On February 17, Connor Calland, the owner of EborCibus Pizza in North Yorkshire, was contacted by Deliveroo about an order which had supposedly not been delivered.
The customer claimed they hadn’t received their £23.49 purchase of 12-inch Solar Goat Pig pizza, buffalo blue chicken loaded fries and mozzarella dippers.
A refund was issued, but after speaking to staff it became clear to Connor that something rather fishy was going on - and unfortunately it was not the first time something like this had happened.
It turned out the order had indeed been sent out and received, and a fed up Connor was determined to prove this.
So he took matters into his own hands, rummaging through the bins at the delivery address to find containers covered in buffalo sauce from the fries that were supposedly never delivered.
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The customer's mortified housemate told Connor that the fraudster was not home when he went to confront them, so he messaged them demanding an apology of “no less” than 750 words.
Connor did in fact receive the apology he sought, with the ashamed customer blaming “peer pressure”, and being “very naive and young” for their crimes.
The letter read: “Obviously this does not make my behaviour excusable but I hope it helps you understand.
“I realise my actions were very wrong and that they could lead me to some serious trouble if I continue with them. I have learnt a big lesson on not following in the acts of my peers. I am only hurting the local culture and the local people by acting in this manner.
“Please accept my sincerest apologies towards what has happened. I wholeheartedly regret my actions and will never do anything like this again.
They even added they would change it all if they “could go back in time”, offered monetary compensation and praised Connor’s “dedication” and “business ethics”.
Connor took to social media to spread awareness of this deceit, and the countless other claims like it which he says cost the business between £50 and £100 every week.
The business owner lamented that he had to take such extreme measures to protect his company, and criticised Deliveroo for “siding” with the customer.
He shared: "Deliveroo takes customers' side. They DOUBLE checked and found their fraud prevention measures did not fail! And by default, WE MUST BE LYING. Fortunately, I keep all the tickets, found their address. And visited.
"How deeply sad is it that in order to preserve the integrity of my business and staff I have to root through someone’s dirty bin. Knowing full well before I did this, that I was going to find my packaging. In the bin, we find all our packaging that cross-references to the order, the indicative buffalo sauce lining a container.
"In the end - Deliveroo still gets 14% commission regardless, we take the hit. And their 'Genuine customer, who is not abusing the system' received their full refund.
"Pathetic. Poor morals. Scum.
"Deliveroo make it so easy, as their system automatically refunds them and you have to prove they got the goods. Meanwhile, Deliveroo take their cut regardless."
A Deliveroo spokesperson said: "Deliveroo takes customer service extremely seriously and, in this case, a refund was issued to the customer in line with our policy.
"Whilst the restaurant was initially billed for the order, we have since spoken to them and decided not take payment on this occasion."
A spokesperson for EborCibus Pizza said: "It's regrettable that certain people fraudulently take advantage of goodwill and trust.
"We had to investigate this matter fully because this isn’t unfortunately a one-time occurrence, it happens on a daily basis to small businesses around the UK.
"Deliveroo does have anti-fraud prevention measures for companies that use Deliveroo riders, but in our case we use our own drivers, and the Deliveroo platform doesn’t have any protection for us. This event happened three months ago, and nothing has changed.
"We hope our story will perhaps change the mindset of people who believe it’s acceptable to do this, and urge Deliveroo to input anti-fraud measures."
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