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  Geebo 9:00 am on December 19, 2022 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: DoorDash ( 3 ), food delivery, restaurants, Scams ( 1,367 ), Uber Eats   

  New scam costs both restaurants and customers money 

  

  By Greg Collier

  Food delivery services like Uber Eats and DoorDash are some of the most convenient services out there. Before these platforms existed, you could only get food delivered from a handful of restaurants. You were mostly limited to either pizza or Chinese food in many markets. Now, you can get delivery from just about every restaurant or chain out there. And just think how invaluable these services were during the height of the pandemic. Previously, we’ve shown how the drivers for these services could be scammed. Now there’s a delivery scam that affects not only the drivers, but the restaurants and customers as well.

  A report out of Indiana states that a number of restaurants in one town have been targeted by this scam. Scammers are looking out for restaurants that aren’t on these delivery platforms. The scammers then pose as the restaurants and fill out phony profiles on the delivery apps. An app user will find the phony listing and then pay for a delivery from the restaurant. A delivery driver will be notified of a delivery being needed, which they typically get paid for. The driver will go to the restaurant looking for the order only to be told by the restaurant they don’t use their platform.

  The customer is out of money because they just paid a scammer instead of a restaurant. The driver is out of money because they won’t be paid for that delivery. And the restaurant loses out on a potential sale.

  Restaurants have been calling the platforms to have their listings removed, but in some cases, the phony profiles keep returning.

  If you’re a consumer looking to order a delivery from a restaurant, go to their website first to make sure they use one of the delivery platforms before using that delivery app. Plus, that restaurant could have their own delivery staff.

   

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  Geebo 7:23 am on July 23, 2019 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: delivery ( 8 ), DoorDash ( 3 ), food delivery, gig economy ( 5 ), tipping, Tips ( 2 )   

  Your delivery tips may not be going where you think! 

  

  In today’s immediate response needed society, many of us use food delivery services like UberEats or DoorDash to have food delivered to our home. These services became popular once consumers found out that they could have food delivered to them from restaurants that don’t normally deliver. Can’t get out of the home and need to get a decent meal delivered for dinner? Just use the app for one of these services and you can have dinner delivered to your home in no time. Now, while it may be convenient for you this convenience comes at a cost. Is that cost burdened by the restaurant? No. Is it the platform itself? Sort of. However, too much of the cost may be burdened by the delivery drivers themselves.

  A recent report from the New York Times had one of their writers and go out and work as a delivery driver for these gig economy platforms. In order to make any decent amount of money, many of these drivers have to work for several different services while trying to comply with the rules and demands of each. trying to juggle all of those demands increases the likelihood that they could lose out on deliveries. Meanwhile, they’re not really employees of any of these companies and are seen more like independent contractors. This way these companies don’t have to provide many benefits to their drivers.

  To make matters worse, according to the Times report, some of these platforms consider tips as part of the drivers’ base wages. For example, if you tip your delivery driver through the platform’s app, that tip may just be taken off the top of whatever they were going to make for that delivery. In essence, tipping just reduced their pay. Not all delivery platforms are like this, but The Verge has a list of companies that do and don’t count driver tips as base pay. So the next time you order lunch to be delivered, try to keep in mind the person delivering your food and what they’re going through as well.