Uber Eats is one of the most convenient ways to get food and groceries delivered to your door.
In this beginner’s guide to Uber Eats, you’ll learn how to search restaurants and stores, place an order, cancel an order, change your delivery address, contact your driver, leave a tip, and more!
Article contents
- What you can order on Uber Eats
- How to place an order
- How to cancel an order
- How to contact customer service
- Drop-off options and delivery instructions
- Tracking your order
- How to rate & tip your driver
Uber Eats: On-demand delivery from restaurants and stores
Uber Eats is an on-demand delivery app for local restaurants and stores. It is available as a standalone app in the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store.
You can also order Uber Eats in the Uber app by tapping the Eats option at the top of the home screen.
Download the Uber Eats app to place an order
You can also order delivery in the Uber ridesharing app
What you can order on Uber Eats
Uber Eats has expanded into many types of delivery, including:
- Restaurant
- Convenience stores
- Alcohol
- Grocery
- Prescription & pharmacy
- Pet supplies
- Retail stores
Tap through the Home, Food, and Groceries sections to see the types of deliveries available in your area. Each page also has a search feature to help you find your needs.
The Uber Eats delivery categories available in Los Angeles
How to place an order on Uber Eats
Ordering food with the Uber Eats app is straightforward: You open the app, find a restaurant or store, create an order, and set your delivery address.
To begin your order, select delivery or pickup at the top of the screen. If you select delivery, follow the steps to enter your address.
Then, find a restaurant or store by scrolling through recommendations or searching for specific restaurants and cuisine types.
After you tap on a restaurant, you can select between delivery or pickup.
To add an item to your cart, tap on the item and select from any required options (adding toppings, extras, etc). The default quantity for each item is 1, but you can increase the quantity by scrolling to the bottom of each item’s page.
The “Add to Cart” button will be greyed out and untappable if you haven’t selected all the required items. The button will become tappable once you’ve completed all the steps necessary for the item.
To see your order, tap View Cart.
Delete an item from your order: Go to the cart page and swipe left to delete an item.
Modify an item in your order: Go to View Cart, then tap the item. Make any changes, then tap Update Cart.
Cart page: You can modify an item, delete an item, or place your order
Tap Place Order when you’ve finished building your order. Make sure to enter any promo codes before you place your order.
How much does Uber Eats cost?
The cost of an Uber Eats order includes the food price, service fee, delivery fee, tip, and taxes. Prices on Uber Eats may be higher than ordering directly, but Uber does not add any markup. Merchants are responsible for setting prices.
If you want to consistently save on every order, subscribe to Uber One to get $0 delivery fees and reduced service fees.
How to cancel an order
To cancel your Uber Eats order, go to the order tracking page and tap Help in the upper right corner to find the Cancel Order option. You may not see a Cancel Order option if your order is too far along. In that case, you must contact customer service to cancel.
To find the order tracking page, tap Carts at the bottom of the screen and select the order, or tap on the green bar at the top of the app that appears during an active order.
Tap Help on the order tracking screen to cancel an order or get more help
Watch out for cancellation charges!
Uber can charge you to cancel your order if you cancel too far along the delivery process. Uber can refund some of their fees like the Service Fee and Booking Fee, but they may not repay the charges for the items you ordered.
You may be charged to cancel if:
- You cancel your order after the restaurant has begun preparing your food
- Your delivery courier is on the way to pick up your food
- The courier has already picked up your order
Read more: What to do if Uber declines your refund
You may be charged a fee if you cancel your order
How to change your delivery address after placing an order
You may be able to change your delivery address if you entered the wrong address when you placed the order. You can change your address up until a delivery person picks it up. The option to change your address will disappear after your order has been picked up.
On the order tracking screen, tap Help in the upper corner, then Change delivery address. Enter the correct delivery address.
You can also scroll to the Delivery details at the bottom of the order tracking screen. Find the incorrect delivery address and tap the Change button to update it.
