Before I get down to the post, I'd like to say that I am deeply ashamed that my last post was over a year ago! Time flies they say and the truth is that the last year has gone by so fast. It's now almost two weeks since my birthday and among other things I have sworn to do this year, I swear to write more frequently here.
***
The last month and a half has been a bad one for me, at least in terms of home deliveries. Every home delivery I placed for food (and a debit card) reached me really late or never came. I've had to put up fights and use the line 'Is this how you treat your customer?' some fifty times at least. I've put down some of these major incidents with as brief an explanation on how they occurred.
Case 1: Carter's Blue
It was one of those weekends when the brothers and I were mostly home and we also had some friends over. I ordered for chicken shawarmas from Carter's which is only 20 minutes away from where I live. It was 45 minutes since I placed the order and when I called to find out the status of my delivery, I was told that the guy just left. I asked him why he only just left when the norm is a 45-minute delivery and he said it was a busy day. But my order never came even half hour after I called. Furious, I called up again and was told this time that the guy is probably lost and does not have credit on his phone to call me. I yelled at him for not having called me back to tell me this and asked for the delivery boy's number. He gave me the wrong number the first time and when I called again for the number I told him that I wasn't going to pay the bill given how awful they've been. This was followed by me calling the delivery guy several times to explain the address and the order finally reached us a good 2 hours after we had placed it. It takes basic common sense to go get your phone recharged if you are out of credit. It also is the restaurant's responsibility to ensure their delivery boys have sufficient credit on their phone. I can go on.
Case 2: 5 Spice
This was a Sunday afternoon and the 5 Spice in question is the one at Oshiwara. While I agree that Oshiwara to Amboli is a bit of a distance, it definitely isn't like Andheri to Vasai. An hour since the order was placed and no sign of it. Several calls have been made and all we were told was lies ranging from the delivery boy left more than 10 minutes back to he has many orders, to it's very far so it will take time. We told the guy that we won't be paying the bill and he argued with us saying it wasn't their fault but the fault of the delivery boy. We reasoned with him saying delivery boy's fault was his fault in the bigger picture. When the delivery boy finally reached over 2 hours since we ordered, he looked petrified. When we paid him less than half the bill he refused to leave saying they would take it out of his pocket and that it wasn't his fault as they only gave him the delivery 20 minutes back. He told us that this was something he was put through every day. I honestly did not know who was lying. While I did feel bad for the delivery boy, was I a happy customer? No. We gave him our number and told him that if it really wasn't his fault and if they asked him to put our bill from his pocket when he gets back, he could call us and we'd help him out. He never called.
Case 3: Mc Delivery
This was very recent and it was one of those days when there was a slight unexpected drizzle in the city. The promised half hour delivery never reached and I received a call from a guy who told me that due to the 'heavy rains' my order was going to take another 15 minutes. Apparently, the bike broke down because of the heavy downpour. My order reached me a little over an hour and many conversations took place while I waited for my delivery and after. I asked them how they manage to deliver within half hour during the 4 months of monsoon and suddenly fail to deliver on a slight drizzle day. But he continued to lie that it was raining heavily in his side as opposed to my side which by the way is just around the corner.
Cases 1 and 3 were courteous enough to have their managers call and apologize and discuss the issue. But am I just jinxed with home deliveries or is something seriously wrong with the customer service nowadays? I feel the customer is no longer treated as valuable because most of these eating joints seem to think they'll still have people call them, even if they lose a customer or two to bad service. Also what is with the terrible phone customer service? Even with phone banking (yet another bad experience I'm not going to get into now.) What we really need now is for a facility whereby we can talk to the same person we spoke to from our very first call rather than having to explain our issue from scratch over and over. And no, complaint numbers or reference ids do not help. I'm waiting for a genius to come up with this.
Or am I really jinxed with home deliveries?
***
The last month and a half has been a bad one for me, at least in terms of home deliveries. Every home delivery I placed for food (and a debit card) reached me really late or never came. I've had to put up fights and use the line 'Is this how you treat your customer?' some fifty times at least. I've put down some of these major incidents with as brief an explanation on how they occurred.
Case 1: Carter's Blue
It was one of those weekends when the brothers and I were mostly home and we also had some friends over. I ordered for chicken shawarmas from Carter's which is only 20 minutes away from where I live. It was 45 minutes since I placed the order and when I called to find out the status of my delivery, I was told that the guy just left. I asked him why he only just left when the norm is a 45-minute delivery and he said it was a busy day. But my order never came even half hour after I called. Furious, I called up again and was told this time that the guy is probably lost and does not have credit on his phone to call me. I yelled at him for not having called me back to tell me this and asked for the delivery boy's number. He gave me the wrong number the first time and when I called again for the number I told him that I wasn't going to pay the bill given how awful they've been. This was followed by me calling the delivery guy several times to explain the address and the order finally reached us a good 2 hours after we had placed it. It takes basic common sense to go get your phone recharged if you are out of credit. It also is the restaurant's responsibility to ensure their delivery boys have sufficient credit on their phone. I can go on.
Case 2: 5 Spice
This was a Sunday afternoon and the 5 Spice in question is the one at Oshiwara. While I agree that Oshiwara to Amboli is a bit of a distance, it definitely isn't like Andheri to Vasai. An hour since the order was placed and no sign of it. Several calls have been made and all we were told was lies ranging from the delivery boy left more than 10 minutes back to he has many orders, to it's very far so it will take time. We told the guy that we won't be paying the bill and he argued with us saying it wasn't their fault but the fault of the delivery boy. We reasoned with him saying delivery boy's fault was his fault in the bigger picture. When the delivery boy finally reached over 2 hours since we ordered, he looked petrified. When we paid him less than half the bill he refused to leave saying they would take it out of his pocket and that it wasn't his fault as they only gave him the delivery 20 minutes back. He told us that this was something he was put through every day. I honestly did not know who was lying. While I did feel bad for the delivery boy, was I a happy customer? No. We gave him our number and told him that if it really wasn't his fault and if they asked him to put our bill from his pocket when he gets back, he could call us and we'd help him out. He never called.
Case 3: Mc Delivery
This was very recent and it was one of those days when there was a slight unexpected drizzle in the city. The promised half hour delivery never reached and I received a call from a guy who told me that due to the 'heavy rains' my order was going to take another 15 minutes. Apparently, the bike broke down because of the heavy downpour. My order reached me a little over an hour and many conversations took place while I waited for my delivery and after. I asked them how they manage to deliver within half hour during the 4 months of monsoon and suddenly fail to deliver on a slight drizzle day. But he continued to lie that it was raining heavily in his side as opposed to my side which by the way is just around the corner.
Cases 1 and 3 were courteous enough to have their managers call and apologize and discuss the issue. But am I just jinxed with home deliveries or is something seriously wrong with the customer service nowadays? I feel the customer is no longer treated as valuable because most of these eating joints seem to think they'll still have people call them, even if they lose a customer or two to bad service. Also what is with the terrible phone customer service? Even with phone banking (yet another bad experience I'm not going to get into now.) What we really need now is for a facility whereby we can talk to the same person we spoke to from our very first call rather than having to explain our issue from scratch over and over. And no, complaint numbers or reference ids do not help. I'm waiting for a genius to come up with this.
Or am I really jinxed with home deliveries?
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