Postmates

DoorDash vs. UberEats Food Delivery

DoorDash and Uber Eats are amongst the most popular food delivery options available today. Both offer on-demand service that’s accessible via smartphone app or desktop computer. Both show an estimated delivery time. Both apps have a simple ordering process – just add your credit card, delivery address, food order, and any special delivery instructions.

Due to growing demand, Uber Eats increased their revenue by more than 230% during the last year alone. DoorDash is doing even better by more than 250% year-over-year.

Food Delivery Promo Codes for March 2020:
— $15 Free DoorDash Food Delivery Credits
—$7 off UberEats with code eats-ubervip4me
and Free Delivery from all local restaurants during this crisis

City Availability

Uber Eats is available in far more cities across the United States and across the world outside of the Americas. Currently, you can use Uber’s food delivery service in cities all over North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. DoorDash is only available in the US and Canada.

DoorDash vs. Uber Eats: Which One is Cheaper?

Convenient food delivery comes at a price. Both companies make money by charging customers a delivery and service fee for each order. So, in addition to paying for the order itself, you’ll also have to fork up a few extra dollars to cover the cost of the service.

DoorDash, for example, charges a base delivery fee of $5.99. This fee is higher in certain cities. It also increases during busy hours (i.e. lunch and dinner time).

They also charge a service fee for when you order from certain restaurants. If the restaurant is not an official DoorDash partner (or “Merchant”), they tack a few extra dollars onto the bill. In other words, DoorDash orders can be expensive when delivering a low-cost meal.

When you order from an official Merchant restaurant, the fee is typically waived. This helps them to promote their partnerships with specific restaurants.

Similar to the delivery fee, the service fee varies depending on the delivery time and time of day. However, you can always expect to pay a few dollars more for a delivery person to drop off your food than if you just walked into the restaurant yourself.

Similarly, UberEats charges a variable delivery and service fee. Now, the fee is determined by the distance between your location and your restaurant of choice. In other words, the further a driver has to travel, the more you can expect to pay. Typically, it ranges between $2 and $8.

DoorDash’s Subscription Service is great for those that use it frequently

One benefit of DoorDash is that they offer DashPass, a subscription plan that grants customers free delivery and lower services fees on all orders over $12.

It only costs $9.99 per month and subscribers can opt out at any time.

If you think about it, $9.99 per month isn’t a bad price for unlimited free deliveries. That means that you pay the same price you’d pay in-house. But, you get to enjoy the meal in the comfort of your own home.

If an average delivery fee is $5.99, you only have to place two orders each month for your DashPass to pay for itself.

Of course, the DashPass isn’t for casual customers. If you only order once every few months, it’s not worth your money. But, if you’re constantly browsing the DoorDash app in search of your next meal, this could be a great way for you to save some cash.

Uber Eats vs. DoorDash: Who Has Better Promotional Partnerships?

Both companies have exclusive brand partnerships with different restaurants. These partnerships have huge benefits for customers. For example, it makes more sense to order Chipotle from DoorDash. The two have an ongoing contract in which DoorDash handles all deliveries for more than 1,800 Chipotle locations across the U.S.

They did something similar with Cheesecake Factory, another partner. Everyone who used the app to order from Cheesecake Factory received free delivery.

Uber Eats, on the other hand, partners with fast food restaurants like White Castle and McDonald’s. They are also waiving delivery fees on local restaurants during the Coronavirus pandemic.

So Uber Eats or DoorDash?

Ultimately, it’s hard to decide which of these two services is better. No clear winner emerges from the comparison. They both have their own perks and downsides.

The best thing you can do is test them both out.

P.S. Get an exclusive Uber Eats and DoorDash promo code here to maximize your savings.

Scan through the menus on each app and see which restaurants they work within your area. When you choose a restaurant, order through the app that delivers for that restaurant.

