It’s true that DoorDash has changed the game for meal delivery. However, no company can avoid the bad apples that make it through the hiring process. These DoorDash customers have come forward to warn others about their horror stories with the most popular food delivery service to date.
All content has been edited for clarity.
Take Your Property Off My Property!
“One time a Dasher delivered my food to someone else’s house by mistake.
DoorDash refused to refund me because the Dasher included a photo. The photo was taken from the street showing the wrong address on the side of the house, but the refund was still not negotiable.
I decided to walk over to my neighbor’s house and get my food. The owner came out as soon as I had the food in my hand. I hesitated before I tried to play it off as, ‘Oh, sorry this is the wrong address for this order.’
I pretended to be the DoorDash driver. The conversation went back and forth for a while before I proceeded to cross the street back to my house. Suddenly my neighbor turned red and shouted, ‘Hey!’
Then they called the police.
About an hour later I answered the door and the police were standing on my front porch. They showed me the ring doorbell video of me taking my food from the front porch.
He said he wasn’t in the mood for any lies and he wanted me to prove it was mine.
I showed him the bag that had my name on it and the receipt with my name on it and the DoorDash order for everything on the receipt.
The cop nodded to me and started talking very loudly. He then said that he had to inform me that what I did was technically ‘stealing.’ My neighbor had possession of the food when I took it of his porch even though I paid for it and it had my name on it.
As he was talking, the cop suddenly lowered his voice. ‘Just nod along and look guilty.’ He talked loudly again and said he was giving me a warning for my actions and not to do it again. He lowered his voice and got real with me.
‘If you weren’t able to prove the food as yours, I would have given you a citation. Next time just don’t do it.’
He also added that someone in Dallas got shot by an idiot homeowner doing the same thing.
So to sum things up, apparently taking your food off of someone else’s front porch because of DoorDash’s incompetence is trespassing and theft in Texas.
Who knew?
Thanks, DoorDash.”
There’s Always A First
“I never had a bad interaction with DoorDash drivers before but this one night had my blood boiling.
I usually tip well because I live in apartments and I know my unit can be a little challenging to find compared to houses. I used to have descriptive instructions on how to find my apartment and a lot of Dashers have texted me to show their appreciation of it in the past.
However, the dasher I had one night had a hard time finding my apartment. We were texting at first before he told me he was lost so naturally I went outside and asked him where he was so I could try to guide him to my area.
I started giving him directions and asked him what his vehicle looked like. This only seemed to upset the Dasher even more. He began to yell at me and exchanged some choice words over the phone, all because he was having a little trouble finding my apartment. I was stunned by his behavior, but it was when he started threatening me that I began to fear for my safety.”
The Dasher started threatening me to come outside or he would leave with my order. Flabbergasted, I told him that I was outside but I didn’t know where he was and couldn’t see him. I started walking away from my unit to try to find him.
Meanwhile, the guy was literally yelling at me and saying that he had other orders to fulfill and that didn’t have time for my nonsense. He then told me he was at Unit 165 when my apartment is 189. I heard the driver screaming from the other side of the apartment. Once I found him, I walked up to him to see that he was visibly upset and hostile.
He then told me again that I was wasting his time. It was his next move that made no sense whatsoever. Before I could object, he decided to place my food in the middle of someone else’s stairwell. I told him he needed to calm down and that he should not be talking to someone who was his customer and who was only trying to help him.
I was beginning to wonder if I would have been better off just leaving him with the food and getting credit back for it. I felt like an idiot for speaking up to him because he had access to my flat and phone number.
I reported him when I got back inside my apartment. The agent apologized for my negative experience and gave me compensation without me asking for it. I was determined to make sure he would never receive another order from me and that he doesn’t have access to my account information.
All the agent said was that they’d make note of the incident on my account and he would be held accountable for his actions.
Honestly, it didn’t really make me feel better about my safety.”
You Did What?!
“I ordered Five Guys and gave a twenty-two dollar tip on the app. The dasher went to pick it up, however, when he left the restaurant he did not update the app. That was the first red flag.
The second red flag was when he did not take the highway that would have taken him straight to my place. Instead, he took the backstreets near the highway which is a significantly slower route. I must also note that he was not doing multiple orders. It was only mine.
I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt. I assumed that he just probably forgot to update the app and doesn’t know the route well or missed a turn using the crazy GPS. I was slightly annoyed but remained as patient as I could.
