Why this answer
What actually matters
- A business can ask for reasonable evidence and investigate suspicious patterns.
- The current transaction still needs to be assessed on its facts.
- Ask what evidence about this specific order was considered and what substantive reason supports refusal.
Important nuance
When the statement may have a point
- A trader/platform can refuse an unsupported or fraudulent claim and can take legitimate anti-fraud information into account.
What you could say
Keep the response tied to the actual rule.
Evidence
What to have beside you
- Order confirmation, item list, customisations and the restaurant/product description
- Delivery tracking, timestamps and any delivery photograph or contact attempts
- Clear photographs of the food, packaging, seals and all items received
- Screenshots of the refund request, refusal, account credit offer and support conversation
- Allergen information shown before ordering and any relevant packaging or labels
If they still refuse
Move the dispute forward.
- Report the problem promptly through the platform and/or restaurant and keep the evidence.
- Identify who supplied the food and, where relevant, who supplied the delivery service; those can be different contracts.
- If a statutory refund or price reduction is due, challenge an app-level refusal on that basis rather than treating the platform policy as the law.
- For genuine food-safety or allergen concerns, consider the local authority food-safety route as well as seeking consumer redress.
- Where a trader still refuses a valid monetary claim, consider a card dispute/chargeback or proportionate court action where appropriate.
Read the full rules