What To Do When You Get Someone Else's Food Delivery By Mistake

Picture this: A delivery driver hands over your brown paper bag. It seems kind of heavy, considering that you only ordered two burgers, but you don't think much of it until a few minutes later when you tear it open to reveal four sandwiches. Maybe there's a receipt stapled to the side of the bag — you check that and sure enough, neither your name nor your order is written on it.

If you're lucky and the driver is still parked in front of your place, you can hopefully swap out the wrong delivery for the right one (don't be too harsh on the delivery person: They're often overworked and underpaid). That said, it's possible your order was mistakenly handed off to somebody else earlier on. Plus, delivery apps may have rules about whether drivers can take back food that's already been handed over: Anecdotes from users of apps like DoorDash and Uber Eats suggest that meals from restaurants can't be returned, although there could be gray areas if the food hasn't been opened (there are obvious hygiene and safety concerns if a customer received the wrong order, touched all the food, and tried to swap it). Depending on the app and perhaps the driver's preferences, you may even be able to contact the delivery person for a short window after the delivery to try and sort things out (although it might be tough if you're in a location where robots are delivering food in place of people.

If it's not possible to quickly figure out a way to swap the orders through the delivery person, you'll probably need to go through the app's customer service to sort things out. DoorDash, GrubHub, and Uber Eats all recommend taking this route if you get the wrong order or if something is missing. It's useful to include a picture of the receipt from the incorrect order bag, and maybe the items inside the bag.

You'll usually find this option in the "help" or "support" section of the app, or if you find your order in the app, there may be an option to open a complaint directly from that page. You probably won't want to contact the restaurant — if you received somebody else's order, chances are that the delivery person made the mistake and there's really not much the restaurant can do. (Even if they could make the order again, they would still need the app to send a delivery person to get it to you.) Chances are you'll receive a refund, although there are cases of people not receiving one immediately. You may need to be prepared to argue for it.

As for the food: If the intended recipient is nearby, you could be extra-nice and take it in person (although you're obviously not obliged to) — but otherwise, since restaurants generally can't and won't take food back, you may as well enjoy whatever you received.

While it's likely you'll get free food out of this type of mix up, if you really want to get the exact food from your original order, it may not necessarily be straightforward. For example, Uber Eats explicitly says that wrong orders cannot be replaced, while DoorDash says that redelivery of an incorrect order is an option, but with the caveat "if available." (For example, if you order later in the evening and the restaurant is about to close, you may be too late to get your order remade.)

The problem here is that there's no guarantee that an app's customer service will quickly handle a complaint over an incorrect delivery. Uber Eats says it aims to deal with these kinds of things within an hour, while GrubHub just says it aims to help you out "right away." So even if a re-delivery is possible, you may have to wait until an app's customer service staff get around to dealing with your complaint.

The fastest way to get your exact order is to simply place a new delivery order with the restaurant and hope that nothing goes wrong this time. However, you'll have to pay for that new delivery, and there's no telling if you'll be able to get a refund (of course, the original incorrect order should ideally be refunded). And let it be a lesson for next time: Check you've got the right order the moment that the bag is in your hand.