DoorDash, Postmates, GrubHub, UberEats, Eat24 & Other Meal Delivery Services
 

Anyone use these services?

I'm normally such a tightwad, I rarely (like 3-4 times a year) go out to eat at a proper restaurant. I occasionally go to Subway for lunch or McDonalds for an Sausage Egg McMuffin (like once a month).

I don't mind cooking (and I'm fairly good at it), but being single, a lot of dishes I'd like to have occasionally just aren't practical to make, and I feel "weird" eating alone at a restaurant (and I am a homebody).

In my area, there is a pretty wide variety of restaurants with different things I'd like to try on Postmates. Just wondered if anyone has tried it.

I used DoorDash a couple of times a week for about 2 years. Thought it was an excellent service and offered a wide variety of restaurants. When I started using them they were relatively new. I finally threw in the towel and started using Postmates. One thing I liked about DoorDash was the ability to plan the delivery in advance. I could select a time even a day ahead and could rely on the order arriving on time. They have completely fallen apart. The last few months I have received so many credits for their screw ups that I can't see how they are making money.
PostMates does not offer advance ordering but they are very very reliable. I can only speak for area in Southern California. Have no idea how they fare outside of my zip code. Another thing to consider is that DoorDash expects you to add a tip when you place the order. :td: PostMates sends an immediate email or text as soon as the order is delivered offering the option add the tip and rate your driver .

Are these services like Seamless, where you order food from a restaurant for delivery? We lived on Seamless when we were in NYC.

I can't imagine going out to eat quarterly. We have dinner out 4-5 nights a week...

Yep they are the same.

4-5 nights a week? Wow. Like I said, I'm a tightwad and just can't bring myself to spend the money when I have food at home. Plus ... truthfully, it isn't so much the cost of the food, but when I go out to eat I'm going to have a couple (or 5 ;)) drinks, and that ends up being more expensive than the food (which I find ridiculous considering how cheap restaurants probably get liquor), so ... just eat at home.

I eat out for things I would/could never make at home for a single person. Ribs/barbecue, Red Lobster (knock it all you want, but I love it - I can bake/grill perfectly good fish at home, but I can't deep fry it like they do), Chinese, etc.

Yeah, I was looking over our credit card summaries and we do spend a small fortune on eating out. Drinks definitely contribute a lot to that.

I've used a similar version, Doorstep Delivery, over the summer when I was living in Raleigh. I liked them, they sent me a lot of coupons which knocked down the delivery fee, the food usually came quickly and once when I had issues, they resolved it quickly. I also like that restaurants like the nearby wing joint or Mexican place that would never hire their own delivery driver now can arrange for deliveries.

My friend drove for DoorDash for a bit. Apparently he was given so few deliveries that it wasn't worthwhile for him to continue--and this was in a college area too (where one would think they'd get a good chunk of business from students). I'm betting they're having driver shortages in a lot of other locations too, which would explain their difficulty in delivering on time. :(

Grubhub rant
 

Last three tries [messed] up. Last time order placed, restaurant said they had no record of the order. Time before, order placed for delivery not pickup as requested. Tonight grubhub places order for MONDAY morning with a response the place is closed. Cancelled that and called the restaurant They're very open and claim GH had their hours wrong. Jumping the shark??

What is Grubhub? Obviously some sort of food place...

An app driven service that lets you order delivery or pickup. Except when they increasingly mess it up. You pay with a cc and the order is sent to the restaurant. Pretty cool, when it was reliable. I could order from my couch and get a text when it was ready.

Why would you use it for pick up as opposed to calling the restaurant directly? I would use them for delivery. I've used Door Dash and they have been fine.

I walk over and it's ready. No waiting. I could call, but when it works the whole menu is online and I pay with the CC. No calling, being placed on hold, being misunderstood, etc. instead I walk in the door, they hand me the bag, done.

I stopped using GrubHub when they stopped giving out coupons.

Eat24 gives $2 off $10 almost every weekend. In my area, almost every GrubHub participating restaurant is also on Eat24.

I ordered from GrubHub today and my order arrived on time.

I only use them to order from a couple local chinese places because they deliver with their own drivers so the fee is lower and more timely. The restaurants delivered by the grub hub drivers are usually very slow. They won't pick up the order until over an hour after it is placed. Sometimes the restaurant is already closed (according to the restaurant's website, not GH) before they pick up. If I were a restaurant owner I wouldn't put up with a delivery service making me wait 30 minutes after closing because their driver took an hour to get there.

The fees for the GH delivered orders also just skyrocketed to $6 or $7 per order ever since Doorstep Delivery pulled out.

Postmates has more places, plenty of $3.99 delivery fee places, and no minumum order. I don't like how Postmates sends the directions to the driver (although it is probably Google Maps' fault). If you type the address of my building into google maps directly it provides proper direction. When they send the coordinates (or whatever they send) through the API it sends the driver to the other part of the complex which isn't connected. I usually text the driver from the get-go to tell them to put the address in directly but they don't and I watch them drive around for a few minutes before reminding them to put the address into google/waze directly to find the place...then I dock them stars for not following directions. I also had one postmate driver who texted me every 2 minutes with the status. So annoying. I'm watching in the app so I know where you are.

So I mainly use GH when I want chinese or I order directly from Jimmy John's for sandwiches. That's the extent of my delivery now.

They have been taking a hit since their CEO's post-election rant.

I use FoodPanda in Thailand and would like to find a reliable service here in the US. GH is not an option for me.

Grubhub where I live in fantastic. Usually end up with my food about 30 minutes before the ETA.

