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#Post#: 40696--------------------------------------------------
Home delivered food - received an extra dish - what's the
etiquette here?
DIR By: LifeOnPluto
Date: October 19, 2019, 12:43 am
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Last night DP and I ordered in some home-delivered food. Long
story short, they gave us an additional dish that we had not
ordered. We only discovered this after the delivery guy had
already left.
I suggested phoning up the restaurant to explain that we'd
received an additional dish, but it was quite late, and we were
tired and hungry, and my DP talked me out of it, saying it was
the restaurant's mistake and the onus was on them to contact us.
We did however, set the additional food aside so if the
restaurant did realise their mistake and call us up to ask for
it back, it would still be available.
The restaurant didn't call, and it looks like we were never
charged for it. Now I'm feeling guilty that we basically got a
free dish (which was most likely part of someone else's order).
So another customer was inconvenienced, thanks to our inaction.
Plus, a lot of take-out restaurants penalise the delivery
drivers for mistakes, by taking the cost of the replacement dish
out of their pay (yeah, it's illegal, but it still happens). So
it's possible our inaction also screwed the delivery driver too.
(My guilt, however, was not enough to prevent me from eating the
additional dish for lunch today).
So Brimstoners - were we rude? What's the etiquette here when
you receive extra food you didn't order/pay for? Is it ok to
just eat it?
#Post#: 40700--------------------------------------------------
Re: Home delivered food - received an extra dish - what's the
etiquette here?
DIR By: oogyda
Date: October 19, 2019, 6:01 am
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Things may be different where you are, but around here, the
restaurant would not be able to send the extra dish to the
correct recipient after retrieving it from you due to food
handling/serving rules.
Even so, I think you should have called. The restaurant would
have been alerted to check other deliveries and would have been
able to remake the dish and get it to the intended customer
sooner.
#Post#: 40707--------------------------------------------------
Re: Home delivered food - received an extra dish - what's the
etiquette here?
DIR By: sandisadie
Date: October 19, 2019, 9:38 am
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I agree with Oogyda.
#Post#: 40708--------------------------------------------------
Re: Home delivered food - received an extra dish - what's the
etiquette here?
DIR By: Rose Red
Date: October 19, 2019, 9:46 am
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Exactly what I was going to say; call for both reasons.
Most likely they'd just tell you to keep it since it's too much
bother to do otherwise. They even do that at fast food or sit
down places because they have to throw it away once it leaves
the kitchen. Don't let anyone tell you they recycle because
those who do are breaking health laws.
#Post#: 40712--------------------------------------------------
Re: Home delivered food - received an extra dish - what's the
etiquette here?
DIR By: TootsNYC
Date: October 19, 2019, 10:28 am
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I agree with everyone. It’s a kindness to the restaurant. And if
you order from there regularly, it would be good for your
reputation. You probably didn’t take a reputation hitting, but
you lost an opportunity for a boost
#Post#: 40716--------------------------------------------------
Re: Home delivered food - received an extra dish - what's the
etiquette here?
DIR By: Aleko
Date: October 19, 2019, 1:01 pm
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I'm with everyone else. If they were still open, you should have
phoned them. They would almost certainly have told you to eat it
anyway, for all the reasons others have said, but (a) you would
have been enabled to do so with a clear conscience; (2) they
would register you as honest decent customers who didn't
automatically decide that their error was your good luck; and
(c) they would have been able to think how that had happened and
if it was someone else's order they could have remade and rushed
it out to the customer, and kept their goodwill.
#Post#: 40721--------------------------------------------------
Re: Home delivered food - received an extra dish - what's the
etiquette here?
DIR By: LurkingGurl
Date: October 19, 2019, 3:10 pm
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I get home delivered food all the time and I don't think you
should have called the restaurant nor do I think you should call
them now.
It's their job to put the orders together properly and make sure
that the right driver gets the right order.
It is also the driver's job to make sure that the order he/she
is picking up is complete and correct.
Whoever the extra dish was meant for can call and have it
re-made and delivered or have it taken off their bill.
Just enjoy your surprise dish. They can't take it back. They
know that someone must have ended up with it. And it's not your
business to try and figure out their business for them--whether
it's the restaurant who can't package the orders correctly or
the delivery service that can't get its drivers to make sure
what they're picking up is ok.
It's just as possible that you could have received a dish that
you had to throw out because you didn't like it or were allergic
to it. It's a happy coincidence that it was something you could
use.
By calling, you're just taking up someone's time and
interrupting the flow of business to change exactly nothing.
Perhaps it eases your conscience? Who cares? You're not a bad
person for just accepting the free thing and going on with your
life. They'll know a mistake was made when someone else doesn't
get their dish and they have to deal with that.
And maybe in the future they'll do a better job.
As far as reputations are concerned, the businesses should be
thinking about their own ability to accurately fill and deliver
orders rather than whether someone who inadvertently benefits
from their bumbling feels compelled to try to iron the whole
mess out.
#Post#: 40724--------------------------------------------------
Re: Home delivered food - received an extra dish - what's the
etiquette here?
DIR By: iolaus
Date: October 19, 2019, 4:02 pm
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When we had an order where they delivered the wrong thing (we'd
ordered the vegetarian version they sent the meat) they brought
the correct version at no cost and told us to keep the first
dish (DH eats meat so he ate it)
I think I would have rung to tell them but wouldn't have
expected anything other than them saying keep it - but
potentially they could have had time to add another to the one
who had ordered it
#Post#: 40728--------------------------------------------------
Re: Home delivered food - received an extra dish - what's the
etiquette here?
DIR By: andi
Date: October 19, 2019, 5:19 pm
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--- Quote from: oogyda link ---
>
> Things may be different where you are, but around here, the
restaurant would not be able to send the extra dish to the
correct recipient after retrieving it from you due to food
handling/serving rules.
>
> Even so, I think you should have called. The restaurant would
have been alerted to check other deliveries and would have been
able to remake the dish and get it to the intended customer
sooner.
>
--- End Quote ---
POD.
#Post#: 40729--------------------------------------------------
Re: Home delivered food - received an extra dish - what's the
etiquette here?
DIR By: Amara
Date: October 19, 2019, 6:28 pm
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I feel strongly that you shouldn't profit by their mistake.
Look, we all make occasional mistakes in our jobs. The company
will generally absorb those mistakes by viewing them as the cost
of doing business.
But when a customer profits, and knows it, then I think you need
to ask yourself if it is right if you, the customer, should
profit by them. To me, this is a matter of integrity which, as I
think many would agree, is like pregnancy. You either have it or
you don't, you either are or you aren't.
I think you should have called the restaurant as soon as you
discovered it. But even today you can rectify this by calling
and letting them know. I too believe they would tell you to keep
it; they certainly cannot take it back even if you drove it over
to them or if they did they would only throw it in the trash.
However, whatever they decided to do with it is not the point.
The question you asked is what should you have done. You should
have let them know, offered to pay for it, and accepted their
decision. That is the ethical thing to do as a customer in the
same way it would be the ethical thing to do if the cashier
handed you a $10 bill when making change rather than the $1 she
owed you.
In a world that seems increasingly prone to lying and cheating
we must be our own ethical leaders.
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