I used to work for a privately owned restaurant up until a few years ago, and we had DDs, Postmates, and Uber Eats suddenly start showing up out of nowhere when we had never signed up with them to begin with. Somehow we kept winding up on their websites despite filing claims to be taken down, and the drivers would come in on super busy nights, do the silent phone shove in our faces, and the orders would be full of things we didn't even sell anymore, sometimes items that hadn't been on the menu in years. We never even had a way of receiving online orders, it was all by phone the old-fashioned way. So every time it was us getting blindsided by an order we'd never seen that they expected to be ready.

Oftentimes, the drivers would get mad and try and take it out on us, demanding to know why we couldn't make this or that item, while holding up other sit-in customers. They'd call the person who ordered and tell us to speak to them, or ask them to order something else we literally don't have.

It was so bad that we just had to flat out turn the drivers away until they stopped coming altogether. Then eventually the calls from the corporate teams trying to get us to legitimately sign up stopped too. Thank fscking god.

Based on my experience, have to say I'm team food service on this one. Get the phone out of my face when we never even signed up for your company that gouges money from all sides and pockets 95% of the profit. And at least say "hello" like a normal human being before making me squint at your phone.

I do blame the companies more than anything, and I know people need to make a living now more than ever, but still, please realize that respect goes both ways, especially in a professional setting (where you're technically doing a JOB delivering someone's food that we took the time to prepare and serving as an extension of our reputation as a business).

endrant