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Doordash does not care about dashers
I have always know this, but an incident that occurred last week really put the explanation mark on it for me. I received a call to pick up an order from a merchant at around 8:30 pm. I then began making my way to the restaurant which would take me about 15 minutes, but five minutes in to it I received a phone call from the customer. He sounded inpatient and asked me how long it will be until he receives his order. I told him that I just received his order and that I will arrive at the restaurant in about 10 minutes. I also tell him that hopefully it will be ready when I get there and that from there I will have it delivered to him ASAP. Seemed kind of weird that this guy was contacting me so quickly.
I then arrive at the merchant's location. I told them that I was there to pick up a Doordash order for Mark. The bartender said okay and proceeded to get the order. She came back with the order but told me that they do not have a Doordash order on record. They have the order for Mark that I am there for, but it is not a Doordash order. With that said, the order has not been paid for and they cannot release the order to me. Mind you that this is a Doordash partnered merchant so there is no using a red card or anything like that.
I contacted Doordash and let them know the deal. Meanwhile, the customer is texting me asking what is going on. I was honest with the customer and explained to him the situation. He said to keep him informed. After chatting with Doordash for about 15 minutes, the Doordash rep said that they are going to call the merchant. They try to do so, but apparently the merchant is not answering their phone.
The Doordash rep then calls me on my phone, and not much is said before I spot a manager walking by me. I tell the manager what is going on and tell him that he can talk to Doordash from my phone. They talk, and it is decided that the customer's order will be handed over to me. The manager of the restaurant does not like this at all because the order has not officially been paid for by Doordash. Apparently, there has been a problem going on randomly with Doordash and this merchant. An order will come in, but the merchant will not receive payment from Doordash. The manager told me that it happens with a couple of orders per week and that he is tired of it. He is complaining to me about everything without realizing that he is telling the wrong person here. That part of this business is not my business. I am nice though and listen anyways.
By the time all of this is done, I have spent about one hour and 15 minutes at the restaurant. I make my way to my vehicle and while I still have the Doordash rep on chat I ask them if I could get additional pay for this order since it has taken so long. The pay for this order was only $6.10. I figured maybe they could add a couple of dollars on top of that. Doordash has done this for me in the past when incidents have happened so I figured it would not be a problem. To my surprise, the rep told me that Doordash cannot do things like that anymore. They cannot add money because of an unexpected wait time. This truly amazed me! By the time I finished this order it would be two hours from the time I accepted it to the time I delivered it. I would be making just over $3 per hour here. I let the rep know how I felt, but there was nothing more that I could do.
The rep then told me that if I am in a similar situation next time that I could unassign the order. I knew this, but I did not do so because I thought that I would help the customer out here. During this whole ordeal, I had many contacts with the customer and he seemed like a nice guy that just wanted his food. He was very appreciative for my efforts. I had learned that there was an original dasher for his order that became frustrated with everything and walked out of the restaurant earlier. The customer had ordered at 7:30 pm, and by the time I delivered it was 10:30 pm. It actually took three hours for this guy to get his food!
Unfortunately for me, Doordash was not appreciative of my efforts at all. They were not going to budge and give me a few dollars extra. When I delivered the food to the customer, I let him and his wife know right away that they should easily qualify for a refund or at least Doordash credit. They had paid $60 for their cold food. Old food that was not even fresh anymore. I told them to call up Doordash and make sure that they received their refund or credits. They were very happy with my advice and swore that they would. Unfortunately for me, there was no cash tip from them for my efforts either. No complaining, just thought that I would share that fact.
Shouldn't Doordash appreciate my helpfulness?
You would think that they would. Especially when you are doing something to benefit the company. Doordash wants their customers to be happy, and they do not want to lose credibility with a customer. You have to remember though; Doordash does not really care about you. They will be fine without you. You are not even an employee. You are just an independent contractor. Employees are an investment for Doordash. It costs them money to hire them, train them and show them the path for a future with the company. Doordash employees want to move their way up the ranks of the company. There could possibly be a bright future for them.
Dashers are not in the same boat as employees. Doordash does not invest anything in you as an independent contractor. You are the one investing your time, money and effort in to making money with Doordash. You are what they like to call a small business owner. You work when you like and have the freedom of not having an employer over your shoulder telling you what to do or when to do it.
