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As a customer, DoorDash is just consistently a terrible experience. I have the DashPass, which was advertised as free delivery for many restaurants. Turns out i

by sxg 6y ago

As a customer, DoorDash is just consistently a terrible experience. I have the DashPass, which was advertised as free delivery for many restaurants. Turns out it only works if you spend $12, and even then sometimes it doesn’t apply. If you check prices between the app and the actual restaurants’ websites, there’s often an extra $2-3 added on for each item on DoorDash (I don’t blame the restaurants). When it’s all said and done, a basic $10 meal ends up being $20+ through DoorDash after the upcharged food items, delivery fee, service fee, and tip. Edit: I do still order through DoorDash when they offer me the occasional coupon, but I rarely order without a substantial discount. I don’t know how this business model is sustainable. I’ve also noticed that many local restaurants offer their own free delivery with no service fee or up charging if you live nearby. Also, some of the best restaurants in the area seem to not be on DoorDash, Uber Eats, etc.

giancarlostoro 6y ago
There's a nearby restaurant me and the wife love to order from for breakfast every other month cause its so good, but we stopped ordering from that location and pick a slightly further location because they upcharge on things in a ridiculous way. I'm talking a $20 difference if not more depending on if we're both trying to order the same thing, imagine overpaying by $40 to feed two people.
- PenguinCoder 6y ago
  Imagine having that luxury to choose to overpay by $40 to feed two people.
  - giancarlostoro 6y ago
    I never paid for that option though. I think you misunderstood what I said.
  - thatguy0900 6y ago
    You're on hacker news, I would wager 80% of the people here have that luxury
anaphor 6y ago
I consistently get late orders, missing items, or the app is just completely down after I order and I can't access anything. Literally the only reason I keep using it is because of the lax refund/credits policy which results in me getting free food.
- lambda_obrien 6y ago
  I have an honest question: do you feel like you're taking advantage of the situation in an unethical way? You seem know the service will suck and would normally not use it, but you do it anyways because you get free food, which is in turn effectively paid for by everyone else using the service, VC investors, and by Doordash taking advantage of employees/contractors by stealing their tips (in the past).
  - anaphor 6y ago
    No, because it's not like I'm quiet about it to them so they have the opportunity to fix it, and also I'm not lying to them either. I give good ratings and tips otherwise. The tip-stealing thing is bad, but it seems like they've fixed it?
  - fuzzer37 6y ago
    If VC's wanna subsidize my dinner, I'm gonna go for it. Theoretically, this would incentivize them to make the service not suck, since they have to refund/comp so many orders.
- SketchySeaBeast 6y ago
  And as someone who uses both DoorDash and Skip the Dishes, those weirdly only ever happen to me on DoorDash.
  - therealx 6y ago
    They happen a lot with Postamtes too :/. Maybe it's locational? I also noticed that Postamtes seems to give drivers either instructions or photos of last delivered foods based on time of day or something, as my deliverys between a bracket of hours are always in the same wrong unit, yet it's tons of different drivers and I complain each time.
mynameisvlad 6y ago
My order from a restaurant that's a 5 minute drive away (raising a puppy, I can't really leave him alone right now) arrived almost 40 minutes after it was picked up. I was given a credit that didn't even cover the delivery and service fees, let alone the tip that they don't let you edit after the order.
- deepakhj 6y ago
  Doordash and Amazon Fresh has been a saviour the first month with the puppy.
- danenania 6y ago
  UberEats has a "guaranteed delivery time" feature that they pretty much never go past in my experience. The delivery usually arrives sooner, but at least you know what the worst case scenario is. They also recently added "priority delivery" which lets you ensure the driver won't make any other stops between the restaurant and your house for a few extra bucks--this seems to drastically improve predictability and is well worth it imo. I'd love to see DoorDash copy both of those (assuming they haven't already--it's been awhile since I've used it). I've had many similar frustrations with them. Being hungry and waiting on food that is already 45 minutes late, with no indication of whether it will arrive sooner, later, or ever as the driver zig zags all over creation on the map is a special version of first world hell.
  - vultour 6y ago
    Is this new? My last Uber order was 3? years ago when my order was over 2 hours late. I contacted support and their answer was essentially "<shrug> shit happens".
  - fossuser 6y ago
    I've found UberEats to be a similarly mixed bag with timing (and the only service where I've had the driver steal the food). Pre-pandemic eats drivers would also almost never come to the door or get out of the car. Doordash drivers tend to be find the door more reliably in my experience and the service is usually more reliable. They're all a kind of weird business for me - I don't see how the margins work, but I use them sometimes because it's convenient. Usually if I use something then I'd be willing to buy stock for it, but I don't really want to here. It feels like the 'we have massive revenue, sure we're losing money on every sale, but we'll make it up in volume' kind of company. IPO, take your cash out and then leave it to die in the public's hands.
dec0dedab0de 6y ago
