Calgary restaurant sours on Uber Eats delivery service after $4,000 in payments delayed

A Calgary restaurant has taken to social media to express distaste over how a delivery service handled outstanding payments, and while Uber Eats says the problem has been resolved, it's now "off the menu" as far as the eatery is concerned.

"For a small business, it's a lot of money for us," Two Penny partner and general manager Andrea Robinson told CBC News on Tuesday.

"It's a big chunk of money, so we will definitely not be using Uber Eats ever again."

She's talking about the more than $4,000 that she says Uber Eats owes the Chinese eatery, accumulated since July.

"We did a trial with Uber Eats and decided we weren't going to use them because we didn't see value with the amount of percentage they take off the top," Robinson said.

"So we cancelled and we still had an outstanding bill. We were contacting them trying to get payment for the bill. They said they would look into it. They said our banking information was wrong, so we sent them the right information."

It's at that point that Uber Eats stopped responding to the restaurant's requests, Robinson says.

"They stopped returning our phone calls and emails. We had an over $4,000 bill to be paid, so that's when we decided to post something [on social media] because we hadn't heard from them."

The Beltline eatery posted its frustration Friday to Instagram, where it got lots of engagement, including a response from Uber Eats, Robinson says.

But as of Tuesday afternoon, she says there's been no Uber transfers to Two Penny's bank accounts.

The U.S.-based company says the problem has been resolved.

"I can tell you that the general manager for Uber Eats Canada, Dan Park, spoke with the restaurant owner to apologize for the human error that led to the payment delay," spokesperson Jean-Christophe de Le Rue wrote in an emailed statement to CBC News on Tuesday.

"The issue has now been identified and corrected. We care deeply about the restaurants we work with and continue to work hard every day to ensure that we have prompt and world-class customer service."

Robinson, meanwhile, says they hope the money is on the way.

"We hope so. We would just like to get paid."

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