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Comment by justanotherc | Hacker News Reader

This is why I have never ordered UberEats. Plus cold McDonalds is gross. Its not hard to order takeout and run down the road myself.

To be honest I don't really get why this whole trend is so popular.

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My one and only (and probably last) experience with UberEats was a couple of weeks ago when a driver picked up my order and then proceeded to hang around the nearby airport for ~30 minutes with my food. The airport was sort of along the way to my house but not really. It was almost like he was trying to pick somebody up (for Uber or Lyft I guess) and hopefully get someone near me to drop them off then my food but it ended up just wasting 30 minutes and turning my food cold. I contacted Uber during the trip and then afterwards and they refused to talk to me more than "here is 5 dollars in UberBucks, sorry!". Terrible customer service IMO.

edit: Side note about their customer service, there seemed no easy way to contact them during my delivery. I tried to contact the driver but the call was declined twice. Uber kept telling me that "the food may be experiencing delays, wait until it arrives before contacting us."

"Don't contact us when your hangry, please wait until you've finished your cold meal".

I use it on business trips if I’m not scheduled to go out with customers. Uber back to the hotel, order some Grubhub and enjoy a quality meal without having to go to a restaurant by myself. Much better quality/variety than room service.

I suppose it depends on the type of places you travel to. I haven't ordered room service in decades but I'd much rather walk or take a short drive from the hotel and get out than hang out in my room with semi-hot takeout.

I used to travel 6-8 months out of the year, and I'd happily go to a restaurant alone over spending more time in my hotel room eating alone lol.

I had a terrible week-long flu a few weeks ago, and used Uber Eats several times. It was my first using a food delivery service, but I do use Uber for rides every few months or so. It was much better than trying to forage in my pantry. Cold McD’s is gross, but so is hot McD’s, so I ordered from our local Thai restaurant quite a bit. Phad See Ew reheats just fine.

Funny you say Thai, because I actually live in a small town and a Thai place is our usual go-to for quick take-out down the road. Otherwise we have to drive the 12 min to the next bigger town with more choices which means cold food and a 25-30 min round trip.

If it saves me half an hour, it might be worth 5$,

Half an hour might be more than $50 for many people.

That's impossible without someone else subsidizing your delivery as it wouldn't pay the delivery person minimum wage.

Don't assume theirs is the only delivery.

I don't understand. You will get cold McDonalds if you driver there yourself, pick the food and take it back to your home/office as well.

Unless you are advocating for: spending time to drive there, order, get lucky enough to find a seat, spend more time there eating and finally spend time driving back.

Honestly, the $5 is a huge time saver for most people and they gladly pay it. Those who rather save the money, can perform all the steps above.

You are assuming that the delivery service driver: 1. is at McDonalds when the order is prepared 2. brings the order directly to you, takes the shortest route, etc.

Why is online shopping popular? It takes longer than going to the store, you often have to pay for shipping, and you can't even see the thing you're about to buy.

It's also extremely convenient.

Cold food is a big issue.

Definitely. There's a reason that until recently delivery was almost exclusively pizza and Chinese.

People are increasingly more lazy

Or increasingly run out of time.

Or, following legalization, increasingly impaired beyond the ability to drive.

Or afraid to go out, as is the case in China right now.

Or, more aware that driving drunk is unacceptable.

Or feel like death. Last time I ordered delivery via one of these apps was when I was at the tail end of a very bad stomach bug and even walking to the door left me wobbly and breathing hard. I cracked the door open "I'm sick, you can just set it down" and swallowed the absurd price I paid for it because a salad and a sandwich sounded like it would be much kinder to my stomach than pizza and I knew I didn't have it in me to actually prepare something.

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