A Wigan dessert parlour has had the last laugh after receiving an influx of fake orders this week. Parky’s Pics in Wigan called out the behaviour on social media after receiving nine fake orders over the course of two nights.
Owner Kayley Parkinson, who started the business alongside her husband Scott, has said there must be “some very bored people in Wigan” after she spotted a series of unusual orders come through on Sunday and Monday evening. The orders, which were made via online ordering platforms Just Eat and Wigan Eats, in some cases listed the whole menu, and were selected as delivery and cash payment.
Parky’s Pics was first launched as a home-cinema rental concept during the pandemic before Kayley and Scott decided to open a dessert parlour serving everything from doughnuts and sundaes to hot dogs and nachos. After calling up the first customer to confirm the order and establishing it was fake with the delivery platform, Kayley took to social media to post about the incident and created her own ‘wall of shame’ with the fake reviews pinned to the wall for all to see.
Following the first fake order on Sunday evening, Kayley wrote on Facebook: “Thanks for your order, unfortunately for you, we know a fake order when we see one and didn’t start to prep it, congratulations on being our first ever one though!
“Also, well done on having so much time to click through an ENTIRE menu and click all the options, there’s this thing called a job that some of us have which doesn’t give us enough time of boredom for it. Personally, I’d be making myself a brew and watching a bit of Grey’s Anatomy but you do you hun. Love from Parky’s xoxoxo”
However, only a few days later, Kayley took to social media again to tell followers she had received several more orders from people making several different accounts on the online ordering platforms, and quickly established they were also fake. This time she wrote: “Some bored people in Wigan tonight, 2 fake orders this time”, followed by a laughing face emoji.
She added: “One to an assisted living address too! Sorry guys, cash orders are going off, if you need a cash order, give the page a message”.
Telling followers she had stopped cash orders unless people personally requested via message, Kayley received a number of supportive messages, with one person writing, “Wow some people have way too much time on their hands”.
Another added: “There’s been an article shared by Chorley police that a local road has been targeted with fake orders. All that food wasted and money lost by take aways for no reason. It’s sad people have the time to do this and try to destroy local businesses!”
While a third person said: “Let's be honest there are just some sad f******out there. As if times are not hard enough for small businesses right now with rising costs. Keep going with what you do guys xx much love xx.”
Speaking to the Manchester Evening News, Kayley said: “We’ve had nine of these fake orders in total. The first one was on Sunday, which was ordered through Wigan Eats and totalled £82.
“We’re lucky with Wigan Eats because we know them and at the bottom of the order it says how many orders that email address has made. They just say to us that if it’s in cash and you’re not sure, just give them a call.”
After receiving the order totalling £82, Kayley told us she rang to confirm the order but reached the voicemail. “I didn’t make anything and I said that if they come in I’ll apologise and explain, but obviously no one came in.
“Then on Monday we had eight, two on Wigan Eats and six on Just East and loads of fake calls. They rang the shop around 7.30pm and put the phone down and then it was every half hour from half onwards until 1.30am.
“What happens is they select cash payment and use random addresses around Wigan. One was an assisted living property - imagine if we had made it, went over and were banging on the door trying to deliver.”
Kayley says that while she has stopped cash orders unless people specifically message her, the business hasn’t suffered. “I mean we still do take a lot of cash orders, so having to change it to card only is annoying, but it’s not the end of the world, people still message to pay cash and it’s not slowed us down.
“We’ve actually stuck the receipts on the wall and called it the wall of shame - we’re finding it quite funny. The most annoying thing was my nine-year-old was picking up the calls as they were playing a game on the mobile phone, but we were just laughing.”
If anything, the experience has only emboldened the team to carry on calling it out. Kayley adds: “It’s not going to stop us, they’re wasting their own time at the end of day. It’s only going to make us more determined.
“Making new accounts of Just Eat and Wigan Eats is an effort, I honestly wouldn’t have the time. We’ve spoken to Just Eat too and they’re going to ban the accounts.
“Small businesses have setbacks all the time and we’ve all experienced it, but all the businesses around Wigan speak to each other about it. What’s happened is just pathetic really isn’t it?”
What Just Eat says
A spokesperson for Just Eat said: "Just Eat is only successful if our restaurant partners are successful and we have a track record of helping restaurants prosper. We have robust measures in place to block activity such as fraudulent orders and remove customers who are using credit/debit cards suspiciously, or have suspicious refund rates from our platform.
"Restaurant partners are always refunded in full when we find any fraudulent activity taking place. We are investigating this with the restaurant partner and if we find that the orders are fraudulent, we will of course take action as appropriate."
What Wigan Eats says
Commenting on the orders, Luke Charlton, founder and director of Wigan Eats said: “In terms of support, every single one of the takeaways and restaurants signed up to Wigan Eats gets an FAQ sheet which is stuck up in the takeaway and this has all the information on. We also tell our partners that if it’s a cash order with fewer than five orders then we advise them to ring and confirm the order first before making the food or drink.
“We’ve been getting these fake orders for a few years now and we have actually had to ban an address. It’s not the person who lives there but people that have targeted it, so we’ve had to speak to the person at the address and explain what’s happened, and also had the police involved as it’s bordering on harassment.
“We’ve also had to put our hands in our own pockets to help takeaways cover costs - sometimes covering the cost of the order when it's been made. We want to keep a good rapport with our takeaway partners though and have good relationships with them - we take pride in being the app that gives back. All the money we make we invest back into the community through local charities.”
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