The worst is when they give the drivers a second order after they're already holding yours. So the driver has your food sitting for 45 minutes before they even start driving to you.
- cosmie 6y ago
  These food delivery apps tend to execute it poorly, but multiples orders in a single run is pretty standard fare in food delivery. If you order delivery from a pizza place during lunch or dinner rush, the vast majority of the time the restaurant is going to try it's damndest to dispatch orders in a way that allows the driver to take multiple deliveries in one run. Even if it means letting one that's ready to go out the door sit under the heatlamps for a bit while you make and cook another that's going in the same direction. That said, your order goes from oven -> metal table with heat lamps -> insulated (or with an actual heat plate in it) delivery bag. So it should still end up getting delivered hot, even if not quite fresh. I managed a Dominos when they started their pizza tracker[1] back in the day, and 99% of complaints were from online orders, which got quoted wildly optimistic delivery times and coupled with the following the progress tracker, gave a false sense of when to expect your order. Dominos recently updated their pizza tracker with driver GPS tracking[2] so that it works on par with the delivery apps, and I can't even imagine how many complaints come from people who are second on a driver's run and notice the driver taking off in the wrong direction from the store or taking a highly roundabout route to their house. [1] https://www.huffpost.com/entry/dominos-pizza-tracker_b_5947734 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/dominos-pizza-tracker_b_59477... [2] https://www.dominos.com/en/about-pizza/gps-tracker/ https://www.dominos.com/en/about-pizza/gps-tracker/
  - dec0dedab0de 6y ago
    I think the answer is a delivery on demand service for the restaurants. So you order from the place and they have the most recent orders ready to go and the delivery person that shows up takes the ones that make sense to go together. Just like a pizza place would.
choppaface 6y ago
I've consistently seen orders marked Doordash that have been sitting for 30-45 minutes when I got to pick up my own food. They also have flaked several times on me-- no delivery after an hour. They seem to have a weakness dispatching drivers. The restaurants are doing their job. What happens if the restaurant completes a Doordash order but then Doordash fails to deliver it and must issue a refund? Does that transaction still get recognized as revenue?
snarf21 6y ago
This is a mad dash to cash in at an IPO before vaccines get distributed and people rush back to dining in person after a year of pent up demand and their revenue falls off a cliff.
- erikbye 6y ago
  Home delivery of groceries was gaining popularity years before the pandemic, restaurant meals is just the next step.
foobaw 6y ago
All other platforms like UberEats and Postmates do the same thing for their "passes" and all the upcharges or else they wouldn't be profitable. Not saying it's good for consumers and users and I personally don't like it, but it has become the standard, not just DD.
- ubercow13 6y ago
  Which is confusing, because the premise of these delievery services is that the advanced routing algorithms would make it cheaper to provide delivery than it had been before.
  - missedthecue 6y ago
    It very well might. Doesn't mean that it turns it into a long term business.
JumpCrisscross 6y ago
> DoorDash is just consistently a terrible experience In New York, Caviar used to be great. The quality noticeably plummeted after DoorDash bought them. To the point that I have since deleted the app.
- bitbckt 6y ago
  That's been my experience in San Francisco, as well.
- pensketch 6y ago
  FWIW Caviar is/was still my favorite app for ordering food. No major quality reduction in the SFBay from what I've noticed (aside from pandemic related issues like slightly longer delays on peek evenings). Hopefully the kinks get ironed out for ya in NY.
JMTQp8lwXL 6y ago
Why would you assume the per-item upcharge would not apply if you bought DashPass? The advertising says free delivery only, it isn't marketed as no upcharge.
- sxg 6y ago
  I did not assume the up charge would go away. I assumed I would get free delivery as advertised, but there are additional caveats to free delivery that were not advertised.
tempsy 6y ago
The market doesn’t contemplate your reality and it doesn’t reflect you. Which is to say, pointing out that it’s expensive and you’d never use it without a coupon and for that reason find the business model not sustainable does not reflect how millions of other people think about and use the service, and how the market responds.
- sxg 6y ago
  I agree with you, which is why I commented. I believe in the value of startups and their role in disrupting business to provide old services in a better way or to provide entirely new services. However, I also want startups to facilitate virtuous cycles so that all stakeholders move forward [1]. DoorDash fulfills the former but not the latter. DoorDash's business involves 3 stakeholders: restaurants, drivers, and end customers. DoorDash hasn't done well by drivers given the tip stealing scandal. DoorDash initially benefited restaurants by expanding their addressable markets, but as DoorDash now extracts substantial commissions and any modern restaurant is required to have a presence on DoorDash, they're essentially just rent-seeking. Regarding customers, this comment thread demonstrates how controversial DoorDash is. Yes, DoorDash provides a delivery service that didn't exist before, but they're also engaging in shady business practices (e.g. claiming free delivery with DashPass, the Chicago and Philadelphia fees designed to look like government taxes rather than additional DoorDash fees, and other dark patterns). In my opinion, DoorDash's net effect on the restaurant-driver-customer relationship is negative. I think DoorDash has found a way to make a ton of money without actually creating a net good for the restaurant-driver-customer relationship. Kudos to DoorDash for finding a way to make tons of money, but I personally can't support any company that doesn't actually create a net positive value on society. I accept that I'm in the minority here as evidenced by DoorDash's market cap, but I hope my thoughts on this at least prompt a discussion about the value and role of startups in society. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtuous_circle_and_vicious_circle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtuous_circle_and_vicious_ci...
