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Phone is still the best way to order pizza

dan.bulwinkle.net

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Re: Phone is still the best way to order pizza

#251

Post by duxup »

mdoms wrote: post #175
duxup wrote: post #20

I strongly disagree. I find people’s ability to converse / comprehension very poor. I worked a pizza job answering the phone in a busy shop and getting verbal instructions while some people change their mind is terrible. A good app / website takes me under a minute to order a pizza, and it is consistently reliable. Logging in gives me my order history, address, and preferences. Usually I have to login maybe every cou…

If you're frequently finding other peoples' dictation of your orders poor, perhaps the problem is you? I don't have this issue.

Does that matter?

Outcome is the same.

There’s probably a reason that drive through systems often now display a summary for customers rather than just verbal.

Re: Phone is still the best way to order pizza

#252

Post by prepend »

oxplot wrote: post #177
jimmyswimmy wrote: post #23

Most of the comments here are focused on the question of why you would prefer an app to calling. The author's point is a great one though, and something I've wondered a lot. Why should I create an account to order a pizza? The app should reduce friction even from the very first order. Instead it adds, and adds for every order... Got to go look up coupon codes! On the phone I just ask the guy what their best deal is i…

I use Uber Eats for ordering food exclusively exactly because when there is a screw up and I receive the wrong item or none at all, I get refunded immediately by Uber with a few taps.

Uber has been helpful a few times when restaurants wouldn’t. I had the worst sushi order of my life. Order was missing items, fish was stinky, just gross. I called the restaurant and they offered 10% off my next order. They wouldn’t even replace the missing orders or gross items.

It was so weird as this was about a $150 sushi order and the restaurant was fairly nice.

Uber refunded the meal immediately after seeing a picture.

Re: Phone is still the best way to order pizza

#253

Post by jbmny »

PaulHoule wrote: post #205
jimmyswimmy wrote: post #23

Most of the comments here are focused on the question of why you would prefer an app to calling. The author's point is a great one though, and something I've wondered a lot. Why should I create an account to order a pizza? The app should reduce friction even from the very first order. Instead it adds, and adds for every order... Got to go look up coupon codes! On the phone I just ask the guy what their best deal is i…

A lot of times with food apps I don't immediately see how to set the pickup time or don't have a lot of faith that it really is going to be ready when I want it. When I talk to somebody on the phone I feel a lot more sure. I worked at a place near Union Square, NYC and was in the habit of ordering food for pickup from sweetgreen because I knew it all worked. I have thought about ordering from restaurants in Collegeto…

Without talking to somebody on the phone, often I don't have a lot of faith that the order will even be received. Sometimes the place closes but the app happily continues to take orders. Other times the order simply gets lost in the ether. After a while, you learn which places are not worth the risk of ordering from online.

Re: Phone is still the best way to order pizza

#254

Post by function_seven »

samtheDamned wrote: post #226
function_seven wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Taco Bell and Chick-fil-a apps are amazing. I spend as much time as I want going over the menu, customizing my items as I see fit (steak instead of ground beef, or creamy salsa dressing instead of avocado lime), and pay for it before I get in the car. When I drive up, I just say "online order for function_seven" and they say, "cool, we'll have it at the window". The staff taking orders from the speaker are often…

> I spend as much time as I want going over the menu, customizing my items as I see fit (steak instead of ground beef, or creamy salsa dressing instead of avocado lime) Having worked in fast food for a long time, I've noticed that with the rise of ordering on mobile apps, a lot of the apps have started to nudge customers to customize their orders way more. It can be somewhat frustrating to be on the receiving end of…

> It can be somewhat frustrating to be on the receiving end of orders that would normally sound extreme to order over the counter or through a drive-thru speaker, but the app makes it seem fine.

Oh I can imagine. I'm mindful of not making each item have 5 indented lines below it with crazy swaps, omissions, etc. Mine are always a simple thing. Always just one add, remove, or swap.

A long time ago I used to order a Quarter Pounder with extra onions and no pickles. About a quarter of the time (heh) I'd get one with a mountain of pickles and not an onion in sight. I finally decided that I might as well learn to love pickles, and simplified that order to just "extra onions". Error rate dropped and—bonus!—now I actually like pickles.

Re: Phone is still the best way to order pizza

#255

Post by DavidPeiffer »

Turing_Machine wrote: post #215
ec109685 wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Biggest issue is that DoorDash lies about how much you’re paying for delivery. They show you some of the fees, but hide the fact that the menu prices are often jacked up by 50% or more.

> hide the fact that the menu prices are often jacked up by 50% or more. Wheat in metric tonne lots direct from the farmer costs about $350-400/tonne, or about $0.35-$0.40/kg. Kroger enriched white bread costs about $3.00/kg, more than seven times as much. There are a lot of middlemen in there, each of which raises the price. On the other hand, I don't have to store a metric tonne of wheat, and maintain my own millin…

>But no one is being forced into the transaction, and they are clearly adding value for many.

