ChowNow
reviews and complaints

This app took my DELIVERY order, sent no confirmation, has no order info on the actual app (the only way I know it was ordered was through my credit card charge) and then when I call to find out where my food is, the “customer service” tells me that I placed a Pick Up order (why would I be calling about a pick up order? Why would I put my full address in for a delivery order?). He then accused me of lying about the delivery order, told me to walk 20 blocks and go pick up the food myself, and then kept me on hold for 20 minutes to report that they cannot reach the restaurant and are unable to refund me. Now I have to go through my credit card company to refute the charges. It should also be noted that the “customer service” “man” laughed at me and talked over me the entire time.

This is literally fraudulent and gross. Will never use this app again.

ChowNow really bangs the “help local restaurants” drum loudly. Whether their guilt-inducing, almost mob-like advertising (buy from us or the restaurant gets it) works is not the subject of this review. What is though, is the really poor quality and vast incompleteness of the app.

We’re all used to the Doordashes, Uber Eatses, and Grubhubs of the world. Yet this app seems to ignore the (not even very high) standards set by those apps, lacking so much functionality and being so user unfriendly that I don’t even feel like getting into details, just like I don’t ever feel like using this app.

The direct-ordering mobile web experience ChowNow sells to restaurants is actually so much better than this app. If you want to use a ChowNow service to order from your local restaurants, you’re better off hunting for the restaurant website and ordering directly from there.

My account was hacked two weeks ago. I got charged $130 for noodles from a restaurant on the other side of the country, and even got the email confirmations and a phone call from the delivery driver. I canceled my credit card, asked Chownow to delete my account, and then set up a new account with a new email address. My new account was used today to order food in another state. I tried to contact customer service again, and they told me they wouldn’t be able to delete my account for up to 45 days and to contact my bank about the charges because they would not refund me or the restaurant. I’m now canceling my second credit card in two weeks. The scariest part is that I never saved my card info to my chownow accounts, yet whoever was able to access my accounts were still able to use my credit card. IF YOU VALUE YOUR CREDIT CARD INFORMATION STAYING PRIVATE, STAY AWAY!

I placed an order for pickup at a restaurant called XXX (omitting for privacy). Went to the XXX location, couldn’t find it. Asked around, no one had heard of XXX. Looked up the address and it pointed to YYY. Went to YYY, they said they don’t use ChowNow anymore and they didn’t get any order and couldn’t refund me.

Went to ChowNow customer support, they try to contact XXX and get no response. They claim they can’t refund me because the money was already in XXX’s account and that they could only refund it with XXX’s “authorization” (despite it not being an actual restaurant).

TLDR: ChowNow will allow fake or deactivated restaurants to take money for orders without providing the food and won’t shut these accounts down or refund your money. ChowNow doesn’t hold itself accountable and doesn’t deactivate fake/closed restaurants but will take your money regardless. You’ve been warned.

EDITED ON APRIL 26, 2022***

I moved and forgot to update my address/zip in the app and the app could not process my order. Fine. I updated the info and I still could not place an order. Turns out, ChowNow has flagged my credit card number and email as fraud and won’t let me use them anymore with them and they cannot remove the flag. I created new accounts with my other email addresses with the same card and now have those emails flagged. I then finally created another account with a private email that I never use to sign up with and my debit card and it worked. It’s been a couple weeks now and I just tried to place another order and it now also doesn’t work. COMPLETE GARBAGE.

***EDIT***
ChowNow customer support saw my review and reached out to get this resolved. I explained my situation and they said it was an easy fix…I’m not sure why they couldn’t do this from the beginning.

1. There seems to be zero customer support in the app.
2. There seems to be no way to view or confirm current pending pickup orders, giving me zero confidence that my order will actually be fulfilled. See below.

I placed an order for pickup for a pint of ice cream three days from time of order, and after I completed the transaction, there is no way to view the order in this app, transaction number, status, receipt, or anything.

To the developers:
- It would be great to have a status of all orders, ie “your order isn’t ready yet,” “your order is being made,” “your order is ready for pickup!”
- it would be helpful to have the ability to confirm current and past orders within the app.
- it would be great to link your customer support within the app.

Without any of this I have no idea if my order was received by the ice cream shop, no way to cancel or confirm my order or followup for customer service.