conanbatt 6y ago
I'm also surprised at how doordash does as a stock, because as a customer I've lost packages, got packages in bad shape, etc. I'm a serious detractor for doordash. I wonder what their NPS is but it can't be very high.
KyleJune 6y ago
I used a coupon once then got an order confirmation email that didn't show the coupon. Tried disputing it to get them to apply the coupon, they refused and demanded a screenshot of the order before I clicked checkout which I obviously didn't have since I didn't expect them to scam me. I pressed further and they basically responded saying they spent more time on this issue then allowed and just offered a $5 credit for a future order. After using that I'll never order through doordash again. That $5 coupon just brought the price down to what it would be if I ordered directly from the restaurant.
bawolff 6y ago
Wow, everyone doesn't like doordash here. I've personslly had no problems and they have a much better selection of resturants than the other apps in my area. App is a bit buggy at times though
fataliss 6y ago
Can't wait for more reasonable platforms to take over. I'd rather have some clarity and honesty than a stack of sneaky fee and not knowing who gets paid what. I have been pretty much only doing pick up orders (from the restaurant's site) since the whole tip stealing debacle. I know that some people would like jobs in the delivery space for flexibility and extra income but it seems too dishonest of a space for me to caution. Just my feeling tho, plenty of no-car downtown life friends who order and that's their choice :).
- wbobeirne 6y ago
  I'm not sure I expect much to change. There's an insane amount of competition in this space, and they all seem to fall prey to the same dark patterns and mediocre execution. I'm starting to question whether any company can successfully squeeze into the already extremely tight margins that restaurants operate in without increasing the cost to the consumer in some way.
  - fataliss 6y ago
    It'll probably take a crash and burn of a few big names with VCs being very careful about any new company in that space. I could see something come up that'd be bootstrapped and just slowly gain business in a big metro area before becoming a "thing". Def going to remain a low margin business though so it won't be easy to make it healthy
cortesoft 6y ago
Weird.... I love the door dash experience... my best delivery experience by far. I order like 2-3 times a week right now. Sure, the prices might be a little higher, but the ease of use is worth it for me. I love being able to know when the delivery person is getting near. I love being able to do one button re-ordering.
cellularmitosis 6y ago
I don't see it mentioned in the comments thus far, but the Papa John's near me (Austin) appears to have farmed out its delivery completely to DoorDash. Aside from significantly worse service (my last pizza was over 20 minutes late and barely lukewarm), they have also made zero effort to "white box" DoorDash under the Papa John's brand, which makes for a very confusing customer experience ("Hi this is John, I have your DoorDash order", "Huh? I didn't order anything from DoorDash..."). I'm also surprised that this move apparently made financial sense.
balls187 6y ago
> When it’s all said and done, a basic $10 meal ends up being $20+ through DoorDash after the upcharged food items, delivery fee, service fee, and tip. If said restaurant paid a standard of living wage that $10 meal would probably be closer to $25. I'm not necessarily a fan of DoorDash's business practices, but I don't fault them for extracting money that restaurants have left on the table.
bonestamp2 6y ago
The biggest problem with doordash is when there's a problem with your order. They can't resolve that problem adequately, all they can do is refund an item and that's not the right solution. Someone needs a meal, and if that item is forgotten or wrong to the point where the person can't eat the meal then I still have a problem after they've given me my money back. I don't need that money, I need a meal to feed someone. Ya sure, I can dig around in the fridge and find something for that person to eat but by not replacing that meal, Doordash makes that person feel completely unimportant. Yes, of course it would be expensive for them to dispatch another driver to bring one meal. But, that's the right thing to do. Even if I pay another delivery fee and another tip to reorder the refunded food, then I'm taking the hit for someone else's mistake. When it goes right, it's great. When it goes wrong, it's one of the worst customer experiences you could design because nobody wins, not even DoorDash. Well, maybe they win a little bit in the short term, but not long term.
the_economist 6y ago
Where do you live? Here in Scottsdale, Doordash delights me with their great service. Things are tougher for their drivers in San Francisco and other dense cities where they can't easily park, then have to deal with a confusing array of call boxes to enter the buildings.

