INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — More restaurants are using Grubhub, Postmates and other services because of restrictions put in place during the coronavirus pandemic.
Some third-party delivery providers are listing some restaurants without their consent, causing issues for those businesses when delivery drivers show up expecting an order.
Joshua Gonzales owns two restaurants in Indianapolis. He says he started having issues when he reopened after a lockdown to curb the virus. He says he isn’t the only one dealing with the third-party delivery problem; he has talked with other restaurant owners struggling with the same issues.
Gonzales owns Thunderbird and Jailbird. Not long after his restaurants reopened from the lockdown, he started seeing delivery drivers show up at his door.
“Drivers would show up to the bar looking to pick up an order,” Gonzales said, “and they were always ordering things that were from menus like years ago, years prior.”
He never got the order because his businesses have never used a third-party delivery service.
“We have never partnered with them. That is not something that we do. I try to avoid it. They take a large chunk of fees and a large chunk of the profits from the sales so we have never done it,” Gonzales said.
The restaurant then has to call the customer to explain the confusion as to why they can’t fulfill the order.
“You’re ordering food that we don’t offer, anticipating a delivery that we can’t provide,” Gonzales said.
He says that the sites would also list incorrect phone numbers that weren’t for his restaurants.
News 8 reached out to Grubhub, Postmates, and Doordash about the problem. Grubhub responded.
“Grubhub places restaurants on our platform to offer diners variety and to increase the volume of orders for the restaurants. Restaurant owners can request removal by reaching out to us at restaurants@grubhub.com, and Thunderbird is no longer on our platform.”
Grubhub
Gonzales says he has had to reach out to Grubhub, DoorDash, and Postmates multiple times to get his restaurants removed only to see them relisted later.
“Super-frustrating, because then I have got to get on the phone and make a call in the middle of service, ‘Hey, why is my website here? Why is my business being listed? I am not a partner.’ And like I said, that could take hours on the phone,” Gonzales said. “I have been listed from DoorDash multiple times, Grubhub multiple times; now we have been listed on Postmates.”
Thunderbird and Jailbird use a different third-party service, ChowNow, that allows customers to place pickup orders, but the restaurants do not offer delivery.
After News 8 reached out to inquiry about the issues, both restaurants were removed from Grubhub. Neither is now listed on DoorDash, but at last check, both are still listed on Postmates.
