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Ask HN: What's up with these DoorDash dark patterns?

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31–40 of 153 posts

Re: Ask HN: What's up with these DoorDash dark patterns?

#31
post #20

It's insane. I once found a restaurant that had ghost kitchen'd itself EIGHTEEN times: https://i.imgur.com/7jwBlFG.png Some of the name variations are pretty funny though.

Where I live (Spain), delivery restaurants have also become a total clusterfuck.

There are thousands of options which are barely undistinguishable from one another - like those cheap Chinese brands that flood many product categories on Amazon. You'll occasionally find a name that stands out, like the ones you've posted, along the lines of "Thunderfuck Porn Burgers". But they don't entice me to order, since whatever the brand values being transmitted are, they are not what I'm looking for in a restaurant.

The result is that you end up ordering from the same few oldies but goodies. Occasionally, once upon a moon, a friend will tell you about a new restaurant to expand your horizons. Some of these, while good, might not stand out in this sea of shit and end up closing, so you revert back to the oldies but goodies. And so it goes.

The corollary is that this a shit business.

Re: Ask HN: What's up with these DoorDash dark patterns?

#32
post #28

>Is it asking too much to have a service that's transparent, functions well and have the end product taste good? In my city (Vancouver), a restaurant owner actually setup a local only food delivery service during the pandemic with the idea that they keep costs as low as possible to run the service and restaurants didn't charge a markup which allowed for a flat service fee for every order and the restaurants pivoted e…

I second that experience - our local (high-endish) restaurant had both deliveries and take-out at the start of the pandemic, and completely wiped the floor with any crappy delivery services in our area. Then, once the pandemic finished, they stopped the deliveries and take out, and mediocre food delivery services took over again.

Re: Ask HN: What's up with these DoorDash dark patterns?

#33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then they should just give up takeout?

That’s true, if I suffered something that difficult I wouldn’t gamble with takeout. You know how many dishes contain traces of grains?….

At all? Or from a professional kitchen advertising gluten free dishes and taking their production seriously because they know it can cause debilitating pain for coeliacs?

Re: Ask HN: What's up with these DoorDash dark patterns?

#34
Seriously, all of you lazy toads, learn to cook

It's one of life's exquisite pleasures. You'll save a ton of money. Massively improve your health. It really impresses any potential partner - many a lifelong relationship started in the kitchen not the bedroom. Cookbooks are recipes are really fun. Surely my fellow hackers, don't we love to know how things work and be in control?

Re: Ask HN: What's up with these DoorDash dark patterns?

#35
I live in The Netherlands and order food at least once a week, usually from Thuisbezorgd. I've never had any of the problems people are discussing here.

I will say that Thusbezorgd is often more expensive than just going directly to a restaurant's website. But also we find restaurants that we like and keep ordering from them. I typically know precisely where my food is coming from because I physically know where the restaurant is.

Re: Ask HN: What's up with these DoorDash dark patterns?

#36
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, a lot of gluten free is just hype. But I have friends that may die if they get gluten. Celiac is not a joke and can kill.

Then they should just give up takeout?

I have Celiac. If I buy something from the super market tagged as "gluten free" I shouldn't have to gamble thinking that whoever's in charge of the packaging though about selling this to fad-chasers. So I decided to instead purchase gluten free products that are actually certified gluten free. That way if I actually get my Celiac acting up I'll have a case to make.

But the idea that one should give up purchasing stuff from super market altogether just because there are companies out there who don't really care about stating the truth about their product is ludicrous. Same goes with takeout. If you advertise your pizza to be "gluten-free" like Dominos used to do with a specific pizza in Australia, I expect to at least find some small letters at the bottom saying something similar to "not really gluten free".

Re: Ask HN: What's up with these DoorDash dark patterns?

#37
While we're piling on Doordash, how have they managed to produce a website that takes more than a second to respond to every single button press? Like even something as simple as clicking on the hamburger menu icon takes over a second to register. It's infuriating.

Re: Ask HN: What's up with these DoorDash dark patterns?

#39
post #20

It's insane. I once found a restaurant that had ghost kitchen'd itself EIGHTEEN times: https://i.imgur.com/7jwBlFG.png Some of the name variations are pretty funny though.

Where I live (Spain), delivery restaurants have also become a total clusterfuck. There are thousands of options which are barely undistinguishable from one another - like those cheap Chinese brands that flood many product categories on Amazon. You'll occasionally find a name that stands out, like the ones you've posted, along the lines of "Thunderfuck Porn Burgers". But they don't entice me to order, since whatever t…

I wonder how long it'll be until I can order a burger from LAKPARCX Hamburgers with【1/4 pounds paty】, 【Nutritient cheese for whole family】, 【Come with choice of side】, 【Savor tasty meal】?

Re: Ask HN: What's up with these DoorDash dark patterns?

#40

What about the hidden service fee? They gladly tell you the delivery fee is only $5 (or free!) but it’s not until you’ve fully ordered and paid that you see the itemized service fee that can be greater than 25%. But at least they tell you how much you paid for the service. The worst for price transparency is “same day” costco delivery by Instacart. They markup the prices but never tell you how much more you’re paying…

> The worst for price transparency is “same day” costco delivery by Instacart. They markup the prices but never tell you how much more you’re paying for their service

I'd rather know upfront what the total will be, instead of meaningless itemised receipts with added fees that I have no choice but to pay.

Then again, there are countries that dont include sales tax on price labels, so people must prefer the hidden fees approach.

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