Once the Dasher arrived, we greeted each other before he told me to wait a moment as he retrieved my food. The guy stuck his hand in the DoorDash bag for about thirty seconds. I was confused as it was a very small bag and no other bags were in it. He was still rummaging through the bag before I asked him what he was doing.
That’s when things got bad
He took a deep breath and explained that after he left Five Guys, the bag ripped and he dropped it. The dasher then told me that he picked up the food and fries off the floor and placed it in his bag. Instead of going back to the restaurant, he drove to my place. He then said he was trying to pick up my fries and put them back in the white container DoorDash provided since they were all over his carryout bag.
Meaning he has his hands all over my food.
Then the driver had the gall to ask me to go back inside the apartment to get a bag so I could collect my food.
He blamed the restaurant for the bag being greasy, however, that did not excuse his actions. It was completely inappropriate to touch my food with his bare hands, especially with everything going on right now. On top of that, he had thrown out the original bag, and dumped everything into his carryout bag where he probably placed hundreds of other orders.
I was extremely curious as to why didn’t he just cancel the order on his end so DoorDash could assign a new driver. He legit wanted me to still take the food and refused to cancel after his actions. I had to contact DoorDash on my end to get the credits for the negligence on his part.
The worst part about it was that redelivery wasn’t even an option. By the time I called support, the restaurant closed their delivery times four minutes before I could reattempt the order.
I called support twice and complained about the driver and told them the story.
Hopefully, this never happens to anyone else.”
Never Again
“I will never, EVER use DoorDash again.
It was blisteringly cold. My son really wanted Wendy’s as a treat. I was happy to oblige because was having a good day, but I did not want to drive down to Wendy’s which was five miles out. So, I ordered over the phone.
‘I want a grilled chicken sandwich meal, with a Diet Coke for the drink. I also want a chicken nugget meal, with chocolate milk.’ The order seemed simple enough.
The person on the phone spoke English, but I had to repeat my order over and over. They just couldn’t seem to get it right. We both got frustrated, but neither of us got snide.
I know it wasn’t a difficult order.
I got a call back twenty minutes later. The next person spoke with a heavy accent and was severely confused. She said she was calling to verify my order, and I repeated the two meal combos over a thousand times.
‘Yes,’ she kept saying in a heavy accent, ‘Spicy chicken nuggets…’
‘No,’ I kept repeating. ‘Not spicy. Regular. Plain. Just chicken nuggets.’
‘Ok,’ she said, ‘Spicy chicken nuggets.’
‘NO,’ I said. ‘NOT SPICY. If you make them spicy, he will not be able to eat them. He does not like spicy food. Do not put spicy nuggets in the bag.’
‘Ok,’ she finally understood and read the order back perfectly.
Half an hour later, my son was getting cranky. He had been promised Wendy’s chicken nuggets, but after over an hour he still did not have his request. The restaurant was only five minutes away.
Suddenly, I got a call from the manager at the Wendy’s.
‘Did you order DoorDash?’ The manager hurriedly asked me.
“Yes,” I told him and had to deal with his confusion for the next ten minutes.
I lost my temper at that point. ‘Look,’ I said on the verge of yelling. ‘We’ve waited over an hour. Just put some food in a bag and bring it over here.’
‘No, we want to get it right,’ he pleaded, and after a few more attempts, he was able to read the order back to me correctly.
The dasher finally arrived another half-hour later, and handed me the food. I peek inside, surprised to see that it looked correct. I tipped him well because it was not his fault what happened and it was freezing. I then went inside to serve the food to my son.
As I pulled the food out of the bag and got a better look, I wanted to scream.
It was ICE COLD. Once again, the place is only five miles down the road.
I tried to heat the nuggets up in the microwave. Instead of a grilled chicken sandwich, I was given beef, which I don’t eat. The chicken nuggets were spicy, and my son spat them out on the table. I don’t mind hot food, so I even tried switching the meals, but the beef was like cardboard. My son refused to eat any of it. The nuggets were so spicy that I couldn’t eat them either. The fries were cold, wet, and limp. The milk wasn’t chocolate, and the soda wasn’t diet. Everything was just wrong.
I called the corporate number to complain. I told them that I ordered from them, waited over two hours, and I received two incorrect, inedible meals. The conversation went absolutely nowhere.
‘Well, you got the food,‘ the representative kept arguing.
‘You got the order wrong. We can’t eat it,’ I countered.