by sxg 6y ago

giancarlostoro 6y ago

There's a nearby restaurant me and the wife love to order from for breakfast every other month cause its so good, but we stopped ordering from that location and pick a slightly further location because they upcharge on things in a ridiculous way. I'm talking a $20 difference if not more depending on if we're both trying to order the same thing, imagine overpaying by $40 to feed two people.

PenguinCoder 6y ago
Imagine having that luxury to choose to overpay by $40 to feed two people.
- giancarlostoro 6y ago
  I never paid for that option though. I think you misunderstood what I said.
- thatguy0900 6y ago
  You're on hacker news, I would wager 80% of the people here have that luxury

anaphor 6y ago

I consistently get late orders, missing items, or the app is just completely down after I order and I can't access anything. Literally the only reason I keep using it is because of the lax refund/credits policy which results in me getting free food.

lambda_obrien 6y ago
I have an honest question: do you feel like you're taking advantage of the situation in an unethical way? You seem know the service will suck and would normally not use it, but you do it anyways because you get free food, which is in turn effectively paid for by everyone else using the service, VC investors, and by Doordash taking advantage of employees/contractors by stealing their tips (in the past).
- anaphor 6y ago
  No, because it's not like I'm quiet about it to them so they have the opportunity to fix it, and also I'm not lying to them either. I give good ratings and tips otherwise. The tip-stealing thing is bad, but it seems like they've fixed it?
- fuzzer37 6y ago
  If VC's wanna subsidize my dinner, I'm gonna go for it. Theoretically, this would incentivize them to make the service not suck, since they have to refund/comp so many orders.
SketchySeaBeast 6y ago
And as someone who uses both DoorDash and Skip the Dishes, those weirdly only ever happen to me on DoorDash.
- therealx 6y ago
  They happen a lot with Postamtes too :/. Maybe it's locational? I also noticed that Postamtes seems to give drivers either instructions or photos of last delivered foods based on time of day or something, as my deliverys between a bracket of hours are always in the same wrong unit, yet it's tons of different drivers and I complain each time.