On the order tracking screen, tap Help to change your delivery address
A few things to note about changing your address after you place an order
- Changing your delivery address may increase the delivery fee
- You can’t use an address that is out of range
- If a delivery person has already been assigned to your order, they can reject the address change and pass your delivery along to another driver
- You can call customer service to change your address if the option doesn’t appear in the app
- You can’t always successfully change your address. Sometimes you have to cancel and you may not get a full refund
How to contact customer service or your delivery courier
You can contact Uber Eats customer service if you have an issue with your order. There is a phone line and a live chat feature.
It’s a good idea to call customer service during your order to modify your order, change your delivery address, or cancel the order. After your delivery is complete, the best way to get help is to report an issue using the Help section at the bottom of every receipt.
Call customer service during your delivery to:
- Change your delivery address
- Modify or cancel your order if the app won’t let you
Contact your driver to:
- Give more drop-off instructions
- If they are still waiting for your order, ask for extra free items like napkins or sauces
Use the Get help section of every receipt to report these issues after the delivery is complete:
- Missing items
- Order never arrived
- Driver was unprofessional
Your driver can’t help you with most order issues, so contacting your driver about missing items or other delivery problems is not helpful.
Delivery drop-off options: Leave at door, meet at door, meet outside
At checkout, you can choose how you want your order to be dropped off:
- Leave at door: Your driver will drop your order off at your door for a no-contact delivery
- Meet at door: Your driver will meet at your door to hand off the order directly to you
- Meet outside: Go outside to meet the driver on the curb or at their vehicle
You can also write delivery notes to help your driver find your location.
Set your drop-off preference on the Checkout page
Don’t put food notes in the drop-off instructions!
One common mistake on Uber Eats is to leave special instructions about food items in the delivery drop-off instructions.
Delivery drop-off notes are additional instructions to help drivers find your location—they’re not intended to be instructions for the restaurant!
Delivery drivers don’t see the drop-off instructions until they pick up your order. If you put a note for extra ketchup or napkins in the drop-off instructions, your driver may not see it until they pull up to your address.
Don’t put food notes in the drop-off instructions
If you have extra instructions that you want the restaurant to see, use the ‘special instructions’ box at the bottom of most menu items.
Select an item and scroll to the bottom of the page to find the special instructions box.
Use special instructions to make requests to remove ingredients or add extra free items like condiments and utensils.
Add notes for the restaurant in the special instructions box
Tracking your order
An order tracking screen appears after you place your order. The tracking screen is where you can see updates about your order or get help from customer support.
Here is what each order status on the tracking page means:
- Confirming order with restaurant: The restaurant has received your order but hasn’t confirmed it yet
- Preparing your order: The restaurant confirmed your order and is working on it
- Picking up your order: A delivery person is on the way to pick up your order
- Heading your way: Your order was picked up and the delivery person is on the way to deliver it to you
- Oops, finding another delivery person: Your delivery person dropped your order and Uber is assigning a new one
If you leave the order tracking screen, you can return to it by tapping the green bar at the top of the screen.
You can also find the order tracking screen by tapping Carts at the bottom of the screen.
Return to the tracking area by tapping the green bar on the home screen
Another way to track your order
How to rate & tip your driver
You can tip your driver on the checkout page before you place your order or wait until after your order is complete.
Drivers receive 100% of tips. Tipping is not mandatory, but it is highly recommended.
Can drivers see your tip? Before accepting your order, Uber Eats drivers see an estimated payout that includes some or all of any tip you enter at checkout.
In other words, your driver can tell if you tipped or not, but they won’t know the exact tip until the order is complete.
So if you don’t tip at checkout, the estimated pay for your order will be low and the driver might not accept it.
Tipping is highly recommended. Think of it as a bid for faster service
If you don’t tip at checkout, your order progress screen will nudge you to tip
To rate an order: Follow the popup prompts after the order, or go to the Carts tab and find the order.
Tap the Rate Order button. Follow the on-screen steps to rate your driver and confirm the tip. If you don’t want to leave a tip, select “Done” without specifying a tip amount.
Make sure to rate your driver and leave a tip after the order is complete
More help for Uber Eats customers
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