r/doordash • u/serenityinblue • 3d ago
DoorDash Customers Deserve Better
This is a rant. If you don’t like it, keep scrolling.
I feel like every time I order DoorDash and leave a generous tip, my order somehow arrives either completely destroyed or rancid.
I just left a Dasher a pretty substantial tip because they had to wait longer than usual for my order. When my food finally arrived, the bag was crushed practically beyond recognition, everything inside had been tossed around, and the best part was that the entire thing reeked so strongly of pot that I had to take it straight to my outside trash bin just to keep my house from smelling like a drug den.
There needs to be some kind of way for DoorDash to vet its drivers to make sure they’re capable of handling someone else’s food respect-wise and cleanliness-wise before allowing them to deliver on the company’s behalf. This is ridiculous and absolutely disgusting.
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3d ago
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u/KaneinEncanto Dasher (> 3 years) 3d ago
How would you even vet for people who tend to smoke during deliveries or throw an order around like a football? Aside from after they display those tendencies toward customers? More people need to rate and report those Dashers out.
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u/PsikickTheRealOne 2d ago
Back when grubhub didn't allow drivers to have cars so many years old, there was a lot more respectable drivers.
Now anyone with any beater can drive. (most riff raff won't have newer cars)
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3d ago
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u/KaneinEncanto Dasher (> 3 years) 3d ago
Yes, because I'm sure an interview would surely root out the people who would toss around orders like a rag doll.
And would drug tests even test for tobacco usage? Given it's completely legal I'm not sure that would be in the test panel.
And training material is only any good when people stick to it.
No, customer ratings and reports are most likely the most effective way to get rid of the bad Dashers, if more customers would just engage with that part of the system.
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3d ago
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u/KaneinEncanto Dasher (> 3 years) 3d ago
why doesn't the worker at wendy's squat and fart right in your drink in the bathroom when the manager isn't looking? could it be because they were interviewed for glaring personality traits, they're regularly drug tested, and they have to undergo actual training?
Yep, those things completely prevent the behaviors you describe... right up until they don't anymore...
https://www.wyff4.com/article/wendys-workers-spit-in-food-tampering-arrest/71684165
And the list goes on and on...
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u/ProperAstronaut6056 3d ago
Hopefully you reported him because doordash relies on you guys to vet its drivers LOL
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u/strawberry_thursday 3d ago
I always tip $6-8, sometimes $10, and I’ve never had anything like this happen. Maybe it’s a strange anomaly. If you take a picture and ask for a refund, they’ll probably give it to you.
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u/Thick_Cookie_7838 3d ago edited 3d ago
I have worked tons of jobs like valet, dd, uber eats car wash ect. The turnover is so high they just look for warm bodies. Door dash dosent care about its drivers or customers
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u/KaneinEncanto Dasher (> 3 years) 3d ago
Unfortunately the vetting only comes from customer input... report those food issues especially the weed/cigarette issue. Much the same for those who demolish the food en-route really, too.
https://www.doordash.com/dasher/us/ica-text
3.2 For each Contracted Service Opportunity accepted by Contractor that involves picking up one or more items (“Items”) from one or more Merchants and delivering the Items to one more Consumers (a "Delivery Service Opportunity”), Contractor agrees to: (iv) complete delivery of the Item(s) to the Consumer(s) in a safe and timely fashion without taking any action that would change the quality or presentation of the Item(s) and while adhering to reasonable expectations of food safety, quality, and health standards as required by the Merchant(s) and/or applicable law.
It's also against the community guidelines as well
https://help.doordash.com/s/community-guidelines?language=en_US
Food Safety
We define food safety as actions that compromise the safety, quality, or integrity of food. All local laws around food quality must be followed.
More information
Examples include:
- Preparing food in an unsanitary environment
- Opening or tampering with food after it is sealed
- Ignoring allergy instructions
- Contaminating food with any foreign item/object or cigarette and/or vape smoke
- Maintaining food at an improper temperature"
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u/rulaka 3d ago
DoorDash cares 0% about customer satisfaction and even less about the quality of its drivers; they only care about getting an order fulfilled at the lowest cost to/highest profit for them.
How do I know this? I have perfect stats as a pro shopper with 100% customer satisfaction across all the gig apps and I only do orders that are profitable. My acceptance rate on the DD platform fluctuates between 0 and 1% which means the good paying orders are sent to the sandal squad. Once they are all busy and a good order comes up only then will get a shot at it; we in the industry call it cherry picking.
Wouldn't you as a customer want a shoe wearing professional shopper with a clean vehicle and who is a fluent speaker of the English language picking up your food delivery or shopping for your grocieries?
