Late deliveries are inevitable, as the factors affecting them are usually out of our control. But what can do you after a late delivery? And for drivers, is this a cause for panic?
This article will explain everything you need to know, covering both customers and drivers comprehensively.
DoorDash Late Delivery Policy
Starting from the late delivery policy relating to customers, let’s begin…
Customer
For customers, DoorDash has a fair and straightforward policy on late deliveries.
Firstly there are no guarantees on delivery time.
This means while the company does its best to meet the estimated time it gives before delivery, there’s no guarantee a delivery you make would be as early as estimated.
This is because there are a lot of factors that play into the delivery time of orders— most of which you can’t control.
For instance, wait times at the restaurant, traffic, weather conditions, how fast your order gets accepted by a driver, etc.
And for late deliveries that may be caused by a driver, DoorDash also has strict policies (which we broke down below), that could be detrimental to their stay on the platform. This all tells us the company wants a good customer experience.
However, to be clear and as most people would expect, DoorDash does compensate customers for late deliveries. It does this by making refunds or giving credits.
But this entirely depends on how late the delivery is.
For instance, if your order was just a few minutes late (less than 10 minutes), you might only get a few dollars credit and not a full refund. And in some cases, you might not get anyone of these.
On the other hand, if you have a 30-minute+ or 1-hour late delivery, you could expect to get a full refund.
These are just a few insights from my experience.
However, generally, you can’t tell exactly how much or what compensation you get for late delivery. DoorDash has full discretion on how these work.
But the key point is — the company does compensate.
Keep in mind in a situation that may prompt refunds, drivers are not held responsible.
How to get compensation for late deliveries as a customer
Similar to making delivery complaints on the app, after getting your order delivered, you’d want to navigate to the order information on the app — tap on the order you intend to report for late delivery.
Next, scroll and tap on the “Help section.”
Scroll down one more time to where you’ll find the “arrived late” button in the “delivery issue” highlight. Tap on it, and provide the needed information.
This is a snapshot of what this looks like:
DoorDash would usually get back to you usually within 24 hours.
Drivers
Firstly, for drivers, deliveries are considered late when they’re made above the estimated delivery time the company makes.
So is there any penalty for late deliveries?
Yes, and for drivers, this is called a “Lateness contract violation” — a label you’ll find on the rating section of the app when you make a late delivery.
If you don’t find this, then you’re safe — you’ve not made any late delivery recognized by the app.
Now, you won’t get penalized if you just get a single lateness contract violation.
However, getting multiple of them, especially during a short-term interval can get you deactivated from the platform.
What about situations where you’re not the cause of the late delivery?
Firstly, DoorDash does its best to make sure contract violations are being accorded carefully.
It does this by partnering with Google Maps to get data on how long deliveries should take, considering other factors like period of travel, traffic condition, etc.
DoorDash also has a policy covering late delivery caused by restaurants.
According to the company, after 10 minutes of waiting at a restaurant, any rating below 5 stars from a customer would be revoked.
If you’ve ever had a one-star rating caused by late delivery disappear after a while, this is the reason.
Unfortunately, this is the only sort of compensation drivers get when a restaurant has a long wait time.
You also won’t get a contract violation in this case.
But then, there are some situations DoorDash could misread the cause of late delivery and penalize you.
While this is rare, it’s worth mentioning.
For an incident like this, however, the best course of action is to contact the company.
But what if you have an emergency during a delivery?
According to DoorDash, in the event of an emergency during delivery, drivers should make quick contact with one of their support channels or advisably the app’s chat support.
This is a detailed article on situations like this.
Do contract violations (in this case, late delivery) ever go away?
Yes. Contract Violations are usually removed after 100 consecutive deliveries.
In this case, you also want to avoid getting any more contract violations as this may make it look like your contract violations are not going away.
Final Thoughts
Yikes!
While having late deliveries can be frustrating, whether customer or dasher, DoorDash does a good job regarding how it handles the situation.
Hopefully, you find this article helpful!
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