ALEX KUETER / ASST. OPINION EDITOR

Students who order through GET at La Paloma or Aromas have been receiving a 10 cent “pickup fee” on their orders. GET is a mobile app used by many USD students to place food orders at on-campus dining locations. Students can order ahead for the time that they want to get their food, then pick it up and skip the ordering line. While there is a limited number of orders accepted for a given time slot, GET ordering is a very popular and time-saving way to order food on campus. 

However, this ordering service has had a catch. For at least the past six months the app placed a 10 cent surcharge on some orders placed at Aromas and La Paloma. This extra fee appears to be active on the app from around Oct. 2024-April 2025, or approximately six months.  

While  it is unclear exactly when this fee started, student receipts from the aforementioned restaurants display the pickup fee as early as Oct. 2024. This fee is not visible when ordering the food on the app, but it appears in the receipt that students are emailed after  the  transaction. The number of GET  orders  varies  per restaurant, but Yerandi Merlo, the manager of Aromas Coffeehouse, gave insight into  the number of orders. 

“We have approximately 1,300-1,500 GET orders in a week,” Merlo said. 

 With this many orders, the fee potentially generated $130-$150 from Aromas while in an average week. While La Paloma also charged a fee, a number was not provided by  dining  services for their weekly amount of mobile orders. USD has not clarified if the money generated from this fee has been collected by dining services or the app itself   after  contact attempts.

When USD Dining was approached about this fee, they were  unaware  of the fee’s activation. Charles Ramos, the director of dining services, stated that there should not be a charge for pickup. 

“To  clarify,  we   do  not charge for the pickup of items. This appears to be a system error, and it has now been corrected,” Ramos said. 

Additionally, Ramos stated that the fee was only associated with Aromas orders and was activated by the merchants there. 

“I reviewed all the GET accounts on campus and found that the issue was only occurring at Aromas,” Ramos said. “The field in question is a system setting that allows merchants to apply a pickup fee — not a tax,” Ramos said on April 8, 2025. 

However, according to student receipts provided by five students, the fee had also been active at La Paloma at least a week prior to the email, on April 1, 2025. For further clarification, The USD Vista contacted Dining again on when and why this fee was activated, the University’s media relations and Dining  Services   failed  to comment. 

This receipt shows the fee has been active since Feb. 24 at Aromas. Alex Kueter/The USD Vista

Many students were unaware of this fee’s activation, while  others were aware and assumed it was just a fee that they needed to pay.

Some students, like USD junior Ella Kocourek noticed the charge, but   didn’t  report  it to dining services.  

“I noticed it, I think, at the beginning of the semester,” Kocourek said. “I thought it was annoying, but I kinda just overlooked it.”  

Others thought it was activated on purpose and was just an additional   fee  required for  using  the  site, like USD senior Gray Ehling.  

“I probably use [GET] a couple times a week,” Ehling said. “I noticed it, when I ordered, it added the 10 cents. I am annoyed but not shocked. It’s USD, they’re constantly taking money.” 

However, many students are much  less  relaxed about the missing money and are eager to know where and why the fee was activated. 

USD senior Yuri Palomino stated she was upset by the fee, especially because she uses it multiple times a week. 

 “I didn’t know about this fee. I am very enraged, and I think it’s very absurd that the school is doing this,” Palomino said. “I use it every day, sometimes   twice a day.” 

Others like Sophia Stark, a USD junior expressed frustration about the policy and the lack of information on where the money has gone.   

“I use [GET] every other day,”  Stark said. “I don’t know where the money is going to, and I didn’t know that 10 cents was being included every time and I didnt know it was a new thing. I just want to know where it’s going.”

Lissette Martinez, a spokesperson for the University, stated that once the issue with the fee was resolved with GET, refunds would be processed for all those affected by the fee.  

“Auxiliary services is still working with the tech company to determine  the  source   of the issue,” Martinez said. “They estimate  they  will have a resolution by early June. Also, they’d like to reiterate that the fee is not active anymore. Once the vendor sorts out the issue, the service fee will be refunded to the appropriate folks who used [GET].” 

The  Vista   followed  up  with  this on May 12 to see how graduating seniors would be refunded,  but  the  University  did not  respond  in   time  for  a  comment. 

As of The USD Vista’s production date of May 13,  USD has yet to confirm whether refunds have been  distributed.

This receipt shows the fee has been active since Oct. 2024 at La Paloma. Alex Kueter/The USD Vista