Sonal Singh On Sonal's Table
I deliberated for the longest time before writing this post but in the end, for me, it boiled down to the fact that this post is not about the money, its about the principle of the thing. I am more than happy to contribute the amount (that Zomato owes me) as a charitable donation to Zomato to put in their customer care employee training fund (God knows they need it!!!).
So, this is what has happened…
- I am a Zomato member and have been for quite some time. On 5th May 2024 (in the late evening) we ordered from a local bakery in Hyderabad – pastries to celebrate my elder daughter’s graduation. The order amount was approx. ₹ 901/- Our housing society works on the Mygate app so I gave pre-approved the delivery guy’s entry. After half an hour I received a message from Mygate stating that the delivery guy from Zomato had checked into the society. Subsequently, we also received a message on Zomato that was order had been delivered. Our doorbell had not rung!! We had not received the order. Sometimes, delivery guys send that message as they travel up in the lift so we waited. After ten minutes we checked outside the main door but the chap never turned up. I checked the Zomato app to make sure that ‘drop at door’ was disabled. It sure was!
After fifteen minutes we received a message that the delivery chap checked out of our society. We again checked outside the main door but there was no delivery there. I tried calling the delivery guy multiple times but he did not pick up. So, I reached out to Zomato via chat. After five minutes of navigating the chat window and stating my case, Ms Rani, a customer care executive called up. I again stated the complete case to her. She took the delivery boy on a conference call but he flatly refused to take responsibility. For a good ten minutes he kept insisting that he had delivered the order to me. Obviously, I had not received it. Ultimately, after haggling for some time, I gave up and asked Ms Rani to refund my money. I was clear in asking for a refund. Ms Rani gave me a coupon. I thought – Okay! Maybe that is how Zomato does refunds. Ms Rani never, not once told me the difference between refund and coupon. Anyway, she gave me coupon for ₹ 900/- with a validity period of 1 (one) month. Again, Ms Rani failed to mention to me that the coupon was for one time/single use only and that if it was used partially the balance amount would lapse. I think that little bit of information was pertinent information. Wouldn’t you agree?
The matter ended there at that point. The entire conversation about the refund, the coupon etc was done on a call.
The best part is that the next day I checked with my neighbours and found that the order had been delivered to one of my neighbours. Their son’s school results had been declared that day so they assumed that the pastries had been sent by relatives in celebration of that. Clearly the order was delivered to the wrong address, something that I kept insisting on my call with Ms Rani and something that the delivery guy vehemently kept denying. We can chalk this up to human error. It happens!!
- On 9th May 24, I ordered a dish from a local eatery and paid approx. ₹ 350/- for that via the coupon. Since I had not been informed that the coupon was for a single use only, I though I still had ₹ 550/- balance in the coupon. Imagine my surprise when on 10th May 24, I tried to use the coupon again and could not!! I reached out to Zomato again via chat. This time I received a call from Ms Nidhi who was sweet but very firm in stating that it is Zomato policy to give coupons for a single time use only – something about which I had not clue as I had not been informed. She asked me to start an email chain and asked me to raise a ticket on [email protected]. I immediately wrote to them (unique ticket ID is 35729938) and asked them to refund me the balance amount of ₹ 550/-
Between 10th May 24 to 14th May 24, the table-tennis of emails continued. The status today i.e., 20th may 24, is that Zomato still refuses to take any action on reimbursement.
4. Fed up with the constant follow ups, I raised this matter on twitter and tagged Zomato. They reached out via twitter and asked me to share my phone number and the crux of the matter (in a private window). I did that. However, there was no acknowledgement of that message on twitter. I sent a follow up request also – a screen shot of the revert that Zomato gave on email but that also went un-acknowledged. In-between, I repeatedly have asked on mail for escalation of this matter to a senior person but I have not heard back.
5. On 11th may 24, I received a mail from Zomato stating that they had tried to reach out to me but could not connect. I immediately wrote to them stating that I had not received any call and my cell phone was in frequency range. Caught in their own web, a Mr Karan from Zomato finally called me at 8:30 pm. He was quite sweet and supposedly quite understanding. We had a good fifteen minutes of discussion (which I am sure is recorded in Zomato logs) and Mr Karan firmly stated that they would not be able to issue the same coupon again for the balance money as coupons that expire once cannot be re-issued again. I told him clearly that I was fine with a new coupon. The old coupon be damned! It had caused enough mental stress and grief. I told him that I would accept a new coupon for the balance amount or a credit into my bank. Both were okay! He said he would try but that he doubted anything could be done. We ended the conversation with me requesting him to look into the matter and with him assuring me that he would do his best.
The most amusing part of this conversation with Mr Karan was that he kept insisting that the fact that the coupon was for a single time use only was communicated to me via chat (by Ms Rani). So, as I understand it, while I am on a call with her and am on a conference call with the delivery boy stating my case and trying to reason; I am also expected to simultaneously be chatting with them via typed text?? Is this what Zomato expects from its customers?
Zomato – isn’t that a little too unreasonable? You have customer care executives who are not even able to understand a customer compliant made out in simple English and Hindi. They are unable to perform single tasks adequately and yet you expect a customer to multi-task – be on call and on chat at the same time??? Wow! If that isn’t double standards, I don’t know what is!! And, why would a customer chat with you when they are already speaking to your executive?? How dim-witted is that expectation?!
This was a week ago and since then Zomato has closed ranks. They are quoting the same parroted lines and they clearly have no intention of refunding my money. My last email to them on 14th May 24 stating that I would be taking this matter up in social media, has not even elicited a revert. Clearly, this is a company that has no interest in either customer service or in refunding money that is rightfully due to customers.
Is this how this company was built up – by common thievery?? After my bitter experience, I am quite sure of this. My purpose in writing this post or in posting these reviews online is no longer about getting a refund of ₹ 550/- As mentioned earlier, I donate that (although not with kindness) to the customer care training fund at Zomato. They can consider these alms because they clearly need the money else, they would not steal from customers.
My purpose in writing this post is to highlight the mental trauma, stress and angst that Zomato has caused me. I have been made to beg for my own money. I am a customer with rights and yet I have been made to repeatedly explain my case to Zomato, write endless mails and whatnot and even then, there is no resolution. So, make no mistake Zomato, for me, this post is about highlighting an injustice. This post is about a theft that took place.
If a common thief broke into your home and stole money, would you not report it? Would you allow the loss to stand? Would you keep quiet about it? You would not, right? That’s exactly what I am doing!! I am not keeping quiet about a theft that happened. I am reporting the matter of the theft and shall be filing a case in the consumer forum. I will be taking the legal route on this now. But this time I will not be seeking a mere refund of ₹ 550/-. This time, I am seeking full restitution for the mental angst, the stress and agony that Zomato has caused me.
Zomato – this mess is on your conscience! Theft is a criminal act and this matter has reached this stage because your refusal to take responsibility for your criminal act.
Photo by Rubaitul Azad on Unsplash (text edited by author)
