A takeaway owner in Northern Ireland has slammed some customers for 'abusing' the current refund system at Just Eat after being hit by bogus claims.
Liam Kelly, who owns the 3 Frenchies takeaway on the Strand Road, is the latest takeaway owner to hit out at the website's refund policy after a controversial change last year.
He said that the claim made against his takeaway on September 2 was 'the first one in a long time' but that he knew other restaurants were 'getting them up the neck'.
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Liam says he has recently been stung by a customer claiming part of their order wasn't received, with a refund request made to Just Eat.
Just Eat automatically grants refunds to customers who request them. The company previously would approach takeaways asking if they accepted the refund and if the individual business said no, Just Eat would provide the money itself.
Last year, Just Eat's policy changed with the company opting not to give refunds itself. It now charges individual takeaways for every refund claim where it believes the fault lies with the takeaway.
However, the Derry business owner disputed the most recent claim, adding that CCTV was in operation in the restaurant at the time of the order was sent for delivery.
Taking to social media, Mr Kelly said: "We know that just eat will hand out refunds for the crack. Thankfully this is the first false refund request we had in a long time but I know of other places that are getting them up the neck.
"So, anyone that makes a refund request should know that we have CCTV that monitors the food preparation area so we know exactly what gets cooked and what gets put in the bag.
"And if you order an item and we are unable to offer it to you we will call you, all our calls incoming and outgoing are recorded.
"I know there’s only a tiny few out there that will abuse this system, but just to let them tiny few know that we will treat any false refund requests as fraud and may result in any future orders being rejected."
Just Eat told MyDerry that they had 'a track record of helping restaurants prosper' and that restaurant partners were still able to dispute all refund requests.
In a statement, a spokesperson said: " Just Eat is only successful if our restaurant partners are successful and we have a track record of helping restaurants prosper.
"The recent measures we’ve put in place are in line with industry standards and are to ensure an even fairer refunds process for all, such as increasing the time for restaurants to raise any disputes.
"Restaurant partners are always refunded in full when we find any fraudulent activity taking place. We’re keen to maintain an open dialogue with the restaurants on our platform and continue to review our policies and processes in this space to support both customers and restaurants alike."
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