I was gobsmacked after a JustEat delivery driver left my family's £45 KFC order in the bin outside my door
A local dad said he was left “gobsmacked” after a food delivery driver appeared to place his family’s takeaway in a wheelie bin before marking it as delivered.
Rob Taylor, 37, from Fleetwood, said he had ordered a £45 meal for himself, his partner and their three daughters through Just Eat on Saturday, March 28.
Doorbell camera footage seen by the Blackpool Gazette appears to show a delivery driver placing a takeaway bag inside a household bin before closing the lid. Mr Taylor said he did not hear the driver knock at the door, although he acknowledged one may have been attempted.
He said he only realised something was wrong when he spotted the driver leaving his garden shortly after the delivery. “I looked out the window and said, ‘That’s my order,’ and he said, ‘I’ve put it in the bin,’” he said.
Mr Taylor said the driver then returned to the bin and took the food out before handing it to him on his doorstep. “I was just stood there thinking, ‘Did that really just happen?’” he said. “I was gobsmacked. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.”
“Once you put something like that in a bin, it’s not fit for human consumption.”
The order, from KFC, had been intended for his family, including his daughters aged 11, nine and five. Mr Taylor said he did not think the issue was with the restaurant, but how the delivery was handled.
“I took it into the house and explained what had happened, but we all agreed we couldn’t eat it,” he said. “I couldn’t feed that to my children. There was no way.”
He said he was then forced to make alternative arrangements. “I ended up having to go out again and get more food. I drove to McDonald’s and got them a Happy Meal each,” he added.
Mr Taylor said he felt the food should have been left in a safe place or returned to the restaurant if he could not be contacted. “If I was a delivery driver, I’d either leave it on the doorstep or take it back. I’d never put someone’s food in a bin,” he said.
A spokesperson for Just Eat said the courier had attempted to contact the customer multiple times and had been outside the property for around 22 minutes. They said the driver called the customer seven times and sent a message through the app, but did not receive a response.
The company added that orders can only be marked as delivered once a customer provides a code, which they said had been given in this case.
In relation to the food being placed in a bin, the spokesperson said couriers are advised to leave orders in a “safe place” if they cannot be delivered, and suggested there may have been confusion with guidance from other platforms. Mr Taylor said he had noticed missed calls but did not believe this justified the driver’s actions.
“No matter how many times a miscommunication happens, it doesn’t excuse putting food in a bin, does it?” he said. “I understand he tried to call me, but I don’t think anything excuses putting a family’s evening meal inside an outside bin. I think it’s absolutely mental.”
He also confirmed he provided the delivery code after the driver returned to the property and retrieved the food from the bin. He said he accepted it at the time because he was “taken aback” and did not immediately process what had happened. Mr Taylor added that he has since been issued a refund by Just Eat.
In a statement, a spokesman for Just Eat said: “At Just Eat, we want all of our customers to have a positive experience when ordering food online and we have robust systems in place to ensure a smooth order handover.
“In this instance, the courier was left waiting outside for the customer for over twenty minutes, with eight attempts to contact the customer to let them know their order arrived. We are in touch with the customer to discuss their experience further.”