How to dispute a Deliveroo refund as a restaurant

Missing items, wrong order, preparation error: some customer complaints can lead to a refund charged to the restaurant.

When a refund seems unjustified, Deliveroo lets eligible partners dispute it from the Partner Hub.

You still need to be able to show what was actually prepared.

Where can you find Deliveroo refunds?

Refunds can be viewed in the Partner Hub.

In the Sales section, then Refunds, the restaurateur can view:

• the orders concerned
• the reason for the complaint
• the refund details
• its status

Checking this is the first step towards properly tracking delivery-related losses.

How do you submit a dispute?

The procedure published by Deliveroo currently involves:

1. 1opening the Partner Hub
2. 2going to Sales > Refunds
3. 3selecting the order
4. 4choosing the item(s) whose refund you are disputing
5. 5selecting the reason for the dispute
6. 6attaching any supporting evidence
7. 7sending the request

You can then track it in the disputed refunds section.

What is the deadline?

Deliveroo currently states that a dispute must be submitted within 7 days of the refund being issued.

This relatively short deadline makes it important to spot new refunds regularly.

A restaurant that only checks its refunds once a month may find some cases too late.

What evidence should you provide?

Deliveroo states that photos or videos can be used as evidence.

Its current guidance specifies that the evidence must be linkable to the order, for example through:

• a visible order ID
• a receipt
• or a timestamp close enough to when the order was prepared

For an item reported missing, the item in question obviously needs to be clearly identifiable.

An image simply showing a sealed bag tells you far less than one showing the contents before sealing and identifying the order.

Photograph at the packing stage

The best moment to capture evidence is usually when:

all the items in the order are together, but before the bag is finally sealed.

The restaurateur then has a record of the state of the order just before it left.

This step must, however, fit in with the restaurant’s operational pace.

In a restaurant handling several hundred orders, an overly manual process often ends up being dropped.

Who pays for the refund?

Not every refund is necessarily the restaurant’s responsibility.

Deliveroo distinguishes between incidents linked to preparation and those linked to delivery.

Issues such as a missing item, a wrong product or a preparation error may be attributed to the partner.

Conversely, some transport or delivery problems may be covered by Deliveroo, depending on the circumstances and applicable terms.

It’s therefore important to check the exact reason before treating a refund as a loss for the restaurant.

Using refunds as an operational indicator

Beyond disputes, your refund history can reveal weaknesses in the preparation process.

If the same reasons come up regularly, it can be useful to analyse:

• the type of product concerned
• the time
• the day
• the preparation station
• the number of bags
• the platform
• any peaks in activity

Refunds then become a genuine quality indicator.