A TAKEAWAY owner says that a change in refund policy by Just Eat has led to a "loophole" which is having a detrimental impact on businesses.

Marc Faulkner, director of The Deli Group, which includes Newton Deli, Dentons Deli and Kopi Coffee, says the change has led to customers exploiting it which has caused harm to his business.

Marc says that Just Eat has changed and automated its customer refund process, which has removed control from restaurant partners and says the matter has worsened since the 'loophole' began circulating on social media.

He says previously, when a customer has requested a refund for any reason, they would be notified of the request and would be given the option of either agreeing to it with the customer refunded in full, or of offering an alternative resolution such as a partial refund, discount, or a replacement product or a future resolution with their next order.

However, since the change, Marc says Just Eat now automatically accept and process all refund requests, regardless of validity.

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Marc took to social media last week to raise the issue. In a post, he said he believed there is "a lingering misapprehension" that Just Eat pick up the cost when a refund is claimed but added "that’s not the case at all, the full value of any refunded amount is paid by the restaurant partner".

He said to the Star last week he had customers refunded by Just Eat "because their can of Coke was cold" which led to them being recompensed for the amount of their entire order.

He also says there have been orders where the customer has collected in person and has then been refunded due to “non-delivery”.

He added his business was down around £700 in a week due to the issue.

Marc said: "I’ve spoken to a couple of other local takeaway owners, and combined with our own fraudulent and unauthorised refunds, it seems that this has cost just a handful of local businesses thousands of pounds in just the past couple of weeks - now, multiply that by the number of businesses on Just Eat, and I’m sure you can see why this is such a problem."

He added: "If you’ve got a genuine problem with your order then absolutely contact the restaurant, or speak to Just Eat, I don’t think any restaurant owner would object to that, we all want our customers to enjoy their meals and to return to us in the future.

"If you have enjoyed your meal though, please don’t try to 'blag' a freebie, because it really could make the difference between that business owner being able to pay their staff, their suppliers or their rent or not, and it will certainly impact their ability to remain in business."

When asked about the issue, a Just Eat spokesperson said: "We're absolutely committed to supporting our restaurant partners and have recently put measures in place to ensure an even fairer refunds process.

"This includes increasing the time for restaurants to raise any disputes."

They added: "While cases like these are rare, whenever we're made aware of any activity relating to non-genuine orders, we will always take steps to ensure our partners are fairly compensated.

"We are continually reviewing our policies and processes in this space to support both customers and restaurants."

Just eat says that, while customer refund requests are processed automatically, restaurants will only be charged if the complaint sits within their control or responsibility and adds that it has robust measures in place to block activity such as fraudulent orders, which includes using an algorithm to detect irregularities and unexpected behaviour.