CHULA VISTA, Calif. (KGTV) - A South Bay mom says the dinner she ordered using a food delivery app never arrived, and the driver couldn't be tracked down.
"It was my second time using the app," said Melissa Stone.
Last Sunday, when Stone's kids had a craving for burgers and fries, she signed into her Grubhub app and ordered an early dinner from Bull Chicks in Chula Vista. An hour passed, but there was no food.
"Went onto the app, checked the delivery status, and it said it was delivered," said Stone.
Confused, she checked her front door but didn't see any deliveries. She called the restaurant. An employee told her her food had been picked up by the driver 15 minutes earlier. She asked for the driver's information and got a woman's name and number. Stone says she tried to contact the driver, but the number was disconnected.
"I'm upset and hangry at this point," said Stone.
She says when complained to Grubhub, they didn't have any answers but gave her a refund.
"I think somebody was hungry, took my food and ate it," said Stone.
Melissa posted the incident on Facebook and got several responses from local Grubhub customers with similar stories, including one involving a male driver who reportedly picked up the food but didn't deliver it.
"They never received their food," said Stone.
And they may not be alone. According to a 2019 survey by US Foods, nearly 30% of drivers with food delivery apps, admit to snacking or stealing the food they're responsible for delivering.
A Gruhhub spokesperson issued the following statement:
"Our mission is to connect hungry diners with great, local restaurants. We always want our diners to have the best experience possible, and the vast majority of our 450,000 orders each day are completed without incident or complaints. But when things don’t go as planned, we appreciate hearing feedback and work hard to make it right.
We looked into the two orders brought to our attention and found they are separate, isolated incidents. Both diners were helped by our customer care team and received refunds for the affected orders and promo codes for future orders. We did not find any evidence of misconduct by our drivers during either of the deliveries.
Overall, we have zero tolerance for misconduct from our delivery partners, and we work to immediately resolve incidents. Our drivers sign a contract before partnering with us that makes it clear that misconduct is not permitted. As a matter of practice, we do extensive motor vehicle and criminal background checks before contracting with a driver, and we periodically re-run these checks while any driver is contracted with us."
