Uber Eats Customer Support Failure Reveals What Not To Do In Self-Service, CX Strategy

The powers that be at Uber Eats apparently idolize George Costanza. Because at a time when thought leaders are urging brands to improve their customer experiences, Uber has seemingly elected to do the opposite.

While speaking at CCW and CXO Exchange events over the past year, I routinely raved about how rideshare and delivery app brands (including Uber) approached self-service. I actually touted them as the blueprint for how organizations can use automation to empower customers.

That customer centricity was unfortunately nowhere to be found in my latest Uber Eats support inquiries. Rather than offering a glimpse at the future of self-service, these experiences were a reminder of how frustrating and unproductive such interactions can be.

The horror of my most recent interaction actually goes beyond poor self-service: it is an all-around example of how not to treat customers.

Self-Service Excellence | I Couldn’t Figure Out How To Reach Uber Customer Support, But I Didn’t Need To

Despite ranking as one of 2023’s buzziest customer contact topics, self-service is far from a new concept. Self-help tools like instruction manuals, troubleshooting guides, assembly videos, rudimentary IVRs, and FAQ pages have been around for many years.

What is new is the promise of interactivity. Rather than simply regurgitating generic information, AI-driven bots have the potential to converse with customers and process transactions. They can understand natural language, adapt to personal data, provide tailored responses, and – most importantly – actually complete requests and solve problems.

Granted, few brands are presently harnessing this power. Their supposedly AI-driven bots do little more than provide superficial answers, thank customers for getting in touch, or instruct them to engage in a different manner. These tools do not recognize customer sentiments or intentions, and they do not solve problems.

Making matters worse, the brands deploying these useless options are simultaneously restricting access to real-time agent support. Whether by obscuring contact information, reducing operating hours, or downright refusing to accept calls or chats, they make it clear that they are not available for discussion. In essence, they are turning the reasonable demand for a quick, relevant resolution into a pipe dream.

This is where Uber has been achieving differentiation. No, Uber has not made it particularly easy to reach a live agent – let alone a live phone agent. And, no, Uber’s self-service platform has never engaged me in a life-altering “conversation” that I would confuse for the heart-to-hearts I have with friends.

Companies like Uber Eats (and rival GrubHub) did, however, routinely achieve the most important tenet of self-service: a resolution.

When I’ve had issues with past orders, I have been able to type a brief recap of the situation, share a picture where applicable, and receive an instant refund or credit – all within the self-service platform. It was not always clear how to escalate to a live agent, but the key is that I never needed to find one. The self-service tool gave me exactly what I wanted without asking me to leave the app, wait on hold, or answer a series of repetitive questions.

Do some customers really love talking on the phone? Of course. Are some issues virtually impossible to explain and address without a human-to-human conversation? Of course. But many customer service issues can be resolved in digital self-service arenas – and many customers would be eager to use them.

The key is to provide a self-service option that they can trust – one that promises the ability to get a similar (if not better) resolution than they would have gotten by waiting on hold for an agent. Uber Eats had been doing that, and thus setting the standard for customer-centric self-service.

Unfortunately, something appears to have changed.

Cold Pizza Gets The Cold Shoulder | Uber’s Customer Service Turns Stale

Upon moving from New York City to Tampa in early 2022, I fell in love with almost everything about my new home. The most notable exception was the pizza. The first few pizzerias I tried were so far below “New York standard” that I ended up pivoting to frozen, grocery store options for my weekly Friday cheat meal. I actually bought a Presto Oven to level-up the frozen pizza experience!

Eventually, however, I wanted to give the Tampa pizza scene another shot. It proved wise, as I stumbled upon some impressive places. One even has its roots in my childhood home of New Jersey!

The main downside, however, was that my initial Uber Eats delivery orders showed up cold. It is obviously unreasonable to expect mouth-burning pizza via delivery, but one should be able to trust that the drivers are picking up the pizza on time, keeping it in a thermal sleeve, and delivering it promptly. These deliveries did not inspire such trust; the food did not taste fresh.

I did not want to complain, but after three bad experiences, I decided I would have to contact support if it happened again. Sure enough, the following week’s order was as cold as ever, and I submitted a complaint on Uber Eats fully expecting to receive a coupon or refund.

Much to my surprise, the self-service exchange ended with a thank you for my feedback. No refund. No credit. No discount. Nothing. Worse, I had trouble even escalating to a live chat agent – my only clear option was to submit a ticket. Said ticket went unanswered for days before I followed up and eventually received a small credit.

Indeed, the self-service experience that I had been raving about regressed into the type of experience I routinely criticize: a cold, impersonal way to submit feedback and receive shallow, generic answers.

Make no mistake, I am not naive. I know that an instant, guaranteed refund system opens the door to abuse. But I also know that brands can use customer data to deter scammers without sacrificing the overall customer experience.

Consider my recent experience with Sephora. After one of my packages was stolen, I called and received assurance that I would be refunded. However, when a few days passed and the refund was not in my account, I called back to make sure there was no issue – especially since I would have to put out more money for a replacement order.

The representative let me know that refunds can take some time to process but that there would be no issue with mine since I don’t have a history of reporting lost packages. In essence, he implied that they reserve their deepest investigations for those who give them reason to be suspicious. Uber could surely do the same, withholding refunds from those who fraudulently report an issue every order but seamlessly giving them to customers with legitimate claims.

