One of the most important things in life, ever, is good communication. It sounds like a total cliche, but it’s true: there are so many problems that you could avoid simply by informing others about what you’re going to do. And some issues, when left unaddressed, can have massive knock-on effects. Forget about doodoo hitting the fan: this is more like tons of poop hitting the hurricane!

Why the dramatic and moralizing preamble? So that nobody copies Grubhub’s recent mistake. Grubhub, the local food delivery service, had very good intentions that led straight to hell. They offered a ‘free lunch’ promo for three hours this Tuesday, May 17.

At first glance that sounds fine, right? Even friendly? Well, the issue is that the delivery app didn’t bother to tell many restaurants about this. Absolute chaos ensued in New York City. Scroll down to see the effects and why there really is no such thing as a free lunch. There’s always a price to pay! In this case, lots of disgruntled restaurant workers, overworked delivery drivers, and hangry customers.

Bored Panda got in touch with delivery driver Smithson Michael, from New York, who told us about the chaos that unfolded. “Bedlam. Bedlam on all fronts is a good way to describe the situation that Grubhub’s ‘free lunch’ promo created,” he told us. “From the wave of deliverers scrambling around to try to meet the massive wave of 6,000 New Yorkers placing orders every minute, to the overwhelmed, already-busy restaurants and food spots that partner with Grubhub, to the angry customers calling in droves, wondering where their orders are.”

Grubhub’s poor communication over its ‘free lunch’ promo caused massive chaos in New York City earlier this week

Image credits: Grubhub

Grubhub offered New Yorkers a $15discount on food orders on Tuesday, May 17, between 11 am and 2 pm. This Twitter user explained the impact this had

Image credits: WellsLucasSanto

Image credits: WellsLucasSanto

Image credits: WellsLucasSanto

Many NY restaurants had no idea the promo existed and were quickly overwhelmed by the 6k+/minute orders on the Grubhub app

Image credits: ameliajpollard

The promo had a ripple effect that touched restaurants, delivery drivers, and customers alike

Image credits: WellsLucasSanto

Image credits: WellsLucasSanto

Image credits: WellsLucasSanto

Image credits: WellsLucasSanto

Image credits: WellsLucasSanto

Image credits: WellsLucasSanto

Image credits: WellsLucasSanto

Image credits: WellsLucasSanto

Image credits: jonahsahn

Image credits: WellsLucasSanto

Image credits: WellsLucasSanto

Image credits: WellsLucasSanto

According to deliverer Smithson, the pickup zones were absolutely packed full of delivery drivers. “Imagine opening a restaurant and seeing 40 or more offers already sitting in the queue. Or being so overwhelmed that you can’t restock your inventory to keep up with the crush. Leaving orders unfulfilled, and selections sold out. Angry customers calling in droves wondering where their food is. And the workers breaking out in fights due to the non-stop instances of having phones shoved in their faces due to the influx of said calls,” the delivery driver explained the massive impact Grubhub’s promo had.

“Where are you putting all of the excess orders? Who is making them? Not the same person that is taking the orders? Yes. Again, absolute bedlam on all fronts. Some workers didn’t even get home until 3 am or later from what I understand. I imagine that many restaurants were short of staff due to the fighting that broke out due to the stress. I hope no one was hurt. I know it was frustrating for everyone, the customers as well as the deliverers.”

The delivery driver said that the idea of a ‘free lunch’ was ridiculous because many customers didn’t end up getting their orders at all. “There were customers paying for orders that were heavily pushed back on delivery times, as well as still being charged delivery fees. Where was the free lunch? Many of them have not been reimbursed, and customer service left many on the phone for over an hour, resulting in them just hanging up and going to buy a replacement meal.”

Smithson stressed that what happened on Tuesday is another indication that powerful corporations and highly-paid executives give little thought to deliverers and customers alike. He believes the communication just wasn’t there.

“Clearly, advance notice of at the least 3-5 business days would give restaurants a chance to prepare inventory, schedule, and brief staff, and is not something that should be overlooked or fail to be implemented in any type of promotion that will clearly result in a huge amount of orders. Especially, in a city like New York with millions of potential customers,” he said. However, the deliverers needed to be well informed, too.

“The deliverers need that advance notice as well clearly, so they can arrange their routes, arrange for the extended work hours bound to occur, and set their different delivery equipment up accordingly. Without these preparatory functions being implemented, there can be no truly good outcome for anyone,” he noted that the promo was bound to fail from the start.

“Grubhub indicated that they are ‘dedicated to the success of their customer and delivery drivers.’ It doesn’t look like that to me, or any of the angry customers, kitchen and restaurant staff, or deliverers that went through an unnecessary ordeal yesterday that could have been avoided very easily: With a simple plan for advance notice,” Smithson told Bored Panda that Grubhub needed to act in a way that shows respect to restaurants, delivery drivers, and customers.

“The way deliverers are treated by these companies need to be totally revisited. Transparency, and communication are key here: it’s time they actually spoke to us instead of just sending orders. Apologize. Not just to us, but the restaurants and customers as well.”

Then there’s all the food waste to consider. In the chaos, not every meal gets picked up. When you have so many people ordering in, you physically can’t deliver everything. You end up with piles of cold food that either has to be thrown out or ends up making the customer who ordered it even angrier than usual.

Simply put, many NYC restaurants would have liked to have the freedom to opt into Grubhub’s promo or not. Some eateries simply aren’t equipped to handle this kind of pressure and workload. And they end up getting blamed for what, at the end of the day, all started with Grubhub’s lack of communication. No warning. No forethought. Though Grubhub is still adamant that they communicated with restaurants in advance of the promotion.

The promotion ran on Tuesday between 11 am till 2 pm, and Grubhub revealed to BuzzFeed News that the app averaged a whopping 6k orders per minute. That is absolutely bonkers. Of course, the app got overwhelmed and couldn’t handle all of that pressure: it went down at least twice in the first 45 minutes. Meanwhile, The Washington Post noted that the peak was even bigger. Around 6.5k orders per minute. Usually, it’s around 6 times smaller.

If there’s a food storm coming, the very least that the app could have done was inform all restaurants very clearly well in advance. Once again: communication, people, it’s not that hard. You then don’t have to apologize later.

Grubhub’s statement to BuzzFeed News sounded almost flippant, uncaring: “It’s clear, New Yorkers were hungry for lunch! While we knew 72% of New York workers call lunch the most important meal of the day, our free lunch promotion exceeded all expectations.”

The delivery service later apologized to restaurants to try and mend fences. The lunch wasn’t entirely free, despite the name. Grubhub was giving New Yorkers 15 dollars off their next meal. However, they still had to pay taxes, additional fees, and tips. The restaurants would still get paid for the full amount of the food order, but the customers would end up saving quite a bit on their lunch.

The bottom line is this: Grubhub should have known better and should’ve communicated better. However, the demand for food was overwhelming and chaos ensued. Now, it’s a question of how quickly the company’s reputation can recover after this disaster of a ‘free lunch.’

This isn’t the first time that Bored Panda has covered how delivery companies, well, fail to deliver. You’ll find our earlier emotional article about the behind-the-scenes reality of delivering food right here.

Grubhub tried to PR its way out of criticism by stating that it had communicated well. The company’s posts sounded tone-deaf

Image credits: Grubhub

Image credits: Grubhub

Here’s what people thought about the massive promo fail, the chaos, and what it all says about Grubhub as a company

Image credits: ScorpioRoze

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Some people were so fed up that they started coming up with memes about the Tuesday madness

Image credits: BoddieApril

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