mynameisvlad 6y ago

My order from a restaurant that's a 5 minute drive away (raising a puppy, I can't really leave him alone right now) arrived almost 40 minutes after it was picked up. I was given a credit that didn't even cover the delivery and service fees, let alone the tip that they don't let you edit after the order.

deepakhj 6y ago
Doordash and Amazon Fresh has been a saviour the first month with the puppy.
danenania 6y ago
UberEats has a "guaranteed delivery time" feature that they pretty much never go past in my experience. The delivery usually arrives sooner, but at least you know what the worst case scenario is. They also recently added "priority delivery" which lets you ensure the driver won't make any other stops between the restaurant and your house for a few extra bucks--this seems to drastically improve predictability and is well worth it imo. I'd love to see DoorDash copy both of those (assuming they haven't already--it's been awhile since I've used it). I've had many similar frustrations with them. Being hungry and waiting on food that is already 45 minutes late, with no indication of whether it will arrive sooner, later, or ever as the driver zig zags all over creation on the map is a special version of first world hell.
- vultour 6y ago
  Is this new? My last Uber order was 3? years ago when my order was over 2 hours late. I contacted support and their answer was essentially "<shrug> shit happens".
- fossuser 6y ago
  I've found UberEats to be a similarly mixed bag with timing (and the only service where I've had the driver steal the food). Pre-pandemic eats drivers would also almost never come to the door or get out of the car. Doordash drivers tend to be find the door more reliably in my experience and the service is usually more reliable. They're all a kind of weird business for me - I don't see how the margins work, but I use them sometimes because it's convenient. Usually if I use something then I'd be willing to buy stock for it, but I don't really want to here. It feels like the 'we have massive revenue, sure we're losing money on every sale, but we'll make it up in volume' kind of company. IPO, take your cash out and then leave it to die in the public's hands.

dec0dedab0de 6y ago

The worst is when they give the drivers a second order after they're already holding yours. So the driver has your food sitting for 45 minutes before they even start driving to you.

cosmie 6y ago
These food delivery apps tend to execute it poorly, but multiples orders in a single run is pretty standard fare in food delivery. If you order delivery from a pizza place during lunch or dinner rush, the vast majority of the time the restaurant is going to try it's damndest to dispatch orders in a way that allows the driver to take multiple deliveries in one run. Even if it means letting one that's ready to go out the door sit under the heatlamps for a bit while you make and cook another that's going in the same direction. That said, your order goes from oven -> metal table with heat lamps -> insulated (or with an actual heat plate in it) delivery bag. So it should still end up getting delivered hot, even if not quite fresh. I managed a Dominos when they started their pizza tracker[1] back in the day, and 99% of complaints were from online orders, which got quoted wildly optimistic delivery times and coupled with the following the progress tracker, gave a false sense of when to expect your order. Dominos recently updated their pizza tracker with driver GPS tracking[2] so that it works on par with the delivery apps, and I can't even imagine how many complaints come from people who are second on a driver's run and notice the driver taking off in the wrong direction from the store or taking a highly roundabout route to their house. [1] https://www.huffpost.com/entry/dominos-pizza-tracker_b_5947734 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/dominos-pizza-tracker_b_59477... [2] https://www.dominos.com/en/about-pizza/gps-tracker/ https://www.dominos.com/en/about-pizza/gps-tracker/
- dec0dedab0de 6y ago
  I think the answer is a delivery on demand service for the restaurants. So you order from the place and they have the most recent orders ready to go and the delivery person that shows up takes the ones that make sense to go together. Just like a pizza place would.

