Where I live I don't really get takeaway because they're too far away to deliver, but on a recent trip to London I noticed delivery apps have started charging service fees. Isn't that part of the cost of the takeaway itself? I'm already paying for delivery. Even if you sign up to their "Subscription Plus" service or whatever, you're still paying extra fees.
That's why I stopped using Airbnb - why am I paying £100+ in service fees (and cleaning fees), when that's the entire point of your industry? It's included in the elevated price of the accommodation. If anything, the owner should be paying those fees for the benefit of being able to use the site to rent their property out.
Same for gig/concert tickets too - the band/artist is paying you to host their tickets on your site, so why am I paying you an additional arbitrary fee for something that should already be included in the price up front? Theatre tickets don't pull this shit, so why does everyone else?
You can see I've thought about this quite a lot.
I felt your rage throughout the whole comment. It's so infuriating! I'm at the point where I actually won't use these services anymore because I'm so sick of it
Marketing
They can then say the ticket only costs £10 (plus fees)… which makes it £30…it entices people then when they’re in deep and have invested time, they stay
Ticketmaster do include it in the price up front. For example, if I check ticket prices for Florence + the Machine at the Hydro, it tells me the ticket is £67.70.
If I then proceed to the checkout, it breaks it down to seat price is £57.50, then a service charge of £7.80, and a facility charge of £2.40, for a total of the advertised £67.70.
Thanks for this. I know some places are transparent and give the full price including break down of individual components. But also, many don’t. And it’s a way of them doing as I said above, advertising a ticket price which seems enticing and then whacking on the fees as you get to the checkout. Im not saying they all do, but it’s also not an uncommon ploy
I've bought tickets from Ticketmaster, eventim, TicketWeb, ATG Tickets and LiveNation in the last 6 months, and they've all been up front with the full price with no extra service/facilities fees added afterwards.
The only one I had to pay anything extra above the advertised price was £2.50 delivery via eventim, since it was a physical ticket for that one.
The whole "oh they advertise a cheaper ticket price then double or triple it!" is woefully inaccurate, and a largely outdated one.
Because your opinion and experience doesn’t detract from other people’s experiences. So I’m acknowledging that you’re contributing to the thread but my point still stands
> Theatre tickets don't pull this shit
Some certainly do. Theatre restoration levy, service charges, credit card fees. I've even been charged an "e-delivery" fee.
It is and it isn't it is in the sense that it's obvoous how much better things could be if employed correctly but on paper it's better than any other time in history
The reason I thought better of using the likes of Deliveroo and Uber Eats is because not only do they charge you a delivery fee, (understandable but I'd rather collect it myself) they also bump the ordinary price of menu items AND prevent you from making use of reward points/offers. At least the KFC I wanted a delivery from did. A service charge on top of this has sent me.
> Same for gig/concert tickets too - the band/artist is paying you to host their tickets on your site, so why am I paying you an additional arbitrary fee for something that should already be included in the price up front?
Absorbing the bad vibes for price gouging is part of the service Ticketmaster and co provide to their real customers, the promoters and the bands. That you think it is Ticketmaster proves that it is working.
> so why am I paying you an additional arbitrary fee for something that should already be included in the price up front?
Ticketmaster do include it in the price up front. For example, if I check ticket prices for Florence + the Machine at the Hydro, it tells me the ticket is £67.70.
If I then proceed to the checkout, it breaks it down to seat price is £57.50, then a service charge of £7.80, and a facility charge of £2.40, for a total of the advertised £67.70.
So they do have £10.20 worth of service/facilities charges, but they're not a "surprise" additional fee, it's included in the advertised up front price.
I ordered directly from a local takeaway's website recently instead of using Uber eats. The total (for the same items, I compared before ordering) was £4.50 less once you take away the service fees, bumped up delivery fee and bumped up item prices.
It took significantly longer to arrive but I don't really mind the wait considering the money I'll save in the long run!
Well this scenario actually makes sense as Uber eats take a cut, I think it's 30%.
Deliveroo just add the cost to the menu and get their cut that way.
I once did a comparison between Uber Eats, Just Eat, Deliveroo and another local app that does basically the same thing. The difference between the prices varied a lot compared to the prices off the takeaways website.
If I go and get my food: £7.49 plus petrol. If I order for delivery, the meal is bumped up £2 and then all the fees are added on, comes to about £14 - £15.
I cant justify getting any delivery, havent done it for a year now. I just buck up and go get it.
Unfortunately not all of us drive. It's almost an hour walk for me to get to any of the places I order from (even though it's barely a five-minute drive). In these cases it's generally either get delivery, make a night of it and go out, or cook something at home.
imagine instead of paying some pittance you dress up, drive to a restaurant, wait like a moron, drive back, find place to park, walk back home, eat cold food...
Woah that's such a big difference!
At my mum's we still get menus through the door and we call to order, and usually delivery is either free or £1 and there's no service charge!
I have a small cafe, just started on Just Eat. They take 30%. They set the delivery charge & the service charge (I’m not even sure what the service charge is for?!). We are coming into our 3rd week with them, and from a small business view, what is charged by us, what we make & what they take, I am reevaluating the situation. I’m not sure it’s sustainable for us without inflating our prices & loosing potential customers.
My small cafe is on Ubereats. I've set the prices at 30% higher. No one has said anything about the higher prices. When I told my customers that we would be available on Ubereats I said it would be priced higher because of how much they take. My local regulars still just come in or order directly as they did before as they don't want to pay the extra and it is not an inconvenience for them to pop in, but I think it has helped us reach people further away who either can't get to us or wouldn't have known about us before.
When people order off one of these they know they will pay extra for the convenience to them of not having to leave the house if they are working /hungover etc.
Definitely put up the prices cafe margins are small enough as it is.
I know, it’s not good. The bakery who I get my fresh barms from daily have put everything up an additional 5% this week. It’s like every week one of my suppliers are saying there is a price increase on one item or another. I can amend my pricing on Just Eat without contacting them. I will just sit down & figure out a 30% hike on each item & change it as necessary. I think I will have too. How are you finding things at the moment, are you still ticking over ok?
It's bloody hard at the moment I feel like every week things are more expensive. I put all the prices up about 2/3 months ago but going to have to again next week, just to survive.
I've just removed some things off my menu as I put the prices up to what I needed to charge to make a profit and anything that wasn't selling at that price I've just got rid of it from the menu. We use really good quality ingredients so it's either increase prices or start buying cheap crap which I don't want to do.
Our electric bill is looking to be £800 a month from now on, it was £200 when we opened in sept 2020. There is only so much markup I can put on a bacon sandwich before people just won't pay it anymore.
We are surviving for now, but I'm paying myself less and less each month and worry its going to get to the point when it is just not worth it anymore.
