I recently opened UberEats because I was given an Uber gift card. There was a promo that said "no delivery fee" and I thought, "that seems too good to be true, but let's see." I then saw a promo for a local donut shop that was buy-one-get-one for certain items. It appeared that I could have two donuts delivered to my door for just a few dollars. This seemed too good to be true, although the donut shop is pretty nearby.
I went through to the payment screen and was greeted by several delivery-related fees, including a "small order fee" (which presumably only applies to inexpensive orders) and a "service fee", and a "CA Driver Benefits fee". None of these fees apply on orders that you pick up yourself, so it's pretty dishonest to say "no delivery fee" front and center in the app.
The user only discovers these fees at the very last screen, once they've invested in researching restaurants, choosing items, adding them to their cart, and possibly coordinating with other family members regarding their preferences/orders. Basically, users are much more locked-in by the time they realize there are actually many delivery-related fees, even if the "delivery fee" itself is not applied (when I looked another time, this particular fee was much smaller (1/8-1/4) of the delivery-related fees that remained.
It might be a difference in jurisdiction, but I've never noticeably been caught out by this in the UK.
Honestly, I think I'm seeing a lot of rose-tinted spectacles here because I can order a burger to my door and track it all the way in about 15s flat if I want to with the Uber eats app. I really don't see what the problem is.
American prices rarely if ever include taxes in the listed price. This is something that americans are used to, and will usually budget extra money for when they go to pay, but it catches a lot of people from other countries off guard.
How much more does it cost you than if you picked it up yourself? I'd also be curious to know how a burger in particular holds up through the delivery process.
I understand the time/money tradeoff and would be happy to spend a few dollars to save myself a 20-30 minute roundtrip drive, but it seems like the cost of this convenience is much larger than I prefer, even though we only eat out occasionally.
The one I usually get is one of those delivery only joints I think but the delivery fee is usually a flat few quid tops (£3 at most, almost zero for the less popular ones).
The delivery has always been absolutely perfect to the point of actually needing the app to see where the driver is because it's usually early.
That's great — I hope this sort of pricing becomes more common! I just checked, and getting UberEats to deliver a $14.99 Impossible Burger will cost me $10 in fees (not including tip or taxes). The restaurant is 3 miles away.
Comments
I recently opened UberEats because I was given an Uber gift card. There was a promo that said "no delivery fee" and I thought, "that seems too good to be true, but let's see." I then saw a promo for a local donut shop that was buy-one-get-one for certain items. It appeared that I could have two donuts delivered to my door for just a few dollars. This seemed too good to be true, although the donut shop is pretty nearby.
I went through to the payment screen and was greeted by several delivery-related fees, including a "small order fee" (which presumably only applies to inexpensive orders) and a "service fee", and a "CA Driver Benefits fee". None of these fees apply on orders that you pick up yourself, so it's pretty dishonest to say "no delivery fee" front and center in the app.
The user only discovers these fees at the very last screen, once they've invested in researching restaurants, choosing items, adding them to their cart, and possibly coordinating with other family members regarding their preferences/orders. Basically, users are much more locked-in by the time they realize there are actually many delivery-related fees, even if the "delivery fee" itself is not applied (when I looked another time, this particular fee was much smaller (1/8-1/4) of the delivery-related fees that remained.
Ha, you didn’t even see the 30% that the restaurant paid Uber for your order.
https://restaurants.ubereats.com/us/en/pricing/
It might be a difference in jurisdiction, but I've never noticeably been caught out by this in the UK.
Honestly, I think I'm seeing a lot of rose-tinted spectacles here because I can order a burger to my door and track it all the way in about 15s flat if I want to with the Uber eats app. I really don't see what the problem is.
American prices rarely if ever include taxes in the listed price. This is something that americans are used to, and will usually budget extra money for when they go to pay, but it catches a lot of people from other countries off guard.
How much more does it cost you than if you picked it up yourself? I'd also be curious to know how a burger in particular holds up through the delivery process.
I understand the time/money tradeoff and would be happy to spend a few dollars to save myself a 20-30 minute roundtrip drive, but it seems like the cost of this convenience is much larger than I prefer, even though we only eat out occasionally.
The one I usually get is one of those delivery only joints I think but the delivery fee is usually a flat few quid tops (£3 at most, almost zero for the less popular ones).
The delivery has always been absolutely perfect to the point of actually needing the app to see where the driver is because it's usually early.
That's great — I hope this sort of pricing becomes more common! I just checked, and getting UberEats to deliver a $14.99 Impossible Burger will cost me $10 in fees (not including tip or taxes). The restaurant is 3 miles away.