Uber****
Dear UberEats
On Friday night I double dipped in the UberEats app after a horrific week. I ordered some essential Friday night supplies (wine), and an hour later I ordered dinner for two.
The wine’s arrival was, pretty much as usual, uneventful (phew), but things got interesting when my food was out for delivery. My driver had one stop on route to me (a few blocks from my apartment), and when he was a few minutes away I headed downstairs as I always do, to brave the wind and rain. My driver arrived, asked me my name and immediately realised that he’d mixed up the orders and had delivered my food to his previous stop. No worries, he told me, he’d head back and swap the meals and be right back. I was mildly perturbed by the thought that another couple, two blocks away, were prodding at my shawarmas and chips wondering why their falafel smelt like lamb. I pushed this thought aside and told myself that my driver realised his mistake quickly enough to avoid total contamination.
When my driver did not return, I called him (through the Uber app) and he told me he could not make contact with the aforementioned shadow couple. I was also told that all I could do was take it up with Uber. And that’s where things escalate from about a 5-out-of-10 on the pain scale to a solid 8. Now, Uber famously does not have a helpline, but I really did think that it’d be a simple fix in the “Get Help” section. Turns out, solving world hunger would be simpler. I have an argument with the world’s most annoying chat bot, and go around in circles trying to find a way to take issue with an order that is technically still “out for delivery”. Finally, I decided that the only way to move forward is to cancel the order and take issue with Uber afterwards.
I take to X, because everybody knows that the only way to get the attention of a brand barricaded behind bots and bull**** is on social media. This is where the possibly-even-more-annoying-than-bots social team gets involved.
I shared my order number assuming that the team would have access to my account and could see everything that had transpired. I assumed they could see that I ordered a meal. I assumed they could see that your driver came to my address for a time before returning to his previous drop-off. I assumed they’d have a recording of my conversation with the driver in which he told me to take it up with Uber. I assumed they’d see my frustrated attempt at resolving my issue through the app leading me to cancel the order, reorder and REPAY for a replacement order. Instead, I got the most absolutely mind-numbingly annoying response from the team “Regarding order (6AD23), unfortunately, as previously explained, we are unable to refund you this order since you accepted the cancellation charge.” I break down what happened, step by step, and once again I get the same response.
I cannot tell you how frustrating and infuriating it is to deal with a brand that makes it impossible to complain. I cannot verbalise the anger I have over the R400 that you literally stole from me because I “accepted the cancellation charge”. You have 10,000 complaints on Hello Peter and not a single response from your team. I mean, I get it, you’re a tech company. But, where do your customers go when the tech fails us? A 5 minute conversation could have solved this problem but, instead, 2 weeks later I am absolutely disproportionately angry. I am embarrassed that I’m even writing this for R400, but I am so sick of tolerating disgusting service.
I reached out to the only email I can find for the entire Uber leadership team 8 days ago and I have not even received an acknowledgement.