The owner of a takeaway hit by "bogus" refund claims says he feels 'blackmailed' to keep his business with Just Eat.
Junaid Khan is the latest takeaway owner to hit out at the website's refund policy after a controversial change last autumn.
Mr Khan, who owns Meat Me Here in Manchester, says refunds are now costing his business 'over £100 a month' and believes some customers are making false claims to get their money back.
He told the Manchester Evening News he has recently been stung by a customer claiming their order was left outside in the rain - despite delivering the food face-to-face himself.
And on another occasion, Mr Khan says a customer claimed their food never arrived and gave a different door number for delivery, even though the food had been gratefully received.
Mr Khan said: "This has been going on for a few months. Anybody can just complain to Just Eat as a customer that they have not received the food without any proof.
"Restaurants and takeaway owners are already struggling with Covid and everything.
"Just Eat is not only working for customers, it should be working for us too. It charges us for its services as well, but it is not listening to us.
"At least ask us what happened with the order and we can give our side of the story. Just Eat is just trying to get customers to stay, but it's making us lose money."
Just Eat automatically grants refunds to customers who request them.
Previously, the company would approach takeaways asking if they accepted the refund and if the individual business said no, Just Eat would provide the money itself.
However, last autumn the company stopped giving refunds itself, instead opting to charge individual takeaways for every refund claim where it believes the fault lies with the takeaway.
Mr Khan, who runs Meat Me Here with business partner Moshim Raza, believes the system is open to abuse from customers who are looking to 'scam' takeaways out of free meals.
He said that last December, he spoke to Just Eat after someone placed an order for a house number 56.
Mr Khan says he delivered the food himself, but the customer went on to claim it never arrived and was really meant for number 54.
The business owner says he was again targeted by a 'scammer' last week, when someone claimed a meal he had delivered face-to-face was left out in the rain, leading to a 'heated' conversation with Just Eat's customer service team.
Mr Khan said: "I wanted to speak to somebody else than customer services so they could explain what due diligence they had done - had they seen a picture of the food left in the rain?
"Nobody called me back."
Mr Khan says another came in to his takeaway from the same address, from someone claiming to be a new Just Eat customer, but he cancelled the order fearing it would be another scam attempt.
Mr Khan is not the first takeaway owner to speak out over Just Eat's refund policy in recent months.
Hassan Habib, who runs Lucky's in Oldham, told the MEN last December that one customer claimed a refund for their ice cream being 'too cold'.
And Marc Faulkner, who runs three takeaways in St Helens, said he was being 'driven out of business' by the 'scam' after Just Eat's refund policy first changed.
Mr Khan says around 40% of his business comes through Just Eat, meaning it would be difficult to stop using the website.
He said: "It's like a blackmail situation because we know we are getting so much business from Just Eat, we can't really quit.
"If there were 100 restaurants that said they were willing to quit, I would do it because I know that would cause Just Eat some damage, but me alone wouldn't make any difference."
What Just Eat has said
Just Eat insists it has not seen an increase in refunds since changing its policy, which it says is in line with the website's competitors.
The company says all fraudulent claims can be challenged by individual takeaways within a month - having previously only had 10 days to do this - and claims it has robust measures in place to block irregular activity.
Just Eat told the MEN that Meat Me Here had challenged two refunds since the beginning of January, totalling £28.
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.
"The recent measures we’ve put in place are in line with industry standards and are to ensure an even fairer refunds process for all, such as increasing the time for restaurants to raise any disputes.
"Restaurant partners are always refunded in full when we find any fraudulent activity taking place.
"We’re keen to maintain an open dialogue with the restaurants on our platform and continue to review our policies and processes in this space to support both customers and restaurants alike."
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