HARTLAND — Ulises Alarcon says his Mexican restaurant in Hartland, Señor Tomás, never agreed to sign on with food delivery service Grubhub, but the partnership unfolded anyway.
"A lady called and asked if we were doing Grubhub and I told her no we're not doing it and she asked if we would be interested in doing that," Alarcon explained.
Alarcon says he started noticing a pattern with certain food pick-ups -- they came 20 to 30 minutes late.
"I know it was Grubhub because they would give me the credit card saying Grubhub," he said.
"People might think, well that's a good thing because you're getting business. Why is this hurting you?" TMJ4 News' Kristin Byrne asked Alarcon.
"Well, it's hurting because it's compromising the food that we serve. If you order a chimichanga which is crispy and you pick it up half an hour later and then they still have to drop it off to the residents, that's going to be a very soggy chimichanga," Alarcon said.
He also says the Señor Tomás menu Grubhub uploaded to its app was old and prices were wrong.
"And they have some items that we've never done before like blueberry juice? We've never done that," Alarcon said.
Other restaurants have similar complaints. TMJ4 reported on this last month.
Alarcon says he tried twice to get his menu off the Grubhub app with no luck. After TMJ4 News contacted Grubhub asking about it, the menu was removed the next day.
A Grubhub spokesperson provided us with the below statement:
"Grubhub places restaurants on our platform to offer diners variety and to increase the volume of orders for the restaurants. restaurant owners can request removal by reaching out to us at restaurants@grubhub.com, and Senor Tomas is no longer on our platform."
Alarcon realizes his restaurant received money for the meals, but he felt like he was losing so much more.
"It's not just about gaining, it's about quality food and giving it to our customers. We want to keep a reputation," he said.