Mystery UberEats orders notify Melbourne users about orders they haven’t made

Food delivery has become an essential service in the pandemic, but now UberEats users are receiving notifications about orders they aren't expecting.

UberEats users reported receiving mysterious notifications for orders they weren't expecting on Wednesday morning, and now the company has explained why.

The strange phenomenon became a talking point after Brendan Fevola reported a strange message on his phone during the Fifi, Fev & Byron breakfast show on The Fox Melbourne.

“It’s confusing. It’s just come up from UberEats saying, ‘Your order has been dropped out the front,’” Fev said shortly after 6am Wednesday, noting he hadn’t ordered anything.

Fev said it’s possible he ordered it in his sleep – he’s a known fan of the food delivery service, having spent more than $35,000 on the service over a period of 18 months.

The mysterious notifications appeared on phones on Wednesday morning.

RELATED: Deliveroo’s new freebie with every order

But he wasn’t alone.

Producer Leon Sjogren thought Fev might have bought the team breakfast when he got a notification too.

Callers began flooding in as well.

“I was eating breakfast at work this morning and it came up with an UberEats order and I was like, I didn’t order anything?” caller Gabby said.

Jake from Hawthorn got a message asking him to rate a McDonald’s order he made three weeks ago.

The mysterious notifications appeared on phones on Wednesday morning.

RELATED: Controversy as Insta account sells for $116 million

Stuart in Croydon last made an order on the app on Sunday night, but this morning got a message saying his order was almost there.

Another listener responded on Twitter to say they also received a notification this morning and similarly thought they’d ordered McDonald’s in their sleep.

In Newcastle, Kate told news.com.au she received a notification "at 6 am saying that the local coffee shop was about to deliver my order ".

Now the reason for the mysterious notifications has been revealed.

Fev mentioned one of his favourite UberEats orders was steak from the Bok Choy Brighton restaurant, but co-host Fifi Box pointed out it was a weird order to make at 6am, when the restaurant isn't even open.

An UberEats spokesperson told news.com.au the mysterious notifications were due to a technical glitch that re-sent users notifications about past orders. 

"This morning some UberEats users received a resend of push notifications from orders they had made recently.

"We apologise for any confusion - or short lived excitement - this may have caused."

Uber added no personal information was shared in the glitch.

It doesn’t look confined to Australia though: Users from all over the world are reporting a similar issue.

“Can you DM me a discount code since y’all scared me with a random ‘Your order is arriving’ notification when I didn’t order anything?” a Florida Twitter user named Matt said at around the same time as Fev and Leon received their notifications.

Others have reported the same.

uber eats telling me my orders almost here... i didnt order anything pic.twitter.com/kJ1YzWH0CN

— 🪐 (@remhive) September 8, 2020

got a notification from Uber Eats that my order was being prepared but I didn’t order anything/haven’t opened that app today pic.twitter.com/cn7hThUAZ8

— Mariah Curie (@marc_rowbish) September 8, 2020