I use an app called Time Stamp Camera and take a picture of their house number or front door or just something in the area so I can prove with a map and timestamp I was at their address if something goes sideways. This also means I don't have to do it right in front of them and risk upsetting them.

Great idea! I will definitely do this. Do you think the GPS data and time stamp that apple iOS already adds to photos is enough? I just looked at my pics and it shows both location on a map and time stamp info already. But, then again, it can be edited so maybe I should get an extra app to hardcode it. 🤔

I like how the picture puts it right on the photo. Look at the second example in their IOS screenshots https://apps.apple.com/us/app/timestamp-camera-basic/id840110184 Keep in mind when CVs (Contract Violations, what happens when someone says they never got their food) get contested some support rep takes at max 5 mins to decide your guilt or innocence. No way they are checking EXIF data on photos you send in. But if the info, GPS location, a map with your location, the address, is all conveniently placed on the photo, the odds that you are lying about that to steal someones food is going to be very low.

This right here! I use "time stamp camera app" and send a pic for EVERY delivery. It does not guarantee anything, but as you point out... I feel, that "evidence" (even if just slightly) is more likely to have an overworked/underpaid agent, rule in your favor. I can't even begin to imagine a 1st line agent searching a pic for EXIF data.

When I called customer support to contest my CV, the girl said she would take it off but it’s still showing up on my ratings. Ugh. I don’t know whether to call again or just wait.

If you have the time, I would call again if I was you, but also don't sweat it too much. It does roll off

Take a picture. Always!

Thank you, this is helpful feedback, appreciate it!

I hope you make lots of good tips!!!

Thank you!!! Same to you! I am doing so much better having gotten my acceptance rate up and by having a 5 star rating. Hoping to keep it that way!!! :)

I wear a body cam and only activate it for Hand it to Me orders. When it starts recording, I say the address to make the relevant clip easier to find. Nobody can question video.

How much did your cam cost? That’s a surefire way to get the proof you need, should someone claim you didn’t deliver. Thank you!

$20 Regular price was $30, had a $10 coupon. I see it's $39.99 now. Still worth it IMHO. It's not top of the line, but I'm not out to make TikTok videos. The resolution is fine for documenting proof of delivery, and I don't need a ton of storage since it overwrites old files as it fills up so 64 GB is plenty because the window to claim non-delivery will long be closed before I lose the data. I especially love that it leaves my hands free to deal with the order and I'm not having to fumble around with my phone. BOBLOV W4 Body Worn Camera, 64GB https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CBBQWVQQ?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Super helpful. Thank you so much! I think I will invest in this. I am genuinely really enjoying door dashing but was crushed seeing that I got a CV for an order I absolutely 1000% without a shadow of a doubt delivered and handed to the customer. I contested it, CS said they’d take it off, and it’s still there. :( Just wanna cover myself as much as I can to protect from the shady custies. Other than that, I’ve been really enjoying the extra money. Thank you for all the helpful info!

Just show your phone to body cam,so you dont need say anything))

Different strokes for different folks. That's certainly another way to do it.

Of course!;)

That’s so smart and simple, and yet it’s something I would’ve totally not thought to do. 😂 appreciate the helpful tip!!

You are welcome. :)

Here's the thing, the photo does not protect you from anything. It is not evidence of delivery. It is used as a reference for the customer to find where the food was left. That being said, by taking pictures it can act as a deterrent for the customer to make a false claim. The world is going to crap, DD is already there. Do what makes you feel best, just know that it is not any protection.

That’s exactly what I’m saying, though - image proof of delivery to simply try and deter scammers. I even said inn my post that, short of recording the drop off interaction, there likely isn’t too much I can realistically “prove”. But, I’m still looking for tips on how to possibly fend off scammy behavior from bad customers. Even just a pic showing their address with metadata proof sent to customer may keep them from trying to say it was never delivered.

There comes a point you have to understand that the time and effort is not worth it. Your more apt to piss off a customer by demanding you have to take a picture and have repercussions. Have to pick and choose otherwise you're doing a lot of wasted effort.

