Seattle DoorDash charges continue for Edmonds man

It’s been a month since My Neighborhood News Network (MNNN) published the story about the DoorDash food delivery service and the Edmonds man, John Rumpelein, who has been repeatedly charged a $4.99 Seattle fee when he uses DoorDash to deliver food from Shoreline restaurants. It’s happened 25 times since February 2025.

Rumpelein contacted DoorDash several times for an explanation and refund and finally contacted MNNN to help sort it out.

The issue

The $4.99 Seattle Regulatory Response Fee is attached to food deliveries in the City of Seattle as required by Seattle’s Council-mandated PayUp ordinance, which requires app-based delivery services in Seattle to pay Seattle delivery drivers the Seattle minimum wage. The minimum wage for delivery drivers is set at $27. It captures time and driving distance or a minimum of $4.99.

This ordinance applies only in the City of Seattle. Rumpelein’s food orders come from restaurants located in the City of Shoreline, and he lives in Edmonds. Shoreline and Edmonds do not have this fee. DoorDash uses ZIP codes to apply these regulatory fees and Shoreline shares two ZIP codes (98133 / 98177) with the City of Seattle. 

As of this writing, those fees continue. 

What happened next

After the story published on July 20, a Shoreline merchant contacted MyEdmondsNews and reported that he did not know about the fees attached to his restaurant delivery orders. When he read about Rumpelein’s July 16 order, he reviewed his merchant portal, found Rumpelein’s specific order and saw no $4.99 fee added. He did not see the fee on any DoorDash order. He forwarded the issue to his regional franchise manager with contacts at DoorDash and was told this is an “edge” issue. It would not change. 

It is an “edge” issue because Shoreline and Seattle share ZIP codes (98133 and 98177). Because DoorDash imposes fees by ZIP code, the fee – by default –is applied outside Seattle. 

MEN researched this “edge” and learned the regulatory fees are imposed in four cities across the United States. Only Seattle/Shoreline has this unique overlapping ZIP code issue. One can conclude this only affects a small number of people. 

DoorDash has the software and capacity to fix the problem. DoorDash contracts with Avalara, a Seattle-based international tax implementation software company, that uses “rooftop accuracy” review to ensure that each and every tax is applied correctly. 

A local reader commented on the DoorDash story. He worked at Avalara and said “rooftop accuracy” is their top selling point. The software is so precise, he said, that it can correctly apply charges to two different residents who may live across the street from each other but have different taxes applied based on their city or community. The delivery company must choose to use the GIS layer, which is more precise than ZIP codes.

This was not new information. Avalara provided this information to MNNN and MNNN provided it to DoorDash in July. MNNN provided the precise language from Avalara to share with GIS teams at DoorDash to fix this issue. When MNNN followed up with Parker Dorrough, DoorDash head of policy communications, to understand why the charges continue, Dorrough did not respond. 

Addressing the problem

Rumpelein, who continues to be charged these fees, is changing tactics to address the fees on his orders. He contacted DoorDash customer service through the app to share information about the ‘Seattle” charges and has received “credit.” It is not a “refund.” 

This screen capture comes from Rumpelein’s phone.

In an email exchange with DoorDash operations, Rumpelein was more specific about his future actions: 

I like Doordash and use your service quite a bit as you know. But I think your position here is boneheaded and wrong. Consequently I will be:

• Using GrubHub for future orders to Shoreline restaurants
• Working with restaurants in Shoreline to inform them about what is going on
• Continuing to work with members of the local press to raise awareness about this.

I do hope you will reconsider.

Cheers,

John Rumpelein

In the weeks that have passed, the merchant and Rumpelein have reached out to DoorDash to address the issue. DoorDash has responded to all parties  with the same message: DoorDash does not support this Seattle ordinance. 

Administratively, neither do the cities of Edmonds and Shoreline and that is why both Shoreline merchants and Edmonds residents say they shouldn’t be charged.

Here is the DoorDash response to Rumpelein:

Seattle’s app-based worker minimum pay ordinance has significantly increased our operating costs in Seattle and in the immediately surrounding areas, including the costs of facilitating deliveries to addresses like yours. In response to these increased costs, we’ve implemented a $4.99 regulatory response fee on certain orders. Please know that we are actively working with the City to make changes to this law that would bring down costs for consumers and local businesses.

If this is the case, DoorDash is choosing to charge Shoreline customers because it is in an “immediately surrounding area,” despite the fact Shoreline does not have this ordinance.

For DoorDash, this choice is the cost of doing business near Seattle. 

The next question is: Who is getting that extra $4.99 on thousands of orders? Is it the delivery person known as the “Dasher” as it was designed to benefit, or does it go to DoorDash corporate? The answer is unknown. In Seattle, it goes to the Dashers and shows up on their paycheck.

Because DoorDash has not responded, MNNN does not know the following:

• How many Seattle-adjacent customers in King and Snohomish counties are being charged?
• Whether the Avalara information from MNNN was shared with DD GIS teams and what their response was.
• Does DD only use ZIP codes for fee assessments?
• How DD is managing this overcharge?  Will the company issue case-by-case credit only when customers complain?
• When a fee is charged, who gets the money? In other words, when a Shoreline driver who makes $16.66/hr per state minimum wage delivers a meal with a $4.99 “fee,” does the driver get that money? If not, who gets it? If yes, how would they see that bump reflected in their ‘paycheck’? 
• Are they proactively and affirmatively sharing this ‘edge’ information with ‘edge’ merchants? 

These questions were sent to DD twice, on July 31 and again on Aug. 6. MNNN has received no response.