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An intercity delivery service launched by food aggregator platform Zomato has landed the company in hot waters. The feature called Zomato Legends which is only available to GOLD members, offers to deliver freshly prepared food from popular restaurants Jaipur, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Kolkata etc. Recently, a customer in Gurgaon named Sourav Mall was shocked when he received kebabs from Lucknow within 30 minutes.
24-year-old Mall has filed a case in Delhi’s Saket court questioning the validity of the food delivery app’s service. It was "inexplicable" how Zomato managed delivery from Delhi's iconic restaurants to locations in Gurugram and Noida within 30 minutes, the plea said.
Mall’s order included four dishes; besides Galouti Kebab, from Lucknow, the order included three dishes from Delhi eateries in Jama Masjid, Kailash Colony and Jangpura. Mall tracked the delivery partner and found that the order was picked from an unnamed place and not from the original restaurant.
According to him, all the restaurants in Delhi from where Mall placed the orders were around 30 kilometres from his house and took an hour to reach. Not to mention, Lucknow is more than 500 kms away from Gurgaon and it’s impossible to deliver freshly made food from Lucknow to Gurgaon in under 30 minutes.
Moreover, Sourav also alleged that the food was delivered in a Zomato packaging, and not the packaging of the restaurant partner. On the Zomato Legends Instagram page, a behind-the-scenes video shows that food is meant to be freshly cooked after the order is placed. It’s then stored in a tamper-proof box and placed in a mobile refrigeration container and travels via a flight to the customer’s city.
Malls’s lawyers have shared with the media that the point was that the customers were being misled. “Why was the food picked up from a nearby location when there is no branch of the restaurant partner there? Why is the food not delivered in the original packaging of the restaurant partner? What is the guarantee that the food has been prepared by the restaurant partner? What is the guarantee that the food is prepared fresh and hot?" Mall’s plea reportedly said.
The plea said, "Such representation to users, customers or patrons of Zomato, is indeed intended to deceive the public at large." The plea was filed as a "representative suit" for numerous affected individuals under the Code of Civil Procedure (CPC).
Zomato customers took to social media to share their experiences of using Zomato Legends and some of them shared similar instances. “Hi @zomato @zomatocare @deepigoyal I stay in Bengaluru and a big lover of Hyd Bawarchi biriyani, ordered the