UberEats Creating Massive Nuisance at Local Restaurants

Tonight, for the third time in about a month, I’ve noticed UberEats creating massive problems, and the restaurants don’t even care when I’ve spoken to them and/or left a scathing review of their service.

Main issues:
-Sometimes 5-10 Uber delivery drivers standing around in the restaurant, often lounging around in seating provided for customers, not delivery drivers.
-Uber orders received after those of in-store customers are prioritised and sent out after 5-10 minutes, while in-store customers have to wait an hour or more for their food. I have even seen the same delivery drivers return and leave three times with new Uber orders, while we are forced to wait.
-Restaurants claim that Uber threatens them with “reduced patronage” if the restaurant tries to temporarily suspend accepting more Uber orders when they are operating beyond capacity.

What can be done about this, apart from asking the restaurants to stop worshipping Uber? They don’t seem to care at all, given they are raking in profits from Uber orders. At the end of the day, it’s up to the restaurant, but I’m sick of hearing firsthand reports of Uber’s signature use of strong-arm tactics against customers and contractors alike.

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Hi @deevo101 .You raise a very interesting point with your post . As you said " They are accepting more Uber orders when they are operating beyond capacity " In the short term the restaurant will be raking in profits but as they continue to operate beyond capacity , the proof being that you waited an unacceptable time for food , standards will surely drop within their business unless they have had the foresight to plan for the extra patronage that Uber would bring . It seems like they haven’t as they are neglecting their base customer base by making them wait for service . /

The food industry suffers one of the highest failure rates in the business world . Very few restaurants succeed . With the attitude of the restaurateurs you describe in your post and the treatment of their "bread and butter " customers , the walk ins , pre bookings etc , do you really see a future for them .? Working over capacity in the food industry means wrong orders , badly prepared food etc . That which takes you so long to build up in any business , your good name , can be puffed out quicker than a lit candle . I hope the restaurant realises what they are doing and corrects it before they fail and go under .

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I agree. I’m not always in favour of the ‘market correction’ approach, but in this case I think the problem will eventually correct itself based on customer feedback. These delivery services are messy because they’re still very new. Restaurants who respond to the increase in orders by adding more staff and resources will do better than those that continually take on more than they can handle. Small restaurants who want to focus on quality and experience, not growth, will be better off not offering delivery orders at all.

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I can’t say I have eaten anywhere that this new UberEats issue has happened to me, however, I avoid the small restaurants where there are minimal tables and the majority of orders are take-aways. Well before UberEats we found these restaurants were surviving on take-away orders and thus, to those of us silly enough to dine in, we’d wait and wait for our order with innumerable customers popping in and out to collect their obviously phoned in orders. Even those who came in and ordered at the counter were served their take-aways quicker than we were. We figured the owners assumed because take-away customers were there for a ‘splash and dash’, we could sit at a table chatting and amusing ourselves (getting agro at how long our meal was taking the one person in the kitchen to prepare). As a business owner I find their logic sound. But, as an unhappy dine-in customer, problem solved. We don’t eat in those sort of restaurants any more - we nearly exclusively eat at restaurants which either do not do take-aways, or have enough staff to cater for both or do the occasional take-away order but their primary focus is dine-in customers.

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The solution is simple.

Go to the restaurant.
Sit at your table with the menu and order a drink.
Call Uber Eats and order your food for delivery to the restaurant.

Or call the restaurant and order your meal for take away.
When you come to pick it up, ask if it is okay to eat in.

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Uber drivers and customers are parasites. Ask a taxi driver …

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Taken to its logical extreme, we should end up with uber ‘shadow’ restaurants which discourage eat in customers, and uber banned restaurants where people actually go to eat.

Agree - people themselves riding in a so called Uber taxi risk their lives with a driver not police checked or who has passed all the many regulations for taxi drivers and most particularly nor do these uber cars have insurance to cover offering themselves up for carriage of paid journeys. So you risk having had an accident not covered by their insurance most certainly and of course risk rape if a woman which has already happened according to reports in various newspapers not just here but overseas as well.
Plus by using these - you are risking taxi’s going out of business and of course encouraging those who are running a uber car - not paying any tax on their income whilst you are paying tax also often to support them whilst they are officially seeking work etc etc.
Altogether a bad move on behalf of all governments to allow this and I suspect we like many other countries have had donations for the favour of allowing them to act via donations.

Yes because no woman has ever been raped or assaulted by a taxi driver. Uber has been so successful because they provided a service cab companies could not. Ive been in registered taxis that are disgusting and smelly and old with drivers who can’t speak English and get lost while speaking to there mates in another language on their phones the entire journey. And yes more than once in fact many times. Plus the credit card which is still ridiculously high at 5% and I can’t rate drivers like you can on Uber. Yes I’m happy to support a business that provides a great service and is offering a better alternative than traditional taxis.

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Yes I nearly choked at the suggestion that in some way what is traditionally considered by some a ‘real taxi’ is somehow safer than Uber. I believe the Cabcharge “racket” is still 10% in some jurisdictions - 5% is still ridiculously high in NSW, Vic and WA at least … I had one really good taxi driver pick me up on two separate occasions in Melbourne … but I think he was the only good one. Ever. It comes as no surprise whatsoever that the public are welcoming Uber and ‘taking their chances’ - after all, insurance is of little consolation if you end up dead because your taxi driver can’t navigate, communicate or drive.

How a restaurant prioritises service is entirely their choice. How I prioritise my restaurant attendance is entirely my choice. Any service provider who either can’t provide appropriate service or chooses not to won’t stay on my list. It doesn’t seem like anything here has changed, just the names/methods of some of the protagonists.

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In the ACT, Uber drivers have the same police and other checks as taxi drivers and have to have appropriate insurance. Also the trip can be tracked by family or friends. I had a friend raped by a taxi driver, so the risk in a taxi is just the same as far as that goes. I’m not an Uber driver but I get annoyed with the mis-information around about them. I like using Uber as the driver always turns up on schedule (unlike taxis on occasion).

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Another challenge to Uber, in general.

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They should apply the same test to the traditional taxi service :slight_smile: unless of course they are the ‘community standard’ in which case would Uber need to be ‘up to’ or ‘down to’ ? I haven’t used Uber but anecdotally they seem to get better reviews than the traditional service …