Just Eat warning

Wanton

Hello,

This post is just a bit of a vented warning to everyone, I apologise in advance if this is common knowledge and we’re just fools for not knowing!
Last night my wife and I were hungry and decided to have a takeaway, unfortunately we didn’t have enough cash on us so decided to use the debit card on Just Eat (the weather was horrible and I couldn’t be bothered to drive to the cash machine).

We logged on to Just Eat entered our post code and it gave us a list of pizza places that deliver to us, we chose one that we have used before and selected the pizza’s we wanted, we then entered payment details and confirmed the order. The pizza place rejected our order giving the reason as “Too far to travel”, fair enough it is a fair distance away although they’ve delivered before they may be too busy tonight. So we looked for a different pizza place closer to us and chose one, we went through the same thing again and this time we got rejected because the pizza place was “Too busy”, again fair enough, annoying but you don’t want them to take too many orders and then take forever to deliver to you.

After this we didn’t really like any of the other pizza places available so I decided just to make some cheese on toast for us. About fifteen minutes later my wife got a phone call from Just Eat apologising for the order being rejected and that they could phone the restaurant for us and get them to put it through, she said thanks but we’re OK as we’ve now sorted something. They then said in that case the money will be back with us in 5-7 working days, she asked what money and they said the money we had paid for the order, she then said that the order was rejected but he just said that the money is still taken and they can’t return it for 5-7 working days! After a bit of a conversation and polite argument of the matter she realises she can’t do anything about it and hangs up, then a few minutes later she gets another phone call saying the same thing for the second order. So basically no pizza and charged (we’ll get the money back so it’s not really a charge) twice! Good job we didn’t try a third order or it would’ve taken her over her overdraft and she’d have got bank charges as well.

I understand the restaurants not being able to deliver and hold them to no blame at all, and realise that she’ll get the money back so there’s no real loss but it’s still very annoying. Why do they charge you before confirming the restaurant can fulfil the order? Why does it take 5-7 working days for a refund? And why is there no warning that you’ve already been charged when the order is rejected?

My cheese on toast was nice though.

As I said before, this may be common knowledge and we are just fools for not knowing but just thought I’d post this to warn others who may not know.
Healthy eating for me from now on!

viv0147

A good warning thanks

Enfieldian

A good warning indeed.

I have also noticed that some of the local takeaway prices are higher on Just Eat than on their own menus that come through the door.

System

Yes just eat is definitely more expensive than going into the take away. I had a curry on Friday which cost me £7;80. That was for a starter, curry, rice, naan and a coke. Ordering the same thing on Just Eat was £12.

somethingcorporate

Wow, that is really stupid - Just Eat should sort themselves out.

Thanks for the warning.

vyle

I can understand the time it takes for a refund, because that's how long they take if that's how long they take. You can't speed up the banking process...although isn't it not so much that funds have been taken as they've been ringfenced?

As for why they claim the funds before the restaurants confirm... did the restaurants ring to cancel, or did they cancel through just-eat? AFAIK the restaurants effectively get an email/instant message with order details and that's it. Perhaps Just-eat didn't expect there to be a situation where a restaurant would reject an order, and they haven't built in an actual pre-payment rejection method?

If they have built one in and the restaurant accepted then cancelled, then it'd be the restaurant's fault. If J-E don't have any sort of mechanic built in...well...they should build one in.

Justicia

vyle wrote: »

did the restaurants ring to cancel, or did they cancel through just-eat?

I am assuming from this comment...

Wanton wrote: »

About fifteen minutes later my wife got a phone call from Just Eat apologising for the order being rejected and that they could phone the restaurant for us and get them to put it through, she said thanks but we’re OK as we’ve now sorted something.

...that it must have gone through the JE system for them to be aware of the rejection.

pcombo

Just eat is alright but, i dont like the 50pence card charge.

and a local take away shop has there delivery charge at £2.40!! when it should only cost £1 - £1.50

Wanton

vyle wrote: »

I can understand the time it takes for a refund, because that's how long they take if that's how long they take. You can't speed up the banking process...although isn't it not so much that funds have been taken as they've been ringfenced?

As for why they claim the funds before the restaurants confirm... did the restaurants ring to cancel, or did they cancel through just-eat? AFAIK the restaurants effectively get an email/instant message with order details and that's it. Perhaps Just-eat didn't expect there to be a situation where a restaurant would reject an order, and they haven't built in an actual pre-payment rejection method?

If they have built one in and the restaurant accepted then cancelled, then it'd be the restaurant's fault. If J-E don't have any sort of mechanic built in...well...they should build one in.

Yes I guess the 5-7 working days for a refund is a general annoyance at the whole banking system, I don't see how you can be charged instantly but then it take an age to be refunded. I'm sure there's some reasonable explanation I'm missing.

When you place an order on Just Eat you confirm it, then you get a "Waiting" box, it then takes about a minute or so to tell you if your order has been accepted or rejected by the restaurant.

The system seems to be like this -

Customer places order > Just Eat takes payment > Just Eat contacts restaurant to see if they accept or reject order > Restaurant accepts or rejects order > Just Eat tells customer the outcome

In my opinion it should be like this -

Customer places order > Just Eat contacts restaurant to see if they accept or reject order > Restaurant accepts or rejects order > If accepted Just Eat take payment/if rejected Just Eat doesn't take payment and tells customer order rejected > Just Eat confirms with restaurant that payment has been taken and to proceed with order > Just Eat tells customer the order has been accepted

sharnad

THanks I always use cash with them will have tomeemeberntomsomso. B the prices are the same as of you ordered directly from the take away but they often have a one wih 20% so I get to try new take always for cheaper

System

sharnad wrote: »

THanks I always use cash with them will have tomeemeberntomsomso. B the prices are the same as of you ordered directly from the take away but they often have a one wih 20% so I get to try new take always for cheaper

What website are you advertising? I can't seem to find it!