Glovo is the dominant delivery app in several of the markets our customers operate in — Spain, Italy, Portugal, Poland, Romania — and its refund mechanics are similar everywhere: a customer reports a problem in the app, Glovo refunds or credits them, and where the cause is attributed to the partner (missing or incorrect items, food quality), the amount is charged back to the partner's account. Quality complaints come with a photo, and the photo is accepted as the case.

Where the charge appears and where you contest it

Refund outcomes are listed against orders in the Glovo partner portal (and the partner app), with the customer's stated reason. From there you can contest a charge or open a ticket with partner support. The contest is a text box and attachments; response times vary a lot by country and by how busy support is, so be persistent, keep everything tied to the order number, and follow up once if you hear nothing.

The window to contest is short. Treat the refund notification as the start of a countdown.

What gets a charge reversed

Glovo's support agents are people working a queue. The contests that succeed give them something they can verify in the time they have:

  • A pass photo of the packed order, with the order sticker visible, taken before the courier collected it.
  • A specific, factual statement about the customer's photo. The packaging is not yours; the alleged defect shows signs of having been added; the file carries no camera metadata; the capture time predates the order. Use the wording from the evidence guide, which is written to fit a support text box.
  • The order details alongside, so nothing has to be looked up.

What fails is argument: your reviews, your hygiene rating, your history. None of it is evidence about this order.

Check the photo before you contest

Save the customer's image as a file from the portal (a screenshot strips the metadata). Do the two-minute visual pass from how to tell if a complaint photo is edited — lighting that disagrees, a defect that is sharper than its surroundings, a container you do not use, a reverse image search. Then run it through FraudBite for the part you cannot see: a risk score, a heatmap of the regions that do not belong, a plain-language list of findings, as a one-page PDF.

The score is a signal. A high score is your cue to contest with evidence; a low score with a pass photo that shows the error is your cue to accept the refund gracefully. Contesting genuine complaints is how a restaurant loses the benefit of the doubt with the agents who handle its account.

Small habits, big difference on Glovo

  • Photograph every sealed order with the sticker in frame; on Glovo this is the single most persuasive attachment you can send.
  • Note repeat claimants by address. Glovo anonymises customers, but the same address reporting a hair in the food twice in a month is a pattern your account manager will recognise.
  • Keep contests short and numbered by order.

Operating in Romania? The Romanian version of this page covers Glovo alongside Bolt Food and Tazz.

Glovo is a third-party platform; FraudBite is not affiliated with it. Verify current contest windows and portal locations in your own partner account.