What evidence should you provide to dispute a delivery refund?
When a restaurateur disputes a refund, the hard part usually isn’t explaining that they believe the order was prepared correctly.
The hard part is proving it.
Good evidence should let someone who wasn’t in the restaurant quickly understand what happened.
The three features of good evidence
Effective preparation evidence should ideally answer three questions.
Which order is it?
The order must be identifiable by a number, a ticket or other unambiguous information.
When was it prepared?
The date and time put the image or video in the right context.
What was in it?
The item in the complaint must be identifiable.
The more of these three elements are present, the more usable the evidence.
Photographs
A photo is probably the simplest way to document an order.
It captures all the items at the packing stage.
But not all photos are equal.
A good photo should:
- cover the whole relevant area
- be sharp enough
- be taken before the bag is sealed
- avoid items hiding one another
- make it possible to link the image to the order
A folder containing thousands of photos named IMG_3568.jpg is not a good evidence system.
The problem is then no longer taking the photo.
It’s finding it.
Video
A video clip can document the preparation more precisely.
It’s particularly useful when you want to see the whole packing stage.
Its main drawback is operational: finding the right moment in hours of footage can take time.
Video becomes far more useful when it can be matched precisely to the time and the order in question.
Standard CCTV
A camera mounted above the preparation area can also document packing.
Some platforms explicitly list video or CCTV among the evidence that can support a dispute.
But a standard CCTV system isn’t necessarily designed for searching by order number.
The restaurateur sometimes has to:
- 1work out the time
- 2open the archive
- 3find the right camera
- 4scrub through the video
- 5isolate the clip
- 6check that the item is visible
The evidence exists, but the cost of finding it can exceed the refund being disputed.
Ticket and order number
The order number plays a central role.
An image showing every item perfectly but impossible to link to a specific order loses much of its value.
Ideally, you should keep a direct link between:
order ID ↔ date/time ↔ visual evidence.
When should you capture evidence?
The best moment is usually the end of preparation:
once all the items are together, but before the bag is finally sealed.
Too early, and some items won’t be there yet.
Too late, and the sealed bag will make it impossible to check the contents.
How long should you keep evidence?
The retention period should be consistent with:
- complaint deadlines
- the platforms’ dispute deadlines
- the purpose of the processing
- applicable data protection obligations
It’s generally not appropriate to keep images indefinitely just because they might one day be useful.
A retention policy defined in advance is preferable.
Evidence is only useful if you can find it
Take a restaurant handling 200 delivery orders a day.
Over 30 days, that’s potentially 6,000 orders.
Even if each one has a photo, searching for the right image by hand quickly becomes impractical.
The value of an evidence system therefore comes as much from indexing as from capture.
KonkiCam is built around this principle: making preparation evidence immediately usable when an order needs checking.