Thats a nice way of putting it. I always just thought of it as inserting themselves into things that worked fine before but now they extract margin from everyone involved.

I used to just phone a local business and someone would who worked for them would bring me food. It worked fine.

The way we win is unionizing, that's why they're so scared of that.

By all means, be choosy with where you spend your money and who you work for. But don’t delude yourself into thinking that’s how we win.

There should be a bot that responds with this every fucking time somebody says "boycott."

(I say as someone who has been boycotting several large companies for decades, to zero observable effect.)

i mean, 130 on delivery is decadent. we all deserve some decadence though. life sucks and decadence is how some of us recharge.

After delivery fees and tips, that's roughly a meal for 2 people, plus a dessert. And a drink, which the driver left at the restaurant.

That could be a family of four or so. After charges, taxes, fees, and tip my husband and I often end up paying $70-80 for delivery food service in the US.

I used to live in apartments with an address set up of "(building) letter + (unit) number." Maps and GPS didn't direct people to the unit you put in, instead directing every address to the rental office, regardless of what building you actually lived in.

It made deliveries hell. If the space for written directions was available, I would copy/paste directions I had pre-written so the drivers could find my specific unit. I put those directions in both English and Spanish, since so many drivers spoke Spanish primarily.

I was in building L, but the address line wouldn't let you capitalize letters. So my unit would always print out as "l", which delivery drivers (who didn't read my clear instructions) would think was a capital i.

After twice having my food delivered to the wrong address and arguing with drivers about it, I gave up entirely. But both times I contacted Doordash to say my food wasn't delivered, and thankfully, I got full refunds on both. I should note that the Doordash account was a perk from my workplace, where the fees weren't included, so maybe having some kind of "premium" account factored into the response. Still, it just wasn't worth the hassle. The way I see it, the whole point of food delivery is not having to get out of my pajamas and leave the house. If I'm going to have to get dressed and drive across the massive complex to get my food anyway, I might as well just pick it up from the restaurant myself and cut out the middle man.

how insulting a "partial refund" at least a full refund for the first few times.

It's strange, I've literally had zero issues with them. I have had to refund orders a few times, and it's usually automatically done in seconds. Maybe it's different in different areas.

This happens all the time. For the customer, they'll get a refund if it's the first time it's happened to them, but if it keeps happening then they'll likely be denied refunds after a while, as support will assume the customer is lying to get free food (unless they submit doorbell cam footage, which they often do). For the driver, nothing will happen to them, but if customers keep reporting their food as stolen then eventually the driver will be removed from the platform, as support will assume the driver is stealing.

It’s what the other commenter said. Generally if you’re a good customer they refund you no questions asked.

I actually had a food delivery guy drop off my food but steal a package from my porch. Even with the footage, you should have seen how fast they clammed up.

So food theft, no problem. Other theft “get a subpoena”.