MORELAND HILLS, Ohio — Weichaun Dong was left with nearly $1,000 in unexpected repairs at his Moreland Hills home, after a food delivery driver backed up into his yard crushing his underground septic system. The entire incident was caught on video by his home security system on October 26.
Dong and his wife told News 5 the Grubhub delivery driver apologized for the damage, but her car had to be towed from the scene and Grubhub initially refused to pay for the repair costs.
"Both of us noticed that the clean-out pipe on our septic system was broken. and we thought it could be small damage," Dong said “Initially the first company damage estimate, the figure was $4,500, I couldn’t believe that. I had to fix it immediately, otherwise it would cause more damage. Because it’s our septic system, we were worried that we might not be able to flush our toilets or something.”
Dong said he later found a more reasonable repair estimate of $900 but said after four days and multiple phone calls, Grubhub fired the delivery driver but still refused to compensate him for his property damage.
“The driver and Grubhub, either of them should be responsible, not the property owner,” Dong said. “After an hour of conversation, they said oh it’s not their fault and that I should contact the driver for the reimbursement. The delivery driver agreed that if I got her job back she would give me $100 a week for nine weeks.”
Ericka Dilworth, Cleveland Better Business Bureau Director of Operations, told News 5 that not all delivery companies have the same policy when it comes to driver damage liability. Dilworth said it's crucial for homeowners to do their homework and thoroughly document property damage with photos, video and multiple written damage repair estimates when trying to obtain damage compensation.
“The documentation is incredibly important, Dilworth said. “Many companies would want to make it right, but some companies may have it in their policy that they’re not responsible for the actions of their drivers.”
“In most cases, these drivers are independent contractors and not actual employees of the business, so that makes it a little more complicated as well," Dilworth added. “You just have to know what your options are if something like this happens. You certainly would want to get a police report to document that it happened. A lot of consumers are not going to want to put this on their own homeowner's insurance policy.”
Dilworth said taking the driver and delivery company to small claims court is an option, but is not guaranteed to produce results.
“You can certainly try to go after the driver, or go after the company and even get a judgment. But again it can be tricky even if you have a judgment to still collect," Dilworth said. “They should find out what the business's policy is, they should try to reach out to the driver, or at least get the license plate of the driver, so when they file a police report they have all the information.”
News 5 contacted Grubhub headquarters in Chicago about this case and the company responded quickly, pledging to pay for repair costs. The company issued the following statement:
It’s our priority to bring the best experience to everyone who comes into contact with our brand, and the vast majority of our orders are completed without incident or complaint. When things don’t go as planned, we work hard to make things right. We require all delivery partners to maintain insurance and to perform deliveries in a safe manner, and our team has reached out to Mr. Dong to remedy the situation and provide compensation for the damages.
Meanwhile, Dong said he's pleased News 5 was able to help but said it shouldn't have to take media intervention to get a company to do the right thing.
“Thank you, thanks for News 5," Dong said. "Immediately, just after two hours, they reached out to me and said, we agree, we’re happy to reimburse you for the damage. I think your intervention is fantastic. You were my last resort for this kind of thing. I think maybe Cleveland, News 5 would do me a favor on this, but I didn’t expect that you would come and fix everything for me.
