Doordash: Difference between revisions
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According to Doordash, <blockquote>"Dashers get paid on a weekly basis for all deliveries or tasks completed between Monday - Sunday of the previous week (ending Sunday at midnight local time). Payments are transferred directly to your bank account through Direct Deposit and usually take 2-3 days to show up in your bank account, so payments will appear by Wednesday night."<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |date=2025-04-08 |title=When do Dashers get paid? |url=https://help.doordash.com/dashers/s/article/When-do-Dashers-get-paid?language=en_US |url-status=live |access-date=2025-04-08 |website=Doordash}}</ref></blockquote>Even though they are treated like contractors they are still payed within a weekly basis instead of a quota based system. Many users who contract with Doordash need funds quickly to be able to cover daily expenses. This puts the dashers in a tough spot relying on cash tips if any to continue to get by until they are able to retrieve their weekly pay. However Doordash has already thought of this and created Fastpay.<blockquote>"Fast Pay allows Dashers to cash out their earnings daily for a small fee of $1.99. This means that Dashers can receive their earnings on demand through DoorDash, rather than waiting for their weekly direct deposit or using a third party service."<ref name=":3" /></blockquote>By holding holding dashers funds they are incurring free interest on the money by not paying out the dasher as soon as a delivery is completed. By taking advantage of desperate workers they can make more money off of the original transaction. | According to Doordash, <blockquote>"Dashers get paid on a weekly basis for all deliveries or tasks completed between Monday - Sunday of the previous week (ending Sunday at midnight local time). Payments are transferred directly to your bank account through Direct Deposit and usually take 2-3 days to show up in your bank account, so payments will appear by Wednesday night."<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |date=2025-04-08 |title=When do Dashers get paid? |url=https://help.doordash.com/dashers/s/article/When-do-Dashers-get-paid?language=en_US |url-status=live |access-date=2025-04-08 |website=Doordash}}</ref></blockquote>Even though they are treated like contractors they are still payed within a weekly basis instead of a quota based system. Many users who contract with Doordash need funds quickly to be able to cover daily expenses. This puts the dashers in a tough spot relying on cash tips if any to continue to get by until they are able to retrieve their weekly pay. However Doordash has already thought of this and created Fastpay.<blockquote>"Fast Pay allows Dashers to cash out their earnings daily for a small fee of $1.99. This means that Dashers can receive their earnings on demand through DoorDash, rather than waiting for their weekly direct deposit or using a third party service."<ref name=":3" /></blockquote>By holding holding dashers funds they are incurring free interest on the money by not paying out the dasher as soon as a delivery is completed. By taking advantage of desperate workers they can make more money off of the original transaction. | ||
===Charging users | ===Charging users unclear "fees" for delivery=== | ||
Like many businesses Doordash does need to cover expenses that the company has. The issue lies with the transparency of how they do business with the customer base within their app. Many consumers have taken a legal class action lawsuit against Doordash.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |last=Mayer |first=Chloe |date=2023-06-09 |title=DoorDash Faces $1B Lawsuit Over Delivery Fees: 'Dupes Naive Consumers' - Newsweek |url=https://www.newsweek.com/lawsuit-doordash-sue-iphone-android-1805387 |url-status=live |access-date=2025-04-04 |website=Newsweek}}</ref> The suit alleges Doordash's unfair Value based pricing by leveraging their algorithm and pricing model changes on a per customer basis; and not what they order. Specific examples include: delivery fee, any form of a hidden marketing fee or hidden commission fee.<ref name=":4" /> Doordash has denied all alleged claims referring to it as a "copy-and-paste job". | Like many businesses Doordash does need to cover expenses that the company has. The issue lies with the transparency of how they do business with the customer base within their app. Many consumers have taken a legal class action lawsuit against Doordash.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |last=Mayer |first=Chloe |date=2023-06-09 |title=DoorDash Faces $1B Lawsuit Over Delivery Fees: 'Dupes Naive Consumers' - Newsweek |url=https://www.newsweek.com/lawsuit-doordash-sue-iphone-android-1805387 |url-status=live |access-date=2025-04-04 |website=Newsweek}}</ref> The suit alleges Doordash's unfair Value based pricing by leveraging their algorithm and pricing model changes on a per customer basis; and not what they order. Specific examples include: delivery fee, any form of a hidden marketing fee or hidden commission fee.<ref name=":4" /> Doordash has denied all alleged claims referring to it as a "copy-and-paste job". | ||
This is also combined with the fact that Doordash's menu prices are also considerably higher than the original venues that items or commodities could be purchased at. "Without letting consumers know, DoorDash is able to raise the prices of menu items in order to turn a greater profit."<ref name=":9">{{Cite web |last=Mallory |first=Paul |date=2023-08-23 |title=DoorDash Prices Higher Than Menu |url=https://consumergravity.com/doordash-prices-higher-than-menu/ |url-status=live |access-date=2025-05-14 |website=ConsumerGravity}}</ref> leaving consumers none the wiser unless they actually checked by either visiting a company site (which may not be possible due to them handling takeout) or going in person to check their pricing. Thus leaving the consumer completely unaware that they are being overcharged on the goods being provided by the service. While some restaurants have admitted to allowing price increases for delivery, however in some cases "this is even done without the restaurant’s permission. Which means that they are also not receiving any of the extra money."<ref name=":9" /> leaving Doordash to pocket all the extra profit for itself on top of all the other fees it charges it's services. | |||
===Data breach exposing millions of dashers and company info<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":5" />=== | ===Data breach exposing millions of dashers and company info<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":5" />=== | ||
