A Reddit user claims they received noticeably smaller burgers from a food stall after placing their order through a delivery app membership discount, according to a post shared on the Reddit community r/mildlyinfuriating. The user, who posted under the name Illustrious-Bread183, said they regularly ordered from the stall in person before their brother discovered a discount available through a food delivery app membership.
According to the post, the app reportedly allowed customers to place orders at a reduced price, with the app paying the vendor online afterward. The user said he and his brother had used this method a few times before the incident occurred.
When they arrived to pick up his order, the stall owner allegedly put two regular-sized burgers on the counter, the size the user said they would normally receive, before pulling them back and replacing them with smaller ones, stating they were the ones meant for delivery app orders. The user said he reluctantly took them home, and one of the burgers turned out to be undercooked.
Redditors weigh in on delivery app discount practices and what restaurants can do
The post drew significant engagement, with many commenters sharing their own similar experiences. One user argued that the vendor’s approach was self-defeating, suggesting that giving discount customers a worse product creates a worse impression of the business than if the discount had never been offered at all.
“Here’s a coupon to try us!” the commenter wrote sarcastically, before adding, “Literally serves a smaller portion, giving you a shittier impression of the business.”
Another commenter shared a related story involving a barbecue restaurant where he claimed to have been shorted on pulled pork he had ordered through a delivery app discount. He said he weighed the containers at home and found they came in well under the advertised one pound each.
“I’m not above inconveniencing myself for the principle,” the commenter wrote, adding that he returned to the restaurant and was given a full pound for free. In another case, a man in California expected to pay well over $1000 for a dental filling, but paid just $19 to fix it in Vietnam.
One commenter who identified themselves as a restaurant owner offered a different perspective, suggesting that delivery apps frequently take between 30 and 40 percent of an item’s price from vendors. They also claimed that apps use promotional rankings to pressure restaurants into offering discounts, pushing those who decline further down in search results.
“It’s all pretty f- when working with delivery apps, and while there are some shitty owners out there with shitty practices, most of us are just trying to get by with whatever means we can,” they wrote.
Others were less sympathetic toward the vendor. One commenter said simply, “If you can’t afford to offer discounts. Don’t. Offer. Discounts.” The original poster appeared to agree, responding that the situation was “understandable” given that the vendor was being paid less, but also noted that he had paid for the app membership himself.
Several users suggested that the practice could potentially constitute false advertising, though others pushed back on that characterization, arguing that false advertising claims would typically require the restaurant to have advertised a specific size or weight that was not delivered.
One commenter noted, “Sure, if they provide the exact dimensions of the meal in their advertising and the meal comes up short. Has any restaurant ever done that in the history of ever?”
The legal status of such a practice would likely depend on local consumer protection laws and the specific terms of the menu listing. A similar dispute involved an Oregon teen whose arm tripled in size while a nurse allegedly dismissed his family’s fears, leading to a $100 million lawsuit.
Some commenters also raised the point that delivery apps have, in some reported cases, listed restaurants on their platforms without explicit consent from the business owner, scraping menus from websites and adding them without notifying the restaurant.
One user claimed to know a restaurant owner who spent six months trying to get her business removed from a delivery app she had never signed up for. However, it is not clear from the original post whether this was the case with the stall in question, particularly given that the vendor appeared to have specifically prepared smaller burgers for app-based orders.
Published: Jul 8, 2026 01:45 pm