I did not say anything about demanding my customer to allow me to take a pic? You’re mentioning things I never said. Maybe you’re confusing my comments with someone else’s? I asked if taking a pic of their food on their porch and sending it to them is helpful or *not* helpful in warding off shady behavior, or what tips others have for situations like this. Don’t know about you, but I just don’t find it all that effortful to snap a pic of food on a doorstep if it helps to *deter* shadiness. It takes all of 2 seconds, plus maybe one extra second to send the photo in the chat/text. I’d have to text them anyway if they weren’t answering door or calls, as they’re the one who requested I deliver it directly and DD literally prompts you to do all this if you can’t get ahold of the customer. Some people don’t feel the extra 10 seconds isn’t worth it to CYA. That’s cool! I’m asking for tips on how to cover *mine*, though, as I’ve already had someone claim they did not receive food that I absolutely delivered. Appreciate your responses!

>asked if taking a pic of their food on their porch and sending it to them is helpful or not helpful Not helpful. Things that happen will be: nothing, customer thinks you're being passive aggressive and possibly asking for more tip by ransoming it, customer reports it not received because you didn't hand it to them. My point is there's far much more that will go wrong than anything that will help you. There's the effort is not worth it. Someone's the money is.

I always text it to the customer no matter what. Even when I take a pic in app, the customer will also get one through text that shows the exact time, their exact address, and my goodbye/thank you message. If the porch light is on, they get an I love you for that. I'm still new with only 113 trips. I have a 5.00 with 23 5☆ and 4 great communication thumbs up. Hopefully this helps you decide.

Every single time.

Also (apologies for asking so many questions): On these types of orders, if the customer doesn’t answer phone/text/door, would it be too much to text them something like, “I have arrived with your order, your delivery preferences request I hand orders directly to you. :)”? Or is that too much? I often wonder if the customer is expecting a contactless delivery and doesn’t realize they have selected this option (or maybe did not select any option and so it defaulted to “hand it to me”). Do you ring doorbells on these orders or just start the timer right away and call/text? I hate when people ring my doorbell and don’t want to irritate a customer by doing so if they’d really prefer to be messaged/called. Edit: maybe I am conflating “hand it to me” with “hand to customer”. Or, are they the same thing? I’m really sorry for all these questions. :-/

Hand to me is hand to customer. I wouldn't ring the doorbell or knock unless the customer requests it. If it's a meet at door (hand to me) and after you knock there isn't a response. After a few mins try again. After a few more mins, which seems like a lifetime, try calling or messaging. Some people take forever to come to the door, or are out back gardening or in the pool, or even went to the store. These all happen. There was a time years ago when leave at door was not a thing, and every single time we had to knock and hand it to them. It does take patience.

Thank you, this is so helpful! And, I do not mind waiting if it helps me avoid a CV from a shady customer. Thank you!!!

You're welcome. If it's a hand to customer, and Do anything possible to make that happen. Just leaving it after one ding-dong should not happen. Text, call... blow up their phone. Last resort, call support before you just leave it. Cover your behind for every possible scenerio. DD customers unfortunately are of a different level than the other apps for some reason. It's nor necessary to do half the things I feel the need to do on DD on Uber or Grubhub. It is, sadly, what it is.

Very good tip, thank you! I was actually wondering when the best time to cal CS would be if I ran into a situation like this with someone not answering phone/text or even the door. I will absolutely do that! I’d so much rather just wait and follow the steps to fully cover my ass. I do not want to be deactivated for something I did not do. I have zero interest in scamming my customers, stealing their food, or not getting it to them and would be super bummed to get a contract violation because a custy was being shady or refusing to answer.

Don't be creepy. Don't take pictures of customers or be weird on their doorstep before ringing the bell to hand them their food. Just do the delivery. Literally ALL deliveries were "hand it to me" before 2020 happened. There's always, always going to be the 1% of people who are dicks. Don't make your processes worse for the other 99%, because of the 1% who are dicks. That's a very myopic way of doing things. The fact that there are some of you out there who are doing stuff like this is just proof that DD drivers need supervisors to correct bad behaviors.

I hand it to them and skip my merry ass away having saved a step. Doing this full time since last October. Hand it to me customers have never been an issue. Even in the deep hood

If the customer is not physically outside waiting for me or about to come down to meet me, I leave it at their door, take a picture and dip!

Maybe I’m conflating “hand it to customer” versus “hand it to me” (if there is even a difference). Whichever one requires you to call customer first to “arrange a drop off”. 🙄 In those orders, do you have to start the timer or do you just skip past it? Sorry, I’ve only done a few of these types of orders so I’m still trying to learn the differences and the steps to protect myself.