Finally, in exasperation, he informed me he would be crediting me for the full amount.
After I got off the phone, I threw the pitiful order in the trash. We drove to Wendy’s and redeemed the awful ordeal with the correct order.
But this story is far from over.
The following month, I received a notice.
They charged me three times for the order. I look a second time and saw that of those three times, I was refunded once.
So, guess who had to call corporate again?
It took me twenty-two minutes to get the woman on the other end to understand basic math.
‘You got your refund,’ she whined.
‘I got one refund, but I got charged three times. You need to give me two more credits.’
‘You got the food,‘ she whined again.
‘I couldn’t eat it. The order was incorrect. The food was ice cold and inedible. That’s why I was given a refund.’
‘I see the refund authorized. You got the refund,’ the representative snapped.
She had to consult a supervisor twice. She then kept insisting I got my refund. She got extremely nasty with me. I was keeping my voice as even as possible, repeating over and over the mistake that she failed to understand.
Finally, something clicked. Her tone retreated and she was embarrassed, but she never apologized.
So I said it once and I will say it again: I will never, never, ever use DoorDash again!”
Did You Pay For That, Sir?
“One night I decided to order takeout. I ordered from Taco Bell and discovered they used DoorDash. What a big mistake that was going to be.
I had not used DoorDash in six months. Why? Because they always deliver to the wrong apartment. It’s like the Dashers can’t read or follow simple instructions.
I tried to give them the benefit of the doubt that night, but low and behold they delivered my food to the wrong apartment. I threw on clothes and stormed over to the flat they brought it to. My bag was nowhere in sight.
I rang the bell and was bombarded by the number one thing no DoorDash customer ever wants to see.
A random man was eating my food that I paid for. Ticked off, I confronted him and asked for twenty-five dollars since he liked to eat food that didn’t belong to him. The man had the nerve to say no and that it was his. I screamed at him, ‘Why are you eating food that you know you did not order?!’
The man then responded, ‘It was at my door, so I helped myself.’
‘You are nothing but a good-for-nothing thief,’ I shouted at him again before stomping back to my apartment and slamming the door.
I remember being so angry that I tried to contact the delivery driver and demand him to go back to Taco Bell and get my order by paying for it himself. Of course, I never heard from him again. He had completely disappeared, never again to be seen again.
Moments later, I got a call from Alex at DoorDash informing me that he would be sending a refund.
I told them then and there that I wanted my name out of their database. I called DoorDash again in the morning and got someone from customer service that gave me the same sloppy, lazy, unprofessional, lousy runaround.
For anyone reading this, please don’t use DoorDash.”
Simple Instructions
“One time I ordered food from a local Indian takeout place. The place was just a short drive. Less than 10 minutes, give or take.
There were two entrances to my gated community. The front gate was manned and anyone could enter with a fob or by talking to the guard directly. The back entrance was not manned and was only for residents with a fob. That entrance was at a little out of the way but would take the dasher longer to make it to my unit.
DoorDash’s GPS would always take the driver to the gate they couldn’t get into. Whenever I ordered, I would message the driver and give them the correct and simple directions. It worked until the last time I used the forsaken app.
The driver completely ignored my instructions and ended up at the wrong gate. I told them how to get to the main gate. Again, simple directions. But no. The dasher went off in a completely different direction. I sent them more directions but they still couldn’t find the obviously marked entrance.
Finally, about forty minutes after he picked up the food, I told them to park at the gas station that was across from the entrance. I drove there and got the food which was cold by then. I exchanged some choice words for DoorDash and deleted the app.
I was sick of being inconvenienced by their stupid GPS.”
If Only I Had Known
“DoorDash sucks and any business that uses DoorDash for delivery instead of hiring their own drivers no longer gets business from me.
I didn’t even know that Papa John’s used DoorDash instead of their own drivers to deliver. If I had known, it would have been no surprise to me when they took sixty-five minutes to deliver a pizza that should have arrived in thirty-five minutes that was ordered at 1:36 pm.
My order was delivered roughly a few minutes shy of 2:30 pm on a Tuesday. The dasher seemed to deliberately go to the wrong apartment complex then got back in her brand new sports car with the pizza and was nowhere to be found for eight minutes.
Out of nowhere, I heard a knock on my door and scratching. I sat there for a moment wondering who does that?!
