A "ghost restaurant" on Just Eat has been scamming Scots out of their hard earned cash by taking orders and failing to deliver any food.
Sweet Box in Broxburn, West Lothian, has been advertising a range of delicious treats from sausage suppers and burgers and chips to delicious boxes full of sweeties and chocolates. Orders can be placed through Just Eat, with the restaurant quickly responding to say it has been received before claiming it is out for delivery.
But dozens of customers have reported that their food has never arrived with angry punters being left to scrape around the kitchen for any scraps for their tea. Mum-of-two Sarah Louise, from West Lothian, forked out £22 on an order of burgers and sweets as a treat for her youngsters after a busy day out swimming at around 5.30pm on Tuesday evening.
The 26-year-old carer says within minutes of her placing the order she received a notification to say a driver was at the restaurant - and 10 minutes later they claimed it had been delivered. But her food never arrived.
Speaking to the Record, Sarah said: "I normally read the reviews but I was a bit hectic that day as the kids had been out playing in the pool. I just thought I would quickly get something to eat and as soon as I placed the order it said it was confirmed.
"Within the space of 10 minutes they said my food had been ordered, picked up, on way and delivered.
"As soon as it said it was delivered I contacted the restaurant. A man actually answered and said they would contact the delivery driver and call me back.
"They never called me back and I kept trying the restaurant but couldn't get through. Eventually at around 9pm my partner finally got through but when he was trying to explain the situation the guy just hung up on him and they've not answered since."
The Sweet Box Facebook page it says the premises is 'permanently closed', but they are still active on Just Eat and are continuing to take money despite a huge number of reviews saying food has not been delivered.
Of the 585 reviews of the restaurant online, the most recent report of a customer receiving their delivery dates back to January.
Since then there have been dozens of one star reviews from hungry punters saying their grub never arrived.
Sarah, who is originally from Edinburgh, was eventually forced to stick some frozen chicken nuggets and chips in the oven for her gutted girls Poppy and Mia.
She said: "I don't get many takeaways, so when I do it's a treat for the kids. I had explained to my daughter that we were getting one and she was really looking forward to it.
"When I did look at the reviews after this happened I saw they go so far back - at that point I knew I wasn't going to get my food. Then there was a screaming match when I said to the kids I was going to have to cook something.
"They ended up having chicken nuggets and chips. It wasn't a nice result."
Sarah has now slammed Just Eat for allowing the restaurant to continue to trade on their website despite the number of complaints in the reviews.
She says she immediately complained to the online food order and delivery service, but didn't get a response.
She is now urging punters to avoid ordering from the restaurant.
Sarah said: "There are a lot of people who will just go on and order without checking reviews and the food they've got on the menu looks really nice.
"My friend said she tried to order from them last week and she also never received her order. Then when she tried to phone they said they would call the delivery driver and phone her back, but they didn't and neither of us have received any refunds.
"At this point I'm blaming Just Eat because they should be responsible for checking all of this. When you look back at the reviews, they must have had so many complaints saying that no one has ever received their food - and they've not done anything about it.
"If they had done any background checks they would have seen that this place is permanently shut down and whoever is doing this is using this restaurant's name to scam people.
"I don't understand how they have allowed this to happen. I thought Just Eat would have been a bit more secure."
The Record tried to contact the restaurant on numerous occasions but got no response. The phone number advertised on the Facebook page is for a private house with no connection to the eatery.
Since being contacted by the Record Just Eat have now removed Sweet Box from their website.
A Just Eat spokesperson said: "At Just Eat, we take complaints of this nature very seriously and are concerned to see this has happened. We are investigating the issue as a matter of urgency and can confirm that we've removed the restaurant from our platform"
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