A furious Edinburgh mum has been forced to use a food bank after JustEat charged her £48 for a grocery order that she cancelled before a driver was even assigned.
Caitlin, who has a three-year-old daughter with autism, says the money was her entire weekly food budget and she has now been left reliant on help from charities and her family. She ordered the food shop from Asda in Chesser using the JustEat app at roughly 11.36am on Friday, May 26.
But less than half an hour later she received a notification saying that several items were unavailable. She decided to cancel the order before a driver was assigned and claims that JustEat initially agreed to refund her, according to Edinburgh Live.
However, the mum later received another message to say she would not be paid back any of the £48, as it was considered a 100 per cent cancellation fee.
A fuming Caitlin explained: “I ordered a grocery shop on Friday so we would have things that night and in the morning, it was Asda at Chesser through JustEat. It worked out cheaper than the Asda online delivery because Asda charged £8.50 for same day delivery.
"When they were sorting the order they cancelled a bunch of items, so I cancelled the whole order straight after that update and was just going to suck it up and go to the shops in the morning. They asked me how I wanted to be refunded and I selected ‘now’ and I even got a notification saying my refund was on its way, but after that they wiped all my history and told me that I had accepted their 100 per cent cancellation fee.
“It is honestly ridiculous! When I saw that items were unavailable I cancelled it immediately. They stated in their terms and conditions that there is a ‘grace period’ only they don’t state how long that is open for.
“It surely can't be the same minute that I'm informed of changes! They are claiming I accepted these terms but I don't understand why anyone would choose to pay £48 for nothing?
“I would understand if it was a restaurant where the food had been prepared but all of these items would have been reshelved and sold again. I was sent a confirmation email saying I would be refunded and only became a bit suspicious when all my orders on my account were erased.
“Losing out on £48 has meant my daughter and I have had to use food banks and rely on support through the council and borrow money from family. I always make sure my daughter has everything she needs, I don't know how we would get by sometimes if we didn't have the support we have.
“I still don't understand how they can just take our money like that, I'm not able to work because of disabilities and my daughter has autism and needs extra sensory equipment and tools, so £48 is a lot of money to pay for thin air.
“I just deserve to be paid back.”
After being contacted by Edinburgh Live, JustEat issued an apology to Caitlin and said that her experience fell below their standards. They have since agreed to send her a full refund.
A JustEat spokesperson said: "We want our customers to have a positive experience when ordering their food online and are sorry to hear that in this case, this customer's experience did not reflect the high standards we would hope to deliver. We can confirm that a full refund has been issued and we have been in direct contact with the customer."
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