Since Travis Kaiser opened Santoro’s Pizzeria in February, he’s been all about giving the Bay Area a slice of New Jersey.
"The goal was to grow organically," he said. But soon after the grand opening, Kaiser said GrubHub reached out to them.
"We noticed we were on their site back then," he said. "They put you on as a sales pitch and say ‘hey, we got 20 orders for you, maybe you should jump on our platform.'"
Kaiser contacted GrubHub to take down the listing and Santoro's Pizzeria was removed. They decided to contract with UberEats instead and it's the only delivery service they contract with.
But about two weeks ago, they got a call from a customer demanding a refund for a $60 order. After some back and forth, they realized the customer ordered from GrubHub.
"Turns out we were on their website," Kaiser said. "It was kind of a shock to us."
Kaiser told ABC Action News he tried contacting GrubHub several times. After not getting a response, they posted to TikTok. Santoro’s racked up more than 2 million views on a few videos.
ABC Action News reached out to GrubHub and a spokesperson responded saying Santoro's listing was taken down on November 4th.
"In my opinion, I don’t think that’s the most transparent way to do business," Kaiser said. Last October, a class-action lawsuit was filed against GrubHub.
It alleges more than 150,000 restaurants were added to the site and app without the owner’s permission causing “significant damage to their hard-earned reputations.”
Kaiser says he’s grateful for their overnight social media fame helping right a wrong. Unfortunately, they got the wrath of our TikTok," he said.
To avoid your food never arriving to your door, it's best to go to the restaurant's website or social media page to see who they contract with. Sometimes, a link will take you directly to the third-party delivery service's website.
