News From nypost.
Ride-hailing giant Uber is adding phone ordering capabilities to its Uber Eats delivery service to help people who don’t own smartphones survive the coronavirus pandemic.
The tech company will roll out the old-fashioned phone ordering feature in New York City and Florida — two areas hit the hardest by the viral pandemic — on Wednesday in an effort to make food ordering easier for the app-averse, including the elderly.
“Like all New Yorkers, and older adults, in particular, continue to stay at home, we built this feature to bring the food you love safely to your doorstep through the warmth of a live conversation,” Jenn Boldt, the general manager of Uber Eats, said in a statement.
Interested customers can call 1-833-USE-UBER to tell an Uber worker what kind of food they like, and then receive a list of restaurants in their area that meet their criteria. Once they decide what they’d like to eat, they give their payment information over the phone to complete the transaction.
Callers who do not already have an Uber account will be able to create one over the phone with a company representative.
The system isn’t totally tech-free, however. For security reasons, customers will need to have a cell phone that can receive SMS or text messages to verify their accounts, meaning that landline purists are out of luck.
Uber last month temporarily waived delivery fees for its independent restaurant clients suffering from shelter-in-place rules. Ordering by phone, instead of by app, will not be subject to any additional fees, the company said.
New York has reported more than 200,000 coronavirus cases as of Tuesday, including 10,000 deaths. The state has been locked down since March 20.
