Since being founded back in 2013 now, Deliveroo is a huge delivery service and is probably the biggest name for food delivery in the UK, being in all major towns and cities. For the purpose of this review, I have only used Deliveroo in the past in Manchester, London and Liverpool, but they are based all around the country in the likes of Birmingham, London and more.
My first memory of Deliveroo was when they first launched in the UK and they basically took over Manchester Victoria with advertising for a period of a few weeks, which was back when they first launched in Manchester.
I have used Deliveroo on a number of occasions now, having brands such as Nando's, Pizza Express, Bella Itallia, Wagamama, Croma and many other large and independent restaurants, it probably does have the biggest selection of places to order from in major cities, with the exception of Just Eat which is bigger as they focus on local takeaways with only restaurants such as Gourmet Burger Kitchen (also on Deliveroo) in big cities.
Deliveroo's big limitation is both its areas served and customer service, in many towns just a few miles away from the city centre, Deliveroo don't appear to deliver such as in Middleton, around 5 miles from Manchester city centre, even Uber EATS have reached Middleton after operating in a shorter length of time in Deliveroo, this for me is really disappointing and is really restricting and pessimistic from the company too, showing a lack of willingness to grow.
Having used Deliveroo three times now, I have been upset on all occasions, one of those times was down to the driver mistreating the food to the point it was bashed in and the food arrived partially cold and partially sloshed all over (I received a partial refund for that), this really did put me off ordering from Deliveroo for over a year until I gave them another chance and I rather wish I didn't.
The second time I ordered Deliveroo was from Wagamama in Manchester, the driver who delivered my food seemed really friendly but the food quality was bad, I admit the food being bad is not Deliveroo's fault as they don't physically go into the kitchen but how they deal with the food being bad is, I was treated as if I was lying, I was asked to send "evidence", eventually I was provided with a refund which I felt I was entitled to as the food ended up in the bin.
I did try to order Deliveroo on two more occasions with another Manchester restauraunt, the order appeared to be rejected - once again this isn't Deliveroo's fault but when the order is in the processing stage and you go into help, it always comes up with "your food is being prepared" which I don't get like this is misleading, until your food goes out for delivery there is no update which leaves the customer in the dark - the customer call centre seemed rude and the staff even spoke poor English so they were also no help which was a shame.
My third experience with Deliveroo where I actually received food, I had another problem with the quality of my food which lead to the pasta being stuck together and other issues with the taste (see review for Pasta Cosa in Liverpool), after originally promising a refund and then ignoring my emails (once again the telephone support was as useful as a lifejacket in a bath), I was denied a refund, despite sending them evidence they asked for of the food being poor quality and ended up in the bin which makes no sense.
Deliveroo is a delivery service, they might not have any influence in the food is really good or really bad, but what they do have influence is in the ease to place orders and passing information onto the customer with good customer service, which they frankly don't do. The delivery fees also reach really high levels, sometimes between 3 and 4 pounds, with a lack of offers for the food (also this lacks compared to rivals such as UberEATS who frequently have money saving offers), and even then you are often to spend a really high amount (every other delivery provider I know who sets a £10-£15 minimum spend charges nowhere near those figures for delivery on top of that!) so therefore I sadly feel Deliveroo not only deserves a single one-star rating but based on experiences in three different areas, this awful company with no respect or kindness towards the customer deserves a place on my "Avoid at all costs" list, especially considering the fact I had to seek guidance from my Bank and Mastercard to file a claim to get a refund. read more