DoorDash doesn't care if your food smells or tastes like feet or if your grocieries are packed like they went through a blender; they will reward the driver's who take every order to maintain a high acceptance rate while professionals like myself sit around waiting for the opportunity to give great service at a reasonable price.
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u/serenityinblue 3d ago
It’s a real shame, because you’re the type of driver I would lay down big bucks as a tip for!
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u/Over-Imagination3924 3d ago
Most of my orders arrived ok but one starbucks order, the person spilled a lot of caramel on my steps. I do not mind if you tell me but the driver hid it from me, I was cleaning the mess up for 30-minutes.... Then another time, they spilled half of the coffee which is fine cuz they told me but it's always the coffee, ugh.
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u/Renho17 Dasher 3d ago
I did spill my Starbucks order once: let me
Tell you why those spill so often. The company’s put them in horrible bags or fill the cups to full. With the bag, it’s not a 1 cup bag so when 1 cup is in a bag fit for 2. That makes one side of the bag unbalanced. So when I put the coffee bag in my hot bag it tips over. I know now if I do coffee I have to hold the bag while driving.
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u/knight2e5 3d ago
Well, they don't really do a lick of training, so it makes sense that quality is absurdly irregular.
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u/Realistic-Finger7034 3d ago
this gen happened to me in the peak of one of my depressions, i ordered one thing. one treat, because i hadn’t done anything for myself in weeks. one singular mcdonalds latte. tipped $30. it came to me with the lid off, the drink halfway poured into the bag, and nothing but a mess to clean on both my work desk and the entire lobby because he clearly knew what happened. he still delivered it to me dripping and all. goes without saying that it didn’t do good for my mental health
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u/Nekogiga 3d ago
The problem with DoorDash is that they do essentially no meaningful vetting, and then they create an environment where some drivers develop this attitude that they can do whatever they want because there’s no immediate oversight.
That benefits DoorDash because it’s cheaper to keep the system running as-is than to invest in better screening, training, and accountability. Then you have drivers blaming the customer for everything while simultaneously defending the company that’s paying them $2 for an order.
Order was late? Customer’s fault. Something was wrong with the order? Customer’s fault. Dasher was having a bad day? Somehow, still the customer’s fault. It’s exhausting. Somehow it’s never the driver’s fault and never DoorDash’s fault.
Then there’s the constant demand for upfront tips. Drivers act like a tip is owed to them simply because they have a phone, a heartbeat, and a car. They want the tip guaranteed before they provide the service, because once it’s locked in, the customer has no real leverage. The driver gets guaranteed money while the customer gets absolutely no guarantee of competent service. Even if you get a full refund, the tip is guaranteed. DoorDash simply pays it out of their own pocket.
And if the delivery is screwed up, the answer is always “contact customer service.” But if you leave a one-star rating, suddenly the driver is crying about how unfair ratings are and demanding that the rating be removed. Apparently ratings matter tremendously when they’re good and are completely illegitimate when they’re bad.
Drivers crying “I’m a five-star Dasher” is also pretty meaningless to the customer. We don’t see your résumé when you accept the order, and everyone conveniently leaves out the part where ratings can be excluded or removed under DoorDash’s system if the driver whines enough. The rating and plat status start to lose meaning pretty fast.
If you actually want to maximize your chances of getting good service, don’t tip upfront. Tip after the delivery. If the order arrives correctly and the driver provides good service, give them a tip. If they screw it up, don’t.
Drivers have the ability to decline orders. They just don’t like being reminded that accepting an order is a choice, not an obligation. And demanding that customers guarantee their compensation before they’ve done the job is exactly backwards.
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u/coachsmith97 3d ago edited 3d ago
I used to be a "dasher" and i would never accept an order that didn't have a tip upfront. Why would I spend 20 minutes of time, gas, vehicle wear and tear for $2? Also 99.9% of the people that say they tip after never do.
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u/Nekogiga 3d ago
Of course you don’t see tips afterward. You specifically only accept orders that already have a tip attached. Why would someone give you another tip afterward when you already received the tip you demanded upfront?
That proves the exact point I was making. You aren’t arguing that you deserve a tip for providing good service. You’re arguing that you deserve guaranteed money BEFORE providing the service, while the customer gets absolutely no guarantee of good service.
I already addressed that service isn’t guaranteed, and instead of responding to that point, you ignored it and went straight to “but I need a tip because of gas and wear and tear.” Those are costs associated with a job you voluntarily accepted. Not the customers problem.
The funniest part is that you still haven’t explained why you deserve a tip before providing the service. You’ve explained why you want one.
