You know what really grinds my gears...

[genoscoif]

I don't think we've ever used Door Dash or the like...even when my company gives us gift cards for virtual 'lunch and learn' seminars. We're lucky to live within 10mins of a ton of restaurant options/variety, and I'd rather just go pick it up. During Covid, we looked for places employing their own drivers and ordered from them. Something about DD makes me cringe. I'm not sure why...it's essentially the same thing as old school delivery, but, I don't know, not somehow?

[Troy Loney]

I refuse to use those apps.

For whatever reason my wife’s aversion to calling a restaurant to order results in her using those services. And then she’s always shocked when there’s issues with the driver or the orders getting phantom cancelled, and the large fixed fees.

[nocera]

It's not because it hurts the restaurant, the delivery is almost always late with your order sitting at the restaurant for a good bit, the drivers don't make enough for them to care, the restaurant doesn't make enough for them to care, you pay a ridiculous amount of fees for the pleasure of cold food, and if something should go wrong (and it will), you have to deal with a third party delivery service rather than directly with the restaurant.

Plus, I've seen way too many videos of drivers **** with orders.

[skullman80]

We use door dash way more than we probably should both due to being lazy and also my company gives us a once a week lunch stipend. I think we are just lucky cause we've never had food delivered cold, and the food has always been within the specified window. I always tip well so maybe that is why, but we've not had an issue ever and like I said we use it at least 4-6 times a month for food.

[DigitalGypsy66]

We've cut way down on it because the upcharge on every item, plus missing menu items, or weird things like not having a combo on one site or the other. Delivery times have been pretty decent for the most part, but there have been a few missing items or severe delays.
We also have a third driver to pick things up, so we use him lol.

[NTP66]

Depends on where you're ordering from, too. Not every restaurant offers delivery, and sometimes the websites they use for online ordering are no cheaper than using DD. I accept that I'll pay a premium for using it, as it's worth the convenience for me.

[tifosi77]

One of the reasons we order from this particular restaurant is they use GrubHub as their website. So their delivery driver is a restaurant employee, not a GrubHub schmuck. It's all through the app, but it's effectively like ordering directly w the restaurant. ('Help' was calling the restaurant, not GrubHub for example)

When my food was finally delivered at 8:44pm, the guy said he delivered it my neighbor, handed it to 'the guy' (when I called they had said the delivery was to a woman). The app never reflected the delivery. And if that is how it happened, that the food was handed to a person and not just left on the doorstep, what kind of hemorrhoidal bag of dicks would accept that delivery? "Oh, sorry buddy. We didn't order noodles tonight, you might want to check.......... I mean, thank you] for bringing my dinner."

[MalkinIsMyHomeboy]

I really only use it when I’m drinking or baked

[tifosi77]

Generally I agree the delivery apps are butt and should be avoided; I've certainly railed on them enough here over the last few years. But you don't necessarily have to never use them, you just have to know how to use them. The best bet is to go through the restaurant website directly, and if they're on one of the apps for delivery it will automatically redirect you (either on the menu or at checkout) to the app. Do that once, you know the restaurant is 'legit' (vs one you should avoid because they've been subsumed by the gig-app doom loop of horror), and you can just go directly through the app to start.

We generally order a couple times a month for items/dishes that I'm probably never going to learn to cook at home, and it's always from a restaurant that employs its own drivers; they're just on the app for backend purposes like customer acq or credit card processing. The pizza place we always order from, the Thai and Indian places, this Chinese place last night, they just use the various apps as their e-comm portal. I might be forgetting the odd instance, but as I sit here thinking about it I can count on two fingers the number of issues we've had with 'app delivery' since we started going directly through the restaurants on the front end, including last night.

Because of local practices not everyone may have the option of being selective like that; you could just live in an assed up area where every restaurant in your 3-mile delivery circle is unaffiliated and you're using the apps as they were originally devised. (Basically just paying the app to do the ordering for you. Your 'order' in the app is transmitted to the service not the restaurant, the app - often the actual driver - then places the order on your behalf as a proxy.... this is especially problematic if you ever order from a place like Cheesecake Factory, where the restaurant might not even see your order and start preparing your food until like 30+ minutes after you completed your transaction in the app, and they have no visibility that you are in fact the end customer, rather than the delivery driver at the take-out counter who actually placed the order.)

[MWB]

I hate using DoorDash because it’s costs so much and I’m fine getting it myself, but haven’t had an issue the couple times I have. From the other side, as someone who delivers for DD sometimes, I often have to wait at the restaurant for the food to come out, but usually not long at all. And I always get it there within the windows, usually well before. I’m sure a lot of that has to do with where I do it. I also don’t normally accept orders if it’s more than 5-6 miles unless the pay is going to be more than the distance.

[Shyster]

I've had food delivered to my house once, which is when I had Covid last year, and I had Giant Eagle deliver groceries (IIRC GE used DoorDash for the delivery). For some reason, I just don't like the idea of food delivery. I always go pick up my own orders.

[tifosi77]

I hate using DoorDash because it’s costs so much and I’m fine getting it myself, but haven’t had an issue the couple times I have. From the other side, as someone who delivers for DD sometimes, I often have to wait at the restaurant for the food to come out, but usually not long at all. And I always get it there within the windows, usually well before. I’m sure a lot of that has to do with where I do it. I also don’t normally accept orders if it’s more than 5-6 miles unless the pay is going to be more than the distance.

At what point do you know the delivery address? From my very narrow understanding, I thought they did not disclose the actual address of the delivery until a driver accepted the offer, to prevent neighborhood screening. (Maybe it varies app by app?)

