This customer’s pickup order went wrong for several reasons. For starters, the restaurant was non-existent. Then they couldn’t even get a refund.
Food blogger Sarah (@sarahshoots) loves making multiple pickup orders in one food run. She explains the behind-the-scenes logistics of making her content.
“Basically the way that I operate is that I’ll find a place that I like and I wanna go eat, and then I’ll look for places around that also have cool items that I might wanna try. I will be at home on my laptop, and I will order from all of those places online. Then I’ll drive there, however far it may be, and I’ll go pick up from all those places,” Sarah explains.
However, once Sarah made it to her last pickup spot for the run, she was met with a surprise. Sarah says the restaurant was under construction.
“They were literally jackhammering,” Sarah says. The TikToker says she responded to the email confirmation for her order, explaining the situation. But, she says, that was unhelpful, as that was the order service, not the restaurant itself. She says she was told she needed to contact the restaurant directly. However, Sarah says she had no other contact information.
“A restaurant seemingly has stolen $80 from me, and I don’t know what to do about it,” Sarah says in the video with over 8,000 likes and 235,500 views.
Ghost kitchen?
One viewer suggested their theory.
“It’s a ghost kitchen. Menu is for one restaurant, but prepared at a different places kitchen. Normally delivery only,” one commenter said.
A ghost kitchen is a restaurant that is pickup only. Other names are virtual kitchens or dark kitchens, according to CloudKitchen.
The Daily Dot has previously reported on ghost kitchens and their challenges, like this article that explains how the pick-up “restaurant” was actually someone’s house.
White labeling?
Sarah mentions that it might have been an instance of “white labeling.” Generally, white labeling is when a generic product is made by a company, and different companies add their own brands to the product, Shopify explains. White labeling is used across different types of businesses.
Sarah says that that would have been OK with her if she was able to get her food or at least a refund.
Other theories
“Sounds like they forgot to turn off online ordering. It’s a 5 min easy call with your bank” another viewer said.
“It sounds like GrubHub or DoorDash signed the restaurant up without them, wanting to be signed up,” another wrote.
Some advice
Viewers chimed in repeatedly with the same advice: Dispute the charge.
“It’s easier to contact bank and say you’ve been scammed. You essentially were. You’ll get it from bank quickly while they handle it with restaurant,” one person said.
“Dispute charge with your credit card company. Use texts etc as proof,” said another.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Sarah for comment via email and TikTok message.
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