Unassign a problem order with Doordash quickly
After this incident occurred, I swore to myself to not forget it. I will never again put myself in the middle of a Doordash problem. If the customer has to be a victim in this, so be it. It is not my problem. I have to remember that I am there to pick up an order and drop it off. If there is a delay in the food being prepared, I may wait 5 minutes or so, but if it is any longer I may unassign.
If there are any problems with Doordash or the merchant, it is not my problem. There will never again be any extra help from me. I am an independent contractor, and I am in this gig for me, myself and I. I don't care much about Doordash, the merchant or the customer. Again, my job is to pick up the food and drop it off.
I am not saying that I will not be prompt, polite, and courteous. I will do what I have always done and what I supposed to do, but Dordash will never get anything extra from me. It was my mistake. They never asked for extra from me, but I just did it out of kindness. This is not the only time I have showed kindness to help out Doordash. It will never happen again though. I hope all dashers out there take my advice in limiting your kindness or helpfulness. Happy dashing!
This is a relatively old post at this point, so I suppose this is just venting, but I feel your pain!
ReplyDeleteI was very new to DD when this happened (I think it was literally my second dash), so I didn’t really realize I could unassign the order and probably would have been hesitant to do so even if I’d realized. I arrived a little before the “pick up by” time, but the merchant said it would be another 15 minutes. I texted to let the customer know. Forty-five minutes later, after further texts to the customer, still no order. At first it seemed like the restaurant was just slow (based on dine-in) but after sitting and watching other to-go orders come out and be picked up (and some rather persistent follow-up on my part), the proprietor told me that, unlike UberEats, DD does not allow them to mark when an order needs an unusually long time to prepare, and one of the dishes on the order required it. They also said they’d complained to DD about this issue several times.
I finally delivered the order a full hour and thirty minutes after the pickup time (“on time” delivery was estimated at 15 minutes after pickup, which would have been cutting it close as it was), with the last dish being so hot I had to warn the customer before handing it to her.
It was my second order of the night; as a result of the wait, I missed the rest of the peak pay window, which ended just before I arrived at the drop off.
I could have easily done another 2-3 orders had it not taken so long, and peak pay was $7 per order. I was livid. So, when I got home, I filed a complaint, explaining what had happened, that I’d missed out on peak pay as a result, and asking that they add a feature so that merchants can mark orders as needing more time (like their competitor does). I got what was clearly an automated response (which made me even more angry) so I replied, castigating them for not having real people handle these complaints and pointing out that long wait times incentivize unreliable behavior (unassigning) or, worse, driver attrition (at this point they were heavily advertising for drivers all over SF, which is how I found them to begin with).
I got (what seemed like) a response from an actual person saying they’d elevate it to the “appropriate department.” No offer of additional compensation and no communication since then; it’s been about three months.
I haven’t had a similar experience since then, save one. I walked into a pizza joint and was told by the cook that the order wouldn’t be ready for 45 minutes, and that I was the sixth Dasher to arrive/call about it. “Do you talk to each other?” he asked. Ha. I thanked him, turned on my heel, walked out and unassigned for the first time.
I probably would have contacted support to let them know, but you can’t once you’ve unassigned, and I didn’t want to waste the ~10 to 15 minutes it often takes to get through to support while I could be accepting orders with peak pay.
My only qualm about unassigning has nothing to do with DoorDash-they clearly see me as a commodity, so I don’t mind responding in kind. However, I do feel for the next (in this case it would have been the seventh) Dasher who unwittingly accepts what they think will be a standard order. Instead they walk into a bad situation due to faults with the platform and then either a) have to pass it off to yet another Dasher and take a ding on their completion rate or b) wait it out and miss other opportunities, particularly if they don’t know any better (just as I once didn’t).
DoorDash definitely has some upsides (otherwise I wouldn’t still be doing it), but they could certainly do with some major improvements when it comes to the platform and communication with, and appreciation for, their Dashers.
Hello. Thanks for sharing your story here. Yes, Doordash, just like all of the major on demand food delivery companies has their share of problems. The difference between Doordash and the others is that the problems of Doordash without a doubt highly exceed the problems of their competitors. I think anybody that has done a good amount of dashing before can at one time or another relate to the story you just shared. I have personally talked to many dashers before and trust me when I say I've heard many stories like yours. Because of all of these problems Doordash is not my major company to work for anymore. It actually hasn't been for some time. I may do a few deliveries during the week, but that is about it.
DeleteSame thing happen to me 2 times In a month. Makes you wanna reevaluate Door dash all together. Half the time support makes you angry time it's all said and done.
ReplyDelete