DoorDasher Drops off 2 Orders at Customer’s House, Returns 40 Minutes Later To Demand the Other Despite It Being Unsafe To Deliver

Author image for JR Atkinson
JR Atkinson • Writer and Editor
Jul 18, 2026 9:00 PM EDT

Should you deliver food that has been sitting in a stranger's house for almost an hour?

The thing about food delivery is that you probably want it pretty fast. You're hungry, so you ordered, and you're just waiting for it to get there. You're counting down the minutes and the hours before you can dig into your meal. If it arrived over an hour later, and it had been sitting out for the whole time, you'd probably be pretty upset. But that's what happened in this story where a DoorDash driver made an error, which happens all the time, and then had a pretty strange way of trying to fix it. The person who got caught up in it was left wondering what was going on here and what they could do about it. So they reached out to the internet, which responded with ideas. 

Food delivery is such a huge convenience. You can summon whatever you'd like to eat with the click of a button. That convenience, though, comes at a cost. Which it usually does. You're paying through the nose to get that food delivered. It also comes with some built-in errors. It's humans who power it, after all, and they're bound to make mistakes. They're also not often paid enough for them to have a true stake in the issue. That's what happened here, but things got a little weird. You always hope your food hasn't been tampered with, but there is a lot of trust that goes into that. You trust the people preparing the food, and the people bringing it to you. Anything could happen at any point, but it helps to be careful. Not everyone is on the same page, though, about how careful they should be. We all have different comfort levels with the food we eat, and we can't expect everyone to have the same preferences as us. But we should hope that everyone is being as careful as they possibly can be. That's not what happened here. Keep scrolling to find out what happened.

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  • Driver came back to my hotel room 40 minutes later.

    SWISS CHALET Hall Chickan 01/01/2 Full Club Wrap White Crispy Chicken Hot Chk Sandwich Canack Dark White SWISS CHALET $40 of 40 or More Order of Scan Me WISS ALET SWISS CHALET ANDWICHES RIB COMBOS CHICKEN Quarter Dark Quarter White Double Leg Half Chicken Family PAK O 1/3 1/2 Full Dark White Wings Club Wrap Chk On A Bun Crispy Chicken Hot Chk Sandwich Canuck Rib O Dark White
    via CryptosBiwon
  • Had one of the strangest DoorDash experiences tonight. The driver dropped two orders at my hotel room door. Neither bag had a name on it, so I opened both to figure out which one was actually mine. Once I found mine, I ate it and left the other bag sitting there, planning to throw it out later.
    via CryptosBiwon
  • About 40 minutes later, the driver came back asking for the second order. I told him I didn't think it was appropriate to deliver it anymore. It had been sitting in my hotel room for almost an hour, and I had already opened it to identify which order was mine. I said he should probably go back to the restaurant and have it remade because it didn't seem sanitary for another customer to receive opened food.
    via CryptosBiwon
  • He disagreed and said it was "better to deliver it." He told me if the customer wanted a new meal, they could order another one. I asked him if he was at least going to tell the customer that their order had been opened by someone else and had been sitting in a hotel room for like an hour before being delivered. He said, "Well, yeah."
    via CryptosBiwon
  • I gave him the order back because he wouldn't leave otherwise, but I also reported the incident through the app and left a note in the sauces bag explaining why it had been. opened. Am I the only one who thinks delivering food that's been opened and sitting in someone else's room for 40 minutes is completely unacceptable?
    via CryptosBiwon

  • Commenters weighed in on this story.

    SuperReliableSource I would tell you to call Doordash and tell them, but they really don't care.
    via SuperReliableSource
  • Civil_Stop3213 Not DoorDash but one time I was in a McDonald's drive through and they handed me another persons order. I looked in the bag and told them. They said because I opened the bag and just looked inside that I could keep it along with my actual order. Door dash should have policies like that.
    via Civil_Stop3213
  • midsection of a food delivery man carrying boxes of food outside someone's door
    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

    A food delivery man carries boxes of food outside someone's door

    Subjects are models representing story

  • Tiered Tray Trunk that is totally unacceptable. I'd be talking to DD about it. Would you want food that you don't know where its been or what's been done to it? He's not going to tell them.
    via TieredTrayTrunk
  • FaceMace This is why I meet them in the lobby. I don't want some rando knowing what room I'm in.
    via FaceMace
  • xzxnightshade Honestly, I wouldn't have even given it back to him. I would've just said, "Hey, you left it here almost an hour ago. I didn't think you were coming back, so it was eaten and gone. Sorry, dude."
    via xzxnightshade
  • I get that you say he wouldn't leave, but at that point I'd just be firm and tell him to leave or you'll call the police. What I don't understand is how he came back 40 minutes later without the customer already contacting DoorDash asking what's going on and why their order is so late. I wouldn't even
    via xzxnightshade
  • consider going back after that long. If it's 5-10 minutes, sure, but 40 minutes? In my mind, that food is as good as gone by then. And yes, that's beyond unsanitary.
    via xzxnightshade
  • Street_Region_4536 personally wouldn't have opened the door and pretended I had left and wasn't there, that's creepy he came back.
    via Street_Region_4536
  • Mamaskerkskerk Well I'm pretty sure it's illegal. For example, if a waiter at a restaurant sets food down at the wrong table, it's technically illegal for them to come back to grab it and give it to the right table. This seems far worse...
    via Mamaskerkskerk
  • A food delivery man hands off a package to a customer
    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

    A food delivery man hands off a package to a customer

    Subjects are models.

  • ThetaGrim Massive food safety issue. It was opened, handled, who knows what got into it or what people did to it. The sitting out, it's not ideal but I've had orders sit for an hour before being delivered too so it won't be that much of an issue. Good on you for letting the other customer know.
    via ThetaGrim
  • InvisibleChocolate94 I hope we get another post of someone finding a note in the sauce bag
    via InvisibleChocolate94
  • Exotic_Today_8248 The note is the best thing you can do so the person who recieved could report
    via Exotic_Today_8248
  • Usual-Role-9084 Wym he "wouldn't leave otherwise"?? Close the door in his face and then call the front desk and have him removed from the premises.
    via Usual-Role-9084
  • Cute-Ad-6194 I would demand new food if they handed my fast food bag to another customer and watched him rummage through it only to find out it was mine. (True story, Dunkin Donuts, they tried to give me the food, I told them that guy just picked through that bag, make me a new order and throw that out right here in front of me!)
    via Cute-Ad-6194
  • yatrix7 Summary of why I don't use food delivery (along with cost). These people aren't employees of a restaurant so NO ONE is keeping an eye on them. Just too many stories like this for me to trust them.
    via yatrix7
  • ilulillirillion Shouldn't have given it, driver can't compel you, but not a big deal in any case, just commenting. Customer might still be fooled, or could show support the note and be told to pound sand. + shorter conversation with the dasher "no, have a good one"
    via ilulillirillion

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Tags

hotel doordash strange delivery app dasher food delivery food fast food delivery
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