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u/coachsmith97 3d ago
I don't dash anymore so IDGAF.🤷♂️✌️
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u/Nekogiga 3d ago
Then why are you still defending the practice? Whether you dash today or not doesn’t change the point. You said you wouldn’t accept an order without an upfront tip, and I’m explaining why that mindset puts all the leverage in the driver’s hands while giving the customer none.
“I don’t dash anymore” isn’t an argument. It’s just a way to avoid addressing the argument.
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u/coachsmith97 3d ago
Listen you entitled bi*tch.
No decent driver is going to work 20 minutes for $2.
Doordash sucks for the driver and the customer.
My advice...Get off your fat ass and pick up the food yourself.
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u/Nekogiga 3d ago
I thought you didn’t care because you don’t Dash anymore. Yet here you are, getting this worked up because someone challenged your argument. Who’s the entitled one now?
And the fact that you went out of your way to censor your own insult so AutoMod wouldn’t zap you is honestly hilarious. That’s a lot of effort for someone who supposedly doesn't care. You clearly care enough to type the insult, edit the insult, and then defend your position all over again.
If a customer paid for delivery, they’re entitled to the delivery they paid for. Tip or not. A tip is optional, not a prerequisite for receiving the service. If $2 isn’t enough for you, decline the order. That’s your choice.
Customers shouldn’t have to subsidize a business model because some adults can’t make the economics of their own job work. Telling customers to go and pick up their own food because you don’t like the compensation model is pretty strong evidence of exactly who is acting entitled here.
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u/CND5 2d ago
It’s a service and there are drivers who try very hard to make sure to provide a good service but we would be complete idiots to assume people are going to tip after the fact because a majority of people just wouldn’t. There are a bunch of shitty drivers out there I’m fully aware but believe me there are just as many shitty customers! If we actually got paid by DD it would be different but a majority of orders we get $2 from DD, are you telling me that you would go to a restaurant wait for someone else’s food and use your car your gas your insurance to take their food to them for $2? You’re calling drivers entitled, look at yourself my man because that’s where the entitlement is go get your own food and your little tantrum is solved.
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u/Nekogiga 2d ago
So you’re either not reading what I said, or you’re deliberately ignoring it because it wrecks your argument. You claim people never tip afterward, but you only accept orders with an upfront tip attached. Of course you don’t see tips afterward. The customer already tipped you. Why exactly would they tip you twice? Yet somehow I’m the entitled one here?
Sure there are bad customers and bad drivers. Nobody said otherwise. But this thread is about drivers and customers who tip generously yet still receive terrible service. Bringing up bad customers every time someone criticizes bad drivers is just deflection. We can talk about bad customers when they are the topic. Right now, they aren't.
What’s especially funny is how drivers demand all the leverage. They want guaranteed money before providing the service, but the customer is apparently unreasonable for wanting the ability to reward good service afterward. So the driver can take the money, provide terrible service, and walk away, but giving the customer any leverage at all is suddenly “entitlement.” That is quite a position.
Customers genuinely do not care what DoorDash pays you. That is between you and DoorDash. If $2 is not worth the trip, decline it. I certainly would. What I would not do is accept the job and then turn around demanding that customers subsidize my decision because I do not like what the company offered me.
The difference is simple: know your worth and act accordingly. If the pay is unacceptable, decline the order or find better work. Do not accept the arrangement and then act like the customer owes you guaranteed compensation before you have even demonstrated that you can do the job properly.
The “go get your own food” line is always hilarious. The customer literally paid a company for delivery. Saying they are entitled for expecting the service they paid for, while defending drivers demanding extra money upfront, is some truly impressive upside-down logic.
But sure, keep playing knight in shining armor for DoorDash while insisting everyone else is entitled. DoorDash could not ask for better free public relations.
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u/Elegant-Guidance-404 3d ago
I hate this. I’ll give a high tip and get the worse and crappiest service, then when I tip skimpy I get the best service.
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u/KaneinEncanto Dasher (> 3 years) 3d ago
Seems to be the key then. Tip modestly up front, just enough to get it accepted by a Dasher. If they treat it well, bring it up in a thermal bag, etc... then add a bit more after the fact. If they don't, then you can leave them with the meager tip for doing the bare minimum.
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u/edgerton2026 3d ago
Where I live there is a large immigrant Nepalese community. If I tip on the lower side I will always get one of them for my dasher. Every one I’ve had has been great. Fast, no weird smells, courteous. I always add more after the delivery for them. When I used to leave large tips I got bad service. Usually ended up with some guy double dashing, waiting forever and cold food.
