DoorDash Employees Can't Stand IHOP Orders For One Frustrating Reason

Have you ever placed an order through DoorDash and then waited an unusually long time for a delivery driver to pick it up? It's possible that you ordered from one of the chains DoorDash drivers hate picking up food from. You might think it wouldn't matter to the Dashers where the order comes from, but that's actually not the case. For example, many of them specifically avoid taking IHOP orders because they often take way too long.

On Reddit, countless DoorDash drivers have shared their frustrating experiences with IHOP. "I have waited 25 minutes for an order on a slow day," commented one employee. "IHOP is always a nightmare for delivery drivers, they literally dgaf about us," shared another. The issue is becoming so obvious that even the customers are noticing it. "Made an order from IHOP over an hour ago now. I've had 3 different Dashers cancel because they've been waiting too long. This is insane," complained one patron on the platform.

Some speculate that the long waiting times at IHOP vary by day, as the diner tends to be busier on the weekends and holidays. But several delivery drivers have pointed out that IHOP staff seem to have a flippant attitude towards them, even going as far as completely ignoring them or being outright rude. For those reasons, some Dashers have resolved to always pass on IHOP orders — and to be fair, even the customers are saying this 68-year-old breakfast chain isn't worth it anymore.

To understand why the long waiting times are an issue for the delivery drivers, you must first understand DoorDash's payment structure. There are two ways in which Dashers earn money, either being paid an hourly rate or per order. The hourly rate is not available to everyone and only applies to certain locations, so the far more common way of earning is per individual order.

Dashers get paid a set amount for each order; that amount stays fixed even if the order suddenly takes much longer to complete. A short order and a longer one could both have the exact same earning rate, so if a Dasher is waiting 30 minutes at IHOP for your pancakes, they're wasting precious time during which they could have delivered two or three other orders and earned more money. Put simply, long wait times make them lose potential earnings.

These earnings are small to begin with, too. The amount a delivery driver can make per order can be as low as $2, so imagine waiting half an hour to only earn two bucks. That's why most Dashers rely on tips to make a reasonable income — they can see how much you're tipping before accepting the offer, so your orders may also take longer if you're not tipping the delivery drivers.