A family was left disgusted when their takeaway arrived ‘half-eaten’ and claimed the ‘cheeky’ delivery driver ate their food.
Stuart Knight, 46, ordered a Pizza Express meal from its branch in Aldershot, Surrey, via the Just Eat app to share with his girlfriend and their three children at home.
But when it arrived he found just four dough balls in a box of 16 he had ordered, and most of the side of garlic butter used up.
Stuart, from Farnham, said: ‘The pizzas were fine but the boxes looked open for the dough balls.
‘The kids opened it up and one of the girls goes, “I’ve only got three dough balls”.
‘First of all I thought they might be trying to save money and just put a few in at a time so I checked online to see how many you’re meant to get and the picture showed a lot more.
‘We were left with four dough balls from two boxes and the butter was half eaten as well.
‘There were still bits of bread in the butter so it was no accident.’
The photography business managing director then had the idea of checking the CCTV on January 22 – and was shocked at what he found.
Stuart added: ‘As soon as we saw the butter I said “one of them has had it” so then I checked the CCTV and there she was sitting in the driveway eating it.
‘I think there’s meant to be about eight in each packet so she’d stuffed quite a few.
‘You’re not even meant to open the food and she was just sitting there going through it in our driveway.’
He and his girlfriend Toni Greenway, 37, threw the remaining dough balls away due to concerns about catching Covid through the driver handling the food.
They were left with only two pizzas, which were in sealed boxes, to share with their children Chloe Greenway, 15, Molly Greenway, 13, and Daniel Knight, 13.
Stuart said: ‘If there was a little box on there to say “donate a box of dough balls to the driver” then I would’ve ticked that if they’re that hungry and it wouldn’t have been a problem to me but she stole it, that’s the thing.
‘She didn’t have very good customer service when she came to the door either, she looked like a bit of a slob.’
He complained to Just Eat and received a refund for the boxes of dough balls, but claimed there was no mention of investigating the driver.
He has encouraged others to check their takeaways before eating them in future.
‘I think it’s too easy because we complained to Just Eat and all they did was just refund us for the two dough balls, so it’s just too easy for them to get away with it,’ Stuart said.
‘They should’ve got rid of that driver or at least disciplined her but they’re more interested in just giving the money back.
‘If she’s still working for them then she’s probably still doing that for her dinner every night.
‘It makes you think twice about ordering from them really because you just don’t know what you’re going to get.’
Just Eat said that the food was delivered by a self-employed independent contractor and will take appropriate action if necessary.
A Just Eat spokesperson said: ‘At Just Eat, we want all of our customers to have a positive experience when ordering food online and expect all couriers delivering on our behalf to act respectfully and responsibly at all times.
‘We are currently investigating the incident and are also in touch with the customer.’
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