The Takeaway Delivery Rip-Off

Or …

How to avoid paying over-the-odds for your takeaway

(if you are looking for discount codes for Uber Eats then check out this blog post)

A funny thing happened to me the other day. I decided to jump on Uber Eats to get a takeaway delivered. They had emailed me a 25% off discount code (up to £10) so I thought I could get a bargain…how wrong I was!

Uber Eats – Takeaway Delivery

When Uber decided to get into the food delivery market they shook up the Hungry House / Just Eat monopoly. There was a bit of a race to give out discount codes to encourage people to use the apps and it felt like, as a consumer, we were finally benefiting to having multiple players in the takeaway delivery market.

A Change Isn’t Always Good

Recently Uber Eats has decided to change their charging model. Every order now attracts a ‘service’ charge as well as a ‘delivery’ charge. The Service fee is 10% of the total order value (excluding delivery & discount code). What is misleading is that you’d assume a ‘service’ fee may go to the driver for providing the delivery ‘service’ however it actually goes to Uber Eats for providing the ‘service’ of you ordering from the takeaway.

But this isn’t even what I’m highlighting today!

Double Check Your Order

So I created my takeaway order on Uber Eats for my local Chinese.

• Crispy Shredded Chilli Beef
• Beef Fried Ho-Fan
• Stir-fried Broccoli
• King Prawns with Salt & Chilli
• Crispy Aromatic Duck

I do live in London but even I was shocked when this came to over £45! £45.70 for just the food. Then there was a £4.57 ‘service’ fee and a 99p delivery fee (they are local so I’m charged less for delivery. Tottal price for 5 items from my local takeaway was £51.26!  I’d be able to use a 25% voucher (max £10 discount) but even I felt that £41.26 seemed a little high for my order.

As my finger hovered over the order button I thought, why not check to see if you can get it cheaper.

Off to Just Eat

I fired up the Just Eat app, found the same restaurant and put my takeaway order in again….

• Crispy Shredded Chilli Beef
• Beef Fried Ho-Fan
• Stir-fried Broccoli
• King Prawns with Salt & Chilli
• Crispy Aromatic Duck

Total food cost was £32.50 and delivery was ZERO. I did choose to pay by credit card so there was a 50p service charge – total cost was £33 – almost £20 cheaper than UberEats was looking to charge me for EXACTLY THE SAME FOOD from EXACTLY THE SAME TAKEAWAY (before the discount code).

You can also get cashback from TopCashback from Just Eat so it works out even cheaper. They are currently paying 24.75% cashback for new accounts or 1.65% for existing accounts.

We need ‘Compare The Takeaways’

Ordering the same meal from the same takeaway works out as almost 40% more expensive from Uber Eats. Even as a monetary value of £20 – if you ordered takeaway once a week then every 3rd one would be free! There would even be a few quid left to grab a bottle of wine or a couple of cans from the corner shop. During the pandemic we have seen a rise in food costs across the board but I didn’t expect to see such a big difference between Uber Eats and Just Eat. What we need is a couple of friendly Meercats to help us check to see which takeaway delivery supplier is cheapest. Remember, this is the same order from the same takeaway – this is literally comparing apples with apples (or crispy chilli beef with crispy chilli beef).

The Reverend’s Final Thought

I originally was going to order from Uber Eats as they had given me a 25% off voucher with a max £10 discount. Seeing as their delivery charge was going to be almost £5 that was half of the discount. So really I was getting £5 off my food which was already £15 more expensive from another supplier. They could have given me a £15 discount and it would have still be cheaper to go via Just Eat.

I’m sure it isn’t always the case but it does highlight that it is worth checking the cost of your takeaway from any possible supplier in case you can get the food cheaper.

You could always stop the takeaways completely. Why not create a meal plan and enjoy home cooked food every day of the week. It will certainly be cheaper and more probably tastier than anything you could get delivered.