There are some restaurants (which may not be local to you, MWB) that do not allow the app to place the order. So the driver accepts the offer, goes to the restaurant, and then places the order directly in-person. Which places them in the same first-come-first-served queue as all other takeout customers, and means most of a normal delivery window can be burned through before the restaurant even begins preparing the order. I gather many fast food places are in this bucket, too. And of course, all of this is on-the-clock for the driver, meaning they aren't in a position to accept any other offers. (Or at least that's how it worked at one time)

[RonnieFranchise]

We've cut way down on it because the upcharge on every item, plus missing menu items, or weird things like not having a combo on one site or the other. Delivery times have been pretty decent for the most part, but there have been a few missing items or severe delays.
We also have a third driver to pick things up, so we use him lol.

These are the reasons we rarely (not never) use them. So damn expensive and Mrs. F always looks at the restaurant website while I am on the DD app. "Oh, I want such and such." "Are you looking at their website, because I don't see it on the Doordash menu. Look at the Doordash menu"

I also hate that my favorite restaurant, which we patronized all the time during COVID by doordash and pickup, shuts off take out when they get busy, which means they are often unavailable Friday nights, which is our big takeout night. They got annoyed one time when I went down, sat at the bar, had a beer, and ordered take out when they asked if I wanted food. "Oh, we're not taking takeout orders." "OK, then let me give you my order of three meals, you can bring it to me, then I will ask you to bring me three boxes." They brought it boxed up.

[MWB]

I hate using DoorDash because it’s costs so much and I’m fine getting it myself, but haven’t had an issue the couple times I have. From the other side, as someone who delivers for DD sometimes, I often have to wait at the restaurant for the food to come out, but usually not long at all. And I always get it there within the windows, usually well before. I’m sure a lot of that has to do with where I do it. I also don’t normally accept orders if it’s more than 5-6 miles unless the pay is going to be more than the distance.

At what point do you know the delivery address? From my very narrow understanding, I thought they did not disclose the actual address of the delivery until a driver accepted the offer, to prevent neighborhood screening. (Maybe it varies app by app?)

There are some restaurants (which may not be local to you, MWB) that do not allow the app to place the order. So the driver accepts the offer, goes to the restaurant, and then places the order directly in-person. Which places them in the same first-come-first-served queue as all other takeout customers, and means most of a normal delivery window can be burned through before the restaurant even begins preparing the order. I gather many fast food places are in this bucket, too. And of course, all of this is on-the-clock for the driver, meaning they aren't in a position to accept any other offers. (Or at least that's how it worked at one time)

I don’t know the actual address until I pick the food up. I know a general location and total mileage from me to the restaurant then to the home at time of acceptance.

In terms of ordering, that’s not how DD works, at least not now. I don’t place any orders, just pick up what has been ordered. That’s an extra layer I wouldn’t want to do. I have done grocery delivery through DD though, but only if it’s like less 10 items. The app tells how many items it is, along with the pay. Some people want you to get 35 things but only wanna tip enough for the total to be $6. Not happening.

[tifosi77]

I've been in line behind Instacart shoppers who have been toting multiple carts absolutely brimming full of items. Like, $500+ worth of stuff.

[MWB]

Yeah, not sure what Instacart pays, but what dd pays for groceries isn’t worth it most of the time. Drug stores, however, are, since it’s usually only a couple items. I’ve picked up plan b three times so far for dd.

[faftorial]

Yeah, not sure what Instacart pays, but what dd pays for groceries isn’t worth it most of the time. Drug stores, however, are, since it’s usually only a couple items. I’ve picked up plan b three times so far for dd.

I witnessed a woman getting glared at by pharmacy staff at a CVS when she bought plan b.

The pharmacist was ***** to her.

[NTP66]

Yeah, not sure what Instacart pays, but what dd pays for groceries isn’t worth it most of the time. Drug stores, however, are, since it’s usually only a couple items. I’ve picked up plan b three times so far for dd.

I witnessed a woman getting glared at by pharmacy staff at a CVS when she bought plan b.

The pharmacist was ***** to her.

**** those people. I'd have loved to have been there so I could say something.

[NTP66]

Not wanting to deal with multiple $2.75 fees attached to my kid's lunch account at school, I wanted to fund the entire year in one shot. Nope, max payment of $120. So I had to make two payments to hit the $220 mark and still paid that $2.75 fee twice. So dumb.

Just got an e-mail from MySchoolBucks that they're raising the fee to $3.25/transaction due to "rising payment processing/interchange fees". So if you load $5 worth of credit, you pay a $3.25 fee on top of that. Glad I prepaid up front.

[shafnutz05]

Not wanting to deal with multiple $2.75 fees attached to my kid's lunch account at school, I wanted to fund the entire year in one shot. Nope, max payment of $120. So I had to make two payments to hit the $220 mark and still paid that $2.75 fee twice. So dumb.

Just got an e-mail from MySchoolBucks that they're raising the fee to $3.25/transaction due to "rising payment processing/interchange fees". So if you load $5 worth of credit, you pay a $3.25 fee on top of that. Glad I prepaid up front.

This has been an ongoing complaint staple in our house. Our school uses Schoolcafe which I believe is a 5% fee.

[NTP66]

So I flip my office chair over to tighten a bolt, and what appears to be dried grease or something, likely from the piston, leaks out onto my carpet. Completely ruined. My wife has already been on me about replacing the carpeting on the stairs thanks to the cats, but just thinking about moving around all of the furniture to make this possible makes me sick. I really don't want to have to do it.

[Kane]

No chair mat underneath? It might have saved you a lot of headache.

[NTP66]

No chair mat underneath? It might have saved you a lot of headache.

Literally the first thing that my wife said. I'm going to look for a chair mat to delay having to deal with the carpet for a while.

[NTP66]

Actually, I think I'm going to just do nothing for now. When we replace the carpet, I'll buy a nice tempered glass mat.

[Beveridge]

Could probably 3D print a mat...