And even if restrictions on self-service resolutions were critically necessary, a customer-centric brand would compensate by making it even easier to access a live agent and explain the situation. It would not simultaneously worsen the self-service experience and restrict my access to live help. It would not make it impossible to get the resolution I was seeking.

It Gets Worse | Uber Provides Terrible Customer Service (And Doesn’t Seem To Realize Why It Failed)

Perhaps you are not teary-eyed over my story of not getting a refund for cold pizza.

Perhaps Uber Eats would contend that it still offers instant self-service refunds for some issues but does not feel cold food should qualify (granted, this argument would be weird since food temperature is one of the few things that an Uber Eats driver often can control).

Well, how about being expected to pay for food that you never even received? That was my most recent experience with Uber Eats – and the one that truly prompted this article.

Last weekend, I placed an order from a local Mexican restaurant. The driver showed up about 20-30 minutes later than expected, and he parked in the wrong location. He never called to ask for help finding me, but I eventually tracked him down using GPS.

When I got to his car window, he attempted to hand me a bag from Jersey Mike’s for a customer named Valerie. When I explained that I was waiting on a different order, he stared silently for a few moments. It was very obvious what happened: he mistakenly gave my order to another customer.

He was having trouble communicating, but it seemed that his solution – I kid you not – was to drive to Valerie’s house, pick up the order he had errantly given her, and then bring it back to me. The idea was preposterous; in the best case scenario, I would have to wait an extra half hour while he retrieved a cold order. In the worst case scenario, the customer would have either already indulged in my meal or thrown it out – likely actions given that Valerie had curiously not yet alerted the driver to his mistake.

Not OK with either option, I expressed my desire to terminate the order, and he supported the decision. But as I made my way up to my apartment and saw the order still pending on my app, it was clear that he was not going to handle the cancellation. I opened the app and attempted to do so personally, but I didn’t see an option that outright said “driver lost my order” or “driver gave my order to the wrong person.” I chose the closest option I could.

Stunningly, I was greeted with an alert claiming that I was still going to be charged the full cost of the meal because the order was already too far in the process. Forget an apology. Forget a make-good. Uber actually planned to charge me for food it never delivered! The self-service experience not only failed to live up to the previous Uber Eats standard but actually made the experience worse – and my sentiment more negative.

Fortunately, I was able to escalate to a live chat this time. Unfortunately, none of the agents seemed to appreciate (let alone empathize) with my situation. As a result, the process of getting support was time-consuming, frustrating, and insulting.

Unwilling to demonstrate any interest in helping me (or any sense of remorse about this ridiculous situation), the first agent actually disconnected the chat when I advised them that I was seeking a full refund and credit. After a lengthy back-and-forth, a subsequent agent advised me that because I made the decision to cancel so late in the process, there was no way a refund could be offered. When I asked for a supervisor, they eventually agreed to make a special exception and waive the charge – as if they deserve some sort of applause for not charging me for food they never delivered.

This agent did not, however, provide a make-good for my time (beyond the frustration of this issue, I would also have to wait another hour to receive a new food order). As I continued connecting to new chats (and simultaneously contacting Uber Support on Twitter), I also had trouble even getting them to replace the limited-time 40% off coupon I used on this order (which was obviously wasted since I never got the food).

Uber Support eventually provided a credit equivalent to the 40% off coupon as well as a refund for the driver's tip (yes, apparently Uber still released a tip to the driver), but it never followed up with a make-good or anything that suggests it truly understands what happened – or cares about how much effort I exerted to not receive the food I wanted.

Customer Service Lessons From This Uber Failure

The latest experience was an utterly embarrassing one. And though I cannot outright stop using the company (Uber Eats, unfortunately, covers the best lineup of restaurants in my area), I am more inclined to use competitors like GrubHub and Slice whenever possible.

There is an upside, however. Uber’s failure has provided a learning opportunity. Here are four essential takeaways for supporting customers in the self-service era.

1. Good self-service allows customers to solve problems. When people report an errant order, an issue with product quality, a troubling encounter with an employee, or especially a lost item, they are rarely doing so simply to provide free feedback. They expect action and/or compensation. If you require customers to report these issues via self-service, it is imperative that your self-service platform can automatically provide the desired compensation.
2. Granted, even the best self-service experience will have limitations in 2023. When customers reach such dead-ends, they should have seamless access to an agent that can actually solve their problems. Asking them to wait for an agent to answer their ticket – or to deal with an agent that just reiterates the same unsatisfying information as the chatbot – is unacceptable.
3. Customer-centric self-service experiences are conversational. There is nothing wrong with using menus to simplify the experience, but these menus should never restrict the interaction. If customers have an unexpected issue, or if customers phrase an issue differently than your menu does, they should still be able to use your self-service tool. Adopting conversational AI – or at least designing menus and conversation flows based on actual voice of the customer data – is essential.
4. Context is key. A central issue in my Uber debacle was the fact that neither the self-service platform nor the agents could truly get past the idea that I “canceled” an in-progress order. Since they instinctively interpreted “cancellation” as me actively and arbitrarily deciding I no longer wanted the food – as opposed to me alerting Uber to the fact that I never received the food – they couldn’t empathize with why I was upset or why giving me a full refund was not “support” but just them not screwing me over.

Pizza Photo by Brett Jordan (Pexels)