The boss of a Cheetham Hill ice cream parlour says customers are taking advantage of Uber Eats offering unconditional refunds - but he’s the one footing the bill. Kamran Mirza, who runs a branch of the dessert parlour chain Creams on Bury Old Road, said he is losing at least £60 a week because of the loophole.
Kamran says if orders are incomplete, wrong, or if something is missing when it arrives, Uber Eats lets first time customers have a full refund, ‘no questions asked’. But he says that the cab and food delivery giant is now passing on the cost of the refund to the businesses, and not paying out the refund amount itself.
And because he says Uber Eats isn’t investigating claims that orders are incomplete or wrong, it’s the businesses that are suffering, as allegedly fraudulent customer claims mount up. He says that he’s now taking pictures of every order as it goes out to prove that they’re correct.
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But even with proof the orders left his shop complete, claims are still being made they arrived incomplete, and refunds are coming out of his pocket, with Uber Eats allegedly doing nothing about it.
Speaking to the Manchester Evening News, Kamran said: “A customer will order two milkshakes but say they’ve only received one, or two waffles and say they’re only received one. And this kept happening. All new customers are getting refunds, no questions asked.
“All the orders [claiming to be wrong] are coming from new customers. We had one lady, she ordered six times, the same milkshake, each time she said it went missing.”
He added that because of the commission Uber Eats charges, sometimes it means he gets next to nothing for an order if part of it has been disputed.
Kamran said: “If people are only ordering two milkshakes, how could you miss off one of those milkshakes? And we’re taking pictures of each order now, but they don’t accept that. I check these items myself.”
He says that there have been more than 20 fraudulent claims in the past four weeks, and he’s losing at least £60 per week because of the loophole.
Kamran added: “We’ve offered to send pictures of the orders, but it’s like talking to robots. There’s no one on the other side of the conversation, it’s just the same email, same reply for all issues.”
An Uber Eats spokesperson said: "We are investigating this issue and are contacting the restaurant concerned. We are committed to building the best platform for merchants and customers and have processes in place to protect against fraudulent complaints."
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