Just Eat and unavailable menu items

xabi_a

I'm curious how the food delivery companies interact with restaurants.

Yesterday I orded and paid for a few items from a cafe via Just Eat. It turned out some were not available. The restaurant didn't notify me, I just got the delivery minus the missing items (paid for) with a note saying "feel free to ask for a refund".

I find that bizarre to say the least: why should I have to ask for a refund, for items which were never delivered in the first place? Should it not be automatic?

Anyway, I did exactly that with an email to Just Eat. I got a response with an offer of €20 "to help make up for the missing items". The items cost way more than that!

So I replied with a copy of the receipt and a request for a full refund of the missing items.

What I really wonder is:

a) is it not possible for the cafe to contact me if they don't have something available, and let me order something else? On reflection, I suppose that would have payment consequences and that would mean going back to Just Eat, which would just be a lot of hassle

b) is it not possible for the cafe to contact Just Eat to say basically "We don't have this stuff a customer has ordered and paid for - please refund them for this"?

Mister Vain

The cafe should be able to contact you. I used to deliver for Just Eat and I remember collecting an order from Londis where they had to contact the customer for that very reason. The delivery driver can also contact the customer.

xabi_a

Interesting ... anyway the cafe did not contact me, other than adding the note I mentioned to the delivery.

I'm following up with Just Eat - they're now forwarding it to one of their "Team Leaders".

mondeoman72

You order the food from the menu the shop provides. If something is out of stock, they are supposed to call you and or offer you a comparible item for you to choose.

When helping my friend, if someone order an icecream flavour and the shop runs out, we go with the rest of the flavours and say choose another. Its bad form if the shop does not call you.

xabi_a

I spoke to the cafe manager today. She was very helpful and apologetic, and she explained the whole situation.

It seems they do often call a customer if something is not available. They didn't call me, but I'll forgive them that, maybe they were just too busy with customers in the cafe.

My real problem is with Just Eat.

Firstly, they don't provide an interface where the cafe could just indicate that certain items in an order are not available, and that would trigger an automatic refund. I'm quite sure technically they could do that, they have built all sorts of sophisticated software solutions for their business, to help them take in money.

Secondly, when I did contact Just Eat about missing items, they bizarrely just offered me €20, to "compensate". Which is nonsense, they should just give a refund, plain and simple.

Typical of global faceless corporations. I'll be picking up my takeaways myself in future!

Del2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120779234#Comment_120779234

Firstly, they don't provide an interface where the cafe could just indicate that certain items in an order are not available,

I've seen a good few places around my gray out options on the menu, I assume that's due to stock availability as the items change if I check a few days later. So Just Eat do give vendors the option to remove items, but I have gotten called from places if they don't have stock to pick another option so not sure how quick or easy it is to update.

Do a charge back for the missing items.

L1011

Yeah, Justeat absolutely do let places mark stuff as out of stock, I've seen it frequently.

They may not train every customer of theirs (the restaurants are the real customer, not you) how to use their products properly of course.

xabi_a

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120779751#Comment_120779751

OK that doesn't match what the cafe told me. I guess when they're busy and running out of menu items, they might not always have time to go and update the Just Eat menu, and the Deliveroo one, and the Uber Eats...

The cafe owner also mentioned other problems they have around delivery, like delivery people just stealing food and then saying it wasn't available or just canceling the order.

Mister Vain

I remember getting an order for Londis on a Sunday morning before the deli was open. Such a rigmarole trying to cancel it. There's a chat function in the courier app but it keeps crashing. The customers location was often incorrect too. The Uber Eats app is so much better. I've never had any issues with that.