Takeaway delivery problems is an issue that affects many consumers, especially now that self-employed delivery couriers are engaged via third parties such as Uber, Just Eat and Deliveroo. Your consumer rights remain the same and takeaways fall under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.
Your contract is with the food outlet – not Uber, Just East, Deliveroo or anyone else who delivers it. If you ordered a McDonald’s – your contract is with McDonald’s.
CONSUMER RIGHTS ACT 2015
Consumers have rights as well as expectations, and deliveries ought to be carried out with due skill and care. This is enshrined in the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and covers takeaways. It also covers restaurant meals.
The Consumer Rights Act 2015 states that goods ought to be:
- Fit for purpose
- As described
- Satisfactory quality
- Services ought to be carried out with due skill and care
FOOD DELIVERY APPS CHARGE UP TO 44% MORE FOR THE CONVENIENCE
You will pay much more to order food via an app. The reason for this is because commission charges range from 15% – 35%, which food outlets price in and pass the costs on to consumers.
A Which? investigation discovered that consumers often struggle to resolve complaints with food delivery apps. Late arrivals, cold food and missing items are the most common complaints. Orders not turning up is also a common problem.
TAKEAWAY DELIVERY PROBLEMS – DIFFERENT SCENARIOS
If a takeaway has arrived and it is not what you ordered, you are entitled to reject it. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 states that goods ordered ought to be as described.
If a takeaway has taken too long to be delivered, you are entitled to ask for a discount. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 states that services ought to be carried out with due skill and care.
If a takeaway has taken so long to be delivered that the items are stone cold, you are entitled to reject it. This embraces all aspects of The Consumer Rights Act 2015 as the items ordered are not fit for purpose, as described, satisfactory quality and have not been delivered within the expected timeframe.
If you expected and were told that a delivery would be made within 30 minutes and it took 2.5 hours, it would be considered reasonable to reject it. Bear in mind though that you can simply reheat the food – don’t try it on!
If a delivery simply hasn’t arrived and this is disputed, ask for proof of delivery and raise a chargeback with your bank. Always try and resolve it with the provider first though.
If you have paid via an app, your contract is always with the outlet for the food that you have ordered and paid for.
CONTRACT LAW
Your contract is always with who you paid, whether it is via an app or by debit / credit card. The outlet may fob you off and say that you need to speak to whoever delivered it. You did not choose to engage Just Eat, Deliveroo or anyone else to deliver your food – that arrangement was made by the outlet and you had no say in it.
You need to be reasonable though. The litmus test is, “What would a reasonable person expect in the eyes of the law?”.
Always try and resolve it with the outlet first and be nice about it. You are more likely to get a quick and satisfactory outcome by doing so. Mistakes happen and you have to give them an opportunity to remedy it.
You can also contact the delivery partner via the app that the outlet has a contract with. Takeaways are keen to minimise bad reviews and feedback to avoid losing the right to use the delivery service.
PROOF
Gather your evidence. You need the date and time you placed the order, receipt, time it arrived and photos.
OPTIONS
You can raise a chargeback with your bank and cite ‘breach of contract’ under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 if all else fails.
You can report an outlet to Trading Standards and / or file a Small Claim online. This has to be a last resort though.
You can find out more about how to resolve complaints and motoring disputes in my book.
Have you had takeaway delivery problems? If so, how did you resolve it?
My Complaint is with McDonalds and Uber (The delivery partner) – An Item i included with an order had not arrived with it, and there was no clear way to resolve it with McDonalds – they kept referring me to Uber to deal with and there was no real person looking at the refund claim, simply an AI chatbot that refused to offer the refund for the missing item, I paid for an item, it wasn’t delivered at all, Uber claimed it is not their policy to refund, but have a nice day – Goodbye (I am paraphrasing but that was the general gist of it)
McDonalds actually STOLE my money – and Uber Didn’t want to entertain the fact that they robbed me and didn’t even provide a clear resolution process, now that I am going to either contact McDonalds CS directly, make a chargeback on my bankcard and go to the Consumer Ombudsman
I have made multiple orders, there is always something wrong or items missing and each time i have to go through the same process – but never to this extent before.
It is a disgrace that companies try to hoodwink actual customer’s.
