How to Keep GrubHub Out of the Way of Your Favorite Restaurants
Generally speaking, the restaurant phone numbers you find on Yelp are the organization’s real phone numbers. But there is also a way to dial the wrong restaurant number that connects you through Grubhub and allows the company to charge a referral fee for anything you can then order.
You’ll discover this confusing setting when you call a specific restaurant on Yelp and tap the “Call” section of the restaurant’s page. This usually connects you directly to the restaurant. However, if you get a pop-up that asks you if you would like to call the restaurant and ask the “Delivery or Takeout” or “General Questions” questions, confusion will begin.
According to Vice , each “call” button you can press is actually a separate number, and you can check it out for yourself by clicking on each and seeing what you’re going to dial. The Delivery or Takeout entry is a number owned by Grubhub that will eventually redirect you to the appropriate restaurant. The General Questions number will take you to a real restaurant – and, yes, you can still place an order. You will not be limited to questions.
Why confusion? Because when you go through Grubhub’s Delivery or Pickup option, Grubhub can then request a referral and receive a “marketing discount” based on your order. Do they really work? No. They just own the phone number that will take you to the restaurant in question. This is a scam that affects your favorite restaurant more than you, as they will influence Yelp partner Grubhub.
Here’s what a Grubhub rep said about the setup when Vice asked him to explain what was going on:
“It’s important to remember that we are a marketing platform, and in almost all of these cases, a customer would not have discovered or placed an order at this restaurant without our platform. The order is the result of our marketing efforts. “
Right. Grubhub doesn’t even charge a commission based on a percentage of the actual phone order. All he can do is scan calls to determine if an order has been placed; a commission is then charged based on the average of “the last six restaurant orders that were not tied to a phone,” Weiss describes.
Does it look like a mess? Absolutely. If you want to be sure that you are providing your favorite restaurant with full financial support, call him directly. And if you’re not sure, verify their phone number. If this is not what you have typed, hang up and try them out directly, not directly vis Grubhub.