The DoorDash driver turned out to be a spoiled young female with a sour attitude. I asked her why it took so long then asked for red pepper flakes and parmesan cheese packets because after all the freaking pizza was almost twenty-seven bucks with a tip.
She then said, ‘I don’t have any. They don’t have those available on the table.’
‘Well, gosh!’ I exclaimed, ‘I guess if I were to order McDonald’s this way I am sure you wouldn’t have the decency to grab salt, pepper, or ketchup with you.’
She then shared with me that she had a similar problem with Pizza Hut about the same issue.
I was done with the whole interaction by then. Yep, no more DoorDash for this guy.”
It’s Not Mine!
“I will never, ever, do business with DoorDash.
Back in January, I found a bag of McDonald’s sitting in a chair near the opening of my garage. I assumed my partner ordered it, because I, myself, would rarely eat anything from Mickey D’s.
However, she denied ordering anything, so I brought it inside to carefully examine it.
There was nothing on the bag indicating the correct delivery address, so I decided to ask DoorDash where it should go, or at least let them know a customer would be most unhappy, and hungry, owing to the misdelivery.
I ended up going through the ‘chat’ DoorDash has for customer support. That’s where the fun started. I swear I was dealing with complete idiots that day:
DoorDash: ‘Hi! Give me a few seconds to pull up your account info.’
ME: ‘I don’t have an account. I have a misdelivery’
DD: ‘Can you please elaborate your concern? I’ll be glad to check and help you.’
ME: ‘I have Pickup # 994971. This is not my order.’
DD: ‘I understand that is not your order. Please help me with your correct email address.’
I gave the representative my email address, even though I’m not a customer. At all.
DD: ‘Thanks for the details. Please allow me a minute to research the issue.’
ME: ‘OK. Food is cold. This order belongs to someone else. But who?’
DD: ‘I would like to inform you that all the responses you receive are automated. We do not have an option to allocate.’
ME: ‘So what do I do with this order that belongs to someone else?’
DD: ‘I would like to inform you that since the order is active and the customer is waiting for food I don’t have an option to cancel. If you want to unassign yourself I can help you.’
ME: ‘I am not a door dash driver and I do not use door dash. Your driver delivered someone else’s order to me.’
DD: ‘Please don’t worry. I have documented this case. Sometimes the app glitches. You can ignore it.’
ME: ‘I’m not using any app! I’m just someone who received a door dash delivery that belongs to some other customer. What now?’
Then, I was transferred to an ‘advanced’ agent. It only gets worse.
DD: ‘Hi! My name is Eden. Give me a few seconds to pull up your account info.’
ME: ‘I don’t have an account.’
DD: ‘I hope that you are safe and well! I’d be happy to assist you today.’
ME: ‘Doordash delivered someone else’s order to me. What should I do with it?’
DD: ‘Hi, how may I help you today? I understand your disappointment about receiving someone else’s order. This is not what we intended for you to experience. I’ll check for the available options that we have so we can resolve this right away.’
ME: ‘But meanwhile, the actual customer hasn’t received their order. And I did not order anything through Doordash.’
DD: ‘I understand the inconvenience this has caused you. I can totally see why you would be upset. Let me check what I can do.’
ME: ‘Eden, I’m not upset. YOU should be upset because your driver delivered someone else’s order to me.’
DD: ‘Thank you so much for all this information. The other customer is probably reaching out to us too and it will be taken care of as I’m assisting you today. May I place you on hold for a minute or two?’
ME: ‘Well, if the other customer is a neighbor. I can easily drop it off. The pickup number is 994971.’
DD: ‘In the meantime, can you please verify your email address and phone number you used in placing this order, please? Thank you!’
ME: ‘EDEN! I did not place the order! It just showed up here. I don’t use Dordash at all. I have no account with you. I’m telling you your driver put the order in my garage and I just found it here. It’s a Mcdonald’s order. Do you want me to send you a picture of it?’
DD: ‘I’m sorry about this, thank you. Let me hand you over to the right department for this. Again, we’re sorry about this. Please hold. I’ll inform them. Thanks, but please stay on the line.’
I was transferred a third time.
DD: ‘Hi! Thanks for contacting us. We look forward to assisting you. A member of our team will be with you shortly. Thank you for reaching out to DoorDash and being one of our loyal and valued customers. My name is Rohan & I’ll do everything I can to resolve your issues today. Do not worry. Now that I’m aware of your issue, I will fix this right away. Please allow me a minute or two while I quickly work on getting the best resolution.’