@Deliveroo I am very disappointed and very unhappy. My daughter ordered food from Deliveroo & driver delivered Uber eats food.
Deliveroo support team are completely useless, they are completely clueless.
Especially team in Philippines are worst in dealing.
It’s unbelievable
Someone call Jor from Philippines called himself senior assistant who could see that wrong food was delivered but kept saying that driver didn’t make any mistake and he was telling lies that he contacted driver.
It’s very bad that Deliveroo have such incompetent drivers & supporting staff.
we had a order on Saturday the 05/04/2025 with McDonald’s byker Newcastle on just eat was the delivery,but the meal never arrived.he rang once to our address,and we rang him back about four times.proof is on my phone.we complained to just eat,and they said that the deliverrer had rang me several times,which was not true,and that they could see that the meal was left in a safe place on doorstep well am on a main road and once he rang a when to door he was not there and my order was not there. A reckon that he just stole it .but they havnt given me a refund. Very disappointed a not be ordering again
we had a order on the Thursday the 2/1/2005 with taco bell warrington.just eat was the delivery,but the meal never arrived.he rang once to our address,and we rang him back about four times.proof is on my phone.we complained to just eat,and they said that the deliverrer had rang me several times,which was not true,and that they could see that the meal was on the front doorstep.we reckon that he’s delivered to the wrong house.but they havnt given us a refund.
Ordered from McDonald’s via just eat. When my food was delivered the coffee had spilled out into the bag and all over my food. Everything was cold and inedible. I reported this to just eat via their app along with photographic evidence. I also sent a doorcam video of the bag the driver used to carry my order. It was unhygienic and without a zipped top. It was a shopping toto bag. Totally unacceptable for delivering food. The meal cost £11+ and the customer service team without me accepting a refund put £4.35 into my just eat account as a credit. I sent them an e mail stating I was not happy with the credit I had not accepted but they refuse to budge on refunding my total order.
If this is happening again and again with other customers they are making huge profits.
This company needs to be reported for not refunding customers the correct amount without any correspondence to me.
They basically told me to like it or lump it.
I placed an order with just eat and it never arrived. Just eat are refusing to credit or refund me and will not send proof of delivery
Just had to raise the following complaint to Uber Eats as they dont want to give me a refund
I am writing to formally escalate the complaint regarding my recent undelivered order from KFC, as well as a missing item from a previous McDonald’s order. Despite providing clear evidence and outlining the facts of my case, my refund request has been unjustly denied. This decision has left me deeply dissatisfied, and I now seek a resolution at a higher level. I am now formally requesting: A full refund for my undelivered KFC order. A refund for the missing Fillet-O-Fish from my McDonald’s order. I am extremely disappointed with the lack of accountability and customer service provided so far. If this issue is not resolved promptly and fairly, I will be left with no option but to escalate this matter beyond Uber Eats, whether through consumer rights organizations or social platforms to highlight this unacceptable level of service. I trust that, at this higher level of management, my complaint will be handled with the seriousness and attention it deserves.
Ordered via Macdonalds through just eat delivered to the wrong adddress spoke to drive who refused to leave the order so I could pick it up and refused to redirect he STOLE my order both just eat and macdodidnt want to know the order was £60
I ordered through JustEat yesterday and after receiving a notification to track the driver using the app, I watched him leave the fast food place he collected me order, go to another fast food restaurant in the same block then go to a third fast food place and return back to the second fast food place. I then tracked him making deliveries in the local area before finally delivering my order which was freezing and torn to bits. The bag was saturated and the food contents all over the ripped bag. I told him how unhappy I was with the delivery and he just shook his shoulders. Now emailing Just Eat and the are refunding app credit of 8.20 and refuse to provide contact details to escalate the complaint. The food went directly into bin after delivery.
I ordered a McDonald’s through Justeat and it never arrived. I took screenshots of progress that looked like it wasn’t out for delivery yet. This went in for hours. I phoned McDonald’s and they said the driver had collected the order and to contact just eat to find out where the driver was. Just eat were very unhelpful. If you have had orders with items missing they refund them, however they only do this a few times then stop giving you refunds. All I received was a generic response saying that after “investigation” they could not give me a refund on this occasion as it wasn’t in line with their policy. I feel totally ripped off and frustrated. I paid money for something that never arrived. I’m thinking this must be happening to a lot of people and they shouldn’t be getting away with it. I doubt any investigation happened at all.
