Ever experienced a surge of anxiety on receiving that notification which said your food has arrived, when there was no sign of it? Welcome to the club. While there is a glut of food booking apps out there, there’s no absolute guarantee of the grub. Yes, passive delivery patterns and negligent order taking tendencies are on the rise. Read on to find out more, as Bengalureans share their sob stories and solutions with us! ‘Err’ogance galore! “I ordered a Balsamic cottage cheese salad from Fresh Menu, and paid Rs 150 online.
A mail followed stating my order has been delivered. Then five minutes later, another mail says delivery boy was trying to call me but I was unreachable and so he left my office. I checked with our security guard and receptionist, no delivery boy had turned up. I complained online, and they apologised and offered to make amends but nothing happened. I called their customer care, and they gave me the usual apology with a promise of a reimbursement, but no news after that,” laments Kavya S* a creative head.
Interestingly, goof-ups are not restricted to just non-deliveries, but stark evidences of inept order taking too. Paschim Prasad, a mechanical engineer, shares a harrowing experience.
“Once, I was bombarded with these voucher deals from Food Panda. The wrong order was delivered to me and the vouchers were not considered as well. More than anything, it was embarrassing because I had called a couple of friends over and we all knew it wasn’t what we wanted. After a couple of phone calls and daft automated messages, we ordered from a nearby dhaba,” he reveals.
Shockingly, a lot of customers have reportedly received the wrath of ignorance. “I remember calling the customer care of Swiggy. After creating an absolute flop show with wrong billing and different salads, the lady on the phone told me that it’s only human and we should consider other options if we’re that picky!” elucidates Revathy Kamath, a software professional.
Multi-tasking falls flat: While it’s understandable that a heavy flow of orders can lead to minor misses, its often the passive responses that irk regular buyers. Commenting on the same, Nitin Hajela, an IT programme management professional says, “If you look at most official pages, there will be a growing list of consumer rants. But the worst part is, most of the customer care executives are not trained well to handle calls or orders. So it leads to a major showdown, more often than not. Given the stiff competition, food start-ups must realise the importance of addressing customer concerns.”
We tried getting in touch with the customer care of popular food apps. They were unavailable for responses. *Names have been changed to protect the privacy of the individuals.
