The Catering Is Late, Short or Wrong: What to Do Right Now

The food is forty minutes late, or it arrived and there is clearly not enough of it, or the vegetarian portions you counted twice are not in the boxes. Sixty people are looking at you, because you are the one who ordered.

Sort the room out first. The money can be fixed afterwards and almost always is. But what you do in the next ten minutes decides how easy that afterwards will be.

The first ten minutes

1. Photograph it before anyone touches it. Wide shot of everything laid out, then close ups of the specific problem. Once forty people have served themselves, nobody can tell what arrived.
2. Count and write the number down. How many boxes, how many trays, how many portions of the thing that is missing. A number in a message beats "not enough" every time.
3. Message the vendor there and then, in the app. Not a phone call. You want the timestamp and you want the conversation in one place.
4. Keep the packaging and the delivery note if there is one.
5. Then go and feed people. Move a station, stretch the rice, send someone out. Fix the event first.

Talk to the vendor first

Most of these end here, and quickly. A caterer who is short two trays usually knows it, and a lot of problems get solved on the day with a delivery of the missing items or an agreed partial refund.

Be specific and unemotional. "Ordered 60 pax, received 48 boxes, 12 short, photos attached" gets resolved. "This is unacceptable" invites an argument about tone instead of about boxes.

If the vendor cannot resolve it

On GatherPlate you can open a report on the order and we step in. There is one thing to know about it, and it is the reason this article is worth reading before your event rather than after.

So if something went wrong, do not sleep on it for a week while you decide whether it was bad enough. Open the report inside the window even if you are still talking to the vendor. You can always close it.

What counts as a problem worth reporting

These are the categories we handle, and they are deliberately broad.

• Order not received. It never arrived, or it was marked completed without being delivered.
• Vendor no show. Nobody turned up for a service or pickup appointment.
• Late delivery. It arrived significantly past the scheduled time.
• Wrong or missing items. The wrong things came, or some did not.
• Item quality. Food was spoiled, undercooked, or not what was described.
• Damaged on arrival. Broken containers, spilled packaging.
• Refund not received. You were told a refund was issued and it has not arrived.
• Something else. If it does not fit the list, it still counts.

Notice that "the food was fine but there was not enough of it" is a wrong or missing item problem, not a taste complaint. Quantity is measurable and measurable things get resolved.

How to write it so it gets resolved

• Lead with the number. What you ordered, what arrived, the gap.
• Attach the photos. You can add up to five, so pick the ones that show the problem rather than five angles of the same tray.
• Give the times. Scheduled time, actual arrival time.
• Say what you want. A refund of a specific amount is easier to act on than "some compensation".
• Include what the vendor already said. If they acknowledged it, that settles it faster than anything else.

You will see the status move as it is handled, including when it is waiting on a reply from you. If it is sitting on your reply, it is not progressing, so check it.

Frequently asked questions

How long do I have to report a problem with my catering order?

Three days from when the order is marked completed. The window exists because vendor payouts are released after it closes, and once the money has gone to the vendor it cannot be held back. Open the report inside the three days even if you are still hoping to sort it out directly.

Do I have to argue with the vendor first?

No, and you should not think of it as arguing. Messaging the vendor first usually resolves it faster than anything else, and the record of that conversation makes a report stronger if you still need one. But you are not required to exhaust it before reporting.

What if the food was late but everything else was fine?

Late delivery is its own category and it is worth reporting even when the food itself was good. A caterer who is consistently late needs that on their record, and lateness at an event with a fixed schedule is a real loss even if nobody went hungry.

The short version

• Photograph everything before anyone serves themselves.
• Write down the numbers: ordered, received, missing.
• Message the vendor in the app so it is timestamped.
• Feed the room. Deal with the money later.
• Open a report within three days of the order completing, even if talks are ongoing.
• Lead with numbers and photos, and say what outcome you want.

Full detail on how reports work is in our help centre under reporting an issue. Worth two minutes before your event rather than after it.