Apparently they'd been having too many people place orders and just never come pick them up. It's not exactly "dine-and-dash" but it hurts the restaurant pretty similarly.
Of course, since then I order online from this place, so there's probably some extra service charge they're losing, too.
I'd always wondered if this happens a ton at restaurants, and how they deal with it. Any ideas how frequent these are normally (pre-COVID)?
I can't imagine it's a hugely significant number just because places do just take phone orders (barring some covid-related changes where some don't take in person payment at all). Plus if you actually like the place you can only pull something like this so often before you get blacklisted... And it's not like you're even ending up with food if you do this, so what's the percentage in it for you?
Still, I assume if you're putting in a big order some (most?) places would want prepay or some other "skin in the game" or something. Not that it helps if the "customer" uses a stolen card and/or just charges you back, though, as we see in this article.
1- Order was completely wrong upon pickup, had to wait around for an hour until my order was ready.
2- 1.5 hours after placing my order and receiving the confirmation text, I am told to pick up my oder. Im already at the location so I go inside. The order is cold, had been sitting for an hour probably.
3- Placed order and two hours later I received the confirmation text for my order and it would be ready in 45 mins. Someone had forgotten to put my order in. I didnt bother to cancel my order, but imagine my surprise when a full 3.5 hours after placing my order I received the order ready text. Who in the world still wants food they ordered to eat now almost four hours prior. At that point screw them, they cost me orders of magnitude more than the cost of the meal with the hassle of waiting, then getting fed up with waiting and ordering from another restaurant, and driving to the new location and waiting even longer.
I won't eat at a texas roadhouse until I feel safe going inside to eat, or just never, I'm over it.
Problem is, this is rampant now, orders wrong or forgotten from restaurants and fast food chains.
I will never, ever, pay for a meal up front, not after what I've experienced in the last 1.5 yrs.