Managing order errors efficiently
Mistakes happen – here’s how we support you and your customers when things don’t go as planned.
When things go wrong, we want to make it right
Customers are looking for convenience, merchants are doing their best to fulfill orders quickly and correctly, and delivery people are busy on the road making deliveries. Usually, it all goes right. But when it doesn’t, a happy order becomes a sad order – fast.
That’s why we have support procedures in place to resolve customer issues on your behalf – fairly and efficiently. Sometimes, this means issuing refunds to customers who have had bad experiences. In these instances, your business may be held responsible for those refunds in the form of order error adjustments made to your payouts.
Protecting against fraud
We take fraudulent behaviour seriously and have filters in place to monitor both customer and delivery person behaviour—we will not make adjustments on suspicious refunds.
Excessive refund request rates
We track customer refund history and block customers who abuse our refund policy – which varies from region to region – from submitting these claims.
Photo evidence required
We require photos to be submitted in many cases as evidence before making a refund decision.
Escalation circumstances
We escalate cases to a trained team for investigation and review before making refund decisions for requests that are:
- Not filed in a reasonable time frame
- For high-value orders
- For orders with alcohol items
- For first-time customers
Excessive missing item rates
Delivery people who have a significant number of missing item reports associated with their deliveries are automatically flagged in our systems. Partners are not charged for any refunds associated with deliveries from these delivery people.
Order error adjustments
Most orders placed on Uber Eats go off without a hitch, thanks to our merchants, delivery people and customers. A small portion of orders have errors reported by the customer, the delivery person or the merchant. Order error adjustments are the eligible customer refund costs that are deducted from stores’ payouts for circumstances within merchants’ control, and after fraud checks.
These are the customer refund costs that are deducted from stores’ payouts to cover order errors:
Customer may be compensated
We resolve customer errors fairly and on your behalf, sometimes issuing Uber credits or providing refunds.
Partners may be charged
Some refund costs may be passed to merchants after fraud review and removal of cases with extenuating circumstances.
Possible partner charges when customer refunds are given
Missing items
Customer did not receive an item, or part of an item, that was ordered.
Incorrect items
Customer received an item, or part of an item, that was not as ordered.
Incorrect orders
Customer received incorrect order (fault in relation to which, in Uber Eats’ reasonable judgement, can be attributed to the merchant).
Undelivered orders
Customer never received their order (only when using your own delivery staff).
Food quality
Customer food quality complaints (e.g. burnt/raw (except where the item is sold as a raw item)/stale/spoilt/rotten/mouldy food or items past/on their expiry date). This applies to Pack & Deliver orders.
Self-Delivery orders
An order is delivered by your own delivery staff and there is an error with the order or the customer reports it as too hot/cold or damaged (e.g. damaged packaging, spilt food/drinks). The refund may include the cost of the items as well as any delivery fee that you charge.
Pick-up orders
Customer orders food to pick up from you and there is an error with the order or the customer reports it as too hot, cold or damaged (e.g. damaged packaging, spilt food and drinks).
Not partner charges, even when customer refunds may be given
Note: Some of these may not apply to self-delivery and pick-up orders.
Late customer reports
Errors reported more than 96 hours after order was placed.
Fraudulent activity
Errors on orders with possibly fraudulent customers or delivery people.
Undelivered orders
Customer never received order (unless using your own delivery staff).
Suspicious deliveries
Customer received incorrect order where delivery person had multiple orders at once, delivered in less than half the ETA, or delivered far from the drop-off (unless it is a self-delivery order).
Damaged orders
Customer damage complaints (e.g. tampered packaging, spilt liquids) (unless it is a self-delivery or pick-up order).
Food condition
Customer poor food condition complaints (e.g. food arriving cold, unless it is a self-delivery or pick-up order).
Late deliveries
Customer late delivery complaints for orders delivered with Uber delivery people (unless it is a self-delivery).
Calculating and monitoring adjustments
Order error adjustments include the cost of food sales (including tax/VAT) at the time of order. They do not include other fees that may be refunded to the customer. To make it easy for you and your team to stay up-to-date on this information, we include order error adjustment details in multiple places. (Please see the Monitoring tab below.)
Please note: A customer might not report the order error in the same week the order was fulfilled. In those cases, adjustments may be reflected in subsequent weeks’ reports.
Order error adjustments calculations
The amount adjusted on your payout will range from a portion up to the full cost for the item(s) with errors at the time of the order, including tax/VAT. For partially missing or incorrect items – often related to combo meal items that have an entree and side or drink included – the a la carte cost of the missing or incorrect portion of the item will be adjusted from your pay.
Please note: We retain the full Uber Service Fee for the entire order.
Fees your business will not be charged for
You won’t be responsible for any delivery fees* charged to the customer (unless you’re using your own delivery staff).
Your downloadable Order Error reports
Just go to your Uber Eats Manager portal and check the Reports tab to download the Order Errors (Transaction) report. This downloadable CSV file includes a row for each order error with detailed info such as issue type, item(s) in error, customer refund amount, merchant charge amount and amount covered by Uber.
Your downloadable Payment CSV files
Also available in the Reports tab of your Uber Eats Manager portal is the option to download the Payment Details report to reconcile payments. This downloadable CSV file includes a row for each order error adjustment, plus any associated tax.
Your Uber Eats Manager Payments tab
You can review the Payments tab of your Uber Eats Manager portal to see if there are any adjustments listed. If any adjustments occurred, you’ll see a red indicator box that says Order Error next to the relevant orders. By clicking into the order, you can see the reported error and the breakdown of your adjustment and net payout.
Your weekly Payment Summary email
For your convenience, we email you a weekly Payment Summary, which includes a section that details order errors, explaining what went wrong, and shows a timestamp of the order for your reference. Scroll to the bottom of your Payment Summary to view these details.
Minimising order errors
We’ve gathered some best practices from merchants on how to minimise the errors that could potentially lead to customer refunds and adjustments.
Up-to-date menu
Log in to your Uber Eats Manager portal to ensure that your menu is up to date with the correct customisations and prices.
Printed receipts
Check off items on a printed receipt to confirm that the contents in the bag are accurate.
Tamper-evident materials
Seal each order bag with tamper-evident materials when an order is complete.
Order number
Write the 5-digit order number on the bag for easy identification.
Number the bags
If there are multiple bags in a single order, number the bags ('1 of 2' and then '2 of 2', etc.).
Handoff
Double-check during hand-off that every bag gets picked up by the correct delivery person.
Meat/poultry not cooked to minimum internal temperature
Ensure meat and poultry is cooked to a safe internal temperature before packing.
Contamination
Remove any trace of food contamination (e.g. stale or mouldy food) from your preparation, storage and packing areas.
Item quality
Ensure you select items that are not on/past their expiry date, and are good quality (e.g. not mouldy)
*unless using your own delivery staff where customer refunds are given for undelivered orders. Delivery fees are included in the amount adjusted on your payout.
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