Every once in a while we all get tired of cooking and cleaning up afterwards and want to eat food prepared for us in containers that can be discarded. And many times after a long day, the thought of getting dressed and going to a restaurant isn’t so appealing either. Food Delivery services like Uber Eats and Door Dash have been a nice alternative and especially handy when traveling.
For those in urban areas, this is a great way to get a nice hot meal delivered fast. When in a remote area, a recent experience has left me with the conclusion that perhaps it isn’t such a good idea to even offer it.
I’m staying at a campground in South Central Georgia. The nearest town is 10 miles away with a very limited choice of eats. About 35 minutes away is a city of decent size with choices that Uber Eats indicated would deliver to me.
My choices were Dairy Queen, Red Lobster, Wendy’s or Subway. I wasn’t in the mood for fast food, but I don’t eat fish. I ended up going with Red Lobster and choosing their sirloin steak, some garlic linguini, a caesar salad and a chocolate cake for desert.
When I ordered at 630, the estimated time of arrival was 7:25. At 6:45 it had jumped to 7:35. Then I got a notification that it was delayed and would be there at 7:55, almost an hour and a half from when I ordered. I wasn’t too upset, knowing the distance between the campground and the restaurant.
The food ended up arriving at 7:45. The food was horrible. The fries were soggy and cold. The meat was not cooked properly and was cold. The cake lacked the ice cream described in the description. The pasta had shrimp in it which wasn’t indicated when I ordered.
I paid about $50 for this meal and was left with a bad impression of Uber Eats and Red Lobster. What should change here? Should I as a consumer expect less having a delivery a log ways away from the restaurant expecting that it be substandard? Should the restaurant or Uber Eats invest in technology to keep the food hot and fresh? Or should this service just not be offered when the distance is so great? Not sure of the answer here, but I’m not a customer of the service any longer.