Technical difficulties at GrubHub and Seamless over the weekend drove hordes of hangry would-be customers to air their grievances on social media.
The food ordering and delivery sites, which merged in 2013 and use GrubHub’s back-end technology, errantly accepted payments on Saturday evening without transmitting orders to restaurants. That left customers across the country complaining of delayed or missing orders, and the company’s support lines and chats overloaded with requests.
GrubHub spokeswoman Abby Hunt said the issue lasted “a couple hours.” She declined to say what caused the problems or how many customers were affected.
“We are automatically refunding orders for the affected diners (we sent an email to diners alerting them to this on Sunday),” Hunt wrote in an email to Blue Sky Innovation. “Our Care team is working around the clock to make things right for our restaurants and diners.”
Bridget Eshbaugh, a manager at Dante’s Pizzeria, which has locations in Avondale and Logan Square, said the GrubHub app was unavailable for at least five hours on Saturday night. She said she was not able to make contact with GrubHub’s support team and that “five or six” customers called the restaurant complaining of the same.
Eshbaugh said she posted about the problem on social media to let customers know they were dealing with the same thing.
ATTN: GrubHub is down at both locations and we are unable to get ahold of them! If you placed an order, please call us directly!
— Dante's Pizzeria (@DantesPizzaChi) August 30, 2015
“It was just frustrating because people were placing orders, and there was nothing we could do about it because we weren’t receiving them and there was no way to get a hold of GrubHub to stop placing orders,” Eshbaugh said. She said she could not log into the app to stop accepting orders, either.
Tweets from GrubHub’s and Seamless’ official accounts on Sunday acknowledged the issue and promised refunds to affected customers.
Customers: if you had an order issue last night, so sorry. Please bear with us! We'll issue refunds automatically over the next few days.
— GrubHub (@GrubHub) August 30, 2015
Customers: if you had an order issue last night, so sorry. Please bear with us! We'll issue refunds automatically over the next few days.
— Seamless (@Seamless) August 30, 2015
On Facebook, the services continued with their usual posts featuring food porn and clever quips. Some customers were not pleased.
“You’re continuing to post without addressing last night’s insanity??” commented Rachel Maurer on a post that featured a photo of a breakfast plate with the caption, “Summer is almost over, but bacon is forever.”
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Summer is almost over, but bacon is forever.
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Posted by Seamless on Sunday, August 30, 2015
A response from Seamless’ official account echoed the brands’ answer to many complaints: “We understand, and apologize for any inconvenience. Please send us a message with your order details, we’re here to help!”
The “technical difficulties” came weeks after a redesign of GrubHub’s and Seamless’ websites and app angered customers who lost past order data, addresses and payment information. Customers also expressed frustration with the new user experience.
The frustration with the app and site spilled over into Saturday’s episode.
@Seamless ever since @GrubHub merger I've been less than thrilled…poor website, horrible APP and constant service issues ¿¿¿¿ #answerthephone
— Caitlin Clarke (@CaitClarke) August 30, 2015
GrubHub stock closed Monday at $26.45, down nearly 45 percent from a high of $47.95 in late March.
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