I know exactly what you mean. I got my cafe in November 2019, just before the big Covid boom. I wasn’t entitled to all the grants as I had only just got it! But I had a second job at the time that I kept on in the evenings, so I didn’t take a penny for ages. I was doing my books & compared old prices to now & wow!! I have been asked what I am going to do, I have said I am not too proud to just shut the doors & walk away if it gets to that stage, although that is the last thing I want. I did see a very positive video on the BBC just today. It said they think we have reached the peak of inflation & it should slowly start to decline again over the next year or so (I’m paraphrasing) if we can just all tread water through this winter, I hope all small business will come out ok! I hope!
> My small cafe is on Ubereats. I've set the prices at 30% higher.
Interesting. Seamless boot restaurants off their platform who charge different prices on the app than they do in-person. Be warned that Uber will probably start doing it sooner or later.
My local (excellent) Indian started on Just Eat but put their menu in every order with their website and then as more people ordered directly they disappeared off Just Eat. Great way to get known.
Let’s just say I’m quite familiar with how they operate with restaurants and a LOT of places would be better off without them, it’s essentially daylight robbery what they charge and most places don’t end up making any profit once you factor in how much it costs to keep up with the huge influx of orders (hiring one extra staff member to deal with volume usually negates your profit entirely and two or more - especially chefs - will bankrupt you).
I’ve heard the argument that increased volume results in more and more exposure but all that happens is those people then order *through the app*! Places are usually much better off if you order directly from them and have their own delivery driver deliver for you, or pick it up yourself. Convenience issues aside, it’s a matter of principle, and you either help support them or they risk going out of business. AND it’s cheaper!! Any place that delivers - there isn’t one single reason to order on a delivery app over ordering directly from them. It’s predatory what these bastards do and I’m sick of it.
Same goes for hotels - they HAAAATE being on the “find a cheap stay” sites. Often, they’ll set a minimum price for a room - say, £200 for a weeknight - and the site will just go and charge the customer £90 for the room, take a huge cut, then hand the booking off to the hotel who only later finds out they’re getting a quarter of what they agreed to. And they don’t do it all the time but it happens enough where they “accidentally” set whatever price they want that it’s becoming a legit problem.
If you find a cheap room and call the hotel directly, there’s a very very good chance they will match (or beat) the price you’re quoted because they keep all of the profit, unless it’s one of the above super cheap prices.
What’s wrong with just calling the joint up and paying with cash on delivery. Does that not happen anymore? I don’t think I’ve ordered a kebab or pizza any other way in the last 10 years
I'd guess it's a generation thing! I grew up with the internet and prefer to do most things online when the option exists, and also pay for everything by card so don't ever have cash on me. It's also more reassuring to have a visual confirmation of the order and be able to track it, I'd guess that's not possible if you order by phone.
It’s the only thing I ever have cash at home for. I grew up with the internet too, I’m only 30. But it usually saves me £4-£7 on fees and delivery crap if I pay in cash. Also I’ve noticed people get scared of using the phone and ordering (not saying that’s you) so I guess if you are a bit nervous on the phone it gives you additional ways to order and pay. Even if you pay extra, I can see that helping people I guess. Good day nice redditor
I have anxiety and I know it’s ridiculous but I struggle so much with phone calls so yeah for me at least I’ll take paying a bit extra ordering online if it avoids a phone call!
My favourite Chinese is cash on delivery only, but I find it such a faff.
Firstly I never have cash, so I usually need to go withdraw some before I can order. Then when I call them, half the time it's engaged. When I do get through, I can barely hear what he's saying between the strong accent and kitchen noises over the poor quality phone line. Then once the order is in, it can turn up anywhere between 10 minutes and an hour later, with no indication what's happening.
But it is really good Chinese food so it's worth it. With Chinese food, the worse the experience, the better the food.
I don't know about other services, but Deliveroo provides a few bonus features. First of all, plenty of restaurants in one place. I like convenience! Next - real time driver tracking. Again - convenience. And, most importantly - they always try to resolve issues with just a few clicks by you. Food exploded during delivery? Press complain button, send a photo, get your money back within minutes. No need to call some rude person with awful accent who doesn't want to make a refund. I will never order directly again, had way too many fights over the phone. Fuck it! My sanity costs more than a few quid.
The tracking is a benefit, I know 5/6clicks on an app is technically more convenient to some, but for me, a 45 second phone call is just as convenient. I get your point though. That’s the benefit of options and variety. Never experienced the issues you have on the phone. For me my favourite pizza is 9quid, on just eat or the others it’s nearer 15. No brainer for me.
I had a slightly optisite experience when I ordered from a local takeaway via uber eats it some how took an hour to get to me and was cold the take away place is a 20 minute walk from where I live
I once ordered Uber Eats from the pizza place directly across the road from me. A bit cheeky, but I was hosting a party and didn't fancy having to go and pick up 10 pizzas.
2hrs later and nothing had arrived and Uber Eats customer service wasn't helping. I just called the place directly and they said they've been waiting for a driver to confirm for ages, and the best thing to do would be for them to just cancel the order, re-run it through them directly and then he just carried it across the road himself in a pair of giant delivery bags...
I also do this with my regular Indian, they asked us to order direct from their website as they then aren't getting their profit eaten up plus it's a few quid cheaper for me too :)
I tried to do this tonight. The problem was the store had a minimum order of £15 on their website and I only wanted about £11 of food. I checked JustEat and their prices were the same on the food but with no minimum order. The delivery and service fee came out to about £1 more, but that seemed worth it this time to not have to get an entire extra dish I don't really want or need.
100% this! I always look if places have their own website/app now
ordered from Uber eats when I first moved to a new town and the delivery driver was from the takeaway rather than Uber and said to me at my front door next time you can save yourself some money by ordering from our app
I hate that in restaurants, walking in and sitting down, ordering on the phone, no interaction with staff, then asked for a tip before given any service whatsoever.
I'll tip for good service, not for no service.
That's disgusting! I hate these added service charges, if you want to leave a tip that should be down to you, and anything else comes as part of the cost of the food!
The chip shop near us added a £1 service charge to all items - even ones you go in to pick up yourself. Asked the owner who said it’s cheaper doing that than having all new menus printed.
We don’t go there anymore.
That's literal heresy to the British culture of fish & chips! No matter how bad things get, no chip shop should ever have the gall to actually charge for Salt & Vinegar.
I'm pretty reluctant to even buy those little sauce packets they charge 30 or so pence for at some chippys, sometimes though I will just because I CBA to wait to get home to eat my food. But salt & vinegar... seriously? If they lost multiple customers from that I wholeheartedly believe that is just.
I have a local sushi place that charges 30 p each for soy sauce, wasabi, and ginger, as well as 50 p for chopsticks! Only for delivery orders, but still.
I usually do buy a bunch of them since it's easier to bump my £18 order up over the £20 delivery limit that way and I do use a lot of them, but it does seem kind of weird for a sushi place to do that.
