I am a broke college student. Just keep that in mind as you read my sob story about my not-so-favorable experience with Uber Eats. Now, I’m not bashing Uber Eats, and I’m not saying no one should use it. I think it’s a great idea for a company. When people don’t want to get out of their houses or dorms to get food, they could just call an Uber to deliver it to them. This also doesn’t just apply to food; there are options to deliver medicine, groceries, etc. It’s a great concept. The only thing is that some of us are broke college students who don’t know how to speak up for ourselves when something you didn’t want to happen happens. I, once again, am that broke college student who is trying desperately to break away from their parent’s care and build up independence, but it’s proven to be hard. I also don’t have a car on campus or a lot of food to help me survive without an active meal plan. I’m at a loss, and I thought Uber Eats was going to be my lord and savior, but like so many things, it became a not-so-nice memory in the deleted files on my phone.
I guess I should give a back story of how I ended up on my college campus on the verge of starvation (not quite literally)! I decided it would be useful to take a summer class, so I could take an extra class during the next semester. I also thought it would be nice to live on campus while taking this class and working, so I accidentally applied for housing and got a job. The time finally came for me to move in, and I was all set and ready. I packed all my clothes, shoes, hair care, and cleaning supplies. I even packed away my fan, bedding stuff, and devices. I felt so ready to move into my campus housing and begin my summer experience, but I was missing one very important thing, and that thing was food. I didn’t realize that there wouldn’t be a meal plan associated with living on campus during the summer. I thought we’d have breakfast, lunch, and dinner provided by the cafeteria, just like how it was in the Fall and Spring semesters. I guess someone didn’t thoroughly read the housing contract (oops).
When I realized this, I went to Redners and bought a whole bunch of food and drinks. I thought I’d be fine off of ten packs of ramen and microwaveable Kraft mac and cheese, but that quickly proved to be so wrong, especially since I’d have to survive off of this for the next two months. Moving forward, let’s just say what I bought didn’t last me very long, and I had to turn to buy food from a nearby plaza called Campus Town. In this plaza, there was a Panera Bread, Jersey Mikes, Mexican Mariachi, Insomnia Cookies, and many more food places. Though Campus Town lacked a grocery store, it was still a go-to place for me whenever I needed quick food. Though I was able to survive off of this for a while, the money to buy the food started to stack up. I knew I couldn’t keep spending all this money, sometimes twice a day, and walking outside in the dark. After crying to my mom about not having enough food and not knowing what to do, she sent me a care package full of groceries and an air fryer, and I was finally able to survive the rest of the month without going hungry and spending too much money.
Okay, I know this has nothing to do with Uber Eats, but we will get there. After I unexpectedly had to move out of my summer housing (due to once again not fully reading the housing contract), I was able to move into my semester dorm. Now, this dorm is far away from literally everything, aside from the main dining hall. If I wanted to go to Campus Town, I’d have to walk for over 15 minutes, and that’s with speed walking. I wasn’t about to walk all that way and back, especially at night when it gets really dark and isolated. I was running out of the food my mom sent for me, and the microwaveable mac and cheese was not hitting how it usually did before. I didn’t know what to do until I got the most incredible, unthought-of, totally unique idea of ordering delivery (why didn’t I think about this earlier)!
I did some research about which delivery apps were better, and every website I visited (which was like five) said that Uber Eats was the go-to app. I took those five websites’ words and I downloaded Uber Eats. I was amazed! It was like I was in a magic world where you can order any food you want. Places I didn’t even know were around my college were showing up, and places I didn’t even know existed were also showing up. I thought I could order it all from Chick-fil-A to Wawa to Panda Express to Chipotle. I knew that I would order from all of these places at least once before the beginning of the next semester while using this amazing app. After some discussion with my stomach about what I’d want to eat, I decided to choose a fast food restaurant that would heavily decrease my amazement with Uber Eats for good. That fast food restaurant was McDonald’s. I should have known from the beginning that McDonald’s isn’t a fast food restaurant I should mess with unless it’s for Oreo McFlurries or salads, but I went back on my gut and ordered a McChicken sandwich with fries and a Hi-C Orange drink. That was my second mistake.
My first mistake was that I shouldn’t have thought my order would be perfect. Perfect cost, perfect delivery, and perfect meal were all unrealistic. The cost of the meal was outrageous! I paid almost 19 dollars for a meal that originally cost $9.95. Not to mention the added cost of taxes and fees, and the delivery fee, which put the original price way over. These costs made me and my bank account weep that night. After I had told myself enough times that I needed to spoil myself and that life is all about making purchases you’re unsure about, I closed my eyes and began the checkout process. While doing that, I had to add a tip to the price and my location. I wasn’t upset over the whole tip thing because one, it was raining hard that day, and two, it’s only fair to tip the drivers. The only thing that also ruined this experience for me was putting in the correct address. Now, this isn’t too much on Uber Eats, but more on my school’s confusing addresses for each building. I’m not going to get too much into this, but know it took me a whole thirty minutes to insert one address.
So, I put in my address, placed the order, and felt some regret, but at least I still had food on the way that would be coming in 20-30 minutes. WRONG! That food didn’t come for at least an hour and some minutes. Every time I would check the expected delivery time, it would increase to a later time. When the food finally arrived in front of the door, dripping with rain water, I felt some sort of relief. I’d have a yummy chicken sandwich and refreshing drink to wash away all the uncertainty and dissatisfaction I was feeling. WRONG AGAIN! The sandwich wasn’t made how I requested, and it was cold, soggy, and tasted like regret. I knew right then and there as I cried while shoving the sad french fries down my throat that I’d never EVER order from Uber Eats again. The price, the extra fees, the extended wait times, and the food were all factors that made this experience terrible. Uber Eats is a great concept and the app is very easy to use, but for me, it will not continue to stay on my phone and use my money. But who knows? Hunger leads us to do things we probably never thought we’d do ever again…