Sparkle Shopping – Yum!

This Sparkle Shopping post won’t be of interest to those of you outside the UK, so I’m cutting the post here so it’s easily skippable.

If you’re in the UK and like takeaways, click to read

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A few weeks ago, I was offered the chance to review a website that allows you to order online takeaways from participating outlets, in exchange for a voucher to try out the service for free, and although it’s not within the usual range of topics on here, a combination of the prospect of free food and how great the idea looked prompted me to say yes.

Just-eat.co.uk is basically a website where, if there are takeaways listed near your address (it’s fairly new so I think there are some areas that aren’t served yet) then you can order online with a card for delivery either at a specific time or “as soon as possible”, and pay online so that you don’t need to pay anything at the door. I love the idea, since often when I find myself feeling too lazy to cook, I also don’t have enough cash and discovering Just-eat means that I can now order from somewhere other than Pizza Hut with a card!

The Pros:

• The site is quite easy to use, and payments are taken securely (with the option to pay by cash on the door if you want to).
• Although the range of restaurants is fairy limited in my area at the moment, I believe they are expanding, and four restaurants in a small town like Loughborough is a good start!
• Aside from a 50p charge to pay by card, there are no extra charges, you pay the same as you would ordering directly from the restaurant, which also means you are bound by the restaurant’s minimum order amounts for free delivery etc.

The cons:

• I had a few problems getting my voucher code to work (a needlessly complicated process that’s currently covered incorrectly in the FAQs) and when I called customer services they told me to email instead, and that I’d hear back that evening. I have sent a total of three emails in total, over several days, and I’ve had absolutely no replies. The second time I attempted to order from them however, the customer services rep I spoke to was very helpful.
• The website doesn’t seem to work properly in Opera, I had to use Internet Explorer.
• If you’re using a low screen resolution, such as on a netbook, the “floating” shopping basket on the right hand side of the screen may become too large for you to click the proceed button!

My Verdict, then, is that just-eat is a brilliant idea and its creators have definitely found a gap in the market that needed to be filled. The website itself could do with a bit of a re-design to make it compatible with all browsers and screen resolutions, and if you have a problem ordering I would definitely suggest you call rather than email, but I will probably use the service again. All in all, it’s a great site, as long as everything goes smoothly and they have restaurants in your area!