Restaurant Delivery Ethics

[Kyle]

I ordered food from a local deli. My intent was to take home after work for my wife and I to eat for dinner. I ordered it for 2 pm, and intended to put it in the fridge for when I leave work at 5. There's a screw up with the delivery and it is not delivered until 3:30. The delivery driver drops it off with the receptionist she apologizes profusely for the delivery being late and tells her that they won't charge me for the food.

Do I accept the free food?

[Mike]

Find out who the delivery driver was and offer a huge tip.

Call them and tell them your side of the story and offer to pay for the food. They will probably tell you no, and then you keep the money without guilt. Or they let you pay and you can still be on the right side of ethics.

Pull a Pay-It-Forward bit and next time you order from them, offer to pay for your meal AND the next delivery in line. And leave a big tip.

There's nothing wrong with keeping it, but it puts you in a position to do something nice for someone.

[Zen]

If the food was made when you ordered it and delivered an hour and a half later, it had been sitting for a long time. Sure, it isn't quite long enough to become dangerous in terms of food poisoning, but it may still impact the quality. I see nothing wrong with accepting the free food.

[Elle]

Yes, needs more information. Did your food sit out for two hours? If so, not only do you not pay, you might not even want it!!! That's objective #1 to find out.

If it's just that they were behind on orders but yours came direct from the kitchen, then less problem. If the delivery driver is required to eat the cost, I would tip that person major because odds are high it's not that person's fault they're late. If the delivery driver isn't taking a hit, then give them a normal tip and say thanks for the free food. Why should you NOT take free food? It's not cool to give people orders an hour and a half late when they're paying good money, and that will be a learning experience they don't want to repeat. If they comp you and the food is good, then you know it's worth being a repeat customer, so comping your food is in their own self-interest too.

I had a similar experience recently when I was at a restaurant and it took over an hour to get our food even though other people were being served long before us. They comped our whole meal. We gave the server a major tip since it clearly wasn't his fault. We will return to that restaurant for sure, knowing that although we don't want food an hour late, that was unusual, the food is normally good, and they handled it Exactly as they should have.

[Cazmonster]

Yep - food safety is a concern. I would find out what you can before putting your stomach at risk.

Of course, you've got the iron guts that let you take on sardines in hot sauce, so your mileage may vary.

As far as the driver eating the cost of an order. In my years in the back of a pizza house, I never saw a driver have to take a hit for an order that went sideways.

[Kyle]

I called and insisted that they charge me. I wasn't worried about salami and pastrami going bad after an hour and a half. It was delicious, by the way!

[Elle]

Well, that was wrong of you, since now they're going to be okay with sending me my food an hour late, and disappointed when I want to pay less accordingly.

[Mike]

Or they may appreciate the honesty and decency of the act and it will inspire them to be better people.

[Elle]

Idealist!

[Elle]

I told this story to my husband and he is, shall we say, skeptical that things played out in the manner stated above. I have no horse in that race; as I note both that I have been accused falsely of playing Paranoia, but on other occasions very accurate predictions and assessments have been made.

[Mike]

Yes, because your husband would never go back and pay for something that he was legitimately given for free through no fault of his own, and he is incapable of imaging that anyone else would do so... especially someone like Kyle who he sees as being essentially similar to himself.

He is most likely mistaken in this case.

[Cazmonster]

Man, I could use free food about now.

[Elle]

[Mike]

I'm not saying he's not generous. I'm saying that in this situation, he would not go to the effort of going back to a place to pay money for something that he rightly deserved to get for free. And he assumes that no one else would either.

The point is that Kyle claims to have done something that he himself would not have not (he who is a good and generous person). Therefore, it must be a lie.

[Pdyx]

For what it's worth, I witnessed all this happening, and it was as Kyle described it. He called them and insisted he pay. Though I only heard one end of the conversation, it doesn't seem like they put up any sort of fight.

That said, there is one thing he 'lied' about (though maybe he just doesn't know?). This isn't a local deli.

[Kyle]

Okay two things:

1) SICK BURN RUNANIDE! Yeah, that's right. I did it. Jealous?

2) I know that Jason's Deli isn't a local deli. I just didn't want to get into detail.

[Elle]

[Mike]

[Elle]

because your husband would never go back and pay
he is incapable of imaging that anyone else would do so

[Mike]