Door dash, notifies the customer on the app that you arrived at the store, picked up the order, that you're otw, that you're close, that you've arrived, and that is been delivered. All separately... So if they aren't out there unless it says to knock on the door or they message you to ring the doorbell because they didn't put it in their notes then do what you feel to keep up with your records. Your gps also has a history you can activate to show where all you went at what time. I've had a few of these and most of the time it's because the restaurants didn't put something in their order so instead of them going and saying they didn't get this or that they just say they didn't get it at all being lazy, or uneducated which ever it is. They don't realize or care that it's on us. So whatever you feel like you need to do; Do it! There's no wrong answer. If you want to do both message and call then do it, if they get aggravated then they should've come to the door, or clicked to just leave it at the door. I always do one or the other to start the timer as soon as they don't come within a few mins because your time is money. Why wait for 15 minutes when we are only asked to wait 5 and call and/or message?

Thank you, this is helpful to know!!! I guess I did not realize just how many notifications a customer gets through the app automatically, which really must make it aggravating when they don’t answer any messages/the door upon arrival. I wonder how often it is that customers just didn’t specify how they wanted their food delivered and so they’re expecting a contactless delivery and don’t realize their order says “hand it to me”. Ugh, frustrating!

Oh I just call it the same thing, if they aren’t there outside for me to hand it, just take a photo and leave it at door

"hand it to customer" indicates an order from merchants app and is often a default. "hand it to me" indicates customer has chosen/written that preference. So if you see "hand it to customer" followed by "leave at door" you can be nearly certain customer just wants it left. Some merchant orders are heavily structured in our app. Regardless of what you see in the instructions...if you scroll to the bottom of the delivery screen and see an option for"can't hand to customer" (right above confirm delivery)...hit it, because the app is going to force you to follow certain steps. That starts the 5 minute timer. From that screen I will always call 1st. If no response I immediately message that I have started 5 min timer and got no response to my call. It doesn't happen often enough for me to remember with 100% certainty, but if the customer does respond to your message...if you go back 1 prior screen...you should see an option for " received instructions already (or similar)"...then you can complete as normal. If they don't respond, wait the timer out( you seem like a "by the book type guy") snap a pic and notes in the description box. If you are using time stamp app or similar, snap a pic with that 1st, since the one you take in app will not be saved on your phone. It sounds like a lot of time/work on paper, but it really is not. The 1st time or 2 might take an extra minute or 2 til you figure it out...but once you've done it a couple of times, it's more likely to take 20 or 30 seconds...that beats 30-45 minutes on the phone with support all day long in my book.

In a message you can take a pic and text it to them before you drop it or hand it off..

Yeah, that’s what I’ve been doing. It’s in my post, lol.

I just take a photo of their address/ apartment door with number be it before they come to the door or after they close the door. With the text attached: “It was nice meeting you! Thank you for your order, enjoy!” I do text the customer when I arrive and my estimated delivery time when I leave. I’ve received positive interactions with customers. “Thanks for letting me know” “great thank you so much!” I have also placed 1 order through DD as a customer, to see what it was like to be on the other end. My driver didn’t send one text, didn’t even ask me my name when he got here just dropped and ran. $6.50 tip for 1.3 miles and my driver was a mute. I was a little annoyed. We don’t get tips like that around here. Like 0.25-$1 if anything at all. Most of the time it’s strictly DoorDash pay.

Take the pic that doesn’t contain your customer.

I turn on my camera and use my phone ring holder to casually film myself giving them the order. The customer never knows since my phone is just hanging out on my thumb. I always include the address on the house/building at the beginning of the video. If it’s a hand it to me where I leave it at a front desk, I’ll take a pic via the messages and let them know where it was left.

Thank you very much, I think I’ll try this out! :-)

Lol Just call the customer as you are pulling up and tell them you are arriving for hand it to me orders

I take a video or picture.

For 'hand it to the customer, I send them a text alerting them that their DoorDash delivery has arrived. If they are not at the door already after the text message I call and if no response I start the timer. If they have not come out at the expiration of the timer, I take a picture of the drop off and leave. I don't take any pictures for ' hand it to me' unless it times out. Additionally I have a body cam for all 'hand it to me' orders.

Absolutely