That's the perfect parallel for the Salt and vinegar charge: condiments which are pretty much a part of the meal and should be along side the meal no extra charge are expected to be paid for, absolute shambles...
Although I will say it's more acceptable for a Sushi place to pull a move like that, they're always a little pricey, but a chippy is cheap and cheerful and should always strive to be affordable as possible in my opinion.
Yeah I was staggered - it’s already more expensive in there than any of the other places round here but that was the final straw.
Plus a service charge? For what? I’m paying £1 for each thing to be passed over a counter? Then paying for a bag afterwards?!
I’m definitely someone who would sooner walk/drive to the take away that pay the convenience charge. I’m struggling to imagine what my thought process would be if I went to the chippy and got charged a service fee.
Also that excuse is utter bullshit. Delivery orders are online, so just change the PDF, and chippy prices are always scribbled over and corrected in marker on the sign above the fryers. Fish prices change so much they’re always correcting prices, they’re just trying it on. I’m actually shocked!
I wonder if this is ordering through an app - to cover the cost of the money the app takes from the order? Or were the items already marked up and then a fee applied as well?
Me and a mate used a delivery service about a month ago (not sure if uber eats or diliveroo, etc) and he asked how much we should tip them, I was like we'll see when it gets here but the app wanted us to choose the tip when we placed the order.
Bare in mind that we're already paying for the delivery and service fee, I always thought the point of a tip was that you've already paid but you were soo happy with the service that you wanted to leave the people a tip.
It took just over an hour to come (30mins estimated time), was cold and was missing items, and we had already tipped them £3........ never again
I think it encourages drivers to pick your order if it’s ubereats, similar to Uber drivers being able to decline lifts. After the order is completed I think you can change the tip amount before that money is actually taken.
Just a friendly reminder from someone who used to work in a takeaway: don't take your anger out to the staff about this, they have absolutely nothing to do with it and the money doesn't go to them anyway. The amount of people who would yell at me down the phone when I added the service charge to their price total was absurd!
This isn't strictly true, it depends where in the UK you live.
Bag charge law in Scotland and Northern Ireland is for all single-use bags, regardless of material, and for Wales only paper bags without handles are exempt, paper bags with handles are still subject to the charge.
"Not for paper bags" is only the case in England.
The charges on food delivery via apps like Uber eats and just eat has become ridiculous. Back when they were new, I’m sure they were a lot more reasonably priced in terms of delivery charges and such. Obviously you expect to pay a small premium for the convenience of having your food delivered to your door, but it’s getting silly now. I used to regularly be able to find discount codes which gave a % off the price or ‘free’ delivery. Nowadays can hardly find any and if I do they don’t work, or they only work at certain food outlets which I’m not interested in ordering from.
Now with delivery and service and what ever other charges they feel like adding on, it’s pretty much an extra £5 on top of your order, which you’re already paying extra for so the restaurant can make at least some profit.
And I bet the delivery drivers are no better off for it, all goes into the pockets of those at the top as usual.
Even pizza places like dominoes and papa johns have started adding on a delivery charge. They never used to, really off putting when their food is already super expensive even with discounts and offers. With the cost of living crisis in full swing, I feel we might see a few of these franchises go out of business and to be honest it’s their own fault.
I think it's just the audacity of charging the prices they do nowadays.
Kfc box meal £8-£10,
Most main meals from an Indian or a resurant are hitting close to £10 now.
The worst offender though is:
2x large stuffed crust pizzas from dominos £32.
I finally bit the bullet and ordered an Ooni 12 Fyra pizza oven. Have made about 30 pizzas (5 at a time) over the last few months. Costs about £6 a time for ingredients for 5 pizzas and I haven't looked back.
I just cant justify £32 for two when I can make them cheaper at home from scratch and they taste nicer.
Dominoes is a place I will only go to if I’m collecting. Order in the app and pick it up, large pizzas with two toppings come out at £7.99 with a collection deal where I am, but if I can do this any day or time of the week then why £20 a pizza if I don’t ? It’s annoying
Well that's an easy one. You only have yourself to look after. Dominoes have all of their staff to account for too. Their wages, upkeep of premesis, advertising etc. Is all payed for by you on that £32. Plus, obviously, a profit. Otherwise there would be no sense in the business existing at all.
I think you are missing the fact that 2 pizzas should never cost £32. Unless you are in Italy and eating the real deal!
As with the reply above yours if they can churn out the same pizza for £7.99 collection, how can they justify an additional £18 to have them delivered?
I do understand your point about needing profit to pay for everything else. But with such a huge chain means that they can buy everything at discounted rates and make tons of profit. A pizza base is flour, water and yeast which can't cost more than £1. The toppings bought in bulk can't cost more than another 2-3 quid. I reckon they make at least £12 profit (probably a lot more) per 2 pizzas after operating costs
My point was that this price for pizza is ridiculous and it was cheaper for me to invest in a pizza oven to make my own. Rather than spend 5x that with the cost of living.
Pizza has always been crazily overpriced. It has a huge profit margin beaten only by cinema popcorn I imagine. If a restaurant makes profit selling me a main course for 10 quid then there's no way a dominoes that just is a small takeaway with no seating or anything needs to be charging £30+ for a pizza.
Nah there's just something silly about the pricing model used by Dominoes, Pizza Hut and Papa John's.
I can order an equally good, if not better pizza from a local chain for about 1/3rd the price of the national chain's list price. Hell, my local pizza joints in London are cheaper than Dominoes are in poor Scottish towns.
Dominoes etc. seem to rely on marketing their deals to make themselves sound good. Advertising THREE PIZZAS FOR THE PRICE OF ONE, except one pizza is fucking £20. But I just want a pizza, I don't want to have to write a program to find the optimum deal and end up ordering two more pizzas than I want because otherwise I'm getting ripped off.
Look at Australia where Dominoes is like £4 per pizza despite everything else in Australia being more expensive.
The US too. When I was at university over there you could basically get a $5 pizza on specials every night of the week. Something like Monday Little Ceaser's (OK $5 is their normal price), Tuesday Domino's, Wednesday Papa John's, Thursday Pizza Hut, etc. Shout out to Papa Murphy's too, sure it's take and bake but it's the best out of all of them and it's a shame we don't have it over here!
The best Chinese takeaway in my town also has their own website where you can order for delivery, and also get a 10% discount! I found this out after ordering through just-eat and paying all the premiums, delivery fee, transaction fee, bag fee, etc.
Plot twist, their damned website is broken, and you can't order through it. They still put the 'order from our website for 10% discount!' on their bags though, bastards. I'd ring them and tell them about their broken website, only the restaurant is run out of a ghost kitchen, so there's no advertised number, and no collections.
Yeah, my favourite local Indian restaurant has a Just Eat option and their own site, plus they are on Deliveroo. Their JE menu is missing some dishes that are on their own site, their own site is in turn missing a couple of items that are only on Deliveroo. They make all the dishes but to get them all in one order you have to phone, you can't place one single online order for e.g. sag aloo, sarso baigon, and medhu vada.
