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The decision to create this app is an example of 1. Business leadership being tired of having to pay the surcharge to an intermediary company, thought it would be fun to build their own app from the ground up, or both. The problem is that you don’t start a restaurant company to design apps. This app is a significant step back from those they had used previously with Best Buns, specifically Chow Now. It is cumbersome, it’s visuals are gaudy and poorly constructed, there are no API plug ins that allow it to integrate with Apple Pay or other payment exchange apps, nor does it slow you to use any of your external accounts (Apple, Facebook, Google) to create a profile, unlike the predecessor used. This app was likely a “great idea fairy” by company leadership who wanted the few extra cents or surcharge, but then gave zero funding to the actual design and development of the app and wondered why it’s an abject failure. You don’t build a restaurant business to design apps. So better off for your image to use a third party. In my opinion I give credit to the company and design team who had to build this app with basic requirements and little in funding, but the leadership who thought this was a great idea need for either be demoted or fired, so the technical IT team can get back to structuring your external interfaces for the betterment of the customer experience.

The old app worked just fine. It was simple and for the most part had few issues. They upgraded the new App which erased all your old information. The worst part is the special request field is only 20 characters! Give me a break that’s 2 to 3 words. You must increase the size of this field! The old app’s field wasn’t a whole lot bigger but you could at least get more than 20 characters. I also didn’t see any way to order more than one of a particular item. I didn’t see any + or quantity field - either in the item selection or once it was in my cart. The only option seemed to be to add the entire item a second time- including any special request notes you might’ve squeezed into the tiny 20 character field. Bad design. Being able to increase/decrease the quantity of an item it’s a basic ordering feature.

I previously ordered regularly from Best Buns via the DoorDash app. The fees were high but my DoorDash subscription helped reduce that. I was excited when this app came out because I wanted to support the restaurant and I have an issue with how much DoorDash charges restaurants on top of service fees to the customer and the underpaying of drivers. Unfortunately, the GAR app is just a restaurant front end being powered with DoorDash. You lose the convenience of DoorDash, money is still going to DoorDash and the kicker is if you pay for a DoorDash subscription, it’s not recognized so you are paying full freight on service fees and don’t have access to DoorDash support to resolve issues when they arise.