For years, Grubhub was a reliable source for ordering meals across Grounds. With the app, students could utilize meal swipes and Flex Dollars on their phones. However, as fall classes were about to start, students received an email from UVA Dine announcing that Grubhub was now defunct. It concluded by saying that a new app would be taking its place: Wahoo Eats.
This transition came as a shock to many, especially because it had yet to launch when everyone was back on Grounds. According to UVA Dine’s email, students should order in person using kiosks while awaiting the new app. While the reason behind the development of Wahoo Eats was not explicitly stated in any correspondence with students, speculation emerged: mainly that the University’s contract with Grubhub had been terminated.
For days after the fall semester officially started, students could not use mobile ordering. Since there was no way to gauge wait times without a mobile app, long lines quickly formed at popular dining locations. When students looked up information about the new app to get updates on the launch, multiple threads from the r/UVA subreddit popped up. One comment voiced their displeasure that the University “killed the contract with Grubhub that enables mobile ordering and have nothing in place yet to replace it,” reflecting the widespread criticism that there was no solution thus far to reduce long wait times. Another post lamented the loss of the food trucks, a popular choice for those who had midday classes near the amphitheater. These opinions were in agreement with postings on YikYak, an anonymous forum. There were a plethora of posts raising questions about when, or if, the normal ordering system would return.
On August 28, a new email revealed that a beta version of Wahoo Eats was now ready for use. At the time of its launch, only a handful of locations were available. Students raised more concerns about the app, claiming that it was a “very negative experience” and listing numerous drawbacks: “The UI is super clunky, the feature to add a cav card is fully broken, and even when you use a meal exchange it still says you were charged.” In this thread, there are over thirty comments relaying similarly subpar experiences. These critical posts were accompanied by a slew of poor reviews on app stores. For example, several reviews asked, “Why did we move away from Grubhub to something that doesn’t even work?” amongst other complaints linked to one-star reviews.
Beyond general criticisms about the utility of Wahoo Eats, security issues also arose. Rumors were circulating on YikYak that user information was compromised, claims that were backed up by a student-run decompilation. The student found that “personal data could be intercepted, viewed, saved, [or] stolen” by unauthorized third parties and advised fellow students to be wary of inputting sensitive information such as credit card details. Furthermore, it was found that there was very little network security, leaving the app vulnerable to hijackers. Since all of this research was conducted by a student, the findings were not verified, but they do raise red flags.
On September 9th, less than a month after the launch of Wahoo Eats, students received the news they’d been hoping for: Grubhub would be reinstated the next day. UVA Dine stated that this decision was made in response to the student outrage over the past several weeks and confirmed that Wahoo Eats would be discontinued. According to the email, WahooEats would no longer be available for download from the app store, and that “as each location is reactivated on the Grubhub app, it will simultaneously be deactivated on Wahoo Eats.”
This announcement was met with a wave of positive feedback, with students expressing enthusiasm and relief at the return to normalcy. As promised, more and more dining locations started reappearing on Grubhub over the next several days. Within a week, students found that the Wahoo Eats app had been removed from the app store entirely and that Grubhub was functioning at full capacity. A swift response to student concerns assisted in the restoration of the familiar dining platform and a return to dining as usual on Grounds.
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