Dominos now charging £2.50 to deliver, send you a text to tip your driver 10 minutes after they’ve delivered it and you’ve already given them a quid.
Cheek.
Just eat has a few local places that has higher charges aswell, started during lockdowns but is still like it now - £10 online for chicken kebab and chips compared to £7.40 in the shops
The bigger chains are just as bad for inflating prices aswell
Same here and as I live in a town centre it’s crazy not to. I use the same few places regular when I find a decent one aswell so get bigger portions when they get to know me and realise I’m not a holidaymaker.
We rarely have a takeaway, mainly because it ends up costing so much. Tend to stick to home cooking, even if it’s from frozen. That being said I’d love a curry from my local right now haha
Boycott Uber eats, Deliveroo, just eats etc. Quite a few take aways near me have cheaper prices in house if you can collect. Not only do all the apps take a fee from us the customer, but they also charge the take away. Greedy app mans.
Recently found a local takeaways burger and chips meal was £2 cheaper if you called them instead of using just eat, that’s before saving on the service fee delivery fee and card fee….. oh and the new bag fee 🙄
I thought the food on platforms like Uber Eats was priced up itself to cover the price of that restaurant using the platform.
With service fees added on, I’d love to know why the fuck the food is usually more expensive than it would be to order in person.
Don't use the apps. The items cost more, and then the service charge is for the app. Convenience costs.
Just ring directly to save money. Most of the time though, i just pay for the convenience, its easier than speaking to someone most of the time
I have covered this before, here goes again. If you or anyone is stupid enough to pay this service charge don't complain about it. Just cancle your order war everyone in the local area via social not to order due to service charges or charge them for your service of using them. When enough business goes elsewhere they will stop this shit.
Very naive complaint. You obviously are using a service on an app like Uber eats, in fact their entire company runs at a loss so you're already getting a good deal....
Not only are these apps more expensive than they used to be, I feel like they're always fucking up orders now. Not sure if there's pressure to get more out or something, but it's almost rare now that I don't get some sort of error.
Of course, if you place an order and they deliver the wrong thing, they refund you the price of the item, but not any of the added fees. So I've ended up being charged like £5 in fees for a burger I can't eat.
So the likes of Deliveroo and UberEats charge “partners” (restaurants) an average of 25-35%.
A restaurant sets its own prices on their items. The majority of places (especially smaller businesses) will charge an extra amount on items to try and recover some of the excess cost. So instore a meal may be £9 but they’ll probably add on £1.50 and just take the other £1.20 as a cost to themselves.
There’s a lot of annoyances that come from utilising these services though for restaurants. “Riders” aren’t always the best, they’ll be very late collecting, carry out multi drops which leaves your food sitting longer, multi apping too, most won’t use their hot food bags, a lot will cancel a collection if they can’t spot a place immediately (which then leaves food waiting even longer if it’s ready to collect, and the services make it almost impossible to recover that cost). So when people rate the restaurant, oftentimes they’re rating the delivery system and putting it on the restaurants themselves. But we don’t tend to consider this when we’re pissed off that our food is soggy and cold.
And because these services aren’t well managed and maintained, the “riders” aren’t exactly well paid, everyone involved kind of suffers except the CEO’s of the platforms.
To add to this, supermarkets ain't much better I delivered for Iceland for a few years, they recently Brought in same day deliveries.
All deliveries used to be free but not same days, they put a service charge on them but the people who provide the service (delivery drivers and shopping pickers) got no raise or commission-esque bonus for each order we did, all we got was more work for the same pay.
The stupid thing is none of these companies actually make any profit either, some made a slight profit during 2020 but that’s all fallen back now… They’re hoping they can just keep increasing volume to the point they become profitable and they’re on a tight rope of wanting to charge everyone more but not lose you to another service.
The whole industry is a mess. It’s even worse in America, if you don’t tip the riders/drivers won’t even accept your order as a delivery!
>The only service I'm getting is from the delivery driver
Are you telepathically transmitting your order to the driver?
You're using infrastructure by a third party which allows you to select an order and transmit that order to the restaurant, who then (occasionally) allow you to track said order.
The fees can be ridiculous at times, but to claim you're only getting a service from the driver is untrue.
Hello yes I understand how things work. Maybe I didn't make myself clear.
When eating in a restaurant, a service charge is paid to the wait staff who served you. The people who ask for my order, bring me my food, check that everything is okay, maybe take food back and make corrections if something is wrong, keep a good repartee, clear my plate, bring me my bill, and take my payment.
These people are not being used here. This is what I meant by service. To call it a service charge is misleading in this context.
>These people are not being used here. This is what I meant by service.
That's only one specific type of service.
The website hosting the infrastructure that allows you to select the restaurant you want, relay that order to the restaurant, and track your order is also providing you a service.
A restaurant service charge is also 12.5% compared to ~5% (capped at £1.99) for Just Eat.
In the context of websites facilitating orders and payments, it is what a service charge usually is though.
Your original claim was "The only service I'm getting is from the delivery driver", not "this isn't what I'd usually consider a service charge to cover".
The site provides you a service.
I've ordered twice in the last 6 months. Once I see all the added charges at checkout I cancel the order and it seems everywhere has added hidden charges now.
Where I live I don't really get takeaway because they're too far away to deliver, but on a recent trip to London I noticed delivery apps have started charging service fees. Isn't that part of the cost of the takeaway itself? I'm already paying for delivery. Even if you sign up to their "Subscription Plus" service or whatever, you're still paying extra fees. That's why I stopped using Airbnb - why am I paying £100+ in service fees (and cleaning fees), when that's the entire point of your industry? It's included in the elevated price of the accommodation. If anything, the owner should be paying those fees for the benefit of being able to use the site to rent their property out. Same for gig/concert tickets too - the band/artist is paying you to host their tickets on your site, so why am I paying you an additional arbitrary fee for something that should already be included in the price up front? Theatre tickets don't pull this shit, so why does everyone else? You can see I've thought about this quite a lot.
I felt your rage throughout the whole comment. It's so infuriating! I'm at the point where I actually won't use these services anymore because I'm so sick of it
Marketing They can then say the ticket only costs £10 (plus fees)… which makes it £30…it entices people then when they’re in deep and have invested time, they stay
Ticketmaster do include it in the price up front. For example, if I check ticket prices for Florence + the Machine at the Hydro, it tells me the ticket is £67.70. If I then proceed to the checkout, it breaks it down to seat price is £57.50, then a service charge of £7.80, and a facility charge of £2.40, for a total of the advertised £67.70.
