AIBU asking for a refund.

[CorrodedCoffin]

This is hardly the most pressing matter in my life but it’s one thing that is giving me a great deal of frustration atm.

So the other night me and the OH decided to order takeout. I’m usually cautious about spending large amounts of money on such things, but you know it’s nice to have a treat every now and then. There’s an Italian place we like but they only take delivery orders through Uber Eats.

I don’t generally tend to go with Uber Eats - the handful of times we’ve used them, I’d say 50% of the time items are missing but they have very quickly and graciously refunded us, so I didn’t have anything particularly bad to say about them.

Anyway, we placed the order and the delivery time came and went. I had been having trouble with my phone (notifications not going off/calls not coming through etc) but hadn’t really thought about that being an issue. There had been no knock at our door and I kept checking the app for updates and all of a sudden it said that the delivery had been made to a different address from the one we gave. I am tech savvy but I swear, attempting any kind of communication with Uber Eats is a nightmare. Couldn’t find a way to contact the driver, so we contacted the restaurant. They said they’d remake the order for us and attempt to contact the driver. They spoke with him, he said he’d knocked and gotten no response (but he wasn’t at our address) so I made sure that the restaurant relayed the right address this time. The restaurant said that I would have to pay for this new order and then I would have to contact Uber Eats for a refund on the order that never turned up, fair enough I thought, like I said in the past, refunds were quick and easy.
Not this time.

I have spent the past 2 days trying to get in contact with someone at Uber Eats. The app was like a maze, the phone number they give out is inactive, so I tried messaging them across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. Such an insane hassle, only for them to turn around and tell me that their driver tried to phone me so it was my problem and as such I wasn’t entitled to a refund. As previously mentioned my phone was acting up but I didn’t realise to what extent, so he may very well have tried to call me, but the point was, he never knocked at my door. I tried to explain this to them and they said the driver “waited the appropriate amount of time at the delivery address” but he didn’t! He waiting the appropriate time at a completely different address! It says so on the receipt!

I could understand if they had a policy where they take a fee if a driver is inconvenienced in some way but this meal cost £45! That’s my phone and internet bill for the month! And not only that but I paid for the meal to be redone, so I have essentially paid nearly £90 for 1 meal!

So what do you guys think? Am I being completely unreasonable asking for a refund? Anyone else had a tough time with Uber Eats?

We get kissing things all the time with Uber. I prefer to use just eat or Deliveroo if possible. It's really straight forward to report missing deliveries on the Uber eats app though. Usually get your refund the same day as well. Did you use the app?

I can’t help I’m afraid but I share your frustrations. I have on occasion had issues and Uber Eats has refunded no problem. The other month we had an order where half the order was missing, I complained to Uber Eats who just said they took the feedback onboard and hopefully I had a better experience next time! The restaurant wouldn’t deal with it as they said I had to go through Uber Eats. Uber Eats said the case was closed and they found their own response satisfactory. It is ridiculous but has helped in that we don’t bother with takeaways as much now unless direct from the restaurant.

I had similar with JustEat a little while back. I gave up in the end, but I decided I would never use them again.

I had this problem with Uber Eats when we ordered Pizza Hut.
Pizza Hut said that it's not their responsibility once it left the premises and I would have to pay for the meal again for them to remake it. I said the trouble with that is that's the only way you can get delivery from them now and their website promotes Uber Eats. We didn't pay again, I went to the shop and bought pizzas to put in the oven.
We also didn't get a refund as like you say, you can't get hold of anyone! When we tried to phone the delivery driver when it was mega late someone answered the phone, confirmed that he was the person named on the app but he had someone else out delivering for him so wasn't his problem!
I wont use Uber Eats for anything now.

I did contact them through the app, and that is where they ultimately said I wasn’t entitled to a refund.
I will try PayPal though.

I'd go directly through PayPal, let them sort it - much easier!

I've disputed things bought via PayPal a couple of times and the process was quick and efficient. Go for it!

I generally use Deliveroo or Just Eat, but unfortunately the place we wanted to order from only does deliveries through Uber Eats. And yes, I requested the refund through the app but selecting the missing items only got me a response that the order had been delivered. And I struggled to find (but eventually found) the option to complain about an order not turning up, and this is where I got a direct response telling me I’m not eligible for a refund.

I think I will do that. :)

This is encouraging to hear. Looking like my best bet at the moment.

Sorry to hear you had a similarly awful experience. I wouldn’t call myself a regular customer of Uber Eats, but I don’t think I’ll be using them again at all after this.

