Sketchy Uber Eats drivers exposed as struggling restaurants fight back

Restaurant owners are struggling to combat a growing trend involving Uber Eats delivery partners stealing the food they’re meant to be taking to hungry customers.

Across social media groups and forums, news.com.au has found a number of examples of hospitality business owners complaining of dodgy acts that have left them out of pocket.

The scam involves an Uber Eats deliver driver or rider accepting a pick-up job, arriving at the restaurant, pretending to verify that they’ve collected the food, and then taking off with it.

Once outside, the pick-up is canceled and another delivery provider is assigned the job, only to arrive to find there’s nothing to collect.

“This way, they basically get to take the food home,” one Melbourne restaurant worker wrote in a post on Reddit.

“We complained to Uber of course, we still need to [cop] the complaints from hungry customers and make their own order all over again.

“Imagine [this] on a busy f–king service period, and we need to prioritize the stolen order because some Uber driver stole the food. I’m just so fed up with this.”

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The trend has become so common that it’s a liability to the business, as well as honest Uber Eats drivers who are “just trying their best to make ends meet”, the worker added.

It’s far from an isolated incident.

Late last year, a restaurant owner from Western Sydney told SBS News he had issues twice a week on average with drivers.

“We have so many problems with them,” he said.

“Some of them, we get the order, say two bags or three bags of food. Sometimes they deliver one and they take two. The customer calls us and they say we only received one part of the order, and all the other two bags disappeared.

“And sometimes the order didn’t reach the customers. The customer calls and asks where’s the order.”

The restaurant has also encountered the problem of drivers pretending to mark the order as collected but instead making off with the food.

He has complained “so many times” to Uber about the problem.”

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News.com.au found a number of restaurant workers and managers sharing their experiences online, with one describe the issue of food theft as “rampant”.

And last month, the owner of a popular Sydney restaurant told news.com.au he was quitting Uber Eats after encountering ongoing issues.

“The food is ready and the next thing you’ll see is the driver has decided not to pick up, it turns over to the next driver and the next driver takes 15 minutes,” he explained. “The food gets cold and you get the blame.

“Making a new [order] on a busy night Saturday night just causes more trouble and you don’t actually do a great service for actual customers who come in.”

It’s not just hospitality business owners running into issues with delivery partners doing the wrong thing.

On Reddit, a customer shared their experience of catching the person meant to be delivering their dinner instead tucking into it himself.

“Last time I ordered Uber to deliver the food, the driver pulled up 200m from my house and cancelled the order saying the food had been spilt during delivery,” the comment read.

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“He sat at the location for 20 minutes. I walked to the location and pulled out my phone, and started recording him eating my food.”

Another wrote of a concerning experience of encountering a driver who wasn’t the one assigned to deliver the order.

“My recent Uber driver was going away from my house. I asked him what he was doing and he didn’t answer. I contacted Uber support and then he came to my address with the wrong car, wrong gender and wearing a hoodie/face mask to hide his identity.”

And several others shared their experiences of having orders marked as delivered but not receiving anything.

“I tried calling the driver through the app but he blocked my number,” one recalled.

Another said: “This happened to me. The rider rang the doorbell took a pic as proof and then took off with the food. Little did he know it was all captured on security camera. I got a credit from Uber but when it’s late and you’ve had a hard long day at work you just want dinner.”

In a statement, a spokesperson for Uber Eats said deliver partners are required to comply with guidelines to ensure the safe deliver of food.

“We know how important these standards are, and if an issue does arise, we work closely with the restaurant partner, the delivery person and the consumer to investigate the details and take appropriate action,” the spokesperson said.

“We value our partnership with restaurant partners and are constantly looking to improve their experiences.

“Restaurant partners are not required to cover refunds where the issue with an order is not in the control of the restaurant. Restaurant partners can always reach out to Uber Eats customer support via phone, email or in-app for any issues and concerns.”

Uber Eats delivery partners complete identity verification checks when registering and are also given periodic real-time checks that must be passed before any jobs can be complete.

The company said it takes seriously any allegations of fraud or theft and investigates any reported incidents.

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