Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

One delivery app charges to use another delivery app

Grubhub gets in the middle

Getting your ramen fix can be pricey
Getting your ramen fix can be pricey

Used to be, a restaurant hired a delivery driver or it didn’t. Nowadays, a number of enterprising tech companies have made online restaurant ordering and delivery a business model in its own right. In the past year I’ve written about my experiences ordering Thai food using Bringittome and Eat24, both of which use a standard e-commerce-style interface to let you order from the menus of restaurants that enlist with the service. Eat24 was bought by Yelp a couple months back, further streamlining your lazy, stay-at-home cravings by allowing you to search for a favorably reviewed restaurant and then demand its food be brought to you without even opening another browser window.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Each service had its glitches, the sort of miscommunications bound to occur when your human speak is translated to computer speak and then back again in the kitchen of a busy restaurant. But I got my requested food, more or less, through easy-to-understand ordering systems. The chief difference was the list of available restaurants in each web app’s roster.

Each of these services works via smart phone app as well, which is how I initially discovered grubHub a few years back. One of the early entrants into the eDelivery marketplace, I figured I should give it a shot for review, especially considering I could order from one of my favorite ramen spots, Tajima.

It starts out typically enough — you enter your home address and request delivery, and the app returns a list of restaurant options. Click through to the menu and select your choices, linking to any add-on options (in this case I requested kakuni pork belly and vegetables as topping for my spicy sesame ramen bowl).

My confusion started with the delivery fee. All of these services charge a fee, usually ranging from $3 to $7, depending on the restaurant. GrubHub’s stated delivery charge for Tajima was $4.99 + 8% on a $20 minimum order. So I ordered a second ramen for my roommate. Our food total then amounted to $29, delivery fee $7.31, with $2.90 in sales tax. I was told to expect a 60-70 minute wait.

This night, Tajima happened to run out of the gluten-free noodles my roomie had requested. Of course, the restaurant couldn’t tell me this directly. Instead, I received a call from what I assumed was a grubHub employee, who asked me what I wanted to do and promised to relay my instructions to the restaurant. Not exactly the most efficient process, and I’m certain it added at least five minutes to my wait time.

The case of the increased sales tax. The 8% upcharge is a little easier to understand.

Nevertheless, my ramen arrived and I ate splendidly. It was only later, upon checking my email, that I noticed order confirmations from both grubHub and Bringittome and was able to unravel what had really happened: grubHub subcontracted Bringittome to do the work, and that was Bringittome on the phone. When I took a second look at Bringittome.com, there was Tajima, ready to order with a mere $15 minimum and a $4.99 charge.

Grubhub tacked on 8% and increased the minimum to give that 8% more worth. As if that weren’t offensive enough, when I set up the exact same order through Bringittome, the order total remained the same, but the sales tax came to $2.72, 18 cents less than grubHub charged.

I don't know what this grubby service did to deserve the extra $2.32 delivery fee or why they added 18 cents in additional sales tax, but it clearly puts the kibosh on my patronage. Web ordering and delivery creates a software middleman, which solves some problems and creates others. Adding a second middleman solves no problems but can create additional ones, and for additional cost. If anything, the Bringittome interface worked better than grubHub’s. I’m not sure whether either could be considered a reputable business, but it’s clear to me now, grubHub can go the way of eToys and Pets.com — I certainly won’t be back.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

2024’s Best Bitcoin & Crypto Casinos – Play BTC Casino Games Online

Best Bitcoin Casinos (2024): Top 10 Crypto Casino Sites for BIG Payouts
Next Article

Reader Music Issue short takes

Obervatory's mosh pit, frenetic Rafael Payare, Lemonhead chaos, bleedforthescene, Coronado Tasting Room
Getting your ramen fix can be pricey
Getting your ramen fix can be pricey

Used to be, a restaurant hired a delivery driver or it didn’t. Nowadays, a number of enterprising tech companies have made online restaurant ordering and delivery a business model in its own right. In the past year I’ve written about my experiences ordering Thai food using Bringittome and Eat24, both of which use a standard e-commerce-style interface to let you order from the menus of restaurants that enlist with the service. Eat24 was bought by Yelp a couple months back, further streamlining your lazy, stay-at-home cravings by allowing you to search for a favorably reviewed restaurant and then demand its food be brought to you without even opening another browser window.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Each service had its glitches, the sort of miscommunications bound to occur when your human speak is translated to computer speak and then back again in the kitchen of a busy restaurant. But I got my requested food, more or less, through easy-to-understand ordering systems. The chief difference was the list of available restaurants in each web app’s roster.

Each of these services works via smart phone app as well, which is how I initially discovered grubHub a few years back. One of the early entrants into the eDelivery marketplace, I figured I should give it a shot for review, especially considering I could order from one of my favorite ramen spots, Tajima.

It starts out typically enough — you enter your home address and request delivery, and the app returns a list of restaurant options. Click through to the menu and select your choices, linking to any add-on options (in this case I requested kakuni pork belly and vegetables as topping for my spicy sesame ramen bowl).

My confusion started with the delivery fee. All of these services charge a fee, usually ranging from $3 to $7, depending on the restaurant. GrubHub’s stated delivery charge for Tajima was $4.99 + 8% on a $20 minimum order. So I ordered a second ramen for my roommate. Our food total then amounted to $29, delivery fee $7.31, with $2.90 in sales tax. I was told to expect a 60-70 minute wait.

This night, Tajima happened to run out of the gluten-free noodles my roomie had requested. Of course, the restaurant couldn’t tell me this directly. Instead, I received a call from what I assumed was a grubHub employee, who asked me what I wanted to do and promised to relay my instructions to the restaurant. Not exactly the most efficient process, and I’m certain it added at least five minutes to my wait time.

The case of the increased sales tax. The 8% upcharge is a little easier to understand.

Nevertheless, my ramen arrived and I ate splendidly. It was only later, upon checking my email, that I noticed order confirmations from both grubHub and Bringittome and was able to unravel what had really happened: grubHub subcontracted Bringittome to do the work, and that was Bringittome on the phone. When I took a second look at Bringittome.com, there was Tajima, ready to order with a mere $15 minimum and a $4.99 charge.

Grubhub tacked on 8% and increased the minimum to give that 8% more worth. As if that weren’t offensive enough, when I set up the exact same order through Bringittome, the order total remained the same, but the sales tax came to $2.72, 18 cents less than grubHub charged.

I don't know what this grubby service did to deserve the extra $2.32 delivery fee or why they added 18 cents in additional sales tax, but it clearly puts the kibosh on my patronage. Web ordering and delivery creates a software middleman, which solves some problems and creates others. Adding a second middleman solves no problems but can create additional ones, and for additional cost. If anything, the Bringittome interface worked better than grubHub’s. I’m not sure whether either could be considered a reputable business, but it’s clear to me now, grubHub can go the way of eToys and Pets.com — I certainly won’t be back.

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Nation’s sexy soldiers stage protest at Pendleton in wake of change in Marine uniform policy

Semper WHY?
Next Article

Making Love to Goats, Rachmaninoff, and Elgar

Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.