Restaurant owner forced to refund order in new online scam!

Hassan Habib, who owns Lucky’s in Oldham, Greater Manchester, claims he's been hit by a spate of refund requests through the site costing him several hundred pounds each month. He said they started to appear more frequently after Just Eat changed its refund system to be more like Uber Eats and Deliveroo. The changes have made it easier for customers to get their money back if they were unhappy with their order. And according to Mr Habib, one of the most ridiculous requests he received was for a refund on four milkshakes, a cheesecake and an ice cream. "They ordered four milkshakes, a cheesecake, and an ice cream and 45 minutes later they put in a refund request because the food was cold.

"That’s just one of the many examples - they just order food, put down ‘X, Y, Z’ is wrong with it, do a refund and leave us to the costs."abib said he is fully aware that restaurants can make mistakes and his business always makes it up to customers if it goes wrong.But he believes some customers are taking advantage, putting his and other businesses in a "really bad position".Lucky's, which is based on Featherstall Road, has been working with Just Eat for over two years, but Mr Habib says he's only recently started having issues. Before its refund system changed, the site would contact restaurants before refunding customers to check the request was legitimate. Now, refunds will be given for any complaints made that the restaurant could have prevented - with the business having 30 days to dispute any claims. The new system aims to hold restaurants to account for any poor service and separates issues created by Just Eat workers and those created by the restaurant itself. Although this change has not sparked the suspicious refunds per se, the two issues happening at the same time have been frustrating for staff at Lucky's. He is also calling on Just Eat and similar companies to make it more difficult for customers to abuse the system. Just Eat said they would speak with Mr Habib about his concerns, and said they were doing what they could to stop any fraudulent refund claims. A spokesperson for the firm said: "Just Eat is only successful if our restaurant partners are successful and we have a track record of helping restaurants prosper. "The recent measures we’ve put in place are in line with industry standards and are to ensure an even fairer refunds process for all, such as increasing the time for restaurants to raise any disputes. "Restaurant partners are always refunded in full when we find any fraudulent activity taking place. "We’re keen to maintain an open dialogue with the restaurants on our platform and continue to review our policies and processes in this space to support both customers and restaurants alike.