Your Entire Business
Runs on Delivery.
So Does the Fraud.
Ghost kitchens have zero dine-in customers to vouch for them. When a refund claim comes in, there's no server who saw the food, no ticket at the pass — just your word against a screenshot. PlatePal changes that.
of ghost kitchen revenue comes from delivery platforms that can issue refunds at will
of total operator revenue caught in platform disputes — roughly 20% of all delivery profit
typical ghost kitchen net margin — a single fraud spike can wipe out a week of profit
of delivery chargebacks are first-party fraud — legitimate-looking claims from serial abusers
Ghost Kitchens Can't Afford
Phantom Refunds
Delivery-only operations carry the industry's thinnest margins while bearing 100% of the platform's refund exposure. Here's what makes ghost kitchens uniquely vulnerable.
No In-Person Witnesses
There's no front-of-house staff, no table runner, no manager who saw the food before it left. When a customer claims missing items or a wrong order, you have nothing to counter it with — and platforms know it.
Platform defaults to the customerMulti-Brand = Multi-Target
Running three virtual brands out of one kitchen means three separate refund liability windows. Serial fraudsters often target the same facility under different brand names, knowing each platform handles disputes separately.
3× the exposure per kitchenPlatform Fees Already Compress Margins
Third-party delivery fees run 15–30% per order. Stack a 3% dispute rate on top of that and you're losing money on orders you prepared correctly. Refund abuse is the difference between survival and shutdown.
15–30% platform commissionDispute Portals Are Built Against You
Each platform has its own dispute process — different portals, different deadlines, different evidence requirements. One operator calculated it costs $18,000 just to build automation for the process. Without it, most brands don't dispute at all.
Most brands never disputeThe Delivery Fraud
Reality Check
$103 Billion Lost in 2024
Fraudulent refund claims and unwarranted disputes cost the food delivery industry an estimated $103 billion in 2024 alone. Ghost kitchens, with 100% delivery dependency, absorb a disproportionate share.
31% Year-Over-Year Increase
Chargeback rates on food delivery orders jumped 31% in Q1 2023 — and the trend has continued upward. Platforms make it frictionless for customers to request refunds, with no cost or consequence for false claims.
1 in 4 Chargebacks Is Admitted Fraud
23% of consumers who have filed chargebacks admit the claim was fraudulent. For ghost kitchens serving hundreds of orders a day across multiple brands, that math compounds fast.
Refunds Hit 2–3× Per Night
Restaurant operators report seeing refund requests 2–3 times per night at busy delivery locations. For a ghost kitchen running multiple brands and 150+ orders a day, that can represent $80–$200 in unrecovered losses nightly.
20% of Delivery Profit Wiped Out
Industrywide, disputes consume 2.5–3% of total revenue — representing approximately 20% of restaurants' already thin delivery margins. For ghost kitchens with no other revenue stream, this is existential.
60% Win Rate — For Those Who Dispute
Operators who do dispute chargebacks win roughly 60% of contested claims. The problem: most don't dispute at all, because the process is too time-consuming without documented proof.
Built for Kitchens
With No Front Door
PlatePal was designed with delivery-only operations in mind. Every order gets a timestamped photo and video record at the moment of handoff — your irrefutable proof before the driver even picks up the bag.
Camera at the Pass
A compact camera mounts at your pickup window or order staging area. Every completed order is photographed automatically — no staff action required, no workflow disruption.
Timestamped Visual Record
Each photo is tagged with the order ID, brand, timestamp, and platform. When a refund claim arrives for Order #4827 at 7:42 PM, you pull the photo in seconds — not minutes of searching.
Multi-Brand Coverage
Running five virtual brands from one kitchen? PlatePal tracks orders by brand, so your evidence is organized by concept — not just by time slot — making dispute filing fast for any platform.
Dispute-Ready Evidence Packets
Export a photo, timestamp, and order metadata formatted for the specific platform's dispute portal. No more manual screenshots, no more guessing what evidence they need.
The process to file a dispute is so complicated and time-consuming that most restaurant brands just end up not filing it at all.
— Priyam Saraswat, CEO of Voosh, via Restaurant Business OnlineStop Letting Refund Abuse
Eat Your Margins
PlatePal is accepting a limited number of ghost kitchen operators into our closed pilot program. Get visual proof on every order — and the dispute evidence to fight back.
Join Our Closed PilotNo commitment required · Setup in under an hour · Works with any delivery platform