People think they're calling restaurants directly but Grubhub is getting a fee

Re:People think they're calling restaurants directly but Gru... by schoolornot on Tuesday June 02, 2020 @08:07PM (#23398076)

If GrubHub brings awareness to your restaurant that turns into an order why shouldn't they be compensated? You may not like the commission. Don't like it, leave.

The only case I think is a step too far is if GrubHub uses their search rank to display results above a non-participating restaurant and attempts to extort commissions by displaying a proxy number anyway. Is there any evidence of this?

If a customer decides to store the proxy number in their address book thinking that it's a direct line and GrubHub charges the restaurant for each call, then that's a bit scummy.

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Re:People think they're calling restaurants directly but Gru... by jschwartzi on Tuesday June 02, 2020 @08:55PM (#23398461)

In all cases where GrubHub has the first result in my area, they didn't do anything to "make me aware" of the restaurant I'm trying to order from. All they're doing in many cases is making it a pain in the ass for me to order via the restaurant's own delivery page.

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Re:People think they're calling restaurants directly but Gru... by lakerz16 on Tuesday June 02, 2020 @08:54PM (#23398453)

If GH takes a 25% cut, then they need to be adding 25% more revenue to the takeout market. I would bet good money they are not.

Instead, they are paying for ad space to siphon the traffic of already hungry customers looking to order from a restaurant.

GH then shows the numbers to the restaurant and says "Look how much business GH brings you. You need to pay us for this"

In many cases they are extorting restaurants over what would be organic web traffic. In these cases they are not adding new revenue to the industry, and are instead choking the restaurants that already operate on thin margins.

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Re:People think they're calling restaurants directly but Gru... by yeswecatan on Tuesday June 02, 2020 @08:13PM (#23398135)

  The redirect number can also appear higher in Google search results (including the Google panel for that business) than the restaurant’s own line. This leads some customers to call it even if they don’t intend to use Grubhub.

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Re:People think they're calling restaurants directly but Gru... by mdoms on Tuesday June 02, 2020 @09:36PM (#23398738)

So the only case where you think it's a step too far is if the company is doing the thing that this article is about them doing?

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