Allergy and dietary mistakes: a safety-first guide
Most delivery problems cost you money. An allergen or dietary mistake can cost more than that, which is why it belongs in a category of its own. If you asked for no nuts and there are nuts, or ordered strictly vegetarian and meat arrived, treat it first as a safety matter and only second as a refund.
Safety before the claim
The refund can wait five minutes; your health cannot. If a dish contains an allergen you flagged, do not eat it to be sure, and do not taste-test to "confirm" the mistake. If you have already reacted and it is serious, treat it as a medical situation and seek help — the complaint is not the priority in that moment. Everything below assumes you are safe and now dealing with the order.
Why this is a stronger complaint
A wrong side dish is a preference; an allergen mistake is a safety failure against an instruction you gave. When you framed the order correctly — a note, a modifier, a "no shellfish" flag — and the kitchen ignored it, that is a clear, serious fault, not a matter of taste. Say so plainly: "I ordered this marked no peanuts for an allergy; it arrived with peanut sauce." Support treats safety mistakes differently from ordinary swaps, and rightly so.
What to document
- Your instruction — screenshot the order showing the dietary note or modifier you selected. This proves you asked, which is the heart of the case.
- What arrived — a photo of the dish and any ingredient sticker or packaging listing the allergen.
- The timeline — raise it immediately; a safety issue reported at once is unambiguous.
The ask
A full refund or redelivery of the correct, safe dish is fair here — you cannot eat what came, so you effectively received nothing usable. If you want the kitchen's error on record for the next customer too, say that; platforms do track repeat safety complaints against a restaurant.
Whose failure it is
A dietary mistake is the kitchen's — they prepared or packed against your instruction. You still complain to the platform, which took the order and owes the remedy, but the fault sits with the restaurant, not the rider who carried a sealed bag. That distinction, covered in our rights overview, keeps your complaint aimed at the party that actually erred.
The instinct worth building
The winning move here — point at the instruction you gave, then at what arrived — is the same evidence discipline every good complaint runs on. The Wrong Order rehearses spotting exactly what is wrong and holding the proof of it, the habit that makes a serious complaint land as clearly as it should.