u/Firago128

A follow-up to my previous post: I’ve run out of lateness disputes

I’ve been dashing since 2019 and it’s always been an enjoyable, chill gig to work for supplemental income. I agree that it’s been a gradual decline since its peak in 2020. In the past 6 months, it’s been a steep decline in earnings, which had me teetering on the edge to finally quit dashing. 

Now they have this On-time rating system that penalizes you when the restaurant takes too long to prepare the order, despite arriving early. It penalizes you for being only a couple minutes late and I believe the time limits are continuing to get shorter. I worry that this would lead to accidents. 

It’s not that I lost my platinum status or anything like that. I just rather not work a gig that pressures me into breaking road laws exceeding speed limits, running through red lights, and ignoring stop signs. I hate being pressured into risking everyone's safety to deliver a Big Mac in such ludicrous time limits. And it’s laughable that it’s the delivery driver’s fault that the restaurant took too long to prepare the order. 

There are plenty of gigs out there that don’t do those things. 

To be clear:

“Scroll down to the bottom of the screen and press ‘Tell us why you are waiting’ and then check ‘Order still being prepared when I arrived.’”
- I did that, I still get marked late. 

“Press the ‘?’ At the top of the screen for support. Press ‘Order has long wait time’ select ‘Wait for order.’”
- I did this too, it doesn’t matter if I reach the screen shown in image #4. I still get marked late. 

“Wait out the full 10 minutes so you can use a worry-free unassign.”
- I rather not waste the gas and the time just to leave empty-handed.

“Stop taking McDonald’s orders!”
- 70% of the orders in my area are from McDonald’s. 

This is where I draw the line and I think I’m finally ready to quit dashing. I suggest you evaluate why you yourself continue to be a dasher. Is it really worth the pressure and frustration? Especially for the earnings and wear and tear on your vehicle?

Help me become a better dasher!

Hey fellow dashers! I just used my 10th dispute on this.

This is suddenly happening to me a lot lately so please help me learn from my mistakes.

I obviously did something wrong right? I want to believe it was caused by something that’s outside of my control but I’ve always been taught that everything is my fault. But for some reason I am struggling to see what I can do in the future to avoid getting a negative mark. Silly me…

For the first image, did I do this right?

- I was already in the parking lot when I received the offer. So I pressed “arrived at store” immediately after accepting.

- I make my way into the McDonald’s and see that they are still preparing the order. So  I scrolled down and pressed those underlined words ”Tell us why you’re waiting.” I checked “Order still being prepared when I arrived” and pressed submit.

- I wait until the actual time went 1 minute past the “pick up by” time. I sent the message “Waiting for your order.” To the customer. The customer replied “No worries” so I continued to wait patiently.

- A little while later I entered support to cancel for the long wait at the restaurant and saw that I did not have a “worry-free unassign.” So I wait like a good little dasher. 

- Food is ready, I snap a photo, take the order to my car and drive it to the customer’s address, and submitted the delivery to their front door on time.

Then I checked and saw that my on-time rating had dropped for this delivery. Oh no!

So WTH am I supposed to do to avoid a bad mark in this situation? When I do not have a worry-free unassign.

I’ve previously had support tell me that cancellation through them will drop my completion rating. I’ve contacted support about the first image and all they did was use up my 10th dispute on my behalf

Please help me wrap my head around this because my on-time rating is going to start dropping now that I used up my disputes. Most restaurants in my area do not have the order ready when I arrive.

I guess I should enter the kitchen and help make the food faster. /s

Nearly all my other disputes were for similar reasons: marked late waiting too long at the restaurant. A few disputes were for late deliveries due to unexpected traffic, my fault also I presume. 

What am I doing wrong? I want to do better and improve myself.