Delivery Orders

Turn Accept online food orders ON on Status & Visibility (it covers delivery and takeaway) and make sure at least one dish is available on your menu — a restaurant with an empty menu is kept closed for online orders even when the switch is ON. Customers can then order food for delivery through MyCityDeal. This page explains how those orders show up and how to manage them.

How a Delivery Order Works

[Customer]                  [Backend]                  [You]
  │                                │
  │ Browse restaurant             │
  │   "Order online" tab         │
  │                                │
  │ Add items to cart            │
  │                                │
  │ Checkout (pay via UPI)       │
  │                                │
  │ POST /api/orders              │
  ├──────────────────────────────>│
  │                                │ Create order
  │                                │ status: PLACED
  │                                │ Send notification
  │                                ├─────────────────────>
  │ Order confirmation            │   (dashboard + email)
  │<──────────────────────────────┤

Order Statuses

Each order goes through these stages:

PLACED ──> PREPARING ──> READY ──> OUT_FOR_DELIVERY ──> DELIVERED
   │            │           │              │
   └───────────>│           │              │
       CANCELLED │           │              │
                  └──────────>│              │
                     REJECTED                 │
                                              ▼
                                          Customer receives

Status	Meaning	Your action
PLACED	Customer just ordered	Accept or reject
PREPARING	You're making the food	Update when ready
READY	Food is ready for pickup	Notify delivery partner
OUT_FOR_DELIVERY	On the way to customer	Track
DELIVERED	Customer received it	Mark complete
CANCELLED	Customer or you cancelled	Note reason
REJECTED	You declined the order	Note reason

How to Update Order Status

1. Go to /dashboard/orders
2. Find the new order (status: PLACED)
3. Click on it to see details
4. Click the appropriate action button:
   • Accept → moves to PREPARING
   • Reject → moves to REJECTED (with reason)
   • Mark Ready → moves to READY
   • Out for Delivery → moves to OUT_FOR_DELIVERY
   • Delivered → moves to DELIVERED

Customer sees each status change in real-time on their app/website.

Order Details You See

For each order, you can view:

• Order ID (e.g., #1234)
• Customer name + phone + delivery address
• Items ordered + quantities
• Total bill amount
• Special instructions (e.g., "extra spicy", "no onion")
• Payment status (paid via UPI, etc.)
• Order time + estimated delivery time

What the Customer Pays for Delivery

The complete rule — the formula, where the distance comes from, the worked examples and the guards — is written up in How Delivery Fees Are Calculated. This section is the short version.

Delivery is charged by distance, from your kitchen to the address on the order — not per restaurant, per item, or per order value. You control the rule in Status & Visibility; the platform does the measuring and adds the fee at checkout.

• A restaurant with no per-km rate keeps the existing flat fee for every order.

• A restaurant with a free radius and a rate is charged for the kilometres beyond that radius only, and the checkout shows the full amount struck through with what is actually payable beside it.

• The number in the cart and the number on the order are the same number: the fee is recalculated when the order is placed, so it cannot be edited on the way in.

• If the drop-off address cannot be located, the order is not guessed at a discount — the flat fee applies.

• A returning customer's saved address is already selected when their checkout opens, so the fee is measured from a real address from the first second. They can still switch to another saved address or type a new one.

• Delivery messages — an address beyond your limit, a pricing change that was saved — arrive as toasts instead of text stranded in the middle of a page.

The order you receive carries the measured distance, so a dispute about a fee is a lookup, not an argument. If a customer disputes a fee, the two settings that produced it are on Status & Visibility and the arithmetic is in How Delivery Fees Are Calculated.

Delivery Partners

MyCityDeal may integrate with delivery partners (Zomato, Swiggy, Dunzo, etc.) depending on your city. The flow varies:

• Self-delivery: You handle your own fleet
• Partner delivery: A third-party handles it; you just prepare food

Check your dashboard for the active setup in your city.

Refunds and Disputes

If a customer disputes an order or requests a refund:

1. We notify you via email
2. You can view the order history
3. You can approve or contest the refund request
4. The dispute is resolved through MyCityDeal's mediation.

Always respond to disputes within 24 hours — delayed responses count against you in our partner score.

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