> DoorDash has started gouging customers with exorbitant fees - restaurant tip, service charge, delivery fee, driver tip etc. I stopped using service after that.
This seems to be the case for PostMates, too. I recall being sceptical when they originally were acquiring customers with free (or $1-$3 flat fee) delivery promotions, but I figured it could be worth it even for double that amount.
However, when I next looked, they had quietly [1] implemented fees that are a (high) percentage of total bill in addition to a higher flat delivery fee, that was a dealbreaker.
Distance-based pricing would have been OK, but not percentage of the order on top of a flat fee.
[1] A generous interpretation. Personally, I found it sneaky.
Yep. Postmates pricing got real absurd, real fast. It almost felt like it happened, even if you had premium.
DoorDash, I should pay closer attention to. My wife usually orders, and she’s way too price insensitive for my taste at times. I at least insisted on one of the zero delivery fee restaurants last night, but don’t know what that actually means.
Looks like here in the SFBA it's "This 11% service fee helps us operate DoorDash" which they bundle with sales tax under the "Taxes and Fees" line item during checkout.
I find that practice to be paricularly objectionable, since it would be more honest to bundle it with the delivery fee, if the point were something like UI brevity. Instead, it feels deceptive, as if to imply that money they have to pay to the restaurant because the restaurant has to pay it the state is in some way related to their operating costs.
I could probably accept a variable fee of less than 3% under the assumption that their payment costs are higher than the restaurant due to card-not-present. I could even accept variable-by-my-location (i.e. distance-based) delivery pricing. However, both of these would need to be clear and up front. Seeing an inflated total only at checkout make me feel cheated, and I cancel the transaction.
In my suburban setting, a restaurant far enough away is maybe $3 in incremental driving costs plus 30 minutes of my time. In a dense, urban setting, presumably everything is much closer [1]. The time savings could be worth it, but the benefits of going myself are a much higher incentive to make sure my order is correct and a much lower latency (i.e. higher freshness).
[1] And places like Manhattan have had delivery services, sometimes done by individual establishments themselves, for ages.
Don’t forget in most cases the tips don’t actually go to the drivers. Doordash may guarantee the driver will make $7 for a delivery, then if you tip anything under $7 doordash will just pocket it. Seems like a good business model.
If I were to use DoorDash, this would actually give me an incentive to tip $0 via the app, since, otherwise, $6 of my fees+tips would be going to the company instead of the Dasher. I'd rather tip in cash (which I do have on hand at home, though I'd expect not everyone does, especially their target market).
Personally, I'd much rather have a delivery fee that translated to fair pay for the delivery personnel, instead of using tipping as an unreliable replacement for for/minimum wage. (At the risk of going off on a tangent, I'm OK with tipping for exceptional service/circumstances or for where there might be an extended/recurring service interaction, but I just don't expect that to be the case with "gig" delivery like this, unlike with traditional pizza delivery).
The UI I just looked at said something like "100% to the Dasher" under the tip selection.
Do you have evidence that they're lying about that (which might be outright fraud and thereby a risky move)?
Or are you saying something different, that if a customer tips $0, DoorDash has to pay $7 (or DoorDash pays $4 to make up for a $3 tip, etc), but if a customer tips $7 or more, DoorDash has to pay $0?
This seems to be the case for PostMates, too. I recall being sceptical when they originally were acquiring customers with free (or $1-$3 flat fee) delivery promotions, but I figured it could be worth it even for double that amount.
However, when I next looked, they had quietly [1] implemented fees that are a (high) percentage of total bill in addition to a higher flat delivery fee, that was a dealbreaker.
Distance-based pricing would have been OK, but not percentage of the order on top of a flat fee.
[1] A generous interpretation. Personally, I found it sneaky.