I’m honestly enraged that I can’t give negative stars as ChowNow is a company that provides zero added value with a terrible customer service team. For a convenience company to simply confirm an order without checking with the restaurant leads to the issue of over promising and under delivering which leads down a path of a bad customer experience.

To pile on top the customer service team upon following up was rude and attempts to place the sole blame on a small local restaurant. The representative I spoke with couldn’t answer any questions regarding how their process works or how to prevent this error moving forwards. I’m honestly amazed at how terrible my overall experience with ChowNow was and will surely avoid any interactions moving forwards.

I’ll be waiting for my failed order refund as I have absolutely no confidence in this company, the way they operate, the way they treat their partners or customers.

This app needs to get its act together. We used it for the first time today and ended up in a crowd of about 35-50 people - all getting angrier and angrier as we waited LONG past the time your app told us. If it’s going to take an hour and half TELL ME, don’t LIE to me so I wait on the hot sun with my little kid. Meanwhile try to ask a question? So many other people were angry they were swarming, totally ignoring social distancing guideline that were clearly taped off. Holy. Crud. All over bagels? Sad frustrating and a huge waste of time when honestly I needed to be getting ready for the first day of school tomorrow. And what did the angry people on the line say? “I never heard of chow whatever before” “there’s a reason for that!” Next - tell me if you’re going to use my Google name or my credit card name! Just put it somewhere in the email to me so we don’t waste time! I wish my adorable indie restaurant never tried you.

I love the restaurant selection and being able to order from local places without going though the predatory competitor apps, so I order from ChowNow as often as I can. That said, the app itself needs some work. Always defaults to a wrong nearby address, even though I have mine saved in there. The filters seem to work only sporadically, so sometimes pickup-/takeout-only options show up in delivery, and it’s not clear from the interface/tags which restaurants have delivery or just takeout (the tags are sometimes wrong). Restaurants say they’re in your delivery area per the location filter and then tell you they’re too far away after you’ve already selected your food and are checking out. There should be a place for restaurants to add a description and delivery notes separate from the menu itself. Also, you can’t add special delivery instructions, which has been tricky for me when I live in an apartment building and need no-contact delivery during COVID. Needs work!

I ordered from Mr. Empanada at 11:21am. They just now received my order 12:21pm to actually start working it. The manager of the restaurant originally called me and asked who was coming to pick up the food and I had no idea because I don’t know how the service works. I went to the Mr. Empanada‘s (Lutz) website to order the food and this is the platform they gave me. My frustration is that the manager of this restaurant was extremely rude and frustrated with me because I had no idea why my food wasn’t being received on their end. On top of that I asked if I could just cancel the order and get it refunded and he said he couldn’t do it on his end that I had to go through your company to cancel it. I tried calling and got no one to picked up and your chat feature is not user friendly at all.

I would not recommend this platform to any restaurants and will steer clear of any restaurants using it because of the fact that the customer service is horrible not only from the restaurants that apparently use it, but from your app as well.

This is not just terrible experience. This company is fraudulent company.

Here is what you will experience. They will send you fake promo codes for 15% for example. When you place order promptly, be careful and they don’t apply.

If you order anything that’s a bit expensive, this will ruin your budget easily! There is no order review at all. If you go through the ordering process as if you are using Uber or DoorDash, you will lose real money.

Their customer service is horrible. Orders cannot be canceled even if you call them, both restaurant and chow now immediately after the order, you cannot cancel the order or change the order.

When you call chow now, they put you on hold for hours! Obviously, they are not going to allow you to apply those fake promo codes that they send you.

Everyday, if they get 5 dollars for free from each of the orders put incorrectly under the influence of their fake promo codes, that will make them a fortune already. This seems their business model.

Do not use their service. Be very careful.

I support Chownow’s mission of reducing costs for restaurants and hope they succeed! With that said, there are a couple of glaring problems that would be easy to fix:

The app defaults to pickup rather than delivery and defaults to “current location” rather than a preferred saved location (and the GPS is always a couple of houses away at my location). Further, there is no way to update the location/drop-off preference once the order has been placed other than to contact the restaurant directly and hope that they pass along the message to the driver.

Unless you’re careful to change both of these settings each time you order, you may be forced to go pickup the food when you intended to have it delivered (like every other delivery app) or, spend the evening with one ear out of the window waiting for the food to arrive at your neighbor’s doorstep. Not ideal, but this could easily be fixed if the app allowed you to save preferences to default to delivery and a preferred address.

