A popular West Belfast cafe has spoken out about the "soul-destroying" impact of food delivery service "scam" that is circulating online on local businesses.
Joseph McCall, owner of The Grub Hub, took to social media after having to issue a number of refunds over the weekend to people ordering through the Just Eat app.
Speaking to Belfast Live, Joseph said: "There are rising costs on everything at the minute in the food industry and I only opened up my shop about a year ago and we could have never expected these costs, it's absolutely mad and we are struggling. The shop is really busy but the likes of electric bills, gas bills, food bills and wages constantly add up.
"We are trying every method possible to get more people in the doors and trying to generate money so we decided to get Just Eat.
"We give them a percentage of our intake and then they also get fees but we thought it would be a good way to get a couple of extra pounds a day - whether it be £100 or £200 a day, it will all go towards something."
Since expanding their services through the delivery app, Joseph was made aware of a "scam" that encourages customers to report issues with their food, such as it being cold or late, and Just Eat will issue a full refund, even if there were no problems with the order.
"One of the orders on Saturday was almost £40 and there were three Ceaser salads in it, which are meant to be cold, but they put through the complaint as cold food and got their money back - you can go online and see how exactly to do this scam and not be questioned.
"We end up having to foot the bill for this food on top of paying the staff their wages and instead of us getting by, we don't have the money there because your spending it to get food out to people and then the money never comes in for it.
Last Saturday, across a number of orders for "cold food" refunds from Just Eat, The Grub Hub lost out on just under £50 from refunds, which Joseph highlighted "all adds up" during these difficult times.
He added: "People are obviously sitting at the other end of their phones thinking that they are scamming Just Eat but they are hurting the shop that is making the food - we end up not making a penny and still owe Just Eat commission on the order too."
Joseph said that those partaking in this "scam" should be embarrassed by their behaviour as it only impacts the local businesses trying to do their best for the community.
He continued: "You aren't scamming a big multi-million-pound business who can probably afford to give away a wrap or whatever else - every time someone takes money from us, it's coming out of my pocket which is meant to be paying a girl from the local area or a chef from their community.
"We give jobs to local people and they are stealing this from them. We will end up having to shut down if we don't bring in money and people will lose jobs.
"It is just soul-destroying knowing that you are doing everything you can to get their food on time because we are so busy, to pay our delivery driver, to pay our staff, rent, electric and everything on top of that that people don't realise - people won't see that and think it's just a free meal."
He fears that he will not be able to operate his business for much longer if issues like this continue to be a problem.
"The Grub Hub is a place for the community and if anyone has any struggles or problems, we open out the back after hours and bring them in for a coffee and a chat. On Friday we hold a gamblers class for compulsive gamblers to keep them off it and it's used as a local hub but it will have to close very soon if this keeps happening."
A Just Eat spokesperson said: "Just Eat is only successful if our restaurant partners are successful and we have a track record of helping restaurants prosper.
"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."
