There are a number of DoorDash customers who, despite receiving their food orders, complain to the application that their delivery driver didn’t complete the order. Some folks do this as a means of securing free food, and there are even instances of drivers confronting these customers as it could have a detrimental effect on delivery drivers’ bottom lines.
Of course, there are instances where delivery drivers have been caught taking customers’ food for themselves, but there certainly are contracted employees on the app who’ve faced significant financial repercussions from lying customers.
As one DoorDash driver (@thatgiglife) shared in a viral TikTok video, he received a contract violation after a customer marked their order as undelivered. The TikToker says he’s not at fault for the customer’s unsatisfactory experience, as he believes they neglected to put in the accurate address for delivery.
@thatgiglife Customer reported their food was not dropped off and Doordash gave me a Contract Violation 😡 #doordash #contractviolation #doordashscammers ♬ original sound – GigLife
“So I just got my first contract violation from DoorDash,” he begins the clip. “I’m not gonna lie it’s prettying upsetting because out of all the apps I’ve worked, never have I gotten a mark on my account saying I did not deliver my food and that’s what this contract violation was about.”
He then explains what happened.
“The order was four miles, $7,” he recalls. “Not the best, but at that time, that was like the only thing that was coming in so I thought I’d go ahead and take it.”
After picking up the order, he says the customer provided specific instructions to deliver the food. “As soon as you come in, I’m gonna be the building on the right,” the instructions read.
“Her note said, I’m the first building on the right,” he says, showing an animation he created of the customer’s apartment complex. It then points to what appears to be the first building on the right from a driver’s perspective, and, according to the TikToker, it was a relatively easy delivery to make.
“Found a parking spot right up front and there was the door…so I take the picture, making sure that the door number that I’m seeing in the app is the door number that I’m standing in front of,” he says. “Text the customer and say, ‘Enjoy your food, have a nice day,’ whatever.”
It should’ve been a straightforward delivery, however, this wasn’t the case. After returning to his car, he marked the delivery as complete, at which point the DoorDash app showed him his earnings immediately.
He says that the payout for the order “came up right away,” and that he didn’t receive a tip for the food delivery. He then headed out of the complex and drove for about “2 miles” before he received a text from the customer who asked if he could bring the food to “building 1.” According to the animation the driver included in the video, this was the first building directly in front of him upon entering the complex, not the first building on the right like the customer initially said.
However, the DoorDash driver said that instead of immediately trying to put the blame on the customer, he said that he first started “questioning” himself, so he checked their correspondence.
“No, the apartment number matched the door that I was standing in front of,” he reasons. “So I was like, ‘No that can’t be right.’” He says that the customer kept texting him about the delivery being made to the wrong apartment, which got him thinking that “something [was] off.”
He decided to pull over and reach out to DoorDash support to explain the situation because he wasn’t going to drive back in the other direction for $7. The TikToker thought that because of their conversation with the customer, along with the photographic evidence he provided, there was enough proof to show that he didn’t do anything wrong.
However, when he logged into his DoorDash application a few days later, he says that he was slapped with a contract violation for not properly fulfilling the customer’s order, even though he says this clearly wasn’t the case.
What he says compounded his frustration was the fact that DoorDash support sent him a list of best practices for deliveries, which includes ways to take photos to prove that the order was satisfactorily completed. The TikToker notes that he followed these guidelines to a T, but was hit with a contract violation anyway.
“It’s just messed up all the way around,” he says at the end of the video, before concluding with a message for customers who complain about drivers not completing their deliveries when they clearly have.
“Customers, before you make your order, check, check, and double check your address to make sure you’re living where you say you’re living because this is something that didn’t even have to happen,” he urges.
The Daily Dot has reached out to @thatgiglife via TikTok comment and DoorDash via email for further information.
In the comments, one viewer argued that they, too, have experienced difficulties receiving their DoorDash deliveries, despite having the correct location punched into the app.
“I have my correct address on DoorDash and I had 3 orders not delivered to me,” they said.
Another noted, “I don’t have super complicated apts but my address # is listed on both sides of the building. I give very clear instructions & they still mess it up”
However, some thought that the customer was just trying to finesse a meal. “That’s a shame! They probably got it. Just wanted free food,” one commenter argued.
