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So recently I have seen a few different posts on people claiming their accounts have been locked out, and some have led to some questions that haven’t really been answered.
So with that said, we are talking about:
Everything you must know about Dasher Account Locks
How some people have been getting their accounts unlocked
Everything in between!
Disclaimer: The content of this article does not contain and is never intended to be legal, business, financial, tax, or health advice of any kind, This article is for entertainment purposes only. It is advised that you conduct your own research and consult with qualified professionals before applying anything you find online.
I also want to be clear that everything we are going over in this article is very market to market and case by case, and what applies to my situation and my market may not apply to you!
Doordash: Q: Why was my account locked?
A: Your account may be locked if unusual or suspicious activity is detected. Reasons your account was locked could be due to one or more of the following:
Contract Violations (e.g.Extreme Lateness/Never Delivered)
Incorrectly reporting a store closed
Issues with Background Check
Other reasons
First and foremost, I have made videos talking about Contract violations of all kinds, so feel free to check those out.
Incorrect store closings have been a huge reason for a lot of wrongful deactivations, not because it isn’t right to claim a store is closed when it isn’t, but a lot of times that’s not the case at all.
Budsoda and Uber/Lyft Phoenix are prime examples of that. Budsoda got wrongfully deactivated for this and had to fight for months to not only get back on but to get the $2000 they stole from him.
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Same with Uber/Lyft Phoenix not only permanently losing his account, but his $1700 that he made that week!
Meanwhile there is no reason that they should have been deactivated, so am I glad that they are just locking accounts temporarily so they can ACTUALLY investigate, I mean, if they actually investigate sure.
However in most cases, they will weigh whether or not you are an asset or a liability based on the orders you accept. Then their decision may be more swayed by that than the facts themselves.
Either way, I wouldn’t F— around and find out.
In terms of background checks and other reasons, tbh if you have a record on your driving or criminal history, all bets are off but I have seen people skate by with some borderline sick crap and some people deactivated for a ticket they got 15 years ago!
And the other reason has a link to the DoorDash Service Provider Platform Access Policy, which is their way of saying we don’t want to tell you why so figure it out dumbdumb.
Some other things I have heard about other reasons they lock you out.
Using the red card and “fraud” being found
Dirty Multi-Apping
Earn by time Abuse
Airplane mode hack
Account Renting
Referral Bonuses “Fraud”
Now a lot of these things seem like you either just doing your work or using systems that they provide, which why shouldn’t they use if they are offering or expecting you to use them right? But I guess it is better than deactivation.
Doordash: Q: My account is locked, what should I do?
A: Your account has been locked due to unusual or suspicious activity. We are conducting a review for security purposes. Please allow up to 24 hours to hear from our team. Please note that the support team will not be able to bypass this review period, and you will not be able to do any of the following while the review is in progress:
Dashers cannot Dash.
Dashers cannot cash out their earnings nor change their payout details.
Dashers cannot start or reply to chat with customers or merchants.
Now the first two points I kind of understand because if you cannot access the app, you cannot do the things that would require the app to do. But not starting or replying to chat’s was an interesting concern to me.
Think about it like this, since that should go without saying, why mention it? Are they saying that you could be in the middle of an order and you get locked out?
Let’s also say they take full advantage of that 24 hour turn around, which we all know would be BS in most cases right? Now we have the same issue, but with an order in our hands that we cannot move on with because hey, we are locked out.
And since we can be locked out for contract violations too, that would in turn cause extreme lateness, bad ratings, order never arrived contract violations and wrongful deactivations even if NOTHING HAPPENED the first time, because they engineered the second time!
What are we supposed to do? Pray that Doordash Support does their job for once in a timely manner? Dafuq?
Doordash: Q: How will I be notified of the outcome of the security review?
A: You will receive a notification through the Dasher app advising of the outcome with instructions on how to review full details. If necessary, you will be able to provide additional information for further review at that time.
I looked online and some people have seen some accounts locked and unlocked relatively quickly, and it looked something like this, but more on this later.
Doordash: Q: I received a message that my account was deactivated after completing the security review. Can I appeal this decision?
A: Yes.
I made a video talking all about this, I will leave that video in the description feel free to check it out!
Doordash: Q: What should I do if I do not hear back from the team after 24 hours?
A: If you do not hear back from the team within 24 hours, please contact DoorDash Support for assistance.
Which of course is hit or miss whether or not they do their jobs, so make sure you are well diversified so this doesn’t impact you as badly economically speaking.
“1099 Employee” Manipulation
ZachDrivesFast has made a video about this and brought up the point that this feels like employee manipulation rather than being an independent contractor, now while on some sides I see that he has a point I do want to be fair and bring up another perspective.
From their perspective, it can be seen less like employee manipulation rather than protecting themselves from fraudulent activity. Whether you are actually legitimately guilty of these things or not, they are checking on the validity of the actions taking place. Which is why it is locked and not just straight deactivated like it was once upon a time.
Now does this mean that this argument of them wanting to control every aspect of what happens on the platform is legitimate? I mean, it’s kind of overstepping a bit. It’s one thing to put an order under review and let them know what you’re doing right?
But to lock them out entirely, yikes. I will say this though, if you are at a W-2 job and you are “locked out” you are fired, not being reviewed so, that argument can also be made.
A Fix to Wrongful Deactivations?
To be honest, being locked out for a short period of time is better than just straight deactivation. I have seen too many instances where people claim they used the red card or referred a friend and LOST their account entirely.
However, there is also the M.O. of Doordash is that they will find some feature that is good or at least better than it was and weaponize it to cause the wrongful deactivation of good drivers.
If I were to guess, I would say that someone is going to be locked out and get perpetually ghosted about it and when they press Support too hard, they just rule that they are “guilty” and deactivate you, or lock you out and claim that this was the fix to the AI driven deactivation system they claim not to have.
Doordash (BS): See, a person looked at the issue, not AI and they found that uhh something! Something happened and you should DEFINITELY be deactivated! Mwahahaha
What did you do?
A violation has occurred, or some BS reason that after months of fight you MAY get your account back or never be seen on the platform again.
Diversifying and Exit Strategies
One of the best ways to combat this, is the same way I say in almost every video, diversify your gig portfolio effectively, not being too dependent on any one niche or industry.
Having an exit strategy, because the gig economy is an income bridge to what would be a long term goal, not the goal.
Saving, investing, and securing your financial future that way because no one is going to look out for you better than you are.
So make sure you are doing what you can to make the most amount of money in the least amount of time in the safest possible way, because heaven forbid this happens to you, you are fully informed and prepared for their BS.
If you would like to add some other perspective to how Dasher Account Locks work on Doordash, feel free to email me: drivenwyld@gmail.com and who knows? Maybe your email or perspective and be featured in a post as well!
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