Alberta restaurant group wants fee cap for delivery services

[Mitsu3000gt]

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If I have an issue with an order I can contact the restaurant instead of dealing with one of these services call centers.

If you have an issue, Door Dash refunds you no questions asked - it's just a button in the app, no call center required and they credit your account. I had a $90 sushi order messed up one time and one click later I had a full credit.

[Mitsu3000gt]

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Skip the Dishes is great for consumers and they do take a hefty amount from restaurants. However a lot of restaurants have higher prices for Skip Menu to accommodate that. The only that pisses me off is how customers complain about their food and get a refund instantly, the restaurant does not have any room to argue. For example, can we get no tomatoes in a greek salad. How is that possible, it is prepped that way. No there is no option for no tomatoes on the menu and it is not possible. Stick to a different salad, and then they complain. Skip goes out and hands 100% refund. I bet so many customers are taking advantage of this knowing they will get a credit.

Some customers should just cook at home if they are that picky.

Why don't you contact the customer if their request cannot be accommodated? That's what has happened to me every time and it seems to work out just fine. The reason people pay a significant premium for DoorDash/Skip food is because they don't want to cook at home. Inflated restaurant pricing + DD/Skip fee + delivery fee + driver tip and often you're at a 50-100% premium to the menu price, especially on a small order.

Customers are allowed to be picky if they are paying for the food - could be an allergy or something too. It's up to the restaurant to let them know if their request cannot be accommodated, same as it would be in a dine-in situation. If you call them and let them know, they say it's fine, and THEN still complain for a refund, then that is a dick move. If the restaurant doesn't contact them to let them know or offer alternative, then they are within their rights to complain IMO. Customers have no idea what food is pre-made, what can be swapped out, etc. unless someone tells them.

[roopi]

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If you have an issue, Door Dash refunds you no questions asked - it's just a button in the app, no call center required and they credit your account. I had a $90 sushi order messed up one time and one click later I had a full credit.

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I hate door dash. A week ago the driver couldn't find my house so he left the food "under street sign", never found it. On Saturday the Door Dash driver just decided to not show up and keep our food, Door Dash refused to refund me.Attachment 91562

@Chester did you try this?

[AndyL]

In other news, nice humblebrag. We did so much takeout/delivery we spent 72k$ in fees.

So what 315k$ in takeout/delivery sales?

[JRSC00LUDE]

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So he wants the government to tell a private business how much it can charge for it's services.

Maybe they can put a price limit per oz on his [poorly cooked] steaks as well.

This is enjoyable.

[killramos]

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In other news, nice humblebrag. We did so much takeout/delivery we spent 72k$ in fees.

So what 315k$ in takeout/delivery sales?

Across his 3 restaurants over 2 months? Restaurants have always been decent at bringing in revenue, it’s making a profit that is the difficult part and an extra 72k off the top hurts a ton.

[AndyL]

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Across his 3 restaurants over 2 months? Restaurants have always been decent at bringing in revenue, it’s making a profit that is the difficult part and an extra 72k off the top hurts a ton.

But they signed up for those rates... It's not like the rates were jacked for covid... Just the % of dine in vs takeout has changed.

I think most businesses would be looking at it as a positive thing... Having business being able to focus on the takeout side and looking forward to hopefully some new dine-in customers post-covid

[killramos]

I dunno you were the one criticizing it as a humble brag, the fees are a completely different issue.

You make it sound like 300k is some massive number for a restaurant in terms of revenue. Across 3 restaurants over 2 months that’s all of 1500 bucks a day per shop. That ain’t keeping the lights on.

[Mitsu3000gt]

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But they signed up for those rates... It's not like the rates were jacked for covid... Just the % of dine in vs takeout has changed.

I think most businesses would be looking at it as a positive thing... Having business being able to focus on the takeout side and looking forward to hopefully some new dine-in customers post-covid

Hard to believe they are hurting (obviously they're still pretty busy still if they paid that much in delivery fees alone), but it's possible their revenue is down significantly due to lack of alcohol sales as that is usually marked up 100%-400%+. Still can't feel sorry for them though, if their food was that good, people would go pick it up.

As I mentioned above though, $72K over 2 months would buy them a small army of their own delivery personnel if they feel like they can do it better.

[ThePenIsMightier]

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Why don't you contact the customer if their request cannot be accommodated? That's what has happened to me every time and it seems to work out just fine. The reason people pay a significant premium for DoorDash/Skip food is because they don't want to cook at home. Inflated restaurant pricing + DD/Skip fee + delivery fee + driver tip and often you're at a 50-100% premium to the menu price, especially on a small order.

Customers are allowed to be picky if they are paying for the food - could be an allergy or something too. It's up to the restaurant to let them know if their request cannot be accommodated, same as it would be in a dine-in situation. If you call them and let them know, they say it's fine, and THEN still complain for a refund, then that is a dick move. If the restaurant doesn't contact them to let them know or offer alternative, then they are within their rights to complain IMO. Customers have no idea what food is pre-made, what can be swapped out, etc. unless someone tells them.

Bullshit. Karens gonna Karen is what most of this will be.

"Ummm, yeah, excuse me! I ordered my Caprese Salad without cheese or tomato and reminded you that I am deathly allergic to balsamic! So... You're gonna have to go ahead and refund me 345% of the value of this order, or I'm gonna have to talk about the manager on Yelp!"

[Chester]

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@Chester did you try this?

I didn't, was too hangry; cut my losses, placed another order and drove to pick it up lol.

[Mitsu3000gt]

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Bullshit. Karens gonna Karen is what most of this will be.

"Ummm, yeah, excuse me! I ordered my Caprese Salad without cheese or tomato and reminded you that I am deathly allergic to balsamic! So... You're gonna have to go ahead and refund me 345% of the value of this order, or I'm gonna have to talk about the manager on Yelp!"