In mid 2019 Doordash suffered a data breach that effected 4.9 million customers, drivers and businesses sensitive information combined. Individuals that had joined Doordash after April 5th of 2018 were not effected. this breach took 5 months to be found. Doordash claims that "a third-party service provider," was to blame for this leak, but the third party was never named. The contents of the data exposed has been disclosed with this chart below. | In mid 2019 Doordash suffered a data breach that effected 4.9 million customers, drivers and businesses sensitive information combined. Individuals that had joined Doordash after April 5th of 2018 were not effected. this breach took 5 months to be found. Doordash claims that "a third-party service provider," was to blame for this leak, but the third party was never named. The contents of the data exposed has been disclosed with this chart below. | ||
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This has caught the eye of D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine in December 10 of 2020. As they have sent a cease and desist notice on Tuesday warning Doordash that charging restaurants more than 15% on commissions may violate District laws. The company complied two days later stating they "decided not to charge DC restaurants their contractual DashPass rate at this time."<ref name=":1" /> | This has caught the eye of D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine in December 10 of 2020. As they have sent a cease and desist notice on Tuesday warning Doordash that charging restaurants more than 15% on commissions may violate District laws. The company complied two days later stating they "decided not to charge DC restaurants their contractual DashPass rate at this time."<ref name=":1" /> | ||
===Using AI to falsely advertise what menu items look like<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-04-09 |title=DoorDash Unveils Suite of AI-Powered Tools to Enhance Online Menus and Streamline Merchant Operations |url=https://about.doordash.com/en-us/news/doordash-unveils-ai-powered-tools-to-enhance-online-menus-and-streamline-merchant-operations |url-status=live |access-date=2025-04-11 |website=Doordash}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Baker |first=Alex |date=2024-02-28 |title=The photos that you see on food delivery apps are probably AI |url=https://www.diyphotography.net/ghost-kitchens-using-ai-images-on-food-delivery-apps/ |url-status=live |access-date=2025-04-11 |website=DiyPhotography}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Canton |first=Rafael |date=2023-04-07 |title=The picture of that food you’re ordering online may have been created by AI |url=https://www.fastcompany.com/90870969/food-delivery-startup-ai-photos-swipeby |url-status=live |access-date=2025-04-11 |website=FastCompany}}</ref>=== | ===Using AI to falsely advertise what menu items look like<ref name=":10">{{Cite web |date=2025-04-09 |title=DoorDash Unveils Suite of AI-Powered Tools to Enhance Online Menus and Streamline Merchant Operations |url=https://about.doordash.com/en-us/news/doordash-unveils-ai-powered-tools-to-enhance-online-menus-and-streamline-merchant-operations |url-status=live |access-date=2025-04-11 |website=Doordash}}</ref><ref name=":11">{{Cite web |last=Baker |first=Alex |date=2024-02-28 |title=The photos that you see on food delivery apps are probably AI |url=https://www.diyphotography.net/ghost-kitchens-using-ai-images-on-food-delivery-apps/ |url-status=live |access-date=2025-04-11 |website=DiyPhotography}}</ref><ref name=":12">{{Cite web |last=Canton |first=Rafael |date=2023-04-07 |title=The picture of that food you’re ordering online may have been created by AI |url=https://www.fastcompany.com/90870969/food-delivery-startup-ai-photos-swipeby |url-status=live |access-date=2025-04-11 |website=FastCompany}}</ref>=== | ||
With many menus, consumers expect an accurate description of what they are ordering along with the ingredients that are being used to make it. In recent years companies have started relying on AI to generate a description and a complimentary photo of what the dish should look like. But in many cases this was done to falsely advertise to boost sales. We can look to an earlier instance during the lock down when ghost kitchens were popular;<blockquote>"Ghost kitchens are allegedly using AI-generated images on food delivery sites such as GrubHub and DoorDash. The images are used to promote online orders from kitchens that solely sell their food via online delivery services. Rather than using real photographers, they are using images of food that do not exist."<ref name=":11" /></blockquote>Of which many delivered products that did not match the item description at all or was poorer quality than what was shown to them within ordering. Not to mention in many countries<blockquote>"there are firm advertising laws that state exactly what you have to show and what can be substituted in food photography. This helps protect consumers, making sure they get what they order."<ref name=":11" /></blockquote>Meaning when generating a picture of food it is not considered edible by many countries standards and may even be illegal. | |||
But industries are constantly changing; custom diffusion models being packaged like Swipeby to provide cheap alternatives to make selling menu items at a higher volume.<blockquote>"The company points to a survey from Snappr, a photography and visual content platform, that found high-quality food photos can increase orders on restaurant delivery apps by 35%."<ref name=":12" /></blockquote>By seeing the results that such a tool can provide shows how pressing it can be for other businesses to compete if they are not also resorting to the same measures. During this time Doordash had policies about having generative photos for menu items; the founder however thinks things will change soon as he said "Give it six months, that will change,” he says. “I will bet money on it. Because with AI generation right now, it makes so much sense."<ref name=":12" /> | |||
'''Needs more clarification on source'''<ref name=":10" /> (starter below) | |||
And as of 2025 Doordash has launched it's own tool for generating AI menus on it's platform which is able to generate descriptions and pictures of an item being listed. | |||
===Settling lawsuits due to unlawful business practices<ref name=":2" />=== | ===Settling lawsuits due to unlawful business practices<ref name=":2" />=== | ||