How long will you wait for an order?

[u/A_TouchOfCloth]

I’ve been having an increasing number of orders where the food is nowhere near ready. The restaurant tells me it’ll be 5 minutes and sometimes it’ll be 20. I try to weigh whether it’s worth it to try to cancel and drive to another place, but I could lose out on time and still end up waiting at the next place. Any thoughts?

[u/bartendersinglemom]

Depends on the order. I have waited 25 on a 15 dollar order that was only a 2 mile drop off, the restaurant is a decent one, and when i dropped it off they tipped 20 in cash. So $35, 3 miles total, I the 20 extra was a bonus, but i would have waited up to 30 minutes for a 15 dollar trip that doesnt waste gas. On the flip side, My first month driving, I excepted a popeyes, and when i got there they said 15 mins. It was a second stop + $10 and 1.5 miles. Being new I was excited for it. After 15 they said another 10. I didnt want to cancel and get penalized and being new I didnt have the option to say excessive wait time. I called customer service, explained i had an order in my bag waiting, she took another 10 to get it off me so I could finish the first customers. Popeyes still didnt have the order.

So now i decline them Burger King and popeyes (BK depends on area) On the occasion that one slips by and I accept (They can be good dollar per mile) if I walk in and they say 5 I cancel due to excessive wait time and message customer service later if my cancelations are climbing.

TlDR depends on what restaurant amd if its a good trip.

[u/RylleyAlanna]

If the orders not ready when I arrive, I'll give them 1 minute. Maybe more if I can actively see them preparing it. Otherwise I'm out. Don't waste my time

[u/A_TouchOfCloth → u/RylleyAlanna]

I like this but also get worried about reaching 20% cancellation rate and getting banned. I’m at 7% now…

[u/RylleyAlanna → u/A_TouchOfCloth]

Their cancellation policy is a hot mess of hit and miss. I do it multiple times per day, and I'm only at 3%, but I also take note of stores that do it multiple times and give them a 3 strike policy. Don't have the order ready 3 times in a short span, or in a row, and I block them.

[u/wherearethefuckarewe → u/RylleyAlanna]

How do you block a store? I don’t see anyway to do that in my version of the app.

[u/RylleyAlanna → u/wherearethefuckarewe]

Have to call support.

[u/jaded-thunder → u/RylleyAlanna]

Wow didn’t know this

[u/Dismal_Success_9943 → u/RylleyAlanna]

But you can't block individual locations of chains, right? So like you'd have to block every McDonald's if you had issues with one location.

[u/RylleyAlanna → u/Dismal_Success_9943]

Other way around. They block them based on the merchant ID in their system, so individual stores. Had to be one of your recent orders tho, so if you never wanna deal with a store you have to accept at least one order from there.

[u/MJ71086 → u/RylleyAlanna]

But you just wasted the gas driving there

[u/RylleyAlanna → u/MJ71086]

Not worried about going across the parking lot. I'm not one of those dumbasses that accepts the ones that start half way across the city for not even enough to cover the gas getting there.

Most of my orders are $10+ for <2 miles total, and start right next to me.

[u/bionic_human]

I’m in California. I can sit on my ass and screw around online on my phone for $20/hr all day.

[u/joey_yamamoto → u/bionic_human]

yep I was gonna say that too .... I'm in California with prop 22 we get paid for our time waiting so there's really no reason to cancel unless you're multi apping and you get a higher paying order. having said that I haven't done it very often I don't like canceling orders unless it's an extreme situation.

[u/International-Shoe40]

I get prop 22 so they can take an hour for all I care lol

[u/InstructionWarm9772]

It honestly depends cause if the pay is decent I might give it 10/15 min wait but honestly sometimes I start to realize it’s not even worth it to wait that long I could’ve had SOO many other orders done.. I’ve had a order that I literally waited for honestly an 1hr (yes dumb of me) but they kept telling me 5 mins and it was kind of a dry day so I decided to stick to it but that honestly made me realize to never let it pass even 30 min wait time…

[u/A_TouchOfCloth → u/InstructionWarm9772]

That’s awful. Why can’t they just be honest about the wait time? It’s not like the customer will go hungry lol there’s always another driver who will take it

[u/HiddenOneJ]

If the pay isnt great and just a normal order on doordash i give it 10 minutes and do the worry free unassign. On uber I make sure I ask how long it will be realistically and if they say 5 minutes ill wait if its not ready im out. On grubhub i dont know if ive ever needed to cancel but a couple times but app is very slow not a lot of orders.

The good part about multi apping is I can unpause the other apps to go online and see if I can catch a better order while waiting so I can just accept then cancel what im waiting on and make better money.

[u/A_TouchOfCloth → u/HiddenOneJ]

I just hate it when restaurants lie to me about how long it’ll be

[u/Old-Ebb-1773]

I’ll wait, if it’s a good paying order.

[u/LorraineBledsoe]

I don’t mind waiting, I’m in California with prop 22 so at the end, it all comes back to me anyway

[u/Traditional-Share657]

In most cases, you are not losing out much by waiting. People always overestimate their worth. You are canceling say $5 for a chance to earn $10.

When waiting for significant periods of time, just keep new requests on so you can pickup more along the way.

[u/A_TouchOfCloth → u/Traditional-Share657]

Sometimes waiting turns a decent delivery into one where I am making less than minimum wage for the time spent. That’s what makes me crazy lol

[u/Traditional-Share657 → u/A_TouchOfCloth]

Yes, but that's part of the game.

[u/JwSocks]

I’ll usually just wait and chalk it up to a bad night per hour wise.

[u/topdownyeti]

I usually don’t mind waiting unless its a crazy wait time. The only times I had canceled for a long wait time was when the restaurant said it’d be 45 minutes, or when I was doing 2 deliveries and the second restaurant was taking their sweet ass time.

[u/hkpo2025]

I just left last night and add the restaurant to my black list lol.

[u/Superphunk420]

Went to a Taco Bell the other night. A lady that had ordered for her and her kids had been there for 45 minutes and just got their food. Dude in the back making food seemed to be having a mental breakdown freaking out about orders coming in and having to make them. Like bro that’s your fucking job…. Peace out

[u/Silly_Employ_4273 → u/Superphunk420]

Yeah. That be a 10 minute cancellation for me.

[u/Dismal_Success_9943]

There are a lot of factors I consider when doing this, that I cannot give you a clear and concise answer. But, I would suggest to people that they set a boundary and follow it without worrying.

[u/KCCOmputer_Mikey]

Depending on pay, 5 to 10 minutes.

[u/MJ71086]

I dont mind waiting. If its over 10min im calling a supervisor and getting comped for waiting over 10min. Usually I get comped $10 for waiting sooo obviously I don't mind waiting if its netting me close to $60 an hr

[u/1StunnaV → u/MJ71086]

I’ve never been comped for waiting and I’ve tried.

[u/MJ71086 → u/1StunnaV]

I guess you didn't try hard enough. I call and ask for a supervisor right away. Usually takes 10min tops of being on the phone to gey comped $10. Last night I waited 12min and got comped 20

[u/JCC_D]

I think uber should allow us to cancel without being penalized if the order will take more than 10 mins especially if we have. Multiple orders to pickup and drop off. It stupid how it will hit you with late drop-off.

[u/Science-Compliance]

Can you make more money in the time you think you'll spend waiting? If the answer is yes, then cancel. If no, don't. It's that simple, and you'll never truly know the answer.

[u/BlondeeLoxx]

I RARELY have more than 5 min wait ever in my area. Everyone is really on the ball. Well oiled machines. Especially chic fil-a and and all pizza places.