Eh, there have been many stories over the years about these delivery platforms doing pretty awful things to insert themselves as a middleman where they aren't wanted. Here's one from a couple days ago. [1] Other strategies I've seen stories about include claiming the location on Google maps and changing the phone number listed, buying a domain for the restaurant and hosting the menu (setup to order through the delivery service), and modifying the prices shown in the app to help cover delivery costs which could distort the perception of the value of the restaurant unfairly.

I'm not sure where I personally fall on it all. On the one hand, a generic delivery service should be able to exist, and if that generic delivery service ordered food, maybe they should get served just as any other takeout does.

On the other, restaurants are ending up with bad reviews because consumers sometimes think they're ordering directly from the restaurants and end up with cold food, stolen food, etc. Restaurants might package things differently if they knew they'd be in the car longer than the average drive home. I'm empathetic to restaurants wanting to protect their reputations. This is a bigger issue than Amazon delivering your package 30 minutes late, the food has a pretty short time where it'll be considered "really good" by the consumer, and a delivery service maximizing profit would like to get just one more delivery on the trip if at all possible.

[1] https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/restaurants/anti-doordash-re...

Re: Phone is still the best way to order pizza

#256

Post by _8j50 »

I can order pizza with uber eats just fine. I don't like taking calls and dealing with store people directly. Haven't had any issues outside of lost drivers and slightly cold pizza which I don't mind. Even before app ordering was a thing I preferred a website because they can't hear me wrong and get my order wrong that way. I only used dominos back then but they had excellent UI.

Could be a personality thing, like how some people actually like taking meetings and working from the office. To each his own, glad we have options.

Re: Phone is still the best way to order pizza

#257

Post by hilbert42 »

devoutsalsa wrote: post #240
hilbert42 wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Moreover, you can't even phone Uber Eats! I had a huge delivery of Chinese food left on my doorstep (it was still quite hot). Obviously, delivered to the wrong address. The bill was fully itemized and stapled to one of the Uber bags and it came to just short of $200 but there was no correct address and no telephone number to be found on it anywhere. Anyway, I did my best to contact Uber Eats to get the delivery perso…

Next time try calling the restaurant!

The restaurant had its name on the bill but no telephone number. Presumably, this done to stop or reduce telephone complaints direct to the restaurant. Seems that everything must be done online.

Re: Phone is still the best way to order pizza

#258

Post by jjeaff »

One of the local Thai restaurants here uses some sort of software integrated with their phone system and it is amazing. When I call, they know my name, address, and they already have my order history and credit card on file.

I literally call them up and rattle off what I want. Or say, same order as last time, and done. They then show up at the door with the food and I can put the tip or the receipt.

Re: Phone is still the best way to order pizza

#259

Post by jeffbee »

capitalsigma wrote: post #232
jeffbee wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just FYI, this is something I really like about Google Maps integration with restaurant take-out ordering. They put the "Order Again" button front and center and let's face it, I'm not really planning to switch it up at my corner lunch spot. Obviously in that case I need an account, with Google, but I already had that and I trust them with my info more than I just some merchant's white-label mobile app.

I had a restaurant screw up my order via Google's ordering platform and there was no one to ask for a refund -- the Google platform doesn't accept complaints about the merchant, and there's no way to contact the merchant through the Google platform after your order is complete. They forgot an item in my order and so overcharged me by like 40%. YMMV

As far as I could determine the ordering button on Google works entirely via third parties. I get a receipt by email from e.g. postmates when I use it.

I do agree that the site which is closest to the customer should be providing the support.

Re: Phone is still the best way to order pizza

#260

Post by philliphaydon »

cromka wrote: post #217
axlee wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have probably used Uber Eats for 100+ times over the past two (pandemic) years, and I've maybe have my orders being messed up 3-5 times, each time refunded within the next ten minutes. YMMV.

That’s because you were refunded automatically without human intervention. This is what the author of the comment pointed out: once you do that too often in a short period of time, the bot assumes you’re scamming them and there’s no way to escalate that.

I don’t quite understand. Maybe Uber eats is different in asia to America. But in Taiwan when I raised issue with an order it goes to a chat. They asked for a photo. I sent. And they confirmed the issue and issued a refund.

In singapore there’s no Uber eats. But most popular is probably grab which is what I used. If I raised an issue with grab. I get a phone call. Explain to person over the phone and depending on the shop I get a new order or a refund.

The only time it’s difficult in singapore is some of the Indian food restaurants use their own delivery drivers, not the grab drivers. So there’s no status updates and any disputes must go with the restaurant directly. But when ordering it states the restaurant uses its own drivers so you can avoid ordering from them.

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