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March 12-March 18, 2021
Flushing small business owner takes action
against DoorDash over fraud allegation
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
Flushing small business owner
David Liu is sounding the alarm on
DoorDash’s business practices after
the food delivery platform terminated
his merchant account for alleged
fraudulent activity.
“We figured if DoorDash is doing
this to us, and we’re just a small shop
in Queens, they can be doing this to
anyone,” said Eric Leung, Liu’s business
partner. “There’s other businesses
that could be going through this
same exact situation, but the owner’s
first language is not English, or they
don’t know how to navigate these legal
processes or report to news stations.”
Liu, the owner of A-Crepe, located at
42-35 Main St. had to temporarily close
his shop due to a family emergency,
and won’t be able to reopen until early
March. On top of dealing with family
concerns, Liu was in shock on Jan. 19
when he checked his bank account and
noticed that DoorDash, the food delivery
service that has exploded in popularity
during the pandemic, had withdrawn
a total of $46,700 earned from
sales and proceeds.
Leung, speaking on behalf of Liu,
said DoorDash closed their account
abruptly, without any notice last month.
A few days later, DoorDash terminated
the account without any explanation
after making the withdrawal.
“All within one day, without warning.
After that occurred we were really
David Liu, owner of A-Crepe in Flushing, says DoorDash claims he violated the food
delivery company’s Terms of Service but didn’t provide an explanation.
Photo by Eric Leung
confused,” Leung said “This is literally
months and months of revenue — we
have rent, bills and other expenses to
pay and we can’t afford to without this
money.”
According to Leung, DoorDash had
access to their account number. The
company did an automated clearing
house (ACH) transfer to pull funds
from the account. The business partners
were able to recover $32,000 after
disputing with Bank of America, and
filled out an affidavit stating an unauthorized
ACH debit transaction. The
bank did what they could, Leung said,
but could not recover around $14,000.
The remaining funds were still withheld
by DoorDash.
Leung said DoorDash withheld
their last week of sales ($4,865) under
the premise and allegation that its merchant
account had committed fraud.
“The support staff was not truthful
or honest when they stated that the
payment was sent; we have bank statements
that show our sales revenue never
arrived,” Leung said.
When they had contacted DoorDash
numerous times through phone calls
and emails for an explanation as to
why their account was canceled without
notice, Leung said a representative
had cited fraudulent activity, but didn’t
provide any further information.
In an email sent to A-Crepe on Jan.
19, a DoorDash representative said,
“The only specifics we can provide is
that the terms of services have been
violated through fraud and when
that happens, they will not reactivate
the store. I apologize for the inconvenience.”
Confused by DoorDash’s allegation
of fraud, Leung said they had asked
for evidence and the specifics on what
terms of service were violated, but never
received an actual response.
“It’s quite confusing when someone
accuses you of something, and you ask
them and own up to it and be accountable
and they won’t tell you,” Leung
said. “I’m horrified that we live in a
time where these big tech companies
can brazenly cancel you and withhold
your money, without an explanation
and not answer to you. If we did something
wrong, then we’re willing to fix
it. But we don’t even get the chance
to.”
Read more on QNS.com
Vol. 87 No. 11 24 total pages
2021
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