If they resolve these problems, I would use this app exclusively.

UPDATE: I just got to the restaurant and they don’t even have record of the order, but this app charged my account for the $33.83 anyways and I’m going to stand out in the cold until they can make some food.

I use postmates, Uber eats, etc pretty often but I wanted food delivered from a place that only worked with chownow, so I got the app. I tried to place my order like 8 times and the app just kept losing my place or something. I had to enter my card in 3 times and it wouldn’t take Apple Pay, which I use regularly. I finally did all that, and when I pressed order, it just kind of... disappeared. So I wait a while thinking maybe it’s going to send me a notification when they’ve accepted my order, or anything to tell me what’s going on. I guess one of the times it lost my order in the app, it didn’t switch over to delivery, and I had to go get my food. I would’ve just called them like normal, but I didn’t WANT to go get my food so I was using this so someone would bring me my food. It was just really obnoxious to not know what was going on with my order. And I’ve yet to find where your previous orders are listed in the app. I just don’t think this is user friendly at all.

Placed my first order for a local BBQ restaurant. Estimated delivery time was about 45 minutes. No problem. An hour later still no delivery. I checked my bank and my card had been charged. I called the restaurant and was told that my order had been picked up at least 30 minutes before. I live less than five minutes away. As I was hanging up the phone I received my first text update from ChowNow giving me a link to track my order. Basically told me nothing but the driver’s name. 15 minutes later still no order. I call the number on the link and the driver answers. He lies and says that he is at the restaurant right then and would be there in 10 minutes. 20 minutes later, 1:45 after placing my order my wife calls the number for the driver and he hangs up without saying anything. She calls back and no answer. I call the restaurant back and they explain the ChowNow actually collects money and sends them the order. The manager apologizes and remakes my order, even though they will not get paid for the second order. Meanwhile it has been over 2 hours since placing my order and paying a delivery fee and tip. I end up going to get my remade order. The original order never showed up. I will never do business with ChowNow again.

Ordered through ChowNow app on a Friday for pick up on Sunday. Got the email confirmation for pick up and went to the restaurant on Sunday at the designated time. The counter clerk at the restaurant asked for my name and went to look for the order. She came back with a puzzled look and said that she could not locate the order. Luckily, I printed the email so she could at least see the order. So, she goes back to try and prepare my order (from my printed email). She comes back a third time and says that she is unable to fill the whole order because they were already out of a particular item. I said that can’t be because I paid and preordered 2 days ago. She offered a less tastier item as a replacement (hot dog in a bun). I told her no. She said if you don’t want that, then it’s an hour wait. I asked to speak to the manager. The manager come on the scene, apologizes and says it’s been busy and they are all out of the item I ordered and says it will be an hour wait. I say to the manager, that is why I preordered and paid so I don’t have to wait! She goes on to tell me that there were only 2 baker/cooks early in the morning and it was busy so they ran out! I told her, well…then give me a refund for the item that was out and I would just take the rest. I told her I still could not understand how this happened because I have never experienced this before. She snapped at me and said that I had an attitude problem!

The culprit is really this app! The restaurants don’t have a clue on the procedures. Heck! They didn’t even have my order! It is totally useless!

I’m not sure why apps like this cannot look to other apps already established and build off them. For starters how is it possible that I placed an order for delivery and included my address, but somehow the restaurant just called me and said that I didn’t include my address. Unacceptable.

Second, it’s not clear who gets the tip? Is it the restaurant or the driver?

Third, there is no way to cancel the order or edit if there was a mistake or if additional items were to be added

Fourth, where is the customer support? Some people don’t want to deal directly with the restaurant. We just wanna be able to deal on the phone with someone who’s going to take care of any issues for us this being the customer service for the app. Again I’m pointing to other apps that deliver food tour Dash being one of them who has excellent customer support. If there is an issue with the order or there is an issue with the delivery. They will take care of the customer. I never have to deal directly with the restaurant. Any reason why we need to go directly through the restaurant if there’s an issue?

Fifth, description of the food is good. However it would be great to see what the food looks like why are there photos of the meals?

