-doordash-city-takeout)

Experiences might differ accordingly.

On a personal note, we have Swiggy in Bangalore and there were tons of issues
when it was starting out. Now while the wait times are longer at least the
food is delivered promptly.

------
Jach
I don't remember if I've had an UberEats order canceled, usually it's been a
good experience. One time the driver forgot a milkshake and went back to get
it, another time it was too late (restaurant closed) but UberEats credited me.
I stopped using them though because their restaurant selection was too random
/ inconsistent, and their delivery fee too high, and they bumped or got rid of
the minimum order to waive delivery fee, and Uber/UberEats drivers now expect
tips. I use Postmates now, because I can order from anywhere (including my
favorite chinese place that isn't on anyone else's app), but it has even more
inconsistency with when drivers are available, and I've had many orders
canceled (fortunately not from my favorite place). I only use it when the
delivery is free (there's still a "service fee" that's kind of high but
whatever) and so long as the driver gets my food to me in ok condition I'll
give a small tip to encourage them to keep doing it, since if you go to the
postmates reddit it's nothing but drivers complaining about $0 in tips. In the
Bellevue area there don't seem to be enough drivers which probably influences
how often orders have to be canceled.

------
landr0id
The last time I ordered from Postmates I got $75 worth of Chinese food for a
big group (5 entrees, 2 sides of rice). When the food arrived I got 3 entrees,
one of which was sweet and sour chicken without the sauce, and no sides.

I contacted Postmates about it and they refunded me $17. Huge inconvenience
since the food took forever to get to me and I was missing over half of the
order and had 4 other hungry people. Never ordering from Postmates again.

------
fossuser
I stopped using Uber Eats when one driver picked up the food, drove near where
I live, and then cancelled the ride (presumably stealing the food?) -
apparently this is a common issue. I called the support number, but it was
some foreign call center and they were unable to understand what I was trying
to explain (they just kept saying that they could call the restaurant which
wasn't the issue). The Uber Eats Facebook page had support that could actually
help.

I only use Door Dash now since the rest of the times I tried Uber Eats the
drivers refuse to get out of the car and come to the door even if you have
that selected - they just sit in the car and call. Door Dash seems to have a
lot better and nicer employees and I've had fewer issues with them in general.

------
robjs
I had this a couple of weeks ago -- order placed, waited over an hour and the
order was then cancelled. They (UberEats) "couldn't find a driver". Spoke with
their customer support, who offered me 50% off if I re-ordered, so we did...
Again, after an hour, the order was cancelled again. Same deal.

The restaurant actually cooked the food twice - and the second time, I asked
if I just could go down there and get the food - but apparently this isn't
possible. Uber just use the excuse that their drivers are contractors - and
they can't do anything.

I'd understand if this were the middle of nowhere, and on a Friday or some
other busy time. But at 8PM on a Tuesday in San Francisco... Yeah. Probably
they should sort this out.

------
diggum
Had an Amazon Restaurants deliver a pizza sideways in his shoulder bag. Opened
it to show him the pizza was now a clump at one end of the box and that I was
going to need him to try again. He called and seemed very confused as to why I
wouldn’t accept the pizza in that state.

45 minutes later and had a flat replacement delivered with a refund and credit
from Amazon. Other attempts from other services have typically arrived cold
and late. Allowing me to see notifications as to when the food is ready, then
wait in agony as nothing happens for 30 minutes, gives me a pretty good idea
what I’ll be getting. So far, I’m not a fan.

------
mstaoru
Here in China going to the restaurant is becoming a lifestyle choice, with
more and food being delivered. Swarms of delivery scooters flood the streets
of Shanghai, ignoring all the rules and other vehicles in a fervent rush to
deliver more orders. They get paid around $1 per order. Over 3,000,000 orders
are being delivered DAILY just in Shanghai. Delivery times can be as short as
15 minutes or as "long" as 1 hour. Rarely longer. Tons of plastic waste every
day. Awful food. But omg how convenient is that.

------
alexkavon
Ordered Uber Eats and when the driver came near on the map, I walked outside
and waited on my porch. The driver pulled up parallel to my house but still in
the street and parked. Then I stood there waiting for them to pull in the
drive way or pull off the road or anywhere besides the middle of the road. The
driver just started yelling at me on my porch. I then decided they were more
of the common type of Uber driver, so I walked up to their window to grab the
food. No tip.

------
mrdependable
That happened to me with Eat24. I was hoping it was the food that took a long
time to make and not the driver taking forever, but by the time I got it the
box the food was in had soaked through and was falling apart. The food looked
disgusting. Ended up getting my money back after being on the phone with their
support for an hour. I'm kind of over these delivery services as they tend to
be overly expensive and kind of unreliable.

------
mathattack
FYI - DoorDash just lost their CFO after less than a year. Trouble in
Paradise? [https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/25/doordash-cfo-leaves-
less-t...](https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/25/doordash-cfo-leaves-less-than-
one-year-after-joining/)

Some technologies I will miss if they don't pan out. DoorDash isn't one of
them.

------
r00fus
My worst experience with DoorDash was recent - DD didn't have enough drivers
and so double booked my driver who had to run off two different orders at he
same time... had no way to text or call driver and the chat support took
forever.

I will admit that DD made it right but I wonder if I would've gotten anything
if I didn't straight up ask the support chat person for a credit.

Never used other services.

------
JumpCrisscross
Friend works at a well-rated restaurant in Brooklyn. His restaurant turned
UberEats down because they feared it would hurt their brand. At that time,
UberEats would buy a few menu items in bulk and then resell them. Those
ordering the last items would not be eating food fresh from the kitchen, but
inventory which may have been sitting in a car for over an hour.

~~~
dannyw
That was UberEAT’s “instant” trial in NY. They abandoned it soon; all
deliveries are now with the more traditional model of being cooked fresh,
picked up, and delivered.

------
singlow
Austin Tx here and no bad experiences yet with Uber Eats. Haven't tried the
others. They seem to be as quick as could be expected, friendly, and customer
service was very helpful on one occasion when the restaurant was difficult.
The app had a bug that frustrated me where it wanted to revalidate my phone
number constantly but its been fixed.

------
koala_man
Whenever you order from Doordash, you get three texts: when the food is
ordered, picked up, and nearby.

Unless it's cancelled, in which case you just get an email and no text.

It's really annoying when you expect one channel and they use another.

------
praneshp
UberEats was always a hit or miss for me (in Mountain View). Doordash has been
great, it's usually 45 mins from ordering to delivery for most restaurants in
mountain view (roughly 10-12 mins with the driver).

------
wbkang
Toronto here. ordered food through UberEATS; waited 45 minutes then got a
notification saying the order was cancelled. We called to find out why and it
turns out the restaurant wasnt even open on that day.

------
mandeepj
I once ordered (aug 2017, seattle) breakfast from UberEats at 10 am. They
cancelled my order at 11 am saying they are unable to fulfill it. No further
details. Decided to never use them again.

------
dawnerd
Prime restaurants has been the only one reliable for me. Shame it’s not
available in my new zip despite offering prime now here.

------
mathattack
Doordash routinely underestimates by 30 mins. After enough discounts I just
deleted the app.

------
mooreds
Where are you located? I wonder if it is a geography thing.

~~~
henrikm85
SF Bay Area

~~~
DiabloD3
Man, if a startup can't figure out how to make it in the Bay Area, what makes
them think they can make it in the real world?

~~~
praneshp
For driving related startups I don't know if it's the best area to start. I
feel like even driving 1 mile down the road is not constant time.

------
hagope
Completely raw chicken..service was fast tho :X

