i’m just so frustrated with companies like Deliveroo, Uber eats, Just eat etc… being allowed to rip people off.
I have a disability and mainly rely on online grocery shopping with a slot booked in advance, but every now and then I forget something on my order or need something unexpectedly and in those cases I thought a relatively quick supermarket delivery would be so helpful.
I placed a grocery order with Deliveroo and my order turned up with several missing items, I contacted customer services which is just a live chat service and was refused a refund. They said they wanted photographic proof but I said I can’t take photos of something that hasn’t arrived! I lost out on about £15 and had to do without the items.
A few weeks later I ran out of cat food unexpectedly and placed another order adding a few essentials so I didn’t have to pay for a separate grocery order, I waited and waited but 90 minutes after confirming my order it was cancelled. By the time it was cancelled (10 pm on a sunday) everywhere was closed. I did get a £5 off voucher this time and didn’t lose money but I still was inconvenienced and had to ask a friend to bring me some cat food.
I made a third order using the voucher as I was really poorly and again waited past the estimated delivery time. However when it didn’t come and the shop I ordered from had closed I gave up and placed an order direct through the supermarket and paid for it to come the next day.
I was woken up the next morning at 7.30 where a delivery driver had my previous nights order and insisted I take it. I said I wanted refunding as I’d ordered it from a more reliable source so the driver took it away.
I contacted customer service and said how late my order was and I didn’t accept it so I wanted a refund. I said some of the order was meat and fresh food that I didn’t know how it had been stored overnight.
I was refused a refund and ended up with nothing as it was my own fault apparently for not taking my order! I ended up £45 down which left things very tight financially and it was upsetting feeling I’d been ripped off.
I contacted Deliveroo head office via email but they agreed with the staff member I should have cancelled or taken the delivery- I couldn’t cancel as it had been shopped for and dispatched.
I was emailed a promo code with £10 off to try Uber eats and thought I’d see if they were any better compared to deliveroo. I used the grocery service again and more than half my items were missing much to my frustration. However with Uber eats I was refunded for the items in credit on the app.
I used it again for another grocery order to use up my credit and tracked the driver collecting my order and driving towards my house. He suddenly was unavailable for tracking so I tried to contact him, I then got a message on the app saying my order had been delivered.
No one had knocked and I hadn’t heard a car so I tracked the driver and it showed him on a nearby housing estate then he went offline.
I contacted Uber eats who refused to believe I didn’t receive my order and charged me for an order that I believe the driver stole. I have since spotted the car that I tracked that night parked outside a house in the same area of the housing estate I tracked him on.
My Friend was visiting a few months later and ordered us both some food from a takeaway on Deliveroo to be delivered, it said over an hour so we were chatting and not constantly watching the app as we thought the driver would knock on the door when he came.
we started to get hungry though and realised well over an hour had passed so checked on the app and the food said delivered. I looked outside and no sign of it and my friend couldn’t contact the driver as it was no longer a live delivery. Deliveroo insisted it had been delivered and kept giving the same response. As my friend was leaving she found our takeaway dumped on the roadside be end of my driveway. The driver obviously didn’t want to waste time looking for my door!
My friend tried to get a refund for the cold abandoned food but got sick of wasting her time and energy.
I went to complain on trust pilot to find hundreds and hundreds of people had faced the same issues and lost out on money and had missing items, their orders had been wrong, late or never arrived.
I will never use Deliveroo or Uber eats again which is a shame because in theory it’s a good idea. I have had a bit more success with just eat where my order usually arrives with no issues and on the occasion they got the order wrong it was refunded.
I noticed on the trust pilot reviews that a lot of the people who were using the grocery service were disabled like me and it makes me feel like we are being taken advantage of.
These companies are already make millions and prices are a lot higher buying on app rather then directly from the store and delivery and service charges push the prices up more. I feel the least they could do would be to compensate and apologise people for any missing orders or items or wrong or late orders.
AIBU for thinking these companies are wrong to rip people off? Was it my own fault for continuing to use them knowing the risks?