In conclusion I use the app for one local restaurant so far. I would useThe app for more restaurants because I like how was focused onLocal business rather than any restaurant. But it lacks functionality, customer support, and customer assurance that they will be taken care of if there is an issue with the order. Because of this I hesitate to use it as my main food app

I chose to use this app today to order food from a restaurant in my local area that I’ve been to many times. I downloaded the app, created an account, and ordered my food just fine. Got an email indicating food would be ready at a specific time showed up right on time only to be told the food wasn’t ready. No big restaurant was busy. So I waited approximately 25min. When I went to get an update on order they said they never made it as the order was invalid, so I left. Tried to get a refund but restaurant before I left but restaurant Sid said they didn’t bill me but ChowNow did.

This is where the 1 star review comes from.

I had to text with ChowNow support and they said the restaurant has to authorize the refund.I confirmed I was charged by ChowNow on the text for the charge I got from my bank. ChowNow rep said they didn’t charge me but the restaurant did so they have to approve the refund. So, by now I’ve driven 20min home. Rep says the restaurant says the order is ready for pick up. I said I still wanted a refund as it would take me 20min to go back plus 20min to drive home and the food, if it was actually made, had been sitting for who knows how long so I ask again for refund. While I’m trying to type all this rep says I haven’t responded in a while and closes the chat, so I have to start all over again with a new rep. So after approximately 1 hr of texting with ChowNow I was able to get a refund. The refund email even said that the restaurant cancelled the order as they can’t make the order at this time. How crazy is that? Email isn’t even honest about the situation. Now I have to wait 3-5 days for the refund. Someone needs to figure out who’s responsible in a situation like this. If I wasn’t comfortable texting as some people aren’t nor as tenacious as I am I probably would have been outta luck. DO NOT USE THIS APP!

Ive had numerous issues using CN for the first time. I tried to order on my phone but the websites buttons didn’t work- annoying but okay. Created an accnt on my computer and placed my order. Order never shows- annoying but okay. I had to scour the internet for a way to contact CN about my order—irritating and not okay. In the end, I still don’t have a resolution. I will be disputing charges w/ my bank and deleting my account. I advise you all to do the same.

Website and app are garbage. I have ordered multiple times from restaurants that use this service as a means of delivery partner and it doesn’t give an option to review food, or dispute things wrong with the order. My account history isn’t even on here so I cannot dispute any charges that way either. Most recent order today, food was not delivered because I was busy with my sick child and driver wouldn’t leave food on porch. So now I have no food, and I’m out $40. Thanks for nothing

Wont be using Boston tavern anymore. This horrible not user friendly app ruined a very expensive dinner for company. Oh we’re not taking orders our kitchen is too busy…. Would have been easier if the app said that. After trying to navigate its garbage programming. And shame on Boston tavern. After eating there weekly for months. It’s easier to just call. Not download anything. Not get served ads. And be told by a person what can and can’t be done. Don’t use this app or Boston tavern.

This evening there was a fraudulent order placed on my account shortly after I placed my order. ChowNow did not email me to confirm that order otherwise I would have canceled it and changed my password. Where is the security? How did this happen? Customer service on the chat was poor. The agent ended the chat without answering my questions. I’m left to dispute this with my credit card company and will be canceling my account. If you use ChowNow, beware of fraudulent use of your account.

I used this app almost weekly to order my sushi from my favorite restaurant and go pick it up. I ordered today March 25th 2022 and all of a sudden there is a $0.99 support local fee. I checked my last order and the fee wasn’t there on March 16th 2022. I feel like charging the diners $0.99 per order breaks the concept of a commission free app. Especially considering the restaurant is paying you a flat fee for the service. I’ll simply call the restaurant from now on. I deleted the app.

Every time I ordered from DoorDash, I had a bad experience, so I stopped using them. Now, my favorite food delivery is operated by my least favorite food delivery. And true to form, I received yet another incomplete order, yet while paying a high delivery fee. I only live 1 mile from the restaurant. The restaurants who used ChowNow used to say that it was better for the restaurant owners than DoorDash or Uber eats, etc. I don’t know if that’s true or not but is definitely not better for the customer.

I order frequently from the same 3 restaurants- all
Of which unfortunately use ChowNow. Every time I use the app it takes me at least 5-5 attempts for the order to go through and for the app to verify my credit card. (Receiving “payment cannot be processed error) I always have to re-enter my card number at least once. In between attempts the app also makes me wait w a t least 3-5 minutes between attempts (receiving message - you just tried to submit an order please wait a minute). Very inconvenient app

What the title says. They charge over $10 for delivery and then don’t even have their own drivers. One time I ordered and the driver canceled my delivery and dropped it back off so I had to go pick it up. The second time I ordered the driver picked up my $130 order and then canceled my delivery and kept the food. Essentially stealing $130. Save yourself the trouble and use literally any other app. PS - there customer serves almost impossible to get too. Took my almost 20 min to get on the phone with someone to fix the issue.

