Restaurants slam Uber Eats, DoorDash as a 'necessary evil' after Aussies report cold or missing food
- Restaurant slams unreliable delivery drivers
- READ MORE: Homeowner fed up with missing deliveries puts note on letterbox
A restaurant owner has slammed delivery services like Uber Eats and DoorDash as a 'necessary evil' as a growing number of Aussies report cold, ruined or missing food.
Kazzi Beach Greek Restaurant Group, which has three outlets across Sydney, says they receive complaints every week about delivery drivers.
'The issues around delivery are that it's still our brand that suffers for any mishap,' founder Peter Papas told Daily Mail on Saturday.
'Our product has been delivered late... it's been thrown around like luggage handling at an airport.
'What was a very well presented plate and well packaged plate? There's (sometimes) little resemblance to our product.'
He also said there have been instances where food has been delivered to the wrong address, or not delivered at all.
The restaurant group's general manager Peter Plioplis said while customers can get a refund, there is still a negative impact on the company brand.
'The negativity for us is basically a connotation of orders not getting there, and Uber being unreliable in that sense - or we're being unreliable,' he said.
Mr Papas (pictured left with general manager Peter Plioplis) said their restaurant group Kazzi Beach Greek experiences issues with delivery drivers each week
Sydney restaurant owner Peter Papas has taken aim at unreliable delivery drivers (stock)
'The customers, on first glance, won't typically blame Uber,' Mr Plioplis said.
'If the food gets there and it's cold... the customer will call us straight away and make the accusation, but we'll tell them, "the delivery left here half an hour ago, and you're only five minutes away". It's not logical.
'We're left trying to pick up the pieces and provide an explanation.'
Mr Papas added that the company can't stop using third-party delivery services as it makes up roughly eight per cent of their business.
'It's not desired, but it is a necessary evil,' he said. 'There's a place in the market for them, and so we begrudgingly continue to use them.'
It comes after a Melbourne man posted a short clip in August 2023 of his ruined food, claiming the pizza had been destroyed while on the back of an Uber Eats bike.
Two years later, he shared a longer interaction with the bashful driver which quickly went viral on TikTok and racked up thousands of likes.
'Get an Uber Eats, come on, brother, look at this pizza. What the f*** man. What did you do?... Would you eat this?...Then why would you give this to me?' the man said.
The concerns come after a man slammed Uber Eats for delivering him a ruined pizza
While Aussies acknowledged the driver looked 'remorseful' and noted that he had apologised, it prompted others to share their own horror stories.
'I ordered from one suburb away from me. It took one hour from the moment it was marked “picked up” to my door,' one person said.
'I followed my delivery on the app and the bugger was making so many stops and waits. At the end, my food was cold. I had to report it and got refunded.'
Another said: 'I had a similar thing the other week.. food was totally destroyed by the drinks falling over in old mate's scooter.. some food was missing.'
Daily Mail has contacted Uber Eats for comment.