Deliveroo and a local restaurant. Deliveroo site still said the restaurant was preparing the order for another 2 hours.I talked to Deliveroo help online, and went through an extra layer of escalation. Both layers tried to call the restaurant, they promised to email me within 48 hours, but did not promise to refund me..
The next afternoon i noticed the food had been marked delivered at 1:30 am. I called the restaurant back the next day, and learned the restaurant had closed for the evening 20 minutes earlier to me raising my order the night before. I guess they had not shut off the deliveroo terminal and maybe closed early for some reason. IMHO the restaurant should have cancelled the order and issued a refund instead of marking the order as delivered.. The restaurant is delivering a fresh order tonight (no charge).
Anyway, reading about the law, it seems you should only be able to get recourse (or a refund) through the restaurant and NOT through deliveroo , just-eat or other restaurant delivery aggregators.But it’s always worth trying, *In the past* i *have* had a refund for a *partial delivery* from Deliveroo.
Anyway I hope this helps someone.
Just waited for my food to get delivered via “ Quick lunch delivery “for over 40 minutes while being really hungry. The delivery guy just marked it as delivered without delivering it! “Quick lunch delivery “will refund me for this, but won’t compensate for my staying hungry and having to make other arrangements while also desperately trying to contact them! Surely the organisation should compensate more than just giving a refund for the time wasted, anger and helplessness that they put me through!!!
I placed an Iceland grocery delivery via uber. the total amount was under what my credit card limit is set at. I gave a £5 tip to the uber driver also. When I accepted the order is was the price I agreed to. However after receiving the order, a day later multiple tips were trying to be charged the credit card. It ranged from £2 to £30 to then £40. By the time I noticed the charges and checked uber it had been a couple of days. The charge on uber for the tips has been put as over £800. When contacting uber help, all I was met with was we can’t do anything because it’s been past 2 days. I never even asked for a refund rather that they corrected the tip and not keep constantly trying to take payments from the credit card. When I mentioned trading standards and taking this further after hours of multiple phone calls being directed to different departments and also through the app’s help messaging system, they changed their tone and said they were aware of this and now looking into this issue. I have since been locked out of my uber account for both food and trave until I pay £40. I have cancelled that credit card now and awaiting a new one to stop any future payments tried as advised by Capital One. I don’t know whether this issue is something to take further as this has been a extremely stressful situation. I will mention as well this is the very first purchase I have made via credit card and it’s put me off making an future purchases with it.
Order mcdonalds via just eat, when driver turned up he handed my shopping from asda I took photos and reported it for a refund to just eat they told me they couldn’t refund my order and was nothing more they can do, what can I do about this because I’m furious and not getting anywhere with just eat
Ordered a McDonald’s which arrived not in a thermal bag. Was stone cold and items were missing. It was in a sealed brown paper bag, so couldn’t check the items before the driver left. Just eat have given me a small credit which is a fraction of what the food and delivery cost.
I have placed an order with a Chinese to night for me and my kids. When the order came I paid in cash. Once we opened the order we realised it was wrong. My son has ASD eats very little foods and it has to be right. When it comes with lots of things added that shouldn’t be there it causes him to have a melt down. I rang the Chinese to explain I had received the wrong order and their response was I could have the correct order if I went to collect it. I explained I am disabled as that is why I ordered a delivery and am unable to collect. Their response was they are too busy to deliver the correct order so collect or go without. So now they have my money and we are left with no food. Surely there must be some way to get the money back.
Hello,
I ordered a birthday cake on the groceries section of Just Eat, along with a few other treats for my kid whose birthday is today. The other treats arrived, but the cake didn’t. I filed for a refund and Just Eat said they have credited my account. I know the difference between a return for credit and a refund. They are refusing to change from credit to a refund and say I will lose my money if I close the account. I have a disability and that is why I chose to order through them. The amount is still pending in my bank. I had a similar issue with missing items earlier this week and was refunded the money to my bank so don’t understand why they’re refusing now. What advice can you give in this situation when they’re saying credit is a default refund option suddenly and are refusing to make the amendment?