DoorDash Drivers Caught Behaving Badly By LA Restaurants in New Allegations

As restaurant delivery services are making headlines for their business practices, a handful of Los Angeles restaurants recently accused DoorDash delivery couriers of abusive behavior. These alleged perpetrators worked for DoorDash, and one incident showed a food courier allegedly tossing a tip jar across the room, punching a restaurant employee in the head, and shoving a restaurant worker before fleeing the scene.

The March incident was caught on surveillance video and took place at Playa Del Rey’s The Good Pizza. According to the New York Post, The Good Pizza employee Cindy Orozco was working a shift when a DoorDash driver ran into the restaurant and demanded, “Where’s my (expletive) order?” Orozco replied it wasn’t ready, and the video shows the driver throwing an object across the room, which Orozco says was a tip jar. The video shows Orozco approached the man and pushed him before he hit her in the head, then left the premises without the food. Orozco went to the hospital after the incident, and the owner filed a police report.

The owner of Ruam Mit in Fairfax noted two negative incidents with DoorDash couriers. Kwan Disbanchong described a DoorDash driver who was upset while waiting for an order, but left a poor Yelp review on February 24 stating the food was “trash” and “took over an hour for them to cook it.” Because Yelp doesn’t distinguish whether the reviewer is a courier or customer, this reflected negatively against Ruam Mit’s Yelp page. The same driver left the same review on the courier’s personal Facebook page.

In a separate incident, another DoorDash driver allegedly yelled at Disbanchong after receiving a parking ticket while waiting for his delivery. According to Disbanchong, the driver raised his voice loud enough for customers to notice.

DoorDash responded to The Post that they remedied the problems with these couriers, but Orozco suggested DoorDash’s response was unsatisfactory.

A local group of Westwood restaurants are so frustrated with restaurant delivery app services that they organized an effort for the health department to work with these on-demand food delivery service companies. Roozbeh Farahanipour who serves on the West Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, the Westwood Neighborhood Council, and owns the 34-year-old Delphi Greek restaurant, has concerns about food couriers being properly trained in food-handling.

These concerns are just one problem area for these delivery businesses. Commissions can run as high as 30 percent, leaving some restaurants to avoid delivery service apps altogether. And it’s not just DoorDash that’s in hot water. New York Senator Chuck Schumer held a press conference last week insisting that GrubHub cease creating fake websites and stop charging inaccurate/additional fees for phone orders. His actions were in response to a report in The New Food Economy, where GrubHub allegedly registered more than 20,000 web domains, and many matched the names of its participating restaurants.

• Horror stories about DoorDash delivery workers are piling up [NY Post]
• Delivery Apps Aren’t Getting Any Better [Eater]