Grubhub execs grilled over bogus fees

Grubhub drew snickers and guffaws at a City Council hearing Thursday as its executives for the first time attempted to defend the company — which also owns Seamless — against allegations that it has been overcharging its restaurant customers f🔥or years.

A senior executive for the Chicago company told𓆏 the New York City Council small business subcommittee Thur🍌sday that eatery owners complaining about Grubhub charging for phone orders that never happened are “in the minority.”

“As for the other restaurants on this platform, many of whom would like to tell a different story, they let us know that they would like to attend this hearing,” ꩲSami Naim, Grubhub’s director of public policy told the committee.

But not a single Grubhub supporter made the down🔴town Manhattan powwow — because they were busy with the “lunch rush,” Naim told t🔯he committee.

This drew sco🐟ffs and laughter from the crowd, which included restaurateurs who took time away from their busy schedules to testify about GrubHub’s practices, including the owners of 5 Napkin Burger, Enoteca and Tribeca’s Kitchen.

As The Post first reported in May, restaurants from Philadelphia to the Big Apple say the online ordering and delivery company has been cheating them out of as much as thousands of d🐬ollars a month — some fo🌊r years — tied to fees for telephone o𝓡rders that never happened.

“There is not enough time to deal with this,” Andreas Koutsoudakis, owner of Tribeca’s Kitchen, told the committee of the fees, which are tied to any phone call ov෴er 45 seconds through a Grubhub-dedica🌟ted line — whether it results in an order or not.

Grubhub is supposed to only charge restaurants for orders tha𝔍t 💜it helps generates.

Grubhub revealed Thursday that it made about $30 million last y🎃ear on phone orders nationally, or about 3% of revenue. It’s unclear what percentage of the $30 million was generated by bogus orders, but restaurant operators who’ve talked to The Post estimate that about half of their phone charges come from calls that did n𝕴ot result in orders, including customers complaining about their delivery being late .

The hearing turned heated when Grubhub started to get questioned about refunds.

“We feel two months is an appropriate amount✨ of time” for a refund, Kevin Kearns, a senior vice president, said during the hearing. “If they are unhappy with the resolution, we’ll de🅷termine the best course of action,” he dryly said.

That prompted City Councilmember Mark Gjonai to blast the execs — generating applause from💟 the crowd.

“My feedback is simple,” Gjonaj said. “Go back to the very first day that that business signed its agreement with you, assess all the phone charges that were made, have someone listen to each and every recording, and if there was a phone charge for a restaurant that never took place and never yielded a sale, you would call them up and say, ‘Hey Reggie … I’ve got a nice check being refunded to you.’”

Gjonaj also warned GrubHub not to retaliate against restaurant owners who spoke at the hearing. But at least one owner who attended the hearing and did not testify, Yiamni Berbeis of Telio eatery, told The Post that his takeout business with GrubHub has been down about 15% since he spoke out about the fee issue𝄹 in a recent CBS television interview.

“I don’t know for sure if there’s a connection, but it’s possible,” Berbeis told 🔥ꩲThe Post.