If you frequently deliver food for Grub Hub or a similar company, you may encounter an instance where a restaurant will ignore your order and favor in-house customers or customers that called in to pick up food themselves. This is rare but it happens and is understandably irritating to a food-app delivery person. In most cases, it will occur at a chain restaurant with inexperienced or ineffectual management whereas it will almost never occur at a small business like a family owned restaurant. Also, it usually happens during a rush when the restaurant is getting many orders, they simply neglect to check their devices for food-app orders, and you need to show them the order in person after you arrive.

Food delivery app companies do not offer guidance for when a restaurant staff overlooks your order, however, you can follow these steps to handle the situation.

First, make sure the order isn’t ready when you arrive and they know about the order and should be making it. Wait patiently for fifteen to twenty-five minutes depending on how busy the staff looks. After fifteen minutes, walk up to the counter and politely ask them if your order is being processed and whether or not it will be ready soon? After thirty minutes of waiting, let the customer know via text or a phone call that you are having difficulty obtaining their order and apologize to them for the inconvenience. Get the attention of a staff member, preferably one that looks like a manger, and say “Excuse me. My customer placed this order 45 minutes ago and we expected it to be ready no later than 30 minutes ago but you still haven’t made it. If it’s not ready in 15 minutes I am going to leave.”

As a food-app delivery guy, sometimes you will need to work with the restaurant staff but it’s important to do so in a way that is calm and professional otherwise you will encounter further difficulty and unpleasantness going forward. In any business where you represent yourself or somebody else, your greatest assets are patience, clear communication, and professionalism.