Woman Ordered Grocery Delivery And Realized That Her Uber Eats Driver Found A 'New Way To Scam' Her
She’s concerned it’s happened more than once.
Odua Images / Canva Pro People rely on convenience. With bustling lives, busy families, and full-time jobs, being able to introduce efficient tricks into a routine can make all the difference. For many people, that means using delivery services like Uber Eats or DoorDash.
However, one mom’s experience with Uber Eats grocery delivery was far from an advertisement for convenience. In fact, it caused her more distress than a typical grocery trip would have.
A woman realized her Uber Eats driver ‘scammed her’ after comparing her grocery receipt with what she actually ordered.
Kally Kingery took to TikTok to share her experience with the Uber Eats service and the scam she realized was likely widespread. It all happened when she looked at her bank account after an order and realized that her grocery total was far higher than she’d expected.
Deciding to look into it, she compared some of her grocery items to what she’d ordered on the app. “I ordered a watermelon, but received several packs of pre-cut watermelon slices,” she added.
While this wasn’t entirely concerning, as many drivers make necessary substitutions, it prompted her to dive in deeper and that's when she realized the total charge wasn't off by a little, but a lot.
With over 28% of American adults relying on grocery delivery services to get their food every month, she was sure that this experience was not an isolated one. In fact, Kingery started to worry if she’d been overpaying for months and wanted to figure out why.
Going back and forth, she finally got the Uber Eats driver to send the receipt and she realized they had purchased several items for themselves.
“The groceries that I received were less than what I ordered, but the amount I paid was much more.”
Photo: Yuganov Konstantin / Canva Pro
When Kingery contacted her driver to request the actual store receipt, instead of the one from her initial order in the app, she said they “argued back and forth.” When it was finally sent over, she realized that her driver had purchased several items for themselves and charged them to her order.
After realizing she paid way more for her Uber Eats grocery order than she had originally requested, she reached out to customer support for answers.
Confused and shocked that her driver had "scammed" her, she decided to contact customer service on the Uber Eats app. However, the conversation she had lasted for hours and only made her most frustrated in the end.
After hours of arguing, Kingery said the customer service person finally asked her to send over the actual store receipt and to point out the items that her driver had added on. “You should know,” she said to the customer service representative. “You have my order receipt on the app and know that I didn’t order a pot roast, right?”
Photo: Stockbusters / Canva Pro
Frustrated, she decided to just highlight the receipt, in disbelief again after counting how many items were added on without her ever knowing. However, when Kingery went back to the chat to send the receipt, the Uber Eats representative had ended the conversation.
She promised to follow up on her video to share how she was navigating the “scam” from her grocery delivery. “It’s fraud,” she said angrily, and as a lawyer by profession, Kingery was probably right.
After getting refunded for her order, she decided to try again and was shocked when another Uber Eats driver ‘scammed’ her.
In a follow-up TikTok video, Kingery said she’d been contacted by Uber Eats directly after her previous video gained a great deal of traction.
They apologized, refunded the entire order amount, and sent her a $30 delivery credit to her account — “and, I caved,” she admitted. After ordering from the app again, Kingery revealed “she was glad she did” because they tried to scam her again.
This time, her driver sent an unclear photo of the store receipt, allowing her to discreetly add on items that were not on the original order and charge her more than she approved. “Why are you being so shady?” she questioned of Uber Eats' practices. “You can’t benefit financially off somebody that relied on a promise that you made, knowing that it was untrue.”
She suggested that Uber Eats step up their game by adding extra security like accurate imaging for store receipts, extra item checks, and more reliable and informed customer service representatives.
She’s surely not the only person who experienced this, as many comments pointed out. And the simple fact that it happened to her twice in a row is evidence of its frequency.
At the very least, always check your receipts on all delivery services, and the next time you act on convenience, remember, it might result in more work in the end.
Zayda Slabbekoorn is a news and entertainment writer at YourTango focusing on pop culture and human interest stories.