Grab Food Philippines reached out to us and clarified several points into our news about recent viral posts of Grab Food Drivers getting canceled and paying for the food ordered.
Here are some points to clarify.
- Cancellation is only possible until the Grab Food Driver arrives at the store, its the prerogative of the driver to verify if all orders are available before punching the order. Because some adjustments will be done by the driver and customer if there some on the menu that is not available. But once the order is placed, the cancellation button will be automatically disabled.
- Grab Drivers are reimbursed of the amount in incidents of no-show customers. Still, reimbursements can still lead to a certain amount of time for the driver before they get their money back. This process can still improve in the future but we’re glad that this measure is included from the start and even on the orientation of the driver upon joining .
- No-show customers may face possible account suspension, its the measure of grab to penalize customers who possibly shut down their phones after an order is made. Or even other occasions that the driver is led to an occasion that he wasn’t able to communicate to the customer anymore.
Additionally, we ordered food to test this out and it’s true. You can no longer cancel the order once it has been placed, and we asked the driver that it happens rarely but it’s such a hassle. They said that customers will pin the wrong address on purpose and even shuts down their phone on them or put them on block calling.
We think Grab can still be more stringent about this as no one wants to miss a day of earning especially for the drivers that are braving the storm and traffic lately. For us, we believe that Grab should prioritize in the network Debit and Grab Pay customers, unfortunately, this payment method isn’t available for all restaurants yet. Just like Grab Platinum, there should be a similar system for loyal grab customers that they are aware of.
Ultimately, we’re glad that Grab is fast in taking action to clarify things about this issue. All-in-all we just need more consumer education and compassion to obviously say that no-show is wrong.