ME: ‘Well, do you see the previous chat, or are we starting from scratch? I am NOT a customer. Someone ELSE is, and I have their order!’
DD: ‘Okay wait please let me check on this.’
ME: ‘Good plan.’
DD: ‘Is there anything else I can assist you with?’
ME: ‘No. Just tell me who should get the order that was delivered to me by mistake.’
DD: ‘To confirm has someone hacked your account?’
ME: ‘Rohan, pay close attention. I don’t have a Doordash account. I don’t use Doordash at all. Therefore there is no account to be hacked. Your driver delivered me an order for someone else.’
DD: ‘Please stay connected while I transfer you to the right department.’
ME: ‘Oh goodie.’
I was transfer another time.
DD: ‘Hi! Thank you for your patience, my name is Alpha from the Escalations Team and I will be assisting you today. You reported that our driver delivered an order to your address that is intended for someone else. Is that correct?’
ME: ‘YES!’
DD: ‘Thank you for letting us know. Right now, we’re unable to confirm who’s order it is since we have hundreds of orders in our system. If you want you can consume the food or give it to someone. The customer who ordered that food will likely contact us. Then we will properly assist them. Is there anything else I can help you with?’
ME: ‘I don’t think so. But it took you guy a LONG time to figure out the order had been misdelivered. I’m going to put this episode on social media and see what everyone else thinks about your dreadful service. Goodbye, and I WILL NEVER USE DOORDASH!’
I immediately closed the chat box. What a bunch of idiots!”
Wrong Place…
“My friends live in unit eleven in our complex. They came home in the evenings after work to find food orders left on their front porch 1–2 times a week. They never had a way to identify the correct owner. Calling the restaurant did no good because they were always told, ‘we don’t give out that info. Only the driver has it.’ So, they just started putting the orders in the trash because the food was usually quite cold by the time they got home.
One Saturday night I was there visiting and an order showed up. My friends argued with the driver that it wasn’t for them and asked to take it back. The driver outright refused and left it on the porch steps.
Over an hour later, we watched as he came back to retrieve it. We then watched him go down to the corner house, which is a duplex. He delivered it to 1/1.
My friend and I went down there an hour later and knocked on the door to ask them about the food orders. The woman that lived there had been ordering food for months, and only half of her orders showed up. Most of her orders were delivered very cold and inedible. just like the orders my friends dealt with on their steps.
The woman told us that she was constantly calling and getting credits, although that was getting more difficult as they were doubting her claims. My friend showed her some photos of recent orders she took on her phone and the woman was able to confirm they were hers and her husband’s orders.
Now she knows when the app goes “order delivered” and there’s nothing outside, to walk down to my friend’s house, and it’s normally there.”
Five Strikes
“Once I complained to DoorDash concerning my Dasher not communicating with me as I watched him drive past my location for another ten miles. He then turned around and came back towards my location.
The Dasher never told me they had another delivery that they picked up before mine or anything.
DoorDash refunded my tip, which prompted the Dasher to call me to ask why his tip vanished.
‘You didn’t call me to let me know you had another delivery to make. If you did, the tip would still be there,’ I told him.
He apologized for not calling me to let me know what was up.
Then there was this other time when the delivery guy ended up going to the wrong address even though it was correct on the app. He ended up leaving the food at an empty apartment. I watched him deliver it from my flat in complete disbelief. As he walked back to his car, I called out to him.
‘Excuse me, that apartment complex is not F. It’s G!’
‘This is the right address,’ he yelled back at me.
I asked him to read back the address that he had. The delivery was supposed to come to me in apartment 407 F, but for some reason, he read it off and stated G. I said told him my receipt stated apartment 407 F and encouraged him to double check the address. He then made an excuse and said the address was correct on his side.
‘Okay, no tip for you!’ I announced to him and canceled the tip right in front of him. I could see the pain in his eyes as watched as his tip vanished into thin air. Then the Dasher showed his true colors.
He started to violently yell at me. I called DoorDash and informed them that the Dasher delivered to the wrong address, even though it was correct on the receipt and he was informed he delivered to the wrong address. He stood there the entire time as I made my complaint. When he heard the confirmation that I removed the tip from the delivery, he went up the stairs and collected the food before bringing it down to me. By then, the damage was already done. The tip and his job were gone.
They ended up firing him. Turns out it was the fifth wrong delivery he had made in that one day.”
