Delivery Service Postmates Comes To Pittsburgh
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – First there was Uber and Lyft. Now a new service has made its way to Pittsburgh.
But this one doesn't get you from here to there, it makes personal deliveries within an hour or less.
KDKA's Brenda Waters did a trial run Thursday.
If your favorite restaurants, grocery stores or other businesses don't offer their own delivery service and you want something delivered to you, you're in luck. It's called Postmates.
It works just like Uber or Lyft in that transactions are done via smartphone app. You decide what you want to order and from where, place it and then the name and picture of your courier pops up while you wait and watch the progress.
Delivery is supposed to take an hour or less. We placed one at 11:51 a.m. ordering from Tessaro's in Bloomfield.
Our courier Vivian got downtown at 1:07 p.m., 16 minutes late. But there was a Pirates baseball game and, according to Vivian, a traffic accident as well.
This is how the order reaches the courier:
"Our customer support is based in San Francisco and they do all the ordering with the restaurant or grocery store," said Vivian. "I get the order, then I pick it up and head to the location."
That's right, it's based out of San Francisco.
"That seems a roundabout way to get food," said Moira Harrington.
Harrington is one of the owners of Tessaro's Restaurant and says the restaurant gets as many as 50 to-go orders every day.
She told KDKA had she known the order was coming from 3,000 miles away, she would not have been a part of it.
"Our name is based on what we put on the table," she said. "And if it's not right, that would be something we would take personally."
The total cost for the lunch was $16.01, but by the time Postmates added the $5 delivery fee plus a 9 percent operational service fee, the total was $20.33, which does not include the tip, which you add on the app.
And, by the way, if the order is wrong, cold or late, Postmates will correct it or refund your money.
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