SMCnyc

Nov 25, 2018

Very shady business practices by…

Very shady business practices by Delivery.com. My experience was similar to several previous reviewers. I signed up for a delivery.com account to order from a restaurant a few blocks from me. I thought the order went through, but then after a few minutes received a text saying my order was cancelled, and to check my email for further info. The email from delivery. com said my account was flagged and deactivated by their third party security company, due to suspicion of fraud, and gave an 800 number for further info. I called and got nowhere with customer service. They said they couldn't tell me why my account was flagged, but they could run a request while I waited to re-activate my account. I waited, and they came back on the line to say sorry, but the third party company had declined my request and my account was still flagged and deactivated. Over and over, the customer service rep repeated that they aren't told for what reason accounts are flagged, but that mine was flagged and there was nothing they or I could do about it. Sorta felt like the beginning of an episode of Black Mirror... Meanwhile, my husband called another restaurant and ordered food over the phone, so at least we got to eat dinner that night. After the call, I got a second email stating that my account was deactivated after the further review that I called to ask for (which is just what a fraudulent scammer would do, right?! Not). I replied to that email asking customer service to reach out to me to rectify the situation. I asked because I'm concerned that my info - name, address, email address, phone - has a "fraudulent" flag on it out there on the internet. Needless to say, they never called, and I forgot about it. Then today, I went to order from a different restaurant that also uses delivery.com. I tried to log in with the account info I had set up earlier in the month (thinking maybe their third party had reviewed my account info and could see that I'm legit), and, sure enough, got a message saying my account was deactivated and giving the 800 number. So, I first called a different Japanese restaurant *on the phone* and placed an order - then called delivery.com's customer service to see about activating my account and clearing my good name. Customer service referred to the order I had placed earlier in the month - that my account had been flagged and deactivated - and kept saying the same thing, over and over, even after I was transferred to a "supervisor." I was told that at some point they might decide to activate my account, but there is no way for me to request it or to appeal my account being shut down. Now, does this matter? I suppose not, though it is unsettling to think that "fraud" is being associated with my personal info for no good reason. It just seems like a crazy way to run a business, with me and several other reviewers experiencing the same random "suspicion" and "deactivating." Or maybe the business model is to keep delivery.com small and exclusive, and shutting people out for no reason makes other people who can use the website feel superior? Bad practices, bad customer service.