Uber Direct Drivers Canceling After Pickup — Who Owns the Refund Responsibility?

[ashokr]

Has anyone else been experiencing this issue lately?

We’ve had multiple cases where a customer orders through Toast Online Ordering with Uber Direct delivery, pays in full (including the delivery fee and tip), and the Uber driver picks up the food — only to cancel the delivery. The customer never gets their order, and the system still marks it as “picked up.”

When we reach out, Uber says they can refund the order total only, while the delivery fee and tip just disappear — and no one can tell us where that money goes. In the worst cases, the driver walks away with both the food and the tip, effectively getting rewarded for canceling the delivery.

Toast says they’re “checking with Uber,” but there’s no clear ownership. Who is responsible for refunding the customer and the restaurant when this happens — Uber or Toast?

This can’t keep falling into a gap between two companies. If Toast is promoting Uber Direct as part of its platform, there needs to be end-to-end accountability and refund coverage — not just partial resolutions.

We’ve been pushing to move customers to our Toast ordering platform instead of third-party apps, but at the end of the day, it has to work all the way through.

Can someone from Toast please clarify:

👉 Who owns the refund responsibility when a driver cancels after pickup?

👉 How do we ensure the full amount — order, delivery fee, and tip — is refunded to the customer?

Because, as it stands, Toast Direct Delivery isn’t sustainable if drivers can walk away with the food and still get paid.

Love to hear more. 

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[Rob]

This is great feedback, and we are aware of this. We are working with Uber to close these refund gaps, but to answer your question.
 

When an Uber Direct driver cancels after pickup, Toast initiates refund coordination; Uber is responsible for refunding delivery fees and tips, while Toast refunds the order total. Restaurants should report these incidents via Toast Support so that both systems reconcile the refund. Note the Toast Order ID and Uber Direct Delivery ID, and support should be able to help!

[ashokr]

Excellent idea! I want this feedback to be available in the POS. It’s really painful to call support, initiate a refund, and follow through with that. Perhaps the POS can automatically open a ticket, but it should be trackable and updatable directly within the Toast POS system to be convenient from an operational workflow perspective.

Another case is when the driver cancels.

• How does Toast initiate a refund coordination? 
• Typically, Uber should look for a new driver to pick up, how is that coordinated for TDS?

I also noticed the order details in the POS shows driver details, but the backend only shows customer details, not the driver one. Sometimes when we aren;t at the POS but trying to work this through with Uber or Toast, we have no idea about driver. Its painful to go back to the site to get this information.