On Friday, February 20, 2026, thousands of Uber Eats users across both the United States and the United Kingdom found themselves suddenly unable to order dinner, check on deliveries, or even reach customer support. According to Downdetector, a site that aggregates outage reports from multiple sources, more than 3,500 people had logged complaints about the food delivery platform by 10:45 a.m. PST. And those numbers only reflect the users who took the time to report the problem—many more likely encountered the same issues in silence, their cravings and expectations dashed.
What made this outage particularly frustrating for customers was not just the inability to place orders or log in, but the total collapse of Uber Eats’ in-app customer support bot. For users with missing items or delayed orders, the usual recourse—reaching out for help through the app—was completely unavailable. As one user vented on social media, “Literally there are no alternative ways to reach out to @UberEats if their help customer service chat bot is not working... I’m missing items in my order, and I would really like a refund.” Another echoed the sentiment, asking, “Is @UberEats app down? I can’t order or use the help feature.”
The timing of this disruption could hardly have been worse. Friday evenings are notoriously busy for food delivery apps, as people across the globe look to unwind after a long workweek. Instead, many found themselves staring at error screens, with no explanation or assistance in sight. Some, like one particularly disgruntled user, declared, “Your service delivery has gone down @UberEats. Today is the last time I use your services.” Another summed up the collective exasperation: “Amazing how @UberEats not working when I’m trying to hit the help option because my order taking forever.”
But the problems didn’t stop at customer frustration. For the millions of gig workers who rely on Uber Eats to earn a living—delivery drivers who lose out on pay every time the platform goes dark during peak hours—these outages represent more than a mere inconvenience. They’re uncompensated losses, with no clear path for recourse or even acknowledgment from the company they depend on.
Despite the flood of complaints and mounting user anger, Uber’s official status page showed no incidents for February 20, 2026. This lack of transparency only added fuel to the fire, as users watched their social feeds fill with outage reports while the company itself remained silent. Outage.report, a service that monitors social media for signs of service disruptions, confirmed it had received reports from both the US and UK throughout the day. Yet, no public statement or explanation was issued by Uber Eats at the time of publication, leaving customers and drivers alike in the dark.
This wasn’t even the first major disruption of the week. On February 18, just two days prior, Uber and Uber Eats were reportedly down for hundreds of users, with Downdetector logs showing a spike in complaints around 1:32 p.m. Eastern Time. Users described facing “access denied” errors when trying to place orders, being unable to sign in even after reinstalling the app, experiencing payment failures, and finding the business portal entirely inaccessible. Once again, Uber did not publicly acknowledge the incident, offering no explanation or reassurance to those affected.
The back-to-back outages have raised serious questions about the stability of Uber Eats’ infrastructure and, perhaps more pressingly, the company’s approach to crisis communication. It’s one thing for a technology platform to suffer the occasional hiccup—no system is immune to glitches or server failures, especially one as complex and widely used as Uber Eats. But when those failures are compounded by a total lack of communication, users are left not only inconvenienced but also feeling ignored and undervalued.
For many, the most galling aspect of the February 20 outage was the simultaneous collapse of customer support. With the in-app help feature down, users had no official channel to escalate complaints about missing food, delayed deliveries, or botched refunds. “Literally there are no alternative ways to reach out to @UberEats if their help customer service chat bot is not working... I’m missing items in my order, and I would really like a refund,” one frustrated customer wrote. The sentiment was echoed by countless others who turned to social media in the absence of any direct line to the company.
Even those who didn’t have an active order at stake found the lack of transparency troubling. The disconnect between the thousands of real-time complaints and Uber’s official silence led some to question whether the company was even aware of the scope of the problem, or if it simply chose not to address it. As one user put it, “Amazing how @UberEats not working when I’m trying to hit the help option because my order taking forever.”
Industry observers note that outages like these aren’t just a technical headache—they can have a lasting impact on customer loyalty and brand reputation. Food delivery is a fiercely competitive space, with rivals like DoorDash, Grubhub, and Just Eat ready to scoop up disgruntled users at a moment’s notice. When a platform fails to deliver on its core promise—and then fails to communicate about the failure—it risks losing not just orders, but the trust that keeps customers coming back.
For gig workers, the stakes are even higher. Every minute the app is down during peak hours is a minute of lost income, with no compensation and no explanation. Many drivers, already facing the uncertainties and pressures of gig work, rely on clear communication from the platforms they serve. When that communication breaks down, it only adds to the sense of precarity that defines much of the gig economy.
As of the time of this writing, Uber had yet to issue any public acknowledgment of the outages on either February 18 or February 20. The silence from one of the world’s largest food delivery companies stands in stark contrast to the very public frustration of its users and workers. Whether Uber Eats will address these issues moving forward—and how it will rebuild trust with its community—remains to be seen. For now, customers and drivers are left hoping that the next time they open the app, it will work as promised and that, should things go awry, someone at Uber will be ready to listen.