How To Cancel An Uber Eats Order

Here’s a situation you may have found yourself in. You place an order on Uber Eats, then realize you made a mistake and need to cancel it. Perhaps you didn’t order the right items. Or maybe you entered the wrong delivery address. Either way, you’re asking yourself how to cancel an Uber Eats order.

In this post, I’ll walk you through how to cancel an Uber Eats order. We’ll look at canceling an order from two perspectives. The first is if you’re a customer looking to cancel an order that you placed. If this is you, you probably care most about whether you’ll be able to get a refund.

The second is if you’re an Uber Eats delivery driver and you want to cancel an order that you’ve already accepted. This is not a problem so long as you haven’t picked up the order already and you cancel the order relatively quickly.

Here’s some more detail on how to cancel an Uber Eats order as both a customer and a delivery driver.

How To Cancel An Uber Eats Order As A Customer

Canceling an Uber Eats order when you’re a customer isn’t difficult. To cancel your order, you’ll need to go to your order in the Uber Eats app, then click on the help screen. From there, you’ll find an option to cancel your order.

The only thing you’ll need to think about when canceling an order is whether you’ll get a refund. When it comes to getting a refund on Uber Eats, speed is the name of the game. If you cancel your order immediately after you place it, you’ll likely automatically get a full refund. However, if the restaurant has already started preparing the order, you’re probably going to be out of luck unless you can convince Uber Eats customer support to give you a refund.

In my experience, if you cancel an order within seconds of placing it, you’ll usually get a refund automatically. But if you wait even 20 or 30 seconds, you’ll find yourself getting a message saying you won’t get a refund if you cancel. I’ve found that if you message customer service and explain to them what’s going on, they’ll usually be able to cancel the order and give you a refund. It’s not a guarantee, but it’s your only hope if you’ve waited too long.

The good thing is you don’t have to guess to see if you’ll get a refund. Before you cancel an order, Uber Eats will give you a popup telling you whether or not you’ll receive a refund.

Getting Partial Refunds On Uber Eats

A common situation you might find yourself in is when some of your order is missing. A lot of the time, the restaurant might have forgotten to pack an item or maybe the driver forgot to grab an item from the restaurant.

The good thing here is that Uber Eats will automatically refund you for any missing items in your order. If you find that your order is missing some items, simply go to your order screen, click on the order that has a problem, then click the “get help” button.

From there, you’ll see various options you can select. Choose “wrong or missing items.” You can then provide information on what items are missing from your order. Uber Eats will usually automatically refund you the missing items if you request the refund immediately.

How To Cancel An Uber Eats Order As A Driver

If you’re an Uber Eats driver, you might be wondering whether you can cancel an order that you’ve already accepted. The short answer is, yes, you can cancel an Uber Eats order after you’ve accepted it. Indeed, it can be a smart move to cancel orders. The most common reason to cancel an Uber Eats delivery that you’ve accepted is if you get to the restaurant and discover it has an unreasonably long wait. Another reason you might cancel an order is if the order is going in a direction that you don’t want to go.

To cancel an Uber Eats order as a delivery driver, here’s what you do:

First, go to the order, then click the three dots next to the restaurant name.

In the order status screen, click “report issue.”

This will bring up several issues you can report. All of these will cancel the order and it doesn’t matter which reason you pick. I usually pick “excessive wait time” or “I don’t want to do delivery.”

You’ll then go to a screen that allows you to cancel the order.

One concern a lot of Uber Eats drivers have is whether canceling orders that you’ve accepted can lead to you getting deactivated. The good news is that it doesn’t. Unlike DoorDash, Uber Eats does not track your completion rate, and canceling orders that you’ve accepted doesn’t impact your delivery status in any way.

There are two caveats though. The most important thing is to make sure you only cancel orders before you pick up the order. If you’ve already picked up the order, then you should make sure you deliver it. If you cancel an order that you’ve already picked up, Uber Eats will tell you to keep the order or dispose of it, which means the customer gets their order canceled and no one else can deliver it.

You can see why this can be a problem. When you cancel an order that you haven’t picked up yet, Uber Eats sends the order to another driver, who will then (hopefully) deliver it to the customer. By contrast, if you cancel the order that you’ve already picked up, you keep the food and no one can deliver it. If you do this too many times, you’re bound to face negative consequences.

