A furious woman from Wigan claims an Uber Eats driver made off with her Dunkin' Donuts order. Nicola Hurley says that the delivery driver turned up to her door empty handed, asked for the order's PIN before running back to his car and driving off with her £25 order while she stood there astonished.
Nicola and her partner Danielle Murdock had ordered six donuts and two lattes from the Robin Retail Park park store last Monday night (November 21). Nicola said it took an hour for the pair to hear a knock at their door where the delivery driver asked for their PIN which she willingly read out.
However, the 40-year-old store manager claims she watched in disbelief as the man ran back to his car and fled without handing the pair their food and drinks.
Nicola now fears the driver may be 'scamming' other customers too as he seemed 'so natural' - while Danielle, 30, believes he was parked 'on a corner eating their donuts'.
Uber Eats said that what the customer had described was 'totally unacceptable', claiming they were issuing a full refund and were currently investigating.
Nicola said: "I didn't know what was going on.
"We just thought it was barefaced cheek to come to the door, ask for the PIN number and drive off. We ordered six donuts and two flavoured lattes. We've only ordered twice before from there as a treat and Danielle said 'I'm just going to order all of this [food]'.
"That's what infuriated us because it wasn't a cheap order. I think he [might be] doing this to other customers too. It seemed so natural [to him] that he came to the door, did it then went back to his car.
"He wasn't nervous and he seemed like a genuine guy knocking on the door and delivering my food. Make sure before you give the PIN that the food is in your hands."
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Nicola claims she was stood at the door and turned to talk to Danielle about the driver's poor parking when she noticed he'd driven off. In her complaint online, Danielle wrote: "Anyone else had this issue? Ordered off Uber Eats last night.
"The order kept getting delayed as it is and then the driver messaged to ask if it had been delivered which I thought was strange. I said no then the driver came and asked for the pin which we gave expecting him [to go] back to the car and bring our food.
"But instead he got in his car and drove off! Contacted Uber Eats and they won't give us a refund! So basically they have scammed us and I've paid £25 for some guy [to] go sit on a corner and eat our donuts.
"Pathetic service and won't be using them again." Nicola said: "I heard him trying to park up then as I opened the door, he was stood at the door and asked if he could have the PIN.
"He didn't have anything in his hand but I didn't question it. His car was parked in the middle of the road, a main road, which I thought was strange but it was raining. He left the door open.
"I thought he might have come out to check which door it was before getting the food. He walked away as he put the PIN number in and I put my head in the living room and said 'Danielle, you won't believe he's parked in the middle of the road'.
"As I turned my head, he'd got back in his car and driven off." Nicola claims she read out the PIN as she wasn't 'aware of it' previously but complained Uber had nothing in place to protect customers from incidents like this.
After Uber allegedly refused to refund her twice, she then went to Dunkin' Donuts where she claims the manager apologised profusely, gave them a full refund and still replaced their order. Nicola said: "We raised a complaint about it straight away and Uber basically said because we'd given him the PIN number I couldn't raise a missed order.
"Five minutes later Danielle got a notification asking if we'd like to leave a tip for the driver. When I went to Dunkin' and told them about it, they said they'd do feedback on the driver from their end.
"I didn't expect to get any goods but went in to see if they could do some feedback on the driver. The manager was amazing. He apologised, sympathised, gave feedback on the driver on my behalf and also reimbursed the order.
"He said they were having a lot of problems with Uber Eats. We do have Just Eat and Deliveroo if you want to use them in future. He was so professional, apologetic and said they have other delivery services to ensure continued business.
"The PIN is to protect the drivers but if we're not aware of it, there's nothing to protect us. If Dunkin' Donuts hadn't reimbursed it, we'd have nothing."
An Uber Eats spokesperson said: "What has been described is totally unacceptable. We have fully refunded the order and are currently investigating what happened. Couriers who use the Uber Eats app are required to follow our Community Guidelines and any courier found to be in breach of these guidelines risks losing access to the app."
Dunkin' Donuts were approached for comment.
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