When a pizza delivery order goes wrong

An order in four stops

This page follows one delivery order from the menu to the doorstep. For the general rules on refunds, repairs and replacements, the ACCC’s repair, replace, refund, cancel page is the full reference; what follows is what is particular to food that travels.

1. 1. Before you pay: the price

   The ACCC says a business must show the total price as a single figure: the minimum total cost, including taxes and any unavoidable or pre-selected extra fees. Optional extras that are not pre-selected don’t have to be included. Its own example: if a business charges for delivery but also offers free click and collect, it does not have to build the delivery charge into the prices it displays.

   Watch the steps between the menu and the checkout. The ACCC describes ‘drip pricing’ as an advertised price that grows as extra fees, such as booking and service fees, are added during an online purchase, and says businesses must disclose up front which fees will apply and when. Its tips are to add up the final total, to be ready to back out, and to look for pre-selected extras and untick what you don’t want.

   Charges a food order can carry, as the ACCC describes them, read 8 October 2026. Source: ACCC © Commonwealth of Australia.

   Charge	What the ACCC says
   Card surcharge	From 1 October 2026, businesses can no longer add a surcharge for paying with Visa, Mastercard, American Express or eftpos credit, debit or prepaid cards, and should not dress one up as another kind of fee.
   Weekend or public holiday surcharge	Restaurants and cafés may still charge one and need not build it into the displayed price, but the menu must carry the words ‘A surcharge of [percentage] applies on [day or days]’, at least as prominent as the most prominent price.
   A surcharge charged every day	Becomes part of the minimum total cost, so it has to be included in the single-figure price.
   Other fees	Businesses can generally set their own fees, but must not mislead you about what you will be charged or why, and should show them prominently before you decide to order.

2. 2. On the road: hot food hot, cold food cold

   FSANZ’s advice to food businesses that deliver is that hot food must be kept at or above 60°C, cold food at or below 5°C and frozen food frozen solid. It suggests insulated bags or eskies and keeping hot food apart from cold.

   Time matters as much as the bag. FSANZ says that if food is delivered straight away, there is likely not enough time for harmful bacteria to grow to dangerous levels, and that a business that cannot guarantee quick delivery should take measures to keep the food at a safe temperature until you receive it. Once the box is in your hands, the clock in leftover pizza, the clock and the reheat applies to whatever you don’t eat.

3. 3. At the door: allergens and the wrong pizza

   FSANZ tells delivering businesses that it is important to give information about potential allergens in delivered food, and lists the common allergens that must routinely be declared. If you have a food allergy and a different pizza turns up from the one you ordered, FSANZ’s general advice for food you are concerned about is simple: don’t eat it. How to ask about allergens in the first place is in allergens, menus and how to ask.

4. 4. If something is wrong: who fixes it

   The ACCC counts a fault with a product as major in four cases: the product is unsafe; it is very different from how it was described, or from a sample; it has one serious fault, or several smaller ones, that would have put a buyer off had they known beforehand; or it can’t be used for its normal purpose, or for another purpose you told the seller about before buying, and can’t easily be fixed within a reasonable time. When the fault is major, the choice is yours: the business has to offer either a refund or a replacement of the same type.

   Refunds should come back in the same form as the original payment, unless you and the business agree otherwise. That matters when a refund is offered as credit for a later order: when a refund is owed, the ACCC’s guidance means credit in place of your money is something you can agree to, not something you have to accept.

   Ordering through a delivery app does not settle who owes you the remedy. For online marketplaces, the ACCC says “your consumer guarantees rights apply to the seller you buy from, not the platform itself”. For gig economy platforms, it says whether the platform or the business supplying through it must meet a particular consumer guarantee “will depend on the situation”. Where the business leaves the problem unresolved, the platform may be able to step in, depending on the circumstances, so the ACCC suggests looking up the platform’s own policies. Changing your mind is not covered: the ACCC says no repair, replacement or refund is owed when you simply decide you don’t want what you asked for, unless the business has a change-of-mind policy, which it must then follow.

Where a complaint goes next

The ACCC does not resolve individual complaints about pricing, though it accepts reports about businesses and uses them in its compliance work. The ACCC and the state and territory consumer protection agencies enforce the Australian Consumer Law.

Food safety is a separate track. FSANZ says food complaints, such as foreign material in food or a meal you think made you sick, are investigated by state and territory authorities or your local council. In NSW, the Food Authority says poor customer service by a food business is a matter for NSW Fair Trading, while it and local councils deal with food safety complaints. Who to tell in each state and territory is set out in food poisoning, and who to tell.