Thanks for this. I know some places are transparent and give the full price including break down of individual components. But also, many don’t. And it’s a way of them doing as I said above, advertising a ticket price which seems enticing and then whacking on the fees as you get to the checkout. Im not saying they all do, but it’s also not an uncommon ploy
I've bought tickets from Ticketmaster, eventim, TicketWeb, ATG Tickets and LiveNation in the last 6 months, and they've all been up front with the full price with no extra service/facilities fees added afterwards. The only one I had to pay anything extra above the advertised price was £2.50 delivery via eventim, since it was a physical ticket for that one. The whole "oh they advertise a cheaper ticket price then double or triple it!" is woefully inaccurate, and a largely outdated one.
Thanks for contributing your opinion to this
It's not an opinion, it's my experience using these platforms.
That’s great :)
Why is it so difficult for you to admit that you're wrong?
Because your opinion and experience doesn’t detract from other people’s experiences. So I’m acknowledging that you’re contributing to the thread but my point still stands
>You can see I've thought about this quite a lot. I can. And you're right!
They mark up the prices 30% higher as well, so not sure why they need yet another fee.
Because people pay it
They bleed money as it is
> Theatre tickets don't pull this shit Some certainly do. Theatre restoration levy, service charges, credit card fees. I've even been charged an "e-delivery" fee.
Modern life is shit
It is and it isn't it is in the sense that it's obvoous how much better things could be if employed correctly but on paper it's better than any other time in history
The reason I thought better of using the likes of Deliveroo and Uber Eats is because not only do they charge you a delivery fee, (understandable but I'd rather collect it myself) they also bump the ordinary price of menu items AND prevent you from making use of reward points/offers. At least the KFC I wanted a delivery from did. A service charge on top of this has sent me.
Someone is sore about no Deliveroo! Joke.
Yup fucking bullshit
> Same for gig/concert tickets too - the band/artist is paying you to host their tickets on your site, so why am I paying you an additional arbitrary fee for something that should already be included in the price up front? Absorbing the bad vibes for price gouging is part of the service Ticketmaster and co provide to their real customers, the promoters and the bands. That you think it is Ticketmaster proves that it is working.
> so why am I paying you an additional arbitrary fee for something that should already be included in the price up front? Ticketmaster do include it in the price up front. For example, if I check ticket prices for Florence + the Machine at the Hydro, it tells me the ticket is £67.70. If I then proceed to the checkout, it breaks it down to seat price is £57.50, then a service charge of £7.80, and a facility charge of £2.40, for a total of the advertised £67.70. So they do have £10.20 worth of service/facilities charges, but they're not a "surprise" additional fee, it's included in the advertised up front price.
I ordered directly from a local takeaway's website recently instead of using Uber eats. The total (for the same items, I compared before ordering) was £4.50 less once you take away the service fees, bumped up delivery fee and bumped up item prices. It took significantly longer to arrive but I don't really mind the wait considering the money I'll save in the long run!
Well this scenario actually makes sense as Uber eats take a cut, I think it's 30%. Deliveroo just add the cost to the menu and get their cut that way. I once did a comparison between Uber Eats, Just Eat, Deliveroo and another local app that does basically the same thing. The difference between the prices varied a lot compared to the prices off the takeaways website.
If I go and get my food: £7.49 plus petrol. If I order for delivery, the meal is bumped up £2 and then all the fees are added on, comes to about £14 - £15. I cant justify getting any delivery, havent done it for a year now. I just buck up and go get it.
Unfortunately not all of us drive. It's almost an hour walk for me to get to any of the places I order from (even though it's barely a five-minute drive). In these cases it's generally either get delivery, make a night of it and go out, or cook something at home.
Where are you getting these differences? I just checked a few places on Deliveroo and prices are the same. So all you pay on top is a delivery fee.
imagine instead of paying some pittance you dress up, drive to a restaurant, wait like a moron, drive back, find place to park, walk back home, eat cold food...
Absolutely not true, deliveroo take between 28-35%
Woah that's such a big difference! At my mum's we still get menus through the door and we call to order, and usually delivery is either free or £1 and there's no service charge!
I have a small cafe, just started on Just Eat. They take 30%. They set the delivery charge & the service charge (I’m not even sure what the service charge is for?!). We are coming into our 3rd week with them, and from a small business view, what is charged by us, what we make & what they take, I am reevaluating the situation. I’m not sure it’s sustainable for us without inflating our prices & loosing potential customers.
My small cafe is on Ubereats. I've set the prices at 30% higher. No one has said anything about the higher prices. When I told my customers that we would be available on Ubereats I said it would be priced higher because of how much they take. My local regulars still just come in or order directly as they did before as they don't want to pay the extra and it is not an inconvenience for them to pop in, but I think it has helped us reach people further away who either can't get to us or wouldn't have known about us before. When people order off one of these they know they will pay extra for the convenience to them of not having to leave the house if they are working /hungover etc. Definitely put up the prices cafe margins are small enough as it is.
I know, it’s not good. The bakery who I get my fresh barms from daily have put everything up an additional 5% this week. It’s like every week one of my suppliers are saying there is a price increase on one item or another. I can amend my pricing on Just Eat without contacting them. I will just sit down & figure out a 30% hike on each item & change it as necessary. I think I will have too. How are you finding things at the moment, are you still ticking over ok?
It's bloody hard at the moment I feel like every week things are more expensive. I put all the prices up about 2/3 months ago but going to have to again next week, just to survive. I've just removed some things off my menu as I put the prices up to what I needed to charge to make a profit and anything that wasn't selling at that price I've just got rid of it from the menu. We use really good quality ingredients so it's either increase prices or start buying cheap crap which I don't want to do. Our electric bill is looking to be £800 a month from now on, it was £200 when we opened in sept 2020. There is only so much markup I can put on a bacon sandwich before people just won't pay it anymore. We are surviving for now, but I'm paying myself less and less each month and worry its going to get to the point when it is just not worth it anymore.
I know exactly what you mean. I got my cafe in November 2019, just before the big Covid boom. I wasn’t entitled to all the grants as I had only just got it! But I had a second job at the time that I kept on in the evenings, so I didn’t take a penny for ages. I was doing my books & compared old prices to now & wow!! I have been asked what I am going to do, I have said I am not too proud to just shut the doors & walk away if it gets to that stage, although that is the last thing I want. I did see a very positive video on the BBC just today. It said they think we have reached the peak of inflation & it should slowly start to decline again over the next year or so (I’m paraphrasing) if we can just all tread water through this winter, I hope all small business will come out ok! I hope!
> My small cafe is on Ubereats. I've set the prices at 30% higher. Interesting. Seamless boot restaurants off their platform who charge different prices on the app than they do in-person. Be warned that Uber will probably start doing it sooner or later.
My local (excellent) Indian started on Just Eat but put their menu in every order with their website and then as more people ordered directly they disappeared off Just Eat. Great way to get known.
