ChowNow: Local Food Ordering

I recently used this app to order some food from a local business. I thought the concept of this app would be amazing and as a person in the industry putting more money back in the pocket sounds amazing. However when my food got to me from the restaurant it was wrong and cold. When I contacted the customer support through the app to let them know and I quite about a refund this is where I would never recommend this app. They asked for proof that my order was wrong like a picture. I sent a picture proving my food was wrong. Can’t really convey the coldness of the food via pic but our food was also cold. The customer service rep told me they would contact the restaurant to let them know and ask for a refund. They get back to me and said because the restaurant said no to the refund there was nothing they could do. That if I wanted a refund I would have to leave my house take my food to the store to prove AGAIN that the food was wrong and cold and they might give it to me. The whole purpose of using an app for delivery is to NOT leave the house. Furthermore if the restaurant says no to a refund this app will do nothing. After I contacted the restaurant to go over this they told me ok we will give me a refund for my order but I had to contact the app again. This is beyond frustrating. I did contact them again and in the end I only was given $28 out of the $70 I spent. I will tell everyone I know to never use this app. In theory sounds like a great app but in the end it’s trash.

I placed an order with ChowNow, today, for a local restaurant. Unfortunately, when I placed the order, I received an error message of, “Request Timed Out.” I was confused by this and checked my email - I did not immediately see anything, so I went in an resubmitted my order. Everything went through properly the 2nd time around. I drove to the restaurant, picked my order up, and returned home. When I got back, I discovered BOTH orders had gone through, so I received twice the amount of food I needed, and paid double the expected amount. I reported the glitch to the Customer Service team, who told me that I would have to contact the restaurant for THEM to do a one-time complimentary fee waive. Because the obvious choice here is for a small, local business to be penalized, right? Their only other option was for me to pay. I was informed that they would be taking absolutely no action because they had no proof of the glitch in their app (yes, that’s generally how a glitch works). I will certainly not be making a small local restaurant give me free food for an error that had nothing to do with them, so I will be (probably NOT literally) eating the difference myself. I am incredibly disappointed in my experience with ChowNow. This was my first significant issue with them, as I don’t frequently use the app, and it was handled with the deftness of a bull in a china shop. I’d recommend skipping the irresponsible middle man and ordering directly from the restaurant, wherever you are able.

Ordered through ChowNow app on a Friday for pick up on Sunday. Got the email confirmation for pick up and went to the restaurant on Sunday at the designated time. The counter clerk at the restaurant asked for my name and went to look for the order. She came back with a puzzled look and said that she could not locate the order. Luckily, I printed the email so she could at least see the order. So, she goes back to try and prepare my order (from my printed email). She comes back a third time and says that she is unable to fill the whole order because they were already out of a particular item. I said that can’t be because I paid and preordered 2 days ago. She offered a less tastier item as a replacement (hot dog in a bun). I told her no. She said if you don’t want that, then it’s an hour wait. I asked to speak to the manager. The manager come on the scene, apologizes and says it’s been busy and they are all out of the item I ordered and says it will be an hour wait. I say to the manager, that is why I preordered and paid so I don’t have to wait! She goes on to tell me that there were only 2 baker/cooks early in the morning and it was busy so they ran out! I told her, well…then give me a refund for the item that was out and I would just take the rest. I told her I still could not understand how this happened because I have never experienced this before. She snapped at me and said that I had an attitude problem! The culprit is really this app! The restaurants don’t have a clue on the procedures. Heck! They didn’t even have my order! It is totally useless!