Local restaurant owner slams meal delivery service

A local restaurant owner would like to slam the door on Doordash, the meal-delivery service that expanded to the Dayton area last fall.

In an April 7 blog entry headlined, "Why We Don't Accept Orders from Doordash," Teresa Howard Geraci, co-owner of Beavercreek Pizza Dive restaurant at 4021 Dayton-Xenia Road, says her restaurant has no contract or agreement with Doordash, and she was alarmed when she searched for her restaurant on Google and saw Doordash listed as the only online ordering option.

Her pizza shop in fact does have its own online ordering system, and its own delivery drivers.

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Geraci wrote in an addendum that she was able to persuade Google Monday to remove Doordash from her restaurant’s Google listing, but it is still listed on at least one other search engine.

And Geraci says in her blog post that Doordash called in an order and then did not show up to pick up the order, costing the restaurant money.

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“We are unable to get DoorDash to pay for orders placed from their call center which were not picked up. DoorDash stiffed us,” the restaurant owner said.

This news outlet started Monday attempting to obtain a response from Doordash. A spokeswoman for the meal-delivery service said Tuesday afternoon via email that she was looking into the matter and would provide a response, which has not yet been received. This story will be updated with any response Doordash provides.

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Geraci encouraged her customers to avoid a “middleman” such as Doordash and deal directly with her restaurant.

“You don’t need Doordash. We have online ordering and we deliver,” she wrote. “I have no idea what Doordash charges for delivery or service fees, or if they offer the best deals, or if their service is good. I do know that on our online ordering, you’ll get the best daily deals and no additional service fees. Our delivery fee is $2.50 (and a tip for the driver). And, you’ll get our happiness guarantee.”

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“Our delivery drivers are our employees, currently making at least $9.15 an hour, plus tips. They are covered by our business insurances and workers compensation. They are treated with respect as employees and are responsible to us for their customer service. They are part of our team.”

Some of the issues Geraci spotlights are not new.

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Eater New York's web site published a story in November 2015 headlined, "Delivery Start-Up DoorDash Infuriates Some Restaurateurs by Working Around Them" that echoes similar complaints.

The Dayton area, or at least some communities in the region, have become a hotbed of competition among meal-delivery services in recent months, as companies such as Grubhub, Uber Eats and Doordash have expanded their presence and services here.

The San Francisco-based DoorDash was founded in 2013.

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