There is a grubhub thread currently active in DiningBuzz. We'll ship this one over so the threads can be merged and those who aren't OMNI enabled can participate. Thanks.


___________________________
Cholula
OMNI Co-Moderator

Foodler (in Boston) works well and gives you "cash back". Not sure how that is calculated, but the app works well and food is already ready when it says it is (of course that is dependent on the restaurant.. but still)

I used Deliveroo once and it was fine. But I'd rather buy food and cook it.

I used Postmates for the first time last night. My office is located in Raleigh and the restaurant options are staggering. Everything from Cook Out/Burger King/McDonalds to some more high end restaurants. As they're trying to be the Uber of food delivery, the app was set up a lot like Uber. It was nice tracking the order and when the driver got lost (my building is hard to find) I could call her and direct her.

That said, the delivery fee for Chipotle was a staggering $11. I'd never pay that unless I was splitting it with people or I had a coupon.

I used UberEats a few nights ago. Their chief problem is that the network is existing Uber drivers who aren't accustomed to dealing with my maze of an apartment complex.

(UberX in a Colorado college town is bad enough, since half their drivers have never dealt with snow before)

I'm also not a fan of not being able to tip. When it comes to Uber itself, I love that there's no tipping, but when I'm expecting someone to wait around at a restaurant, search for my apartment in the dark (probably in the cold), I'd like to be able to give them a tip without needing cash around.

Used UberEats for the first time about a week ago, and the experience was flawless. Happens that in my area, Uber is waiving delivery fees until year-end.

Placed an order at a Greek take-out that is about 4 miles from my house at 7:04pm, and the driver arrived at 7:26pm (20 minutes ahead of the app's estimate). That's faster than I could have made the run.

The driver clearly did not expect a tip, as he handed me the package and turned to his car in about 5 seconds flat. I had to call him back to give him a few bucks (on a $24 order). His response was a heartfelt thank-you. Certainly got the impression any tip at all is a bit of a surprise to him (pretty much the same response I get with a small tip on a regular UberX trip here in Los Angeles).

Are these companies available for delivery to hotels in Ireland, Scotland or London? If so, which? Thanks!

Tip is not expected with UberEats, that's why.

I used Amazon Prime Restaurants last weekend. Experience was good, but food was horrible. I'm usually one to just go to a restaurant rather than have it delivered, but I had $20 off, so couldn't let that go.

London has Deliveroo, Uber Eats, Just Eat, and Hungry House (there may be more, these are the big ones though Uber Eat is quite new). The latter two largely deliver from takeaways (so generally pizza, Indian and Chinese, some Turkish - coverage of other types of food can be quite limited). Deliveroo and Uber Eats tend to pair with proper restaurants, so are a bit more expensive and don't have quite so much choice (though this depends where you are - in my part of SE London Deliveroo has about 10 choices, Just Eat has 50+).

There's an Amex Offer for $10 off a $30 Postmates order.

If you're watching the wallet, GrubHub tends to shower its users with coupon codes. For most of our orders in the last couple of years we've availed ourselves of 10% off, 15% off, or sometimes % off certain items, which puts their price point below the other services. PostMates in particular is too $$ (unless they too have coupons I don't know about).

Any of these services eliminate the tipping issue?
 

Are any of these delivery services offered WITHOUT the expectation a tip? (I'm fine with delivery fees).

Example: Zume Pizza makes it clear that they pay good wages to their delivery folks and they explicitly forbid / actively refuse tips. Essentially "service included."

I think Uber Eats is.

Ah, good to know; thanks for the info!

To expand a little, I've treated Uber Eats just like I would an Uber ride. I don't tip and people don't ask me for one. Amazon Prime OTOH, has a specific line for you to enter tip when ordering. But they make it clear that tip is optional.

Yep, makes sense. I installed and checked out UberEats and I've checked out Amazon PrimeNow in the past. I refuse to use the latter not only because of my moral qualms about how Amazon pays & treats their workers, but also because I was shocked and annoyed to see a $20 tip suggested (and automatically added) for the potential delivery of a small $200 fitness watch. (Yes, I realize that I could have reduced or eliminated that tip, but it's the principle of the matter that goes beyond just crappy algorithms)

Postmates has a bit of a scam going. Received email that I was getting 60% off next delivery and just had to enter code. Placed order. They doubled their usual delivery charge and now we are supposed to feel good about 60% off. :rolleyes:

The same thing happened to me last week :mad:

I have used UberEats a few times, what I didn't like (but could get past) was the limited options available (at least for the time being) and the lack of options at the available restaurants. For example at Moe's, I could order a bowl with veggies or a bowl with meat, but not both. Delivery and communication was flawless and the drivers were very friendly.

In South Florida, McDonald's has now teamed up with UberEats so you can now get your fast food delivered through them.

Just ordered from UberEats for the first time and wondered about tipping. I knew FT would have the answer for me. ;)

App delivery - caviar, door dash, post mates, etc
 

I love caviar for delivery. They have a service fee and I give the actual courier a $10 note or $7 if it's closer to $40 overall. But I appreciate these delivery services when we don't feel like cooking or leaving the house. Plus I sometimes discover new restaurants! I've had less interest with other food apps.
Anyway are there reasons why people dislike delivery apps?? What am I missing?

i still sometimes use eat24 with those restaurants that have their own built-in delivery crew.

I use GrubHub for work fairly often. If I am having a working lunch meeting, or if we have customers in the office, i will order food with Grubhub. It makes it easy to select from a variety of restaurants and their delivery people have a great setup to keep large amounts of food warm.

I will use UberEats when I’m traveling to different offices since I won’t know the local options. I can get something that looks good and has good reviews delivered easily.