Have you contacted them publicly on their social media or through DM? I find putting something on Twitter/FB/IG & @ them works better & quicker than sending a private message.

We get this all the time with food delivered to the wrong address - I'm 1 my street name & my food sometimes ends up at the street on the other side of the roundabout which is my street name west! They obviously always take the food in rather than tell the driver it's the wrong address so the one time it happened the other way I told DD to enjoy their Indian unfortunately I was out.

We have four other houses or flats nearby with a very similar address to ours and have had many knocks at the door for takeaways that aren't ours. We always send them to the right place, though sometimes I regret it...

First, I would try stating that you are entitled to a refund under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, which states that services ought to be carried out with due skill and care. The delivery driver was provided with your address and you have evidence that he did not go to that address. That is not delivering the food with due skill and care.

Calling you makes no difference. He should have known that he was at the wrong address. If he did know, he shouldn't have left the food. If he didn't know, he didn't deliver with due skill and care. The first thing he should have done was check that he was in the correct location when nobody answered the door or the phone. If he called because he couldn't find your address, he shouldn't have left the food outside a different address just because he couldn't find your address!

Although I suspect that their T&C's might have a clause about that.

I have messaged them both publicly and privately, but I have noticed that their general response to getting an @ on social media is to tell you to DM them anyway. 😅

I never really understand why people just take in random food deliveries when they’re not expecting them. I would just feel awful knowing someone would be going through the hassle of having to chase it down. Plus me and the OH are vegetarians so taking in a mystery bag of food would probably not go in our favour, and ultimately go to waste.

This is really helpful info, but I’m not sure they’ll listen to it. They’ve repeatedly told me now that “within their policy” the driver did nothing wrong because he attempted to phone me - they seem pretty hung up on that.

I've been in this position (well my food was delivered but because the driver accepted it but didn't actually collect it from the store for another 40 mins it meant our food was cold and ice creams had turned to milk). I got nowhere with Uber eats so did a claim via PayPal and in a couple of hours i had an email saying they had found in my favour and were refunding me.
Only thing is my Ubereats app states I owe £27 (which is what PayPal refunded me) meaning I can't use it to order unless I set up a new account. Looking online this is common.

Try opening a PayPal dispute. My bank (Barclays) are generally good at giving me a refund when companies won’t respond too so you could try that.

Where in the UK are you (region). I can help with that info.

A little update for you all : I opened a dispute through PayPal and they’ve said my refund is on the way (not sure if that is a generic response but I’m hopeful 😊)

Just wanted to say a massive thank you to all of you for your support and suggestions (especially the PayPal ones). If only I’d thought of that in the first place, it was an infinitely less stressful process than trying to get through to Uber Eats. 😅

Feel free to keep using the thread if you have any Uber horror stories and need to vent.

It's worth a try, @CorrodedCoffin. If they still refuse, ask them why their company believes they are exempt from the law.

I suspect that their T&Cs say something like you accept responsibility for being available by phone and responsibility for the food not being delivered if they contact you and you don't reply. You might want to ask on the legal board if that would be considered an unfair term, as (obviously) mobile phone services are not 100% reliable and that is not within your control.

I would also argue that, even if you weren't available on your phone, why did the delivery person not check that they were at the correct address, and why did they leave the food at an incorrect address? They failed to check that basic information (which did not require them to call you), ergo, they did not deliver the food with due care and skill. If they had performed their job with due care and skill, they would have left it on your doorstep, not the wrong doorstep (Am I correct that they left it on a different doorstep rather than giving it to the wrong person? Presumably, they wouldn't have rung you if someone else answered the door and took the food at the incorrect address.). Also, why did they mark it as "delivered"? Ask them what they are supposed to do if there is no answer at the door or phone, and how they are supposed to report it. Just leave it? Presumably they are supposed to check they are at the correct address.

I really appreciate you going through the effort to lay this out for me. I completely agree with everything you’ve said and I’m saving all this just in case I need to take it any further, but really hoping my PayPal dispute (wrote a little update above) comes through for me.

As far as the delivery itself goes, I still have no idea exactly what happened to the food. The receipt clearly states that it was delivered to a specific address (my original assumption was that he must have left it on their doorstep?) but this wasn’t clarified when I spoke to the restaurant (who spoke to the driver) and then when I got the response from Uber Eats, they also failed to clarify what actually happened to my food and kept failing to acknowledge and address that the receipt said what it said.