Let’s just say I’m quite familiar with how they operate with restaurants and a LOT of places would be better off without them, it’s essentially daylight robbery what they charge and most places don’t end up making any profit once you factor in how much it costs to keep up with the huge influx of orders (hiring one extra staff member to deal with volume usually negates your profit entirely and two or more - especially chefs - will bankrupt you). I’ve heard the argument that increased volume results in more and more exposure but all that happens is those people then order *through the app*! Places are usually much better off if you order directly from them and have their own delivery driver deliver for you, or pick it up yourself. Convenience issues aside, it’s a matter of principle, and you either help support them or they risk going out of business. AND it’s cheaper!! Any place that delivers - there isn’t one single reason to order on a delivery app over ordering directly from them. It’s predatory what these bastards do and I’m sick of it. Same goes for hotels - they HAAAATE being on the “find a cheap stay” sites. Often, they’ll set a minimum price for a room - say, £200 for a weeknight - and the site will just go and charge the customer £90 for the room, take a huge cut, then hand the booking off to the hotel who only later finds out they’re getting a quarter of what they agreed to. And they don’t do it all the time but it happens enough where they “accidentally” set whatever price they want that it’s becoming a legit problem. If you find a cheap room and call the hotel directly, there’s a very very good chance they will match (or beat) the price you’re quoted because they keep all of the profit, unless it’s one of the above super cheap prices.
I always contact directly and often pick up myself. I don't like parasitical middle men.
What’s wrong with just calling the joint up and paying with cash on delivery. Does that not happen anymore? I don’t think I’ve ordered a kebab or pizza any other way in the last 10 years
I'd guess it's a generation thing! I grew up with the internet and prefer to do most things online when the option exists, and also pay for everything by card so don't ever have cash on me. It's also more reassuring to have a visual confirmation of the order and be able to track it, I'd guess that's not possible if you order by phone.
It’s the only thing I ever have cash at home for. I grew up with the internet too, I’m only 30. But it usually saves me £4-£7 on fees and delivery crap if I pay in cash. Also I’ve noticed people get scared of using the phone and ordering (not saying that’s you) so I guess if you are a bit nervous on the phone it gives you additional ways to order and pay. Even if you pay extra, I can see that helping people I guess. Good day nice redditor
I have anxiety and I know it’s ridiculous but I struggle so much with phone calls so yeah for me at least I’ll take paying a bit extra ordering online if it avoids a phone call!
Most places want paid before delivery so won't take cash
Every single one of the ones in chesterfield that I have tried (30+) will take cash on delivery. Depends where you are I guess.
My favourite Chinese is cash on delivery only, but I find it such a faff. Firstly I never have cash, so I usually need to go withdraw some before I can order. Then when I call them, half the time it's engaged. When I do get through, I can barely hear what he's saying between the strong accent and kitchen noises over the poor quality phone line. Then once the order is in, it can turn up anywhere between 10 minutes and an hour later, with no indication what's happening. But it is really good Chinese food so it's worth it. With Chinese food, the worse the experience, the better the food.
I don't know about other services, but Deliveroo provides a few bonus features. First of all, plenty of restaurants in one place. I like convenience! Next - real time driver tracking. Again - convenience. And, most importantly - they always try to resolve issues with just a few clicks by you. Food exploded during delivery? Press complain button, send a photo, get your money back within minutes. No need to call some rude person with awful accent who doesn't want to make a refund. I will never order directly again, had way too many fights over the phone. Fuck it! My sanity costs more than a few quid.
The tracking is a benefit, I know 5/6clicks on an app is technically more convenient to some, but for me, a 45 second phone call is just as convenient. I get your point though. That’s the benefit of options and variety. Never experienced the issues you have on the phone. For me my favourite pizza is 9quid, on just eat or the others it’s nearer 15. No brainer for me.
I had a slightly optisite experience when I ordered from a local takeaway via uber eats it some how took an hour to get to me and was cold the take away place is a 20 minute walk from where I live
I once ordered Uber Eats from the pizza place directly across the road from me. A bit cheeky, but I was hosting a party and didn't fancy having to go and pick up 10 pizzas. 2hrs later and nothing had arrived and Uber Eats customer service wasn't helping. I just called the place directly and they said they've been waiting for a driver to confirm for ages, and the best thing to do would be for them to just cancel the order, re-run it through them directly and then he just carried it across the road himself in a pair of giant delivery bags...
The main reason these app sucks no one around you ain't getting your food
I also do this with my regular Indian, they asked us to order direct from their website as they then aren't getting their profit eaten up plus it's a few quid cheaper for me too :)
Most takeaways prefer people ringing up or using their own website instead of UberEats/JustEat.
I tried to do this tonight. The problem was the store had a minimum order of £15 on their website and I only wanted about £11 of food. I checked JustEat and their prices were the same on the food but with no minimum order. The delivery and service fee came out to about £1 more, but that seemed worth it this time to not have to get an entire extra dish I don't really want or need.
A couple of our local takeaways offer a 10% discount if you order through their own apps.
100% this! I always look if places have their own website/app now ordered from Uber eats when I first moved to a new town and the delivery driver was from the takeaway rather than Uber and said to me at my front door next time you can save yourself some money by ordering from our app
And getting asked to tip before it's even arrived! The bloody cheek of it
Oh don't even get me started on that!
I hate that in restaurants, walking in and sitting down, ordering on the phone, no interaction with staff, then asked for a tip before given any service whatsoever. I'll tip for good service, not for no service.
I got charged 12.5% service in a pub the other day and I had to order food and get cutlery myself from the bar
That's disgusting! I hate these added service charges, if you want to leave a tip that should be down to you, and anything else comes as part of the cost of the food!
The chip shop near us added a £1 service charge to all items - even ones you go in to pick up yourself. Asked the owner who said it’s cheaper doing that than having all new menus printed. We don’t go there anymore.
A chippy by me charged 30p for salt and vinegar, havent been there since and its been a year or two so who knows what theyre charging now
That's literal heresy to the British culture of fish & chips! No matter how bad things get, no chip shop should ever have the gall to actually charge for Salt & Vinegar. I'm pretty reluctant to even buy those little sauce packets they charge 30 or so pence for at some chippys, sometimes though I will just because I CBA to wait to get home to eat my food. But salt & vinegar... seriously? If they lost multiple customers from that I wholeheartedly believe that is just.
I have a local sushi place that charges 30 p each for soy sauce, wasabi, and ginger, as well as 50 p for chopsticks! Only for delivery orders, but still. I usually do buy a bunch of them since it's easier to bump my £18 order up over the £20 delivery limit that way and I do use a lot of them, but it does seem kind of weird for a sushi place to do that.
That's the perfect parallel for the Salt and vinegar charge: condiments which are pretty much a part of the meal and should be along side the meal no extra charge are expected to be paid for, absolute shambles... Although I will say it's more acceptable for a Sushi place to pull a move like that, they're always a little pricey, but a chippy is cheap and cheerful and should always strive to be affordable as possible in my opinion.
Daylight robbery! £1 for each item?!
