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GIG RANT | STOP CALLING! : I'M OFF THE CLOCK

One Of The Cons Of Working As Food Delivery Driver

By Meg & Joe's Indie LifestylePublished 4 years ago 8 min read
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From our YouTube Channel

Joe recently posted a video on our YouTube Channel about an incident involving a customer reaching out to him after dropping off their food. In his video, he gets revved up in his opinion and admitted to me that he almost swore more then once. We try to maintain our YouTube channels as professional as we can.

I realized that it's sometimes hard for people to understand what Dashers (food delivery drivers on the DoorDash platform) go through and it's also really important that Dashers (newbies and veterans) understand that these situations do happen. We try to relate as both as a Dasher and as a customer, because in life, we are both.

In order to shed light on this specific incident, because there are times that customers often go on social media to blast the DoorDash platform and Dashers, I'd like to go into detail on why Joe choose this specific way to deal with this situation.

Backstory Of The Incident

After finishing and ending our Dash on the DoorDash platfrom, we sat in the car in an apartment complex at our last drop-off location (which is not recommended by the way for any Dashers or potential Dashers!) for a good 15 minutes trying to put in an order for Pizza Hut for our dinner. Joe did our usual routine of cashing out our daily earnings so DoorDash can transfer funds to my debit card. Once everything was all set, we headed over to Pizza Hut to get the order that we placed.

We were already mad, because when we pulled into Pizza Hut, we watched as the store shut off their lights. Apparently, there was a technical mix up with the correlation with their closing times and their business website where you can put in orders. That day, they apparently closed at 8PM. We really hadn't thought much of the time since usually you couldn't put an order in if the company set it up to not receive orders before they close. We actually did get our food. I think it helped that Joe is a Dasher and that he often went to this Pizza Hut to grab orders for DoorDash customers.

Before we could figure out exactly what was going on with Pizza Hut when we first arrived, Joe's phone goes off. We looked at the caller ID and see that it was from DoorDash. It's never a great thing to see DoorDash calling after you end your shift. None to happy to be bothered off the clock, he answered the call with a slight attitude. Instead of it being DoorDash the company, it was a customer calling. Usually, DoorDash encrypts phone numbers so often we see a California number calling. Perhaps, they changed it recently to say DoorDash when a customer calls.

The customer told Joe that he's missing an ice cream from his order. Joe told the guy that he didn't have an order and he had been off the clock for a bit of time now. The customer (who also had an attitude of his own) proceeded to tell him that he just dropped off the order and Joe realized it must be the last customer before he ended his Dash. Joe checked his bags to see if anything was left behind, but there was nothing so he told the customer that his best bet was to contact DoorDash.

So What Is The Problem & Why The Attitude?

I checked the actual timeline. We had logged off around 7:32PM. It literally says in the DoorDash app -- that exact time. According to the Pizza Hut email we got after we placed our order, it said our order was placed at 7:50PM. After we finally left the apartment complex area, we made it to Pizza Hut around 8PM. We had to have, because Pizza Hut apparently closes at 8PM during the week (which it actually does say it on their internet website if you look at their hours). Joe had dropped off the order way before logging out of the platform at 7:32PM, because he had to walk back around the building to get to the car.

This means that the order had been dropped off about minimum of 30 minutes but probably more. The customer called 30-40 minutes later, claiming that something was missing from his order and got bent out of shape saying that Joe just dropped off the order. No, he didn't just drop off the order, because we literally sat in that parking lot at the guy's apartment complex for almost 20 minutes after Joe actually got back into the car.

Dashers get a lot grief from DoorDash customers. I've been keeping an eye out on Twitter (so does Joe) about DoorDash complaints. Customers consistently ragging on Dashers about cold food, taking on multiple order, and whatever they feel like complaining about at the time. Not all Dashers are innocent either, we know some Dashers do actually steal people's orders but not all of them. Yes, Dashers do take multiple orders. There are times we can avoid that issue by declining it, but it counts against us when we do and makes our ratings go down. If our ratings suffer, the higher the chances we have of getting deactivated from the platform. It might not mean much to some customers who care apparently only about their food, but I guarantee that Dasher is not going to care much about your food when you don't care about the livelihood of the person delivering your food.

We deal with cheapskates all the time. We know when you don't tip. When an offer for an order comes in, we already know how much the actual amount we will receive for taking the order upfront. When we see that it's a $3 or $4 order, we know the customer didn't tip or tip well. We're not asking for a huge amount for tip, but we know when you didn't care to leave anything.

Customers Aren't Always Right & They Aren't Always Innocent

It's a known fact that some customers don't have good intentions. This one in particular had red flags all over his claim. How do you not check your food right when you receive your order? If you really did just grab your food after instructing your delivery driver to leave your food outside of your apartment complex 30-40 minutes later, do you really think that food is going to go unnoticed or untouched?

I've had stuff missing from my order when I've ordered from the same platform. It sucks, but I knew right away that something wasn't missing. I didn't wait 30-40 minutes and then bug the delivery driver for it. I didn't even bug the delivery driver. What can they honestly do at that point? That delivery driver is just a messenger. They deliver your food. They don't make your food and they aren't the top of the food chain so they won't be able to help you out either.

When a Dasher checks off that the food is delivered, we no longer have any evidence left of that order so we don't actually know what was in your order after that. Not only that, Joe was completely off shift at that point. Even if he was still on shift, he would've already been on his next order. The only thing he could've done was to contact customer support, because they can actually look up your order to verify your claim and would be able to help you out if a refund was needed. Since he was off shift, he wasn't going to be contacting DoorDash for a customer that quite frankly should've known better.

Since a lot of customers have complained about food delivery drivers stealing their food, some restaurants now sealed up their orders with stickers so Dashers can no longer check through to see if all the items are accounted for. This was one of those restaurants.

The Irony

The customer was claiming that he didn't get his ice cream. We literally pulled up to Pizza Hut shutting off their lights. Our order had gone through and our payment had already been taken from our account. We were probably operating at that moment of: Be happy it was just your ice cream. We get it. We know the feeling. We were right there with them so we understand that it sucks.

Moral Of The Story

For customers ordering from whichever food delivery platform you're ordering from and items are missing (and they really are missing):

  • If something is missing from your order, don't wait 30-40 minutes later to do something about it
  • Don't call the delivery driver expecting them to bend over backwards for you
  • Contact the right person (DoorDash support in this situation) to help you with the situation

For Dashers who have dealt with these types of situations when you know that a customer is acting shady:

  • Remember that all the calls and texts are encrypted and can be listened to and read by DoorDash (use that to your advantage)
  • There are times when customers will pull stunts on Dashers to get extra DoorDash money like saying that they didn't deliver their food so just try to stay calm
  • Follow your instincts if you feel like a customer is trying to pull the wool over your eyes, don't feel bad about not helping them further and just instructing them to contact DoorDash
  • But what about if they leave a bad review? They were already going to leave one anyway.
  • You don't owe them anything so don't go above and beyond. They probably have a record or track sheet of this behavior. Don't be a victim. Maybe if you stand up for yourself and your rights, these types of people won't try this types of stunts next time with an unsuspecting Dasher.

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About the Creator

Meg & Joe's Indie Lifestyle

We write articles about the hardships of independent work, the types of work we do, and any advice we can offer those that are on the same path.

https://www.patreon.com/megandjoesindielifestyle

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