The customer service i called was ok. However everything else was absolute garbage. I feel horrible for the people who have to waste their precious time using this app. The food would have been completely fine if we had ever gotten it! Our driver took an eternity and delivered it to the complete wrong side of town. I emailed and called multiple times but never got a response. After multiple hours of trying I finally got a refund but still no food. Overall 0 stars! Do not waste your hard earned money or precious time on this god awful creation!

The app directed me to a list of restaurants based on my location. Upon ordering, I discovered the restaurant was 1400 miles away in Salt Lake City. When requesting a cancellation they said they needed the restaurants permission and I’d hear in 24-48 hours. I called the restaurant to be proactive… the restaurant had never heard of ChowNow! When I chatted with ChowNow support again, they pretty told me to pound sand and they weren’t issuing a refund. The restaurant owner and I are working together to ensure this FRAUDULENT delivery platform is held accountable!

Sent my order to the wrong location by accident.
I called the restaurant and I was told to contact ChowNow customer service. So, I did.
In order to get a refund, I was told by the customer service rep that ChowNow has to call the restaurant to see if the restaurant will approve the refund. They did not approve the refund because food was already made. Which I understand. It’s just overwhelming when the place you sent the order by Accident is an hour away from you. Other apps would have done a better customer service. Might delete this if they make a better job.

Edit— the charge was fixed days after but not sure I feel comfortable using this app/service.

I have screenshots I wish I could share. Used for first time tonight. My bill with all fees and tip at restaurant was $36.64. I check my card statement and it says that $43.96 was pulled from my acct. Basically $7.32 was unauthorized and stolen from my account AFTER placing my order with the restaurant. The restaurant has the correct amount and said the issue lies with ChowNow. So will NEVER use this app again. Check your bank statements people! (Order #[protected] from Huey’s in Cordova, TN)

App doesn't show open restaurants that deliver to your address by default. After manually applying both filters, I went through the trouble of selecting an entire order only to be given an error message that the restaurant doesn't deliver to my address. It's two blocks away and delivery is currently available on competitor apps. This is not user error; I work in tech. It would also be great to see some type of photo or graphic next to the list of restaurants to choose from instead of basic text.

I try to use Chownow, because they are more fair to local restaurants, but the app needs to greatly improve UX.

I understand now why we have to pay extra money on other delivery apps. It’s so the food actually gets to us in a reasonable amount of time and so that someone can actually help you when there’s an issue with your order. I like the idea behind this app but overall, I can’t recommend it because you’ll probably end up having no idea when your food will show up (it will probably take a lot longer than if you used other apps) and ChowNow does not provide much support/information to the customer. They just say to call the restaurant. Instead, I’d recommend sucking it up and paying more on other apps or just go order to go from the restaurant itself.

This app is ridiculous. I wholeheartedly support the premise, but the fact I waited two hours only for the company to tell me they never assigned a driver to my food is terrible. The food has been waiting there for an hour and a half, I called the restaurant and asked, yet the delivery time got longer and longer. I assumed there was traffic, but for some reason they don’t say anything if they don’t have anyone available to drive. In the middle of New York City? I genuinely don’t understand how thats possible. I have no idea how this app has 5 stars, especially considering all of these reviews under me are having bad experiences. They really told me to go pick it up myself? Like I would pay $10 in delivery fees if I could just pick it up myself… If I could’ve I would’ve done it 2 hours ago! F you

I had a group of people over and we ordered pizza from a local restaurant in town. All was well until the order was 20 minutes late. I held my patience until it was almost a half hour late. I call the pizza place and ask if our food has been picked up and they say it did around 25 minutes ago. I waited for almost an hour and a half and the food has still not arrived. The website now says that our food has been delivered but is no where in sight. I check down the road, infront of the garage, nothing. I emailed and called “Chownow” and got zero response. After around 15 minutes of trying to get ahold of someone, we talked to her and she was extremely helpful. She told us the the driver had put in the complete wrong address and delivered our food to a closed business on the other side of town. Please don’t waste your time and hunger with the app!