Beware of Hidden Service Fees When Ordering Food Delivery

We recently uncovered one on-demand delivery app that was charging extremely high service fees of at least 19%. Looking closer into the on-demand delivery apps you can find fees scattered everywhere and changing more often than you might think. It pays to examine each order you make on these apps and make sure a new fee or higher charge doesn’t pop up. It’s also best to compare the apps on a regular basis to know which ones charge what fees from what restaurants.

A Quick look at the Fees from February 2018 show the following:

Door Dash: 11% Service Fee Plus Delivery Fee.

Postmates: 19-22% Average Service Fee Plus Delivery Fee. $1.99 Small Plate Fee.

Grubhub: Just a Delivery Fee but they may charge extra per plate.

UberEats: Just a Delivery Fee and all the charges are upfront.

Amazon Restaurants: They charge restaurants 30% but also charge customers a delivery fee.

Favor: $6 Default Delivery Fee unless there’s a delivery price listed.

What’s upsetting is that Door Dash and Postmates will advertise a free delivery in marketing but then you place the order and see the service fees hidden under Taxes and Fee above the regular Delivery Fee. This is not a Free Delivery but rather a Delivery with only a Service Fee. You will still be paying a fee on any delivery with these apps unless they have a special partnership with the merchant which are few and far between.

UberEats delivers meals at menu price, plus a clearly marked delivery fee. In exchange they charge the restaurant a modest service fee that in most cases is less than the cost of operating their own delivery service. The restaurants are normally charged 30% or so in fees on the order but the consumer doesn’t have to pay this like you would with Postmates.

Companies such as GrubHub, Postmates, and Seamless charge some restaurants roughly 12 to 24 percent of checks to use their services. UberEats and Amazon Prime Now are asking for a much steeper rate such as 30 percent. The good thing about using UberEats and Amazon Restaurants is that they charge the restaurant instead of the person ordering food.

While some restaurants pay DoorDash a commission for each delivery, others don’t, and when you order from the ones that don’t, DoorDash charges you extra. Previously, DoorDash incorporated that extra cost into the price of each menu item. So the prices in DoorDash were different from the ones you’d see in the restaurant, but you knew exactly how much you were paying. Now, in response to customer feedback and internal testing they show you a separate fee of 11%.

We reached out to Postmates on this matter and they feel that the fees are not hidden and that you can see all of the fees listed before the order is placed. This is not exactly true with some orders. They also said that the fees go towards running their operations behind the scenes. That’s 19% upwards in service fees alone just to pay for operations in the background of that order. We do acknowledge that Postmates has on of the better customer service departments when you have problems with your order.

Our Favorite On-Demand Food Delivery Pick

The best food delivery app is by far UberEats when it comes to upfront pricing and how fast you will get your food. The biggest drawback of UberEats is they don’t have many restaurants signed on to their service. Hopefully it will grow. Grubhub and Amazon Restaurants would be our second pick since they don’t charge service fees (yet). They also offer very few restaurants compared to Postmates that seem to offer the most but charge more in fees.

The worst is Favor because you don’t get any estimate of fees when you place the order. This also goes for Postmates when you place an order from a restaurant or a customized food item not in the app. You can just assume they will both charge at least $6 to your order.

Bottom Line

While these food delivery apps will try and earn your loyalty these increasing fees and mostly hidden fees show you shouldn’t be loyal to any of them. Always compare.

Postmates App is misleading customers with a hidden fee (3 fees total)

Postmates may get the shady company of the year award on this one. It what seems many are frustrated with the apps lack of transparency when it comes to hidden service fees. Postmates seemed like a great idea at first. The app allows customers to easily order any item from any restaurant or store including Starbucks and have it delivered to their doorstep in less than an hour.

Postmates will give customers $100 in free deliveries to start out or let you sign-up for their unlimited delivery with no fees attached but both still include hidden service fees. While these fees are not new to the Postmates app they have been steadily increasing from pennies to over $7 in some cases on top of the delivery fees. The on-demand delivery service charges a total of three fees including “delivery”, “service”, and a “small plate fee” if the order is less than $14.

