A cake shop owner who built her desserts business up from her home kitchen to the high street has revealed how she was left with more than £1,000 out of pocket for refunds made by ‘astonishing’ fake refund claims – including that the ice cream they had ordered was ‘too cold’.
Andrea Blow, who built Cakes by Andrea in Scunthorpe from the ground up in 2016, says automated delivery app mechanisms on platforms like JustEat meant the bizarre and untrue complaints were not properly investigated, meaning shoppers could exploit the system.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, she urged the apps to ‘look after’ the independent businesses they partner with better.
‘So I started cakes by Andrea back in 2016 from my home kitchen and built the business up to eventually opening my first shop on our local high street and creating 16 jobs in 2021, just as we came out of lockdown,’ she explained.
‘We joined as a JustEat partner back in 2021 to introduce ourselves to the local community of takeaways in our small town and were very successful on the platform – achieving the local legend status very early on and still holding it to this day.
‘We noticed a few issues with just eat over the years, customers able to claim refunds for “ice cream being cold” as their settings are usually for takeaways serving hot food, more generic sort of settings, where as we served solely cold food and were left open to fraudulent refunds.’
She added that they ‘adjusted their default settings and this issue stopped’.
Andrea said she noticed a pattern while doing paperwork for the business.
A cake shop owner who built her desserts business up from her home kitchen to the high street has revealed how she was left with more than £1,000 out of pocket for refunds made by ‘astonishing’ fake refund claims – including that the ice cream they had ordered was ‘too cold’
‘On completing my last VAT return and reviewing a few of our latest reports I saw a huge amount of automatic refunds issued by JustEat for orders not delivered by ourselves and looked into it, quickly becoming aware it was actually the same account, name and address on each of the refunds,’ she recounted.
‘They literally had ordered, had it delivered by myself and then cancelled it as I was investigating – which is when I raised the issue with Just Eat and got no response.’
Not hearing back from the delivery service, Andrea decided to voice their issues on social media.
‘I was quite frankly astonished that not only someone who’s locally known to our business – and was frequently ordering sometimes up to three times a day – was able to do this; but also that JustEat were just simply letting it happen.’
It wasn’t until press contacted the app for a statement – after the post had gotten public attention – that Andrea got any reprieve.
‘They then passed this onto their contacts within JustEat and for the first time ever I had an actual email address to myself from a senior accounts manager within JustEat, a breakdown of their investigation with a partial refund of just over £300,’ she shared.
‘The 44 orders totalled just more than £1,000 and were made over a period of around eight weeks, and this was able to happen as we employ our own delivery drivers and not use JustEat drivers.
‘So JustEat rely on the customer to be honest and say their goods were delivered, rather than ask us as a reputable just eat partner to confirm.’
Andrea Blow, who built Cakes by Andrea in Scunthorpe from the ground up in 2016, says automated delivery app mechanisms on platforms like JustEat, UberEats and Deliveroo meant the bizarre and untrue complaints were not properly investigated, meaning shoppers could exploit the system
While Andrea has now had ‘several calls from a senior accounts manager at JustEat and various voicemails left asking what they can do to compensate’ – she believes more needs to be done on an industry level.
‘I feel with their extremely high commission rates and lack of support for independent local businesses it’s time for us to move away from the JustEat partnership,’ she admitted.
‘We are currently having our own app built. Back in 2021 our customer base was 80 per cent JustEat and 20 per cent walk ins.
‘Now it’s 80 per cent walk ins and 20 per cent JustEat. We feel we can and will succeed locally without being left wide open by JustEat and have them take up to 30per cent of our income.’
She urged the delivery service to ‘look after their small independent businesses, give them more control over their delivering process, be able to manage refunds more closely and not be penalised for using their own delivery drivers’.
A Just Eat spokesperson said: ‘We’re proud to work with a diverse range of businesses including thousands of local high street restaurants. We will always investigate claims and where appropriate reimburse restaurant partners for any fraudulent activity.’
Cakes by Andrea is not the only vendor to have opted for making their own delivery app after relying on the industry giants left them shortchanged.
Glasgow-based takeaway Wokstar, a family-run businesses, shared their struggles with followers in a Facebook post in 2022.
She urged the delivery service to ‘look after their small independent businesses, give them more control over their delivering process, be able to manage refunds more closely and not be penalised for using their own delivery drivers’
‘We have worked with Just Eat for many years and the commission they are charging us keeps increasing and we are not making a profit from their service to cover stock and overheads,’ it read.
‘We have experienced a lot of new changes working with them. Since they have introduced a new refund policy, we have had many customers abuse the refund process and we have had the same people making false claims and walk away with a £50 meal for free. We then lose out on the funds plus have to pay commission on top of that.
‘We are a small family run business and appreciate if our customers could support us by ordering directly.’
Elsewhere, Lilyanne’s Wellbeing, a registered charity that also has a café branch in Hartlepool, was forced to, in 2023, stop their delivery services altogether and opt for collection only.
‘Over the last couple of weeks we’ve seen an increase in people wanting to have their food for free and even resorting to leaving fake reviews to back up their refund request,’ they wrote on social media.
‘In the six years we’ve been open we’ve never had a single inhouse complaint with our service or food and every single customer is asked how is their meal.
‘The behaviour of some people ordering via this app is shameful and to be honest shouting and screaming at our team members and making threats is not acceptable simply when they are advised they must contact JustEat, the app they had no problem using to place an order.’
She stressed that ‘as a coffee shop that supports the wellbeing of our community their staff do not deserve the utter shameful treatment and becoming the ones that need support with their own wellbeing’.
JustEat and other delivery providers including Uber Eats and Deliveroo have tackled similar issues. Stock image used
‘Because some people believe they are so self entitled that they order food and then pretend it has not been delivered for a full refund,’ the post continued.
‘If you order via JustEat your order is as a JustEat customer, they buy the service from us, and they allocate a member of their own staff to collect and deliver the order.
‘Once that item has been collected we have no control over refunds, delivery or even being able to redeliver anything that’s incorrect.
‘That’s why JustEat have a phone number and a customer services team to handle any complaints and issue refunds on items missing or issues with food.’
Other delivery providers have tackled similar issues. In 2021, one restauranteur anonymously complained that customers in Fallowfield were ‘claiming that their orders were never delivered and demanding refunds – despite delivery drivers taking photos of the food on the doorsteps’.
Speaking to the Manchester Evening News, the business owner complained that he was getting ‘getting calls (claiming food hasn’t arrived) every single day’.
‘It’s 10 to 20 phone calls a week and it’s always the same postcodes, it’s the student areas. It’s something that’s really picked up since lockdown,’ he continued.
‘I’ve had to deal with nearly so many claims this year already, it’s quite a chunk of time. If all those refunds had happened I’d be an extra £2,000 down, and we’re already 70 per cent down.
‘It upsets and p***es people off, and it completely ruins the morale in the kitchen.
In 2023, meanwhile, Uber announced that they will cracking down on ‘protecting drivers and couriers from false allegations’ as it was an issue they had spotted.
‘We have heard from drivers and couriers that they sometimes feel like Uber sides with customers, especially when it comes to complaints that cause them to lose access to their account,’ they stated.
‘We strive to promote safety for everyone who uses Uber—but the reality is that people sometimes make false accusations, often with the intent of getting a refund from Uber. While we may take action to remove these customers from the platform, we know there are still underlying concerns about these reports.
‘To address this concern, we’ve put in place new systems to identify consumers who report incidents and give feedback with the aim of getting a refund or appeasement. Allegations made by these customers will not be considered in drivers’ ratings or drivers’ or couriers’ account deactivation decisions.’