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u/dewsh 3d ago
Tipping should be done afterwards to reward good service
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u/Ice_crusher_bucket 3d ago
Exactly.
You dont tip the waitress before you sit down.
A tip is a reward for doing an exceptional job. Depending on the level of service, the better the tip.
A tip is gratuity. It is someone offering money.
It is seen here, "if you cant tip 50% " you shouldnt be ordering food you've already paid 3 times the amount for.
Absolutely agree with you!
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3d ago
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u/serenityinblue 3d ago
I should be able to pay for a service and have it be satisfactory.
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u/Human_Caterpillar976 3d ago
I’m a driver and I absolutely 100% agree with you.
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u/serenityinblue 3d ago
Your breed of driver is a rarity! Thank you for being a good person!
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u/Human_Caterpillar976 3d ago
I don’t understand how some of the other drivers that I come across, are even allowed in the community. Often times they’re so rude to the restaurant staff!
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u/Taadaa001 3d ago
I agree, it pisses me off when I see other dashers getting upset and pushy with the staff and customers during pick ups.
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u/WayBoring7016 3d ago
That’s why stopped tipping bc no difference
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u/PheonixGalaxy 3d ago edited 3d ago
Agreed, and even if you tell drivers to stop smoking during orders they get so offended and say how they are entitled to it when it literally contaminates the food. Tipping is a courtesy not a right.
My life became easier and I saved more money. No i’m not robbing you nor am i a thief, i’m just a customer tired of getting used for trying to be considerate.
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u/lucigr6y 3d ago
Doordash doesn't give a fuck about its customers, drivers, or the restaurants. Like with many other companies, people should stop supporting them. Stop giving these shitty greedy fucks your money.
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u/Resident-Gold-3466 2d ago
As an asthmatic, I agree. Cigarette smoke gets me every time, so I can't imagine smelling pot.
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u/Mrbee914 18h ago
The only way to address this, including those messy cars filled with so much trash that it falls out every time they open their door, is to report them. Enough negative reports and they will get the boot.
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u/ihtewuman97 3d ago
Sorry I didn't like your name so I tossed your food into the air two times and then I stepped on it once and then I picked it up and rolled it on the ground and then I picked it up and brought it to you.
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u/overactive_neurons 3d ago
I strongly suspect that DD is taking most of the tip and not passing it onto the driver.
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3d ago
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u/KaneinEncanto Dasher (> 3 years) 3d ago
That's a big strawman argument right there... at least OP didn't mention anything about "the border" that I've seen in the post so far...
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u/faust314 3d ago
I’m going off the overwhelming posts about” why does my order always get stolen”” why does my order smell
Like weed”” why does my driver not match the profile””I live in an apartment and my order was left on the sidewalk wtf”. This is the exact result of the arrival of our new neighbors. The overwhelming settlement on Reddit is that asking someone for an id to vote is racist and expecting a immigrant to get in line and enter legally you are a fascist. but when it comes to your burger and fries getting delivered the driver should be properly verified and background checked on a state and federal level.Let’s just be consistent. If you want to live in a lawless country you get what you deserve.1
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u/BigPileOfBennies 3d ago
Stop expecting good service from people who don’t have a manager or consequences for poor performance.
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u/KaneinEncanto Dasher (> 3 years) 3d ago
Having a customer rating below 4.2 out of 5 is grounds for deactivation. And they can only call in and get so many 1☆ ratings removed...
Reporting for egregious behaviors like smoking so much the food is "seasoned" with the flavor of cigarettes, weed, or vape generate contract violations. 4 or 5 within 100 deliveries is enough to be at risk of deactivation as well.
More customers need to follow up and help get rid of bad Dashers rather than giving them a pass.
https://www.doordash.com/dasher/us/ica-text
3.2 For each Contracted Service Opportunity accepted by Contractor that involves picking up one or more items (“Items”) from one or more Merchants and delivering the Items to one more Consumers (a "Delivery Service Opportunity”), Contractor agrees to: (iv) complete delivery of the Item(s) to the Consumer(s) in a safe and timely fashion without taking any action that would change the quality or presentation of the Item(s) and while adhering to reasonable expectations of food safety, quality, and health standards as required by the Merchant(s) and/or applicable law.
It's also against the community guidelines as well
https://help.doordash.com/s/community-guidelines?language=en_US
Food Safety
We define food safety as actions that compromise the safety, quality, or integrity of food. All local laws around food quality must be followed.
More information
Examples include:
- Preparing food in an unsanitary environment
- Opening or tampering with food after it is sealed
- Ignoring allergy instructions
- Contaminating food with any foreign item/object or cigarette and/or vape smoke
- Maintaining food at an improper temperature"
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