choppaface 6y ago

I've consistently seen orders marked Doordash that have been sitting for 30-45 minutes when I got to pick up my own food. They also have flaked several times on me-- no delivery after an hour. They seem to have a weakness dispatching drivers. The restaurants are doing their job. What happens if the restaurant completes a Doordash order but then Doordash fails to deliver it and must issue a refund? Does that transaction still get recognized as revenue?

snarf21 6y ago

This is a mad dash to cash in at an IPO before vaccines get distributed and people rush back to dining in person after a year of pent up demand and their revenue falls off a cliff.

erikbye 6y ago
Home delivery of groceries was gaining popularity years before the pandemic, restaurant meals is just the next step.

foobaw 6y ago

All other platforms like UberEats and Postmates do the same thing for their "passes" and all the upcharges or else they wouldn't be profitable. Not saying it's good for consumers and users and I personally don't like it, but it has become the standard, not just DD.

ubercow13 6y ago
Which is confusing, because the premise of these delievery services is that the advanced routing algorithms would make it cheaper to provide delivery than it had been before.
- missedthecue 6y ago
  It very well might. Doesn't mean that it turns it into a long term business.

JumpCrisscross 6y ago

> DoorDash is just consistently a terrible experience In New York, Caviar used to be great. The quality noticeably plummeted after DoorDash bought them. To the point that I have since deleted the app.

bitbckt 6y ago
That's been my experience in San Francisco, as well.
pensketch 6y ago
FWIW Caviar is/was still my favorite app for ordering food. No major quality reduction in the SFBay from what I've noticed (aside from pandemic related issues like slightly longer delays on peek evenings). Hopefully the kinks get ironed out for ya in NY.

JMTQp8lwXL 6y ago

Why would you assume the per-item upcharge would not apply if you bought DashPass? The advertising says free delivery only, it isn't marketed as no upcharge.

sxg 6y ago
I did not assume the up charge would go away. I assumed I would get free delivery as advertised, but there are additional caveats to free delivery that were not advertised.

tempsy 6y ago

The market doesn’t contemplate your reality and it doesn’t reflect you. Which is to say, pointing out that it’s expensive and you’d never use it without a coupon and for that reason find the business model not sustainable does not reflect how millions of other people think about and use the service, and how the market responds.

sxg 6y ago
I agree with you, which is why I commented. I believe in the value of startups and their role in disrupting business to provide old services in a better way or to provide entirely new services. However, I also want startups to facilitate virtuous cycles so that all stakeholders move forward [1]. DoorDash fulfills the former but not the latter. DoorDash's business involves 3 stakeholders: restaurants, drivers, and end customers. DoorDash hasn't done well by drivers given the tip stealing scandal. DoorDash initially benefited restaurants by expanding their addressable markets, but as DoorDash now extracts substantial commissions and any modern restaurant is required to have a presence on DoorDash, they're essentially just rent-seeking. Regarding customers, this comment thread demonstrates how controversial DoorDash is. Yes, DoorDash provides a delivery service that didn't exist before, but they're also engaging in shady business practices (e.g. claiming free delivery with DashPass, the Chicago and Philadelphia fees designed to look like government taxes rather than additional DoorDash fees, and other dark patterns). In my opinion, DoorDash's net effect on the restaurant-driver-customer relationship is negative. I think DoorDash has found a way to make a ton of money without actually creating a net good for the restaurant-driver-customer relationship. Kudos to DoorDash for finding a way to make tons of money, but I personally can't support any company that doesn't actually create a net positive value on society. I accept that I'm in the minority here as evidenced by DoorDash's market cap, but I hope my thoughts on this at least prompt a discussion about the value and role of startups in society. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtuous_circle_and_vicious_circle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtuous_circle_and_vicious_ci...

conanbatt 6y ago

I'm also surprised at how doordash does as a stock, because as a customer I've lost packages, got packages in bad shape, etc. I'm a serious detractor for doordash. I wonder what their NPS is but it can't be very high.