The second caveat if you’re going to cancel an Uber Eats order is to do it soon after you accept the order. Again, this comes down to making sure that other drivers can deliver the order on time. The faster you cancel the order, the faster someone else can pick it up.

So, long story short. Yes, you can cancel an Uber Eats order that you’ve already accepted. Just do it before you’ve picked up the order and try to do it quickly so that someone else can deliver the order.

Final Thoughts

Canceling an Uber Eats order is a straightforward process. Whether you are a customer or a delivery driver, your best bet is to cancel the order as soon as possible. The longer you wait, the more problems you’ll likely have.

More Recommended Ebike/Scooters

Check out these other ebikes/scooters I've had the chance to do a review for:

GEN3 Outcross Bike – The GEN3 Outcross is a solid, affordable fat tire ebike that does a good job of doing what I need it to do. It works great for city riding, giving me a smooth ride in all conditions. It’s works really well as a winter ebike since the fat tires give it good traction over snow and ice. Check out my GEN3 Outcross Review.
Himiway Escape Bike – The Himiway Escape is an interesting bike for anyone looking for a moped-style ebike. If you’re a gig economy worker, the Himiway Escape is particularly interesting and it’s possible to think of it as an investment, especially if you can opt to do deliveries with the Himiway versus using a car. It’s not cheap, but you can definitely make your money back when you compare the mileage you’ll put on your car versus using an ebike. Check out my Himiway Escape Bike Review.
Espin Sport Bike – The Espin Sport is a good ebike for someone who is looking for an ebike that feels and rides more like a regular bike. There are many ebikes that are really only bikes in name. In reality, they’re basically electric mopeds. The Espin Sport, by contrast, is a bike you could probably ride without the battery and you’d feel like you’re just riding a regular bike. Check out my Espin Sport Review.
Varla Eagle One Scooter – The Varla Eagle One is an excellent scooter that can make sense for a lot of people. It can work as a primary mode of transportation. You can use it to work on gig economy apps like DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub. And it can also be a recreational vehicle if you’d prefer to use it for that. Check out my Varla Eagle One Review.
Fucare H3 Scooter – The Fucare H3 is a fun scooter and I’ve enjoyed testing it out. For a daily commuter or quick trips or errands, the Fucare H3 is probably the scooter I’ll use. It’s portable and easy to maneuver, so it’s just easier to take on the road when I need it. Check out my Fucare H3 Scooter Review.

More Recommended Investing App Bonuses

For additional investing app bonuses, be sure to check out the ones below:

M1 Finance ($50) – This is a great robo-advisor that has no fees and allows you to create a customized portfolio based on your risk tolerance. You also get $50 for opening an account. Check out my M1 Finance Referral Bonus – Step-By-Step Guide.
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More Recommended Bank Account Bonuses

If you’re looking for more easy bank bonuses, check out the below options. These bonuses are all easy to earn and have no fees or minimum balance requirements to worry about.

Chime ($100) - Chime is a free bank account that offers a referral bonus if you use a referral link and complete a direct deposit of $200 or more. In practice, any ACH transfer into this account triggers the bonus. This bonus is easy to earn and posts instantly, so you’ll know if you met the requirements as soon as you move money into the account. I wrote a step-by-step guide on how to earn your Chime referral bonus that I recommend you check out.
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Kevin is an attorney and the blogger behind Financial Panther, a blog about personal finance, travel hacking, and side hustling using the gig economy. He paid off $87,000 worth of student loans in just 2.5 years by choosing not to live like a big shot lawyer.

Kevin is passionate about earning money using the gig economy and you can see all the ways he makes extra income every month in his side hustle reports.

Kevin is also big on using the latest fintech apps to improve his finances. Some of Kevin's favorite fintech apps include:

Personal Capital. One of best free apps you can use to monitor your portfolio and track your net worth. This is one of the apps I use to track my financial accounts.
SoFi Money. A really good checking account with absolutely no fees. You'll get a $25 referral bonus if you open a SoFi Money account with a referral link.
Brex. Brex is a free business cash management account that is currently offering new users a $250 Amazon gift card if you sign up using a referral link and meet certain requirements.
M1 Finance. This is a great robo-advisor that has no fees and allows you to create a customized portfolio based on your risk tolerance. You also get $50 for opening an account.
Albert. A great free app I use to track my finances and save more money. You can also earn a $150 signup bonus if you open a free Albert cash account.