There is nothing more annoying for a Doordash driver than a long wait at a restaurant. Usually, in most cases, a dasher receives a call for a restaurant, shows up, picks up the food and then is on their merry way.
There are instances though when a dasher shows up at the restaurant and finds themselves waiting around for a longer time than anticipated. Most dashers will never have a problem if they have to wait a few minutes. This is especially true if the dasher shows up at the merchant very quickly. I mean, the restaurant needs time to cook the food, but there are times when the wait time is just ridiculous.
With Doordash time is money
As a Dasher we are trying to make as much money as we can. When we get held up at a restaurant and are not getting paid anything extra for it, it can ruin our day. Most Dashers have a goal of trying to complete two dashers per hour, and when a restaurant holds us up, it is taking money out of our pocket.
The wait time at certain restaurants will vary, and after a person has been dashing for a while they will learn which restaurants are quick and which ones are slow. In my region, I know the restaurants that I may want to avoid due to the usual long wait time. Even if it is a decent paying call, I may be better off doing two other calls that I can get done quickly. For example, if restaurant "A" pays me $10, but they are slow, and I have to sit around for a half hour waiting for the food; it may take me one hour to make $10. Instead, I would be better off taking a call from restaurant "B" for $8 and restaurant "C" for $7 for a total of $15 during that hour. Time is money in this food delivery gig, and nobody appreciates their time being wasted sitting around in a restaurant.
My point in this post is not to knock on Doordash and compare them to other companies, but at least when you do a pick up for Postmates and Uber Eats they pay you for your wait time. The wait time pay for Postmates and Uber Eats varies depending on the region you are in, but it sure does feel nice knowing that when you are sitting around you are getting paid extra. The extra wait pay for your time can easily add a couple of dollars extra do each assignment.
A particular Doordash wait time incident that pissed me off
When I think about sitting around a restaurant wasting my time, there is one occurrence that I will never forget, and I have no problem naming the restaurant that it involved. I went to pick up food from Buffalo Wild Wings. Mind you, there have been times when I have denied calls from this restaurant because every single time I go there I have to sit around and wait for the food. I have no problem waiting five minutes, but usually the wait surpasses 10 minutes. It does not matter how quick or how long it takes you to get there. You will still be waiting!
The one particular incident that stands out in my mind occurred a few months ago. I received the ping to go to Buffalo Wild Wings and showed up in about 10 minutes. I let a worker know that I was there for so and so's order. The worker said okay, and he went to go check in the back as they usually do. Ten minutes went by. Then 20 minutes went by, and I still had not seen that worker. After a half hour I am pissed, and then I finally mention the situation to another worker. The workers talk to each other, and then they realize that there was some kind of mix up, and that the order was never started. Nobody even ever started cooking the food!
The workers then tell me that they will immediately start cooking the food. What had happened apparently was that the worker that I had originally spoken to went home without passing on a word about my order to anybody else. It took another half hour for them to prepare the order, and by the time I left with my order it had been one hour. All of this for a $7 food delivery. This may have been the result of one idiotic employee, but even on a normal call, I usually wait at least 20 minutes at Buffalo Wild Wings.
Another Doordash wait time incident that angered me
Ping Ping - I get a call for Benihana Restaurant that pays $14. This is one of the restaurants that I know of that generally takes a long time with orders. I accepted the order though since it was a slow day and the call paid decent. When I have picked up from there in the past, I have always waited about 20 minutes so I was not in a rush to get there. I decided to get myself something to eat and then it should be about ready when I get there. I arrived there about a half-hour after receiving the ping for the order. When I get there, they tell me that they have never received this order. They then tell me that they can take the order information from my phone. I asked them how long it would take to make the food, and they told me 40 minutes.
I contacted Doordash and explained the situation to them. The Doordash rep told me that I should give the restaurant the order information from my phone and wait for the food to be ready so that I can make the delivery. I told them that this was not acceptable and that they needed to unassign me from the order. The Doordash rep did not like this and let out a bad attitude, but I was in no mood to show up to a customer with food that would be over an hour late. He went on to let me know that if he unassigned me, it is no guarantee that I would receive any other orders. I told him that it was fine and to just go on ahead and unassign me.
The Doordash rep unassigned me, and I was curious as to if I would get any other orders. It was around noon-time and there is always lots of orders at this time. I was a bit curious. Do Doordash reps have a magic button with them that will have orders ignore a certain dasher? Maybe he was mad at me and would hit that magic button. If I did not get any more orders, it would prove to me that they have a system where they can neglect a certain driver. I was wrong though, five minutes after I was unassigned I received a new dash, and the day proceeded as normal. I am still not 100 percent convinced though that the magic button does not exist. Just kidding. Or am I?
Both Buffalo Wild Wings and Benihanas restaurants are on the list of "Worst Doordash Restaurants to pick up from." Click here to see the rest.
Some Doordash merchants are always fast
Even though there are restaurants that take forever, there are some restaurants that are always fast. As weird as it may sound, there is one restaurant that is so fast with their food that I am on a mission to get there quick enough so that I have to wait. It seems to be an impossible task. Every time I get an order from them, even if I arrive in five minutes, they have the food ready for me.
My advice to dashers is to avoid restaurants that waste your time. We do not make enough money to sit around. Fast food restaurants are usually pretty fast, and the only time you will have to wait a bit is if there is a long drive-thru line. With that said, don't ever think about going inside a fast food restaurant to order your food because it will take longer. The more you dash, the more you will learn about the restaurants in your area that are best to avoid.
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