A woman has appealed to Just Eat after she was sent unsolicited messages from her delivery driver after ordering food using the app.
Michelle Midwinter, 33, from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, had ordered food from one of Just Eat’s restaurant partners, but after the delivery she started getting WhatsApp messages from the man who had brought it to her door.
He asked if she had a boyfriend, later adding: “Good night bby see you next time when I get your meal.”
“At first I was shocked at the fact someone could approach me in that way,” Michelle said, “but that turned to feeling very uncomfortable as I realised this guy had my name, address, and phone number.”
When she approached Just Eat to ask for help, she was told to complain to the restaurant, and then offered a £5 “goodwill” voucher for the “inconvenience”, which was then raised to £10.
She said she didn’t want to complain to the restaurant, in case they sacked the man.
“This guy has my name, address, and phone number and if he ended up getting fired over this, who knows what he would do with my information as he clearly had no qualms over using it in the first place,” she said.
After posting screenshots of the interactions to Twitter, female friends and strangers started telling her they’d had similar experiences with other companies.
In response, Just Eat told the Press Association they were “deeply concerned” about what had happened to Michelle, and that they are now in contact with her offline.
“Whilst the restaurants on our platform are independent from the Just Eat business, we hold ourselves to high standards and in line with these, we would expect all drivers associated with our restaurant partners to act responsibly and respectfully at all times,” a spokeswoman said.
And what about that £10 voucher offer?
They said they were “appalled” by the initial response, adding: “This lacked empathy and does not reflect our policies or the way Just Eat would expect something like this to be dealt with.”
“We have highlighted this with our Customer Care Senior Management team, who will review the incident, and ensure appropriate action is taken to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”
The Information Commissioner’s Office, an independent authority that advocates for data privacy for individuals, said they were aware of the incident, and they would be looking into it.
“If a customer’s phone number is used for reasons for which it was not originally taken, it could be a breach of the Data Protection Act,” they said.