How is this scenario any different than what would happen inside the restaurant for a sit-down meal though? There will always be that 1% who can't be pleased, it's part of being in the restaurant business. In both scenarios the customer is likely to receive a full or partial refund. I haven't heard of any customer getting MORE than the order value back.

If the restaurant makes an attempt the contact the customer then they have done their part IMO. If the restaurant does not notify the customer that their request cannot be accommodated, that is on the restaurant IMO. Exactly the same as a dine-in situation. If they don't like it then they can handle deliveries themselves if they think they can do a better job.

Or, if it's THAT bad, maybe they should start making better food so they don't need delivery services at all. Some places are so busy with pick-up orders they only open for a certain window each day.

[syscal]

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I thought Modern Steak was using Skip, being charged fees, and wants it capped?

Yea, I wasn't referring to modern steak specifically...but you did say "back on topic" so my bad

[zechs]

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How is this scenario any different than what would happen inside the restaurant for a sit-down meal though?

It also works the same online. Even though you aren't quite anonymous, there are literally zero repercussions for treating businesses online horribly.

It's one thing to steal from someone when you have to look them in the eye. Another thing when its "another faceless business" online.

My two cents, but as a small business owner, my interactions in person vs anything online (even email) is night and day.

[ThePenIsMightier]

I'm torn on this overall issue because there are excellent points for both sides. Overall, I think it's foolish for us to (as of today) deny the fact that Skip The Dishes is currently the cartel that fucks these restaurants over. I think I made the argument about how Yelp used to have the power to fuck restaurants over, as well. They have nothing proprietary and thus competitors are already all over Skip The D driving prices down and increasing competition. But... In the meantime, these restaurants are getting fucked and that's wrong.
I do not and will not ever support govt intervention to limit these fees in a case like this. But, they are getting fisted and it's unfair and it's also unfair to say "do it yourself" when these are restaurants, not delivery places. They entered the restaurant business, not the quick-food delivery biz. You can't reasonably expect them to combat this effectively by entering that biz.

So, why is it so dominant and yet so allegedly unpopular?
Skip The D is the Nickelback/Walmart in this. Ask anyone, and they'll tell you "Skip Sux" but deep down, everyone is buying it! Like that SouthPark episode about Walmart.

I take my stand and say "nope - not doing it". If it ain't pizza, I'm climbing off my thumb to go pick it up.
I think it's painfully obvious that we all need way way more people exactly like me. You're all welcome!

[sexualbanana]

The service is a lot like Waiters en Route (if anyone remembers them). They were basically a third-party delivery service, but it all happened by phone and they charged an exorbitant delivery fee (the one time I looked into it, the delivery charge was going to be $20 and that was about 20 years ago).

I think a lot of the discontent comes from the fact that restaurants are only able to operate as takeout/delivery only. Before that, I think a lot of restaurants and bars were willing to eat the cost of delivering to Skip/DD/UE and basically attribute it to marketing costs. The main revenue was generated through their dine-in business anyways and delivery was just a small portion of that. But now you take away the sitdown revenue and all you're left with is a sliver of profit (or loss) after accounting for delivery fees. And that stings.

[dirtsniffer]

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I wonder if its against skip's TOS to include a menu and a discount if they order direct through the store. I know some chinese food places always include a menu. I wonder if you could do that with a 5 or 10% off for direct sales. Or maybe free shipping? idk

I've definitely had the typical 10% off for pick or or cash, and that's probably not available through skip. But now that you mention the skip TOS I have seen it less lately. But i think I've also seen that some places have higher prices on skip vs on a menu you pick up... So no idea really.

The only exorbitant delivery fee I was ever ok with was dial a bottle when I was 16.

[Xtrema]

The only thing I dont like about this trend is everything will just cost more for people who dont use or hate these delivery services.

[tirebob]

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I'm torn on this overall issue because there are excellent points for both sides. Overall, I think it's foolish for us to (as of today) deny the fact that Skip The Dishes is currently the cartel that fucks these restaurants over. I think I made the argument about how Yelp used to have the power to fuck restaurants over, as well. They have nothing proprietary and thus competitors are already all over Skip The D driving prices down and increasing competition. But... In the meantime, these restaurants are getting fucked and that's wrong.
I do not and will not ever support govt intervention to limit these fees in a case like this. But, they are getting fisted and it's unfair and it's also unfair to say "do it yourself" when these are restaurants, not delivery places. They entered the restaurant business, not the quick-food delivery biz. You can't reasonably expect them to combat this effectively by entering that biz.

So, why is it so dominant and yet so allegedly unpopular?
Skip The D is the Nickelback/Walmart in this. Ask anyone, and they'll tell you "Skip Sux" but deep down, everyone is buying it! Like that SouthPark episode about Walmart.

I take my stand and say "nope - not doing it". If it ain't pizza, I'm climbing off my thumb to go pick it up.
I think it's painfully obvious that we all need way way more people exactly like me. You're all welcome!

Good summary! I too accept that it is what it is, but I refuse to participate. Fuck skip and the horse they rode in on. I will always call a restaurant directly and go pick it up if they don’t deliver or pay a secondary delivery driver to go get it if I am too lazy. Hell, maybe I will even just cook for myself... The horror!!

[Xtrema]

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Good summary! I too accept that it is what it is, but I refuse to participate. Fuck skip and the horse they rode in on. I will always call a restaurant directly and go pick it up if they don’t deliver or pay a secondary delivery driver to go get it if I am too lazy. Hell, maybe I will even just cook for myself... The horror!!

I think I used any of these new delivery services once for business lunch and that's it because we didn't have time to pick it up. I also refuse to participate, especially against restaurants that I like and support. I rather pick it up myself.