The title doesn't do it justice. These tactics are pretty dishonest I must admit:
> Making its "Delivery Fee" seem related to distance or demand, even though none of it goes to the delivery person.
I could see they justify this as value-based pricing. As in, it would have costed more for you to travel farther to get the food from that particular restaurant if you were to order pickup. The thing I find dishonest is labeling this the "delivery fee". I always thought that the money goes at this partially to the deliverer.
> Offering an "Express" option that implies faster delivery, but then changing the wording to "Priority" in billing so it is not held to delivery times.
> Charging an "Expanded Range Delivery" fee that seems based on distance but is really based on a restaurant's subscription level and demand.
So things that bring no value to the user. The question is, if people know this will they vote with their dollars and move their business elsewhere?
> Adding an undisclosed 99 cent "marketing fee," paid by the customer rather than the restaurant, to promote menu items that customers add to their carts.
This one wins the cake. So each user is forced to pay a dollar to promote the items they have ordered from that menu. Let's call this preach-flation?
> I could see they justify this as value-based pricing. As in, it would have costed more for you to travel farther to get the food from that particular restaurant if you were to order pickup.
If this isn’t going to the driver, it’s absolutely unacceptable. DoorDash does not have to do more work because you would have had to drive further, but the actual driver does have to drive further, and is working for a flat fee.
To hear people on HN say things like this explains exactly why these companies do this. This is absolutely not a reasonable way to think.
Many rental car companies, will charge you differently if you are picking up a car at certain airports depending on which country you say your residence is. Same car, picked up at the same airport, rented for the same amount of days with same insurances, with invoice issued out of the country where you are picking up the car. Different price...
I'm skeptical because you can get quotes for rental cars without entering any personal details. I guess they could geolocate based on your IP but it still sounds fishy.
Here is my citation...You can try yourself. It's even worst than I remember. Make sure to always use Incognito mode, a different browser and if possible a VPN arriving from different locations.
-> Pickup Car At Florence Aiport at 12:00 -> Next Monday the 29 May -> Return next Friday the 2 of June at 12:00
You will notice the webpage has in the beginning a prominent "I Live In". Here are some quotes for the same model AUDI Q5 AUTOMATIC and time period.
"I live in The Netherlands" -> €287.49 / day
"I live in Greece" -> €318.64 / day
"I live in Jamaica" -> "Sorry, there’s no vehicle available at:" -> When two seconds before there was...And suddenly there is when you say you live in Germany....I know....It's incredible :-))
At least in my experience the price online includes any/all “airport fees” (not named that, but for the sake of simplification) and when you pick up the car and prove that you live locally (ie are not using the airport) they will void those fees, but only usually if I ask
Makes me feel less headache as I do not use delivery for food. I usually cook myself or go and buy ready stuff. If I am too lazy to visit nearest food place then I am not really hungry.
> Making its "Delivery Fee" seem related to distance or demand, even though none of it goes to the delivery person.
I could see they justify this as value-based pricing. As in, it would have costed more for you to travel farther to get the food from that particular restaurant if you were to order pickup. The thing I find dishonest is labeling this the "delivery fee". I always thought that the money goes at this partially to the deliverer.
> Offering an "Express" option that implies faster delivery, but then changing the wording to "Priority" in billing so it is not held to delivery times.
> Charging an "Expanded Range Delivery" fee that seems based on distance but is really based on a restaurant's subscription level and demand.
So things that bring no value to the user. The question is, if people know this will they vote with their dollars and move their business elsewhere?
> Adding an undisclosed 99 cent "marketing fee," paid by the customer rather than the restaurant, to promote menu items that customers add to their carts.
This one wins the cake. So each user is forced to pay a dollar to promote the items they have ordered from that menu. Let's call this preach-flation?