Users on Reddit and other community forums are complaining over the rise of the service fee saying that its a “Scam”. Let us repeat again that the service fee is not considered the delivery fee that the on-demand app charges. People are starting to notice that the service fees went from 9% to 12.99% to now an unknown variable rate which averages at technically 22% because they charge the fee of the subtotal plus the tax. Yes, your taxes are included in both the tip that you provide in the app and the service fee.

How does Postmates determine the Delivery Fee?
According to Postmates the fees help pay for your Postmate’s time and keep the whole operation running smoothly, so you can get whatever you need quickly and conveniently. They add that the Postmates Delivery Fee is a flat rate of $5.99, however we can currently bring you orders from our Partners at an even lower rate: $3.99! Additionally, a variable percentage based service fee is applied to the purchase price of your items. During peak times, delivery prices may surge* (or Blitz). Surge pricing creates a strong financial incentive for Postmates to make themselves available when you need them most.

The Estimated Total Doesn’t Always Show

They claim that you will always be notified of your Delivery Fee on the checkout screen before requesting a Postmate. That opens up another can or worms because no charges are listed if you wish to make a customized order such as adding a plate to a listed restaurant that has no price until completed or adding a restaurant not listed in the app. Of course on this delivery you do not get a warning of a service fee nor do you get a warning of a small plate fee (order under $14).

What is the Service Fee?
The Postmates service fee is a variable percentage based fee applied to the purchase price of your items. You will be able to verify the service fee for your order on the checkout screen ONLY on orders that are not custom orders such as when you add a restaurant not listed in the app or a plate that is not listed. To find the fee it is normally under the Subtotal and you have to click on an information icon (i) on the order summary screen to find it. It used to be listed under Taxes and Fees not just Fee so it was even more misleading.

All of this should alarm consumer advocates and consumers to look more closely at these types of hidden fees. Postmates could face legal problems and settlements if this continues. One consumer frustrated with being blasted with these fees:

I have been a big customer of Postmates and have referred many of my friends to the app so when I figured out that I have been cheated on 80% of my orders in the past year with hidden fees I am shocked and feel deceived. I have also participated in many promos where they have a “free” delivery then I look back after the fact and notice a “service fee”. That is not a free delivery. These service fees have added up to over $400 extra. This was misleading because most of my orders did not state the price as it was a customized order and I had no idea about the service fees. I did know about the small plate fee a few times after the fact but the service fee on top of a delivery fee, and a small plate fee is unacceptable. They also hide the fee under taxes with a (i) that you must click on in the app to see the “service fee”. This fee hides as the tax. I have been wondering why the taxes for my orders have been so much and after investigating this issue it has been concluded that the “service fee” is the reason for this. – Postmates User

One example of this service fee on top of a $5.99 delivery fee is of $3.46 for a plate of tacos that would only cost $17.27 in person. Here is the receipt below of the cost without using the on-demand app:

As you can see the taxes are included in this receipt and the Postmates app deception of including a Taxes and Fee area (before they moved to just Fee) was particularly questionable.

Restaurant Servers Do Not Get Tipped (Mostly)
Keep in mind these service fees do not go towards tips for the bartender or service industry working hard to make sure the order is ready to be picked up. Customers place orders through the Postmates app, which includes a delivery charge and a varying fee based on distance for everyone else) and a flat 9 percent “service charge.” The delivery fee is split 80/20 between the driver and Postmates, respectively. Most people would logically assume that the 9 percent service fee goes to the hardworking people slathering mayonnaise on your sandwich. Sadly, they would be wrong. According to Postmates spokesperson April Conyers, that fee goes to “the company and is applied toward operations.”

To sum it all up we expect answers from the Postmates On-Demand delivery app and hope they respond to this issue. They can do this by possibly refunding customers they have mislead and make the app more transparent when charging for fees instead of having different groups of fees. When you order a delivery you should have a delivery fee and a tip.