The world of food delivery is fast-paced, a bit unpredictable, and full of surprises. One of those surprises you’ll run into sooner or later is this: you arrive at the restaurant, and the staff tells you that an item or worse, the whole order is unavailable.
So now what?
If you’re like me when I was starting out, you’ll probably have a lot of questions running through your head:
“Should I unassign the order?”
“Will I still get paid?”
“Will this mess up my completion rate?”
Let me save you the headache and walk you through exactly what to do – based on my years of experience on the road.
Yes, it’s frustrating. You’re already at the store, maybe even waiting in line, and now you’re being told something the customer ordered isn’t available. It’s tempting to just walk away and unassign, but don’t do that.
Don’t Unassign the Order
I repeat – don’t unassign the order yourself.
Why? Because if you do, two things happen:
- You don’t get paid. You already spent time and gas getting to the location, and now you’ll walk away with nothing.
- It might affect your Completion Rate. If your Completion Rate drops below 90%, your Dasher account could be at risk for deactivation.
And we don’t want that. Here’s what you should do instead.
Try the In-App Report Feature
Sometimes, when an item is unavailable, you can report it directly in the Dasher app. Just go to the order, find the item, click the three-dot menu next to it, and tap “Item unavailable.”
Sounds easy, right?
Well, yes and no. From my experience, this feature doesn’t always work properly. Sometimes, the app will try to guide you through the process, only to advise to call Doordash Dasher support, or worse, push you toward unassigning the order – which, again, is not ideal.
Remember that unassigning from an order might hurt your completion rate.
That’s why…
Call Dasher Support
This is the best and safest route to go.
Call up Dasher Support and explain the situation:
“Hi, I’m at [restaurant name], and the staff said that [item name] is not available.
From there, support will either:
- Try to contact the restaurant.
- Check if the missing item is essential to the order. Then, cancel the order.
If the order is fully canceled, here’s the good news:
✅ You’ll receive half pay,
✅ Your Completion Rate stays safe,
✅ And you can move on to your next delivery without worry.
Final Thoughts
I’ve had this happen more times than I can count. There were a few early shifts when I didn’t know better and just unassigned. That decision cost me – not just in pay, but also in metrics.
I learned the hard way that it’s always better to call support and let them handle it.
