Some Postmates Users Cry Foul Over Inaccurate Price Estimates

When you use a delivery service like Postmates to pick up your dinner or groceries, you should expect some difference between the estimated price and the one you ultimately pay, but some Postmates users say they are paying upwards of 35% more than the estimate.

For example BuzzFeed News points to several customers griping about huge discrepancies on their Postmates bills, including one customer who was given an estimate of $57.85 for a delivery, but saw that price jump to $77.90 ($95.17 after all the fees) when the delivery was made:

Alright @Postmates, what am I missing here? Estimated total – $57.85 Actual total – $77.90 (not including fees) http://pic.twitter.com/aCfuMLY1LZ

— Kathleen Warner (@kathleen_warner) May 22, 2016

Has anyone been given an estimate by @Postmates and then had the actual charge be $20 over what they quoted? I feel like I've been scammed.

— Christian Simamora (@csimamora) February 14, 2016

Like the other week when my Postmates order estimate was $108 and the actual bill was $160? Good times. https://t.co/mwk42xDEFg

— Matt Rosoff (@MattRosoff) May 24, 2016

Most of the customers’ issues occurred when viewing the estimated subtotal after placing restaurant orders through Postmates.

While in some cases, customers noticed the significant price jump included not only service and delivery fees, others found no evidence of where the additional costs were coming from.

@ceodonovan @Postmates yep they refunded it. they were unaware the restaurant was charging a postmates fee http://pic.twitter.com/1IXYrlbTDO

— Kathleen Warner (@kathleen_warner) May 25, 2016

Still, Postmates maintains that a majority of the pricing issues have been related to outdated menu prices.

“We show the price estimate, based on the menu that’s in our system,” Postmates spokesperson April Conyers tells BuzzFeed, “but there may be some discrepancy.”

Customers Say Postmates Has Been Underestimating Delivery Costs [BuzzFeed News]