A chef cracks a case of food-delivery funny business

Discussion in 'Chit Chat' started by dealmaker, Jan 28, 2020.

  1. dealmaker

    dealmaker

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    A chef cracks a case of food-delivery funny business
    Pim Techamuanvivit had a weird weekend.

    The San Francisco restaurateur went viral in foodie circles when shetweetedabout an unusual interaction with a customer. He had called to ask about his delivery order.

    But her restaurant doesn’t do delivery
    Techamuanvivit did some digging and discovered something alarming.

    Someone had used the name of Kin Khao, her Michelin-starred restaurant, to build fake Seamless, Grubhub, and Yelp pages. They all hawked delivery options that don’t actually exist.

    As theSan Francisco Chroniclereported, even the menus were fake. They advertised dishes like Vietnamese pho -- when Techamuanvivit’s restaurant specializes in regional Thai cuisine.

    Smells like shenanigans
    Culinary-minded journalists have uncovered lots of shady practices in the food-delivery biz:

    • Grubhubgobbled upthousands of restaurant web domains, and sometimes published them without the real owners’ permission.
    • Yelp evenreplacedrestaurants’ phone numbers -- then billed them for a marketing fee.
    So how did these faux delivery sites end up online in the first place?
    Grubub began adding high-demand restaurants to its platform months ago to give restaurant owners a shot at earning more revenue. But it never actually asked the owners first.

    Grubhub said restaurant owners can contact the company to be removed from its platform. Techamuanvivit said she’d be calling her lawyer instead.
     
  2. elderado

    elderado

    Wow. That's really sad.
     
  3. mlawson71

    mlawson71

    Scammers pass no industry, it seems.