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  Life   More Features  01 Dec 2019  ‘Hangry’ clients hit out at apps

‘Hangry’ clients hit out at apps

THE ASIAN AGE. | PRIYA RATHNAM
Published : Dec 1, 2019, 12:34 am IST
Updated : Dec 1, 2019, 12:34 am IST

Food apps maybe a blessing but need to train their delivery boys and improve their services.

An illustration used for representational purposes only
 An illustration used for representational purposes only

While food apps are considered a blessing in the fast-paced life we live in, its delivery process however manages to slow things down for everybody ultimately resulting in angry and unsatisfied customers. We speak to food app users to who share little anecdotes of their bitter experiences with the apps.

Tomy Manuel, a techie who uses Zomato, MojoPizza and Dunzo shares his three-hour delivery tale and says, “I remember ordering at 7 pm from Swiggy and in half an hour I was notified that the food is dispatched and delivery guy is on the way. The order became a nightmare because even after on an hour (I had been calling him repeatedly), I was told that the guy could not find the location and finally got my food at 10 pm. Such poor delivery experiences will not just upset the customers but also their word of mouth feedback will impact the company growth process.”

While the orders are frequently cancelled, angry customers offer varied reasons for not ordering from these apps again. However, hectic lifestyles force them to keep looking for new food delivery options in the city.

Krishna Prasad, project coordinator talks about the pricing and the tactics used by food delivery apps. He shares, “Zomato taught me a lesson on the importance of double-checking on orders. I had a bad experience when I tried cancelling an expensive order on the app. The customer care executive only tried extending the conversation needlessly, time was lost and I was finally told that the food was prepared and I could not cancel the order. There was no explanation or apology or refund offered by them.”

Users share that often delivery boys are unable to use the GPS and find the correct location. Vinod Kumar, “While the address is mentioned clearly pin to pin, the frequent question asked by the delivery guys is ‘Sir/Madam, location kahan hain.’  While ordering food, customers like us expect the food to be delivered to our doorstep which is assured. The reasons of loosing track of address will be given and we are asked us to come and collect the order. I eventually stopped using Swiggy and may stop using Zomato too.”

Nishi Sethi, an ad executive, who orders lunch regularly, while working, finds it exasperating to explain the same location to the delivery guys every day. “Why can’t these apps, be it Zomato or Swiggy have the same delivery boy handling regular customer orders? It is stressful to take repeated calls in the middle of work to give directions every single day to the same work place. They need to get their processes in place.”

Tags: food apps