So, you have called in an order or you have ordered online. You are having the food delivered and eagerly anticipating the meal. The food arrives in a timely fashion but something is wrong with the order. Perhaps they used tuna rather than salmon in your sushi, or the wrong toppings on your pizza. Chances are, the delivery driver isn't to blame. What do you do? Do you refuse to pay and send it back? (Knowing that you now have no meal.) Do you just pay for it and eat? Do you contact the restaurant and complain or negotiate? For me, it depends. I have an allergy and if that item is on my pizza that shouldn't be there, it is inedible to me. Obviously, I won't pay for something I won't be eating, but I expect something more. I am not out half an hour or so and I still need to eat. I don't expect free food but I do expect that the place will at least offer to make good on the original order and rush it to me - perhaps waiving the delivery fee.
Honestly, I rarely check before the guy leaves, so he gets a tip based on how quickly he arrived and whether he was nice, etc. There have been times where I have received the wrong type of food and I have called. Sometimes they'll give a credit of sorts that I can use the next time or they'll send the driver with the correct order later on. Either of those is fine with me, unless the food is really bad. And if it's really that bad? I won't be ordering from them again and I'm likely to leave a bad review for them online, too.
It depends also. I don't have any food allergies but there are some things that are a definite "no". 1) Fish/seafood on my pizza 2) When it comes to Asian dishes, water chestnuts have to go If the manager on site cannot do a free replacement, I call the head office to complain. If it's independent place, then I take to Yelp with full details.
I can honestly say that I've never had a problem with any of the take out that I've gotten...not anything major, anyway. Maybe they forgot a sauce or the food wasn't quite as hot and fresh as I wanted it to be, but I haven't had any major issues really...I guess it's because around here there are only a few things that you can have delivered, so there isn't that much room for error. Anyway, I suppose that if it did happen, I probably wouldn't say much if it was still something that I like or would eat...I like most pizza toppings other than anchovies, for example, so I wouldn't flip over sausage instead of pepperoni. You can always ask the delivery driver to maybe take a little something off of your bill, or you might be able to get a coupon or gift certificate. I probably wouldn't insist that the driver take it back, then bring me another order unless there was something seriously wrong.
Once in a while I've had some delivery orders screwed up. As long as they credit me for a future order, I am fine. I know those delivery drivers are in a hurry to get everyone else's orders out, and making them do a separate trip all the way back to the restaurant is going to throw off all their other deliveries. It may not have even been their fault that the wrong order was bagged, and now this might cause them to lose out on tips because their other orders will be late too. I still tip the driver appropriately. As long as the store is crediting me for a free replacement item, I'm in effect getting two items for the price of one so that's a fair compensation for inconveniencing me. Mistakes happen from time to time, in most cases the managers will be more than happy to correct the problem.
That's true. It normally isn't even their fault anyway. Most of the time, the food is given to them with the ticket attached, and they head on their merry way. I guess they could take the time to stop and check each order before they leave the restaurant, but that isn't really practical. Unfortunately, delivery drivers and waiters/waitresses often get blamed for things that should be blamed on the kitchen staff.
I always check my order before paying whenever I have food delivered, but if they got it wrong, it would depend on how minor the mistake was for me to decide on whether or not to just let it go. Usually, I just accept it anyway unless I really didn't like what they put in. Fortunately, this doesn't happen to me all that often, and in fact, it's only happened to me maybe once or twice, and both times I just accepted it since the food was okay anyway. I'd only have a real problem with it if ever what I got was way cheaper than what I was going to pay for.
I'm one of the people who like to order food and be delivered to my home so I do check it every time. If I found it for being wrong then as long as I can eat the ingredients then I don't mind as I don't want to add a hassle to the delivery man. But I do give a call back to the restaurant to let them know that I've got my order wrong and to tell them that I hope it won't ever happen again or that would be the last order from me.
Oh, I can remember a time that I called the driver right back. I had ordered from a nearby place that I already knew wasn't the great, but I really wanted something quick. Well they always overcharge as it is....even if they're running specials and you request one of them, they rarely honor it....and their delivery fee is ridiculous. Well it was something really simple.... I had ordered a soda as part of a meal (even though I'm not a big soda drinker) and when I opened my food, the food didn't look good at all AND they hadn't included the soda. Considering they charged me 3x as much for a simple soda as they should have, I called the delivery guy. As suspected, he did actually have it in the car and just hadn't delivered it, so I had him come back.
It depends on how wrong the order is! I've had times where the order had nothing to do with what I asked for. In those cases I most certainly send it back! But if it's just one minor problem (for example, if they put peas on my pizza, and I hate peas), I'll just settle and remove them one by one. But next time I order I make sure to let them know their mistake and ask them to be more careful with the orders!
The only mistake that I encountered when I had my food delivered was the drinks were in regular size instead of large when I specifically told them to upsize it. And it happened more than once too on different fast food chains. So even if I'm shortchanged, I didn't bother to complain anymore, since I think that I can let that one slide.
I usually don't mind, unless it's a lot more expensive than I planned. Being nice goes both ways, so I try not to create a hassle for the delivery people. Once, I ordered one pizza and got two instead because the cooks made a mistake when they cooked the first one (wrong toppings), and they didn't want to keep it, so I got a free pizza instead. If I didn't have a good history with that restaurant (good tips), I might have not gotten that extra pizza.
It really depends on what the situation is. If I ordered a pepperoni pizza and I open the box when the delivery guys comes and see sausage instead, I'll take it anyways. However, I will call the company and inform them of the incident. It has to be a major screw up or a topping such as onions and peppers, which I do not eat, for me to send it back.