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Grubhub is faking which restaurants it actually partners with:
Grubhub has a new "growth hacking" strategy that includes creating a restaurant listing on its platform for places it doesn't even partner with. According to a new report by the San Francisco Chronicle and tweets by restaurant owner Pim Techamuanvivit, Grubhub has been allowing customers to order food from its websites from restaurants that haven't technically signed up to be on Grubhub or its subsidiaries' platforms. (Disclosure: my parents own a restaurant that partners with Grubhub.)
Techamuanvivit explains in a Twitter thread that over the weekend, she received a call from a customer claiming their order hadn't been delivered. The only problem: Techamuanvivit's restaurant, Kin Khao, doesn't offer takeout or delivery.
I told him we've never been on it, not in our entirely lifetime as @kinkhao. He sounded really confused, so we said goodbye and I hung up the phone. Then I got a little curious, so I went into the office and googled "kin khao delivery", and guess what came up.. pic.twitter.com/cptMoYtoZu
— Pim Techamuanvivit (@chezpim) January 26, 2020
Previously:
Grubhub's New Strategy Is to Be an Even Worse Partner to Restaurants
Grubhub Says its Contract Allowed It to Create Fake Restaurant Websites
Grubhub Drivers Are Contractors—Not Employees—Judge Rules
Trial to Decide Whether Ex-Grubhub Driver Should be Classified as Employee
(Score: 1, Funny) by black6host on Sunday February 02 2020, @07:42PM (11 children)
I always hated dealing with certain types in my career. From the article:
I mean really, why didn't I think of that over all those years? Client sounds confused? No problem, just hang up!
(Score: 5, Informative) by qzm on Sunday February 02 2020, @08:08PM (10 children)
Reading comprehension IS a thing you know.
1. It was not a client, it was someone being scammed by a third party, at best it could have been a prospective client.
2. They clearly did NOT 'just hang up', they explained (we have never done takeout, thats not us), they finished their conversation (we said goodbye), then they hung up.
What exactly is your problem with that? They should have sat on the line waiting for the universe to die of heat death?
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 02 2020, @08:14PM (8 children)
If it had been me I would have tried to convert them into a client. They obviously want my food! May not have worked but at least worth a shot. I could even do a to go order over the phone. Then ring up my lawyer to start proceedings to sue or at the very least which neck I need to wring to get them to stop doing that. As obviously someone is representing me and overcharging my customers and not delivering on the goods. Do that right and it is double payday.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 02 2020, @08:20PM (5 children)
therein lies the difference between sales and business.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 02 2020, @08:24PM (4 children)
For a small business owner like a restaurant. They are one in the same. Channel your inner mr krabs! :)
(Score: 3, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday February 02 2020, @08:37PM (3 children)
This is no ordinary hole-in-the-wall, this is a San Francisco restaurant with a Michelin Star.
That means that they don't need the extra steenking business, because image is more important. And to snob places like these, making customers wait months for a reservation is a status-symbol to both the restaurant and customer. And if the restaurant is extra-snobby, they won't accept reservations at all and will make their customers wait in mile-long lines wrapped around entire city blocks in exchange for offering their customers the opportunity to take pictures of their plates and post them on Instagram.
Plus, prospective customers who get in the line have the street cred of surviving stepping in poo and needles and running a massive gauntlet full of hungry bums with hands outstretched.
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 02 2020, @08:56PM (1 child)
Stars are only for short time. All of the ones I ever frequented are gone. Your rep is your best currency. But so is keeping butts in seats and your margins high and costs low. Also apparently someone is using their name to rip off customers. Just hang up and la de dah away from that? If it is a high end restaurant then even MORE reason to get that sort of thing to 'go away' or you end up as that place that steals money. Not a good look. Even if you did not create that look. People are fickle when it comes to where they eat. The mentality of the mob is a vicious one.
The rest of what you say may be true (or not) but seems more along the lines of sour grapes. I personally would not go to a place like that as they are usually overpriced and overhyped and I do not care for Thai food. There would be I say only 2 places I ever ate at that deserve their rep, and they are still overpriced. So I can not say about this one as I have never ate there. Maybe the line is worth it?
The local cheesecake factory in my city does not take reservations either. Does that make them elite? Not really, they are a chain with mediocre food and typically poor service. They do not have to have call ahead as the lines are always long there. Why spend money on managing that? That is just good business sense for someone who may or may not show....
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Monday February 03 2020, @01:08AM
There are scammers who pose as real restaurants, by placing ads on social media targeted to potential customers of those restaurants, but with their own number. They take the order, cook it up and send it out - and collect the big price that the real restaurant charges.
The problem arises when a customer doesn't get their order, can't find the ad they saw and ordered from, and search for the restaurant. They get the real restaurant, not the scammer.
It's criminal fraud.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 2) by Mer on Sunday February 02 2020, @10:20PM
You're greatly overplaying single stars restaurants. You'll need a reservation for most nights sure but it's not impossible to get a table for lunch by just showing up. And for the ones that do the line thing, they usually go 30 meters tops.
Shut up!, he explained.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday February 02 2020, @10:21PM
Perhaps you recall that from your extensive reading of the article.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 03 2020, @12:22AM
No, the restaurant was right.