KyleJune 6y ago

I used a coupon once then got an order confirmation email that didn't show the coupon. Tried disputing it to get them to apply the coupon, they refused and demanded a screenshot of the order before I clicked checkout which I obviously didn't have since I didn't expect them to scam me. I pressed further and they basically responded saying they spent more time on this issue then allowed and just offered a $5 credit for a future order. After using that I'll never order through doordash again. That $5 coupon just brought the price down to what it would be if I ordered directly from the restaurant.

bawolff 6y ago

Wow, everyone doesn't like doordash here. I've personslly had no problems and they have a much better selection of resturants than the other apps in my area. App is a bit buggy at times though

fataliss 6y ago

Can't wait for more reasonable platforms to take over. I'd rather have some clarity and honesty than a stack of sneaky fee and not knowing who gets paid what. I have been pretty much only doing pick up orders (from the restaurant's site) since the whole tip stealing debacle. I know that some people would like jobs in the delivery space for flexibility and extra income but it seems too dishonest of a space for me to caution. Just my feeling tho, plenty of no-car downtown life friends who order and that's their choice :).

wbobeirne 6y ago
I'm not sure I expect much to change. There's an insane amount of competition in this space, and they all seem to fall prey to the same dark patterns and mediocre execution. I'm starting to question whether any company can successfully squeeze into the already extremely tight margins that restaurants operate in without increasing the cost to the consumer in some way.
- fataliss 6y ago
  It'll probably take a crash and burn of a few big names with VCs being very careful about any new company in that space. I could see something come up that'd be bootstrapped and just slowly gain business in a big metro area before becoming a "thing". Def going to remain a low margin business though so it won't be easy to make it healthy

cortesoft 6y ago

Weird.... I love the door dash experience... my best delivery experience by far. I order like 2-3 times a week right now. Sure, the prices might be a little higher, but the ease of use is worth it for me. I love being able to know when the delivery person is getting near. I love being able to do one button re-ordering.

cellularmitosis 6y ago

I don't see it mentioned in the comments thus far, but the Papa John's near me (Austin) appears to have farmed out its delivery completely to DoorDash. Aside from significantly worse service (my last pizza was over 20 minutes late and barely lukewarm), they have also made zero effort to "white box" DoorDash under the Papa John's brand, which makes for a very confusing customer experience ("Hi this is John, I have your DoorDash order", "Huh? I didn't order anything from DoorDash..."). I'm also surprised that this move apparently made financial sense.

balls187 6y ago

> When it’s all said and done, a basic $10 meal ends up being $20+ through DoorDash after the upcharged food items, delivery fee, service fee, and tip. If said restaurant paid a standard of living wage that $10 meal would probably be closer to $25. I'm not necessarily a fan of DoorDash's business practices, but I don't fault them for extracting money that restaurants have left on the table.

bonestamp2 6y ago

The biggest problem with doordash is when there's a problem with your order. They can't resolve that problem adequately, all they can do is refund an item and that's not the right solution. Someone needs a meal, and if that item is forgotten or wrong to the point where the person can't eat the meal then I still have a problem after they've given me my money back. I don't need that money, I need a meal to feed someone. Ya sure, I can dig around in the fridge and find something for that person to eat but by not replacing that meal, Doordash makes that person feel completely unimportant. Yes, of course it would be expensive for them to dispatch another driver to bring one meal. But, that's the right thing to do. Even if I pay another delivery fee and another tip to reorder the refunded food, then I'm taking the hit for someone else's mistake. When it goes right, it's great. When it goes wrong, it's one of the worst customer experiences you could design because nobody wins, not even DoorDash. Well, maybe they win a little bit in the short term, but not long term.

the_economist 6y ago

Where do you live? Here in Scottsdale, Doordash delights me with their great service. Things are tougher for their drivers in San Francisco and other dense cities where they can't easily park, then have to deal with a confusing array of call boxes to enter the buildings.