Food aggregators see spike in number of user complaints: LocalCircles

Most complaints were about hygiene and quality. LocalCircles users complained of having received stale, expired or poorly packaged food when they ordered on aggregators' apps

Even as people continue to patronise food aggregators like Swiggy and Zomato through the pandemic, the number of user complaints also increased during the period, a study by community social media platform LocalCircles has found.

Most complaints were concerning food hygiene and quality standards. LocalCircles users complained of having received stale, expired or poorly packaged food when they ordered food via food aggregator apps.

Several reports suggest that despite reporting a bad experience, the standard customer service response was to deal with the food with no provision for a refund or credit. The most that consumers could do is rate the restaurant poorly on the particular food aggregator platform.

The survey received more than 63,000 responses from consumers residing in 307 districts of India. 44 per cent respondents were from tier-1 districts, 33 per cent from tier-2 and 23 per cent respondents were from tier-3, 4 and rural districts.

About 39 per cent consumers said food aggregator apps do not refund or replace even when food is of substandard quality, 18 per cent said “money is refunded promptly”, and 10 per cent said “food is replaced promptly”. 33 per cent of consumers couldn’t say. The findings indicate that for 1 in 3 consumers who ordered food, the experience has been mixed.

Further, 88 per cent of the respondents responded in the affirmative when asked if the government should implement stringent food packaging standards for all restaurants delivering food via food aggregators and otherwise.

The next question in the study asked consumers if it should be made mandatory for restaurants listed on online food aggregator platforms to display the best before date/time of all food products being sold? In response, 90 per cent of the consumers said “Yes”, 7 per cent “No”, while 3 per cent did not have an opinion.