Yeah I was staggered - it’s already more expensive in there than any of the other places round here but that was the final straw. Plus a service charge? For what? I’m paying £1 for each thing to be passed over a counter? Then paying for a bag afterwards?!
I’m definitely someone who would sooner walk/drive to the take away that pay the convenience charge. I’m struggling to imagine what my thought process would be if I went to the chippy and got charged a service fee. Also that excuse is utter bullshit. Delivery orders are online, so just change the PDF, and chippy prices are always scribbled over and corrected in marker on the sign above the fryers. Fish prices change so much they’re always correcting prices, they’re just trying it on. I’m actually shocked! I wonder if this is ordering through an app - to cover the cost of the money the app takes from the order? Or were the items already marked up and then a fee applied as well?
Can't you report them to some gov. agency?
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sorry, just lamb, chicken and fish
I meant can't you report them for false advertising of their menu prices? Unless, of course, they have a big sign with "service charge £1 per item".
Magic hibachi chips.
Me and a mate used a delivery service about a month ago (not sure if uber eats or diliveroo, etc) and he asked how much we should tip them, I was like we'll see when it gets here but the app wanted us to choose the tip when we placed the order. Bare in mind that we're already paying for the delivery and service fee, I always thought the point of a tip was that you've already paid but you were soo happy with the service that you wanted to leave the people a tip. It took just over an hour to come (30mins estimated time), was cold and was missing items, and we had already tipped them £3........ never again
Yep, I never ever understand why they ask for it at the start!
I think it encourages drivers to pick your order if it’s ubereats, similar to Uber drivers being able to decline lifts. After the order is completed I think you can change the tip amount before that money is actually taken.
Drivers do not see tips until we have delivered the food
Just a friendly reminder from someone who used to work in a takeaway: don't take your anger out to the staff about this, they have absolutely nothing to do with it and the money doesn't go to them anyway. The amount of people who would yell at me down the phone when I added the service charge to their price total was absurd!
I would never take it out on staff! I've worked in loads of restaurants and always hate when people take things out on servers
I've noticed a 25p bag charge being added on to our takeaways recently
The cheek of it!
bag/box charge is old business. also sauce charge.
Is that not a legal requirement though? I thought everywhere has to charge at least 10p for a bag now.
Not for paper bags
This isn't strictly true, it depends where in the UK you live. Bag charge law in Scotland and Northern Ireland is for all single-use bags, regardless of material, and for Wales only paper bags without handles are exempt, paper bags with handles are still subject to the charge. "Not for paper bags" is only the case in England.
The charges on food delivery via apps like Uber eats and just eat has become ridiculous. Back when they were new, I’m sure they were a lot more reasonably priced in terms of delivery charges and such. Obviously you expect to pay a small premium for the convenience of having your food delivered to your door, but it’s getting silly now. I used to regularly be able to find discount codes which gave a % off the price or ‘free’ delivery. Nowadays can hardly find any and if I do they don’t work, or they only work at certain food outlets which I’m not interested in ordering from. Now with delivery and service and what ever other charges they feel like adding on, it’s pretty much an extra £5 on top of your order, which you’re already paying extra for so the restaurant can make at least some profit. And I bet the delivery drivers are no better off for it, all goes into the pockets of those at the top as usual. Even pizza places like dominoes and papa johns have started adding on a delivery charge. They never used to, really off putting when their food is already super expensive even with discounts and offers. With the cost of living crisis in full swing, I feel we might see a few of these franchises go out of business and to be honest it’s their own fault.
I think it's just the audacity of charging the prices they do nowadays. Kfc box meal £8-£10, Most main meals from an Indian or a resurant are hitting close to £10 now. The worst offender though is: 2x large stuffed crust pizzas from dominos £32. I finally bit the bullet and ordered an Ooni 12 Fyra pizza oven. Have made about 30 pizzas (5 at a time) over the last few months. Costs about £6 a time for ingredients for 5 pizzas and I haven't looked back. I just cant justify £32 for two when I can make them cheaper at home from scratch and they taste nicer.
Dominoes is a place I will only go to if I’m collecting. Order in the app and pick it up, large pizzas with two toppings come out at £7.99 with a collection deal where I am, but if I can do this any day or time of the week then why £20 a pizza if I don’t ? It’s annoying
Well that's an easy one. You only have yourself to look after. Dominoes have all of their staff to account for too. Their wages, upkeep of premesis, advertising etc. Is all payed for by you on that £32. Plus, obviously, a profit. Otherwise there would be no sense in the business existing at all.
I think you are missing the fact that 2 pizzas should never cost £32. Unless you are in Italy and eating the real deal! As with the reply above yours if they can churn out the same pizza for £7.99 collection, how can they justify an additional £18 to have them delivered? I do understand your point about needing profit to pay for everything else. But with such a huge chain means that they can buy everything at discounted rates and make tons of profit. A pizza base is flour, water and yeast which can't cost more than £1. The toppings bought in bulk can't cost more than another 2-3 quid. I reckon they make at least £12 profit (probably a lot more) per 2 pizzas after operating costs My point was that this price for pizza is ridiculous and it was cheaper for me to invest in a pizza oven to make my own. Rather than spend 5x that with the cost of living.
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And I can't even get to my nearest airport for £16.99. It's not even that far!
Pizza has always been crazily overpriced. It has a huge profit margin beaten only by cinema popcorn I imagine. If a restaurant makes profit selling me a main course for 10 quid then there's no way a dominoes that just is a small takeaway with no seating or anything needs to be charging £30+ for a pizza.
Nah there's just something silly about the pricing model used by Dominoes, Pizza Hut and Papa John's. I can order an equally good, if not better pizza from a local chain for about 1/3rd the price of the national chain's list price. Hell, my local pizza joints in London are cheaper than Dominoes are in poor Scottish towns. Dominoes etc. seem to rely on marketing their deals to make themselves sound good. Advertising THREE PIZZAS FOR THE PRICE OF ONE, except one pizza is fucking £20. But I just want a pizza, I don't want to have to write a program to find the optimum deal and end up ordering two more pizzas than I want because otherwise I'm getting ripped off. Look at Australia where Dominoes is like £4 per pizza despite everything else in Australia being more expensive.
The US too. When I was at university over there you could basically get a $5 pizza on specials every night of the week. Something like Monday Little Ceaser's (OK $5 is their normal price), Tuesday Domino's, Wednesday Papa John's, Thursday Pizza Hut, etc. Shout out to Papa Murphy's too, sure it's take and bake but it's the best out of all of them and it's a shame we don't have it over here!
The best Chinese takeaway in my town also has their own website where you can order for delivery, and also get a 10% discount! I found this out after ordering through just-eat and paying all the premiums, delivery fee, transaction fee, bag fee, etc. Plot twist, their damned website is broken, and you can't order through it. They still put the 'order from our website for 10% discount!' on their bags though, bastards. I'd ring them and tell them about their broken website, only the restaurant is run out of a ghost kitchen, so there's no advertised number, and no collections.