The best case scenario is the "client" wanting free food because "they already paid for it on grubhub and if you don't I'll leave a bad review" and "it'll be good advertisement"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 04 2020, @12:37AM
Apparently, if there are not enough words, reading comprehension is difficult for you, as well. :) Should have put that smiley face in my original post.
(Score: 4, Informative) by GlennC on Sunday February 02 2020, @08:23PM (6 children)
I expect a lot of "disruptors" ranting about how these restaurant owners ought to be grateful for the "free advertising" and "extra opportunity".
Never mind that many of these places have never offered takeout, let alone delivery, yet they have been successful and profitable for years.
Sorry folks...the world is bigger and more varied than you want it to be. Deal with it.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 02 2020, @08:40PM (1 child)
This sort of 'disruption' is typically called fraud by deciet. You are representing yourself as someone else and profiting off it. Do it right and the bereaved may not care at all. But screw up like this and now they know and you have damaged their reputation. They are not going to be happy and may start to drag in lawyers. For you the risk is low. But the reward is high enough to be worth doing. This sort of fraud is tough to litigate because the loss here is minimal. Piss off the right guy though and they take it personally and they do not care about the losses or how long it takes.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by c0lo on Sunday February 02 2020, @09:04PM
Class-action may be an idea. Not like the fraudster limited itself to a single entity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday February 02 2020, @08:41PM (2 children)
Too lazy to read the articles but what Grubhub should have done (if they didn't do already) is have a very visible disclaimer that, while the restaurant is not currently partnered with Grubhub, the customer themselves could send a request to have the restaurant partner with Grubhub.
All it takes is the news of one drug-crazed, shit-covered bum making their way in to accost customers before people stop wanting to show up even though they crave the food.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 03 2020, @03:19AM (1 child)
> one drug-crazed, shit-covered bum making their way in to accost customers
Swanky restaurant scene in the Blues Brothers movie, John Belushi, "I want your women, your children..."!
Has it ever been done better than that?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 03 2020, @08:11AM
Thank you Jake.
"No Ma'am. We're musicians."
Thank you Elwood.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Arik on Sunday February 02 2020, @10:47PM
So it appears they've been taking orders for food from one restaurant, and delivering food from we-don't-know-where, but at any rate NOT from that restaurant.
This is fraud. Even anarch-capitalists recognise that fraud is incompatible with the whole idea of a free market.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bradley13 on Sunday February 02 2020, @08:40PM (2 children)
This is just fraud plain and simple. One business passing itself off as another. And delivering who-knows-what, since the restaurant in question doesn't offer takeout.
They need to file criminal charges.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 02 2020, @08:50PM (1 child)
In addition to possible criminal fraud charges, Grubhub is pretty clearly engaging in "Tortious interference with business relationships"; in this case, preventing a customer and the restaurant from engaging in economic activity with each other. The restaurant can, and should, sue Grubhub out of existence.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 02 2020, @08:59PM
Thank you been racking my brain for the past half hour trying to think of the legal term!
Out of existence, probably not. Settlement I could see. The VC guys will want that to 'go away' and will pay for it. It is why you see so much 'woke' crap these days. No one wants to be sued.
(Score: 5, Funny) by sjames on Sunday February 02 2020, @09:44PM (2 children)
Tell your customers that grubhub is offering delivery in 30 minutes of double your money back.
hey, if grubhub can make promises about my business, I can make promises about theirs...
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday February 02 2020, @10:13PM (1 child)
Two wrongs make at least two wrongs, not a right.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 2) by sjames on Tuesday February 04 2020, @07:56AM
It's just a modest proposal. Something for Grubhub to mull over.
(Score: 2) by Barenflimski on Sunday February 02 2020, @10:02PM (5 children)
I opened the twitter feed they were referring to. The ad for the restaurant is on a site called seamless.com.
Is seamless.com the same company as grubhub.com or was it just easier for the author to use a name more people knew?
(Score: 5, Informative) by Barenflimski on Sunday February 02 2020, @10:08PM (4 children)
Edit: After a little more twittering the story is actually much more interesting.
Seamless (which is like grubhub) and grubhub are both passing off this restaurant as their client.
In the story the owner of this restaurant tells, Seamless took the order and delivered food. The owner talked with the customer who shared the receipt. Her restaurant KinKhao did not make the food for this order. Seamless delivered food from a different (unknown) restaurant to the customer and claimed it was from KinKhao.
She is "suing their arses." Link to her twitter -> https://twitter.com/chezpim/status/1221327632509427712 [twitter.com]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by c0lo on Sunday February 02 2020, @10:20PM
"grub's care" reaction [twitter.com] at the "Don’t worry, my very first call come Monday is to my lawyer." [twitter.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 03 2020, @08:14AM
There. FTFY.
(Score: 2) by esperto123 on Monday February 03 2020, @01:33PM (1 child)
Grubhub is probably at fault for not checking (curating) the restaurants they list, but the fraudster is more likely to be someone impersonating her restaurant knowing they don't do delivery than grubhub trying to inflate their listings.
To me grubhub is likely a victim here, an irresponsible one, but still...
(Score: 2) by sjames on Tuesday February 04 2020, @08:06AM
How would Grubhub NOT notice that the place they called the order in to and then picked the food up from was not the place the customer requested food from?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 03 2020, @04:22PM
also ordered some spam from this scam.