A female customer who used the Just Eat app to order her favourite takeaway was left stunned when the delivery driver sent her a series of inappropriate texts.
The unnamed driver sent her messages saying he was ‘a fan’ and ‘tell me if you have a BF [boyfriend] I do not want to make problems,’ before adding ‘Good night bby see you next time when I get your meal.’
Mother Michelle Midwinter, from Cheltenham, was left even more shocked when she reported the incident to the takeaway giant, and was just offered a £5 goodwill voucher and told ‘we don’t really have a complaints department’.
Mother Michelle Midwinter, from Cheltenham, was sent a series of ‘creepy’ messages from her Just Eat delivery driver – but was left even more shocked by the response she got from the firm
She then took to Twitter to post screenshots of the ‘creepy’ messages and Just Eat’s initial response.
She wrote: ‘Just a snippet of Just Eat’s response to my receiving unsolicited messages from the guy who had just delivered my food.
‘Nice one Just Eat! Apart from him using my number in this way surely being in breach of privacy laws etc, they don’t really seem to take it seriously do they??’
Speaking on Twitter, she said: ‘The point is, my trust has been broken, it made me feel uncomfortable – firstly, this should never happen. Secondly, this should have been taken more seriously.
She then took to Twitter to post screenshots of the ‘creepy’ messages and Just Eat’s response
‘This guy then went on to insult me when I said I wasn’t interested!’
After posting the conversation online, Ms Midwinter was sent dozens of replies from other women who claimed to have had near identical experiences with their delivery drivers.
One wrote: ‘Same thing happened to me and they just said to me ‘what would you like us to do?’ It’s ridiculous!!’
Another said: ‘I stopped ordering delivery after a similar experience (delivery guy turned up w chocolates – totally unencouraged). Saved me money (good), left me feeling creeped out & unsafe (obvs not good).’
Ms Midwinter was deluged with replies from other women who have had similar experiences
One said: ‘Happened to me before with a pizza delivery guy about 10 years ago! And the guy who collected me and my car once when I broke down.’
Another woman added: ‘Happened to me with an UberEats driver who came back later on to post a note through my door. So creepy. I hope they realise this behaviour is unacceptable and I hope you’re ok.’
And yet another added: ‘This happened to me with the cashier at the Bank. Abuse of position and serious breach of data protection! Companies are mad not to take it seriously as the new legislation means they could land a serious fine!’
Ms Midwinter later wrote: ‘I put it on Twitter because I didn’t get an adequate response and well… now I’m certainly getting a response! This has gone beyond my personal experience – I’ve been contacted hundreds of times with similar stories! It’s happening EVERYWHERE!’
A spokesman for Just Eat told MailOnline: ‘This driver has acted in a way that does not represent Just Eat and our core values’
She added that she was not going to reveal the name of the restaurant because she does not want ‘a witch hunt’.
She said: ‘This has shown me just how much this happens and it’s now about making sure restaurants uphold privacy policy, give their staff correct training and just eat ensuring restaurants abide by this. And better safeguarding policies from just eat.’
A spokesman for Just Eat told MailOnline: ‘This driver has acted in a way that does not represent Just Eat and our core values.
‘We are investigating this with our restaurant partner and are also speaking to this customer offline and if the customer decides this is a criminal matter and reports it to the police, we will of course assist the police with any investigation.’
They added that they take the safeguarding of customer data ‘extremely seriously.’
And regarding the initial handling of the customer’s complaint, the spokesman added: ‘We are appalled by the way this was handled when the customer initially made contact with our customer care team.
‘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 established procedures for dealing with customer complaints including escalations and compliance teams who will step in if an issue is not resolved satisfactorily on first contact.
‘We are looking at our procedures to understand why incorrect and inappropriate information was given out to the customer on this occasion.
‘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.’