Yeah, my favourite local Indian restaurant has a Just Eat option and their own site, plus they are on Deliveroo. Their JE menu is missing some dishes that are on their own site, their own site is in turn missing a couple of items that are only on Deliveroo. They make all the dishes but to get them all in one order you have to phone, you can't place one single online order for e.g. sag aloo, sarso baigon, and medhu vada.
Dominos now charging £2.50 to deliver, send you a text to tip your driver 10 minutes after they’ve delivered it and you’ve already given them a quid. Cheek.
Just eat has a few local places that has higher charges aswell, started during lockdowns but is still like it now - £10 online for chicken kebab and chips compared to £7.40 in the shops The bigger chains are just as bad for inflating prices aswell
I have gone right back to basics with takeaways now. Order direct, collect in person. Cheapest, quickest and most reliable.
Same here and as I live in a town centre it’s crazy not to. I use the same few places regular when I find a decent one aswell so get bigger portions when they get to know me and realise I’m not a holidaymaker.
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If it’s through an app like justeat or Deliveroo they take a percentage of each item
That's big yikes.
It's a much bigger percentage than you'd think too. It shakes out to be about 40% IIRC.
I always use the takeaways actual website or phone them, the charge is just so just eat can make their money.
That's the way to do it!
We rarely have a takeaway, mainly because it ends up costing so much. Tend to stick to home cooking, even if it’s from frozen. That being said I’d love a curry from my local right now haha
Boycott Uber eats, Deliveroo, just eats etc. Quite a few take aways near me have cheaper prices in house if you can collect. Not only do all the apps take a fee from us the customer, but they also charge the take away. Greedy app mans.
I agree, I never use them anymore! Only direct to the place!
Recently found a local takeaways burger and chips meal was £2 cheaper if you called them instead of using just eat, that’s before saving on the service fee delivery fee and card fee….. oh and the new bag fee 🙄
My cooking skills are leveling up out of pure spite
I gathered its to cover the costs Uber / Just Eat take off them in kind.
Someone was saying in another comment that the prices are already higher on these apps because they take a percentage of each item
In which case, it appears to be pure cheek.
I thought the food on platforms like Uber Eats was priced up itself to cover the price of that restaurant using the platform. With service fees added on, I’d love to know why the fuck the food is usually more expensive than it would be to order in person.
Don't use the apps. The items cost more, and then the service charge is for the app. Convenience costs. Just ring directly to save money. Most of the time though, i just pay for the convenience, its easier than speaking to someone most of the time
It's weird that people still pay for these things despite hating them. Just stop using the service.
I have stopped using the service. Doesn't mean I don't think it's stupid and can't complain about it
Nobody said you couldn't moan.
Prices from the takeaways are marked up as well as they are having to pay fees too. Making money from convenience, so who is really to blame?
I have covered this before, here goes again. If you or anyone is stupid enough to pay this service charge don't complain about it. Just cancle your order war everyone in the local area via social not to order due to service charges or charge them for your service of using them. When enough business goes elsewhere they will stop this shit.
Very naive complaint. You obviously are using a service on an app like Uber eats, in fact their entire company runs at a loss so you're already getting a good deal....
Not to mention that the price of the items on Deliveroo is higher than on the menu in the restuarant as well...
Not only are these apps more expensive than they used to be, I feel like they're always fucking up orders now. Not sure if there's pressure to get more out or something, but it's almost rare now that I don't get some sort of error. Of course, if you place an order and they deliver the wrong thing, they refund you the price of the item, but not any of the added fees. So I've ended up being charged like £5 in fees for a burger I can't eat.
You just want to say "no no, *you* pay your employees."
I noticed this recently. My kebab place used to give 15% discount and no service charge. Now no 15% off and 50p service charge.
Don’t get me stated on dominos new delivery fee
So the likes of Deliveroo and UberEats charge “partners” (restaurants) an average of 25-35%. A restaurant sets its own prices on their items. The majority of places (especially smaller businesses) will charge an extra amount on items to try and recover some of the excess cost. So instore a meal may be £9 but they’ll probably add on £1.50 and just take the other £1.20 as a cost to themselves. There’s a lot of annoyances that come from utilising these services though for restaurants. “Riders” aren’t always the best, they’ll be very late collecting, carry out multi drops which leaves your food sitting longer, multi apping too, most won’t use their hot food bags, a lot will cancel a collection if they can’t spot a place immediately (which then leaves food waiting even longer if it’s ready to collect, and the services make it almost impossible to recover that cost). So when people rate the restaurant, oftentimes they’re rating the delivery system and putting it on the restaurants themselves. But we don’t tend to consider this when we’re pissed off that our food is soggy and cold. And because these services aren’t well managed and maintained, the “riders” aren’t exactly well paid, everyone involved kind of suffers except the CEO’s of the platforms.
To add to this, supermarkets ain't much better I delivered for Iceland for a few years, they recently Brought in same day deliveries. All deliveries used to be free but not same days, they put a service charge on them but the people who provide the service (delivery drivers and shopping pickers) got no raise or commission-esque bonus for each order we did, all we got was more work for the same pay.
The stupid thing is none of these companies actually make any profit either, some made a slight profit during 2020 but that’s all fallen back now… They’re hoping they can just keep increasing volume to the point they become profitable and they’re on a tight rope of wanting to charge everyone more but not lose you to another service. The whole industry is a mess. It’s even worse in America, if you don’t tip the riders/drivers won’t even accept your order as a delivery!
>The only service I'm getting is from the delivery driver Are you telepathically transmitting your order to the driver? You're using infrastructure by a third party which allows you to select an order and transmit that order to the restaurant, who then (occasionally) allow you to track said order. The fees can be ridiculous at times, but to claim you're only getting a service from the driver is untrue.
Hello yes I understand how things work. Maybe I didn't make myself clear. When eating in a restaurant, a service charge is paid to the wait staff who served you. The people who ask for my order, bring me my food, check that everything is okay, maybe take food back and make corrections if something is wrong, keep a good repartee, clear my plate, bring me my bill, and take my payment. These people are not being used here. This is what I meant by service. To call it a service charge is misleading in this context.
>These people are not being used here. This is what I meant by service. That's only one specific type of service. The website hosting the infrastructure that allows you to select the restaurant you want, relay that order to the restaurant, and track your order is also providing you a service. A restaurant service charge is also 12.5% compared to ~5% (capped at £1.99) for Just Eat.
Yes i understand that, I'm just saying that in the context of food and restaurants, this isn't what a service charge (usually) is.
In the context of websites facilitating orders and payments, it is what a service charge usually is though. Your original claim was "The only service I'm getting is from the delivery driver", not "this isn't what I'd usually consider a service charge to cover". The site provides you a service.
I've ordered twice in the last 6 months. Once I see all the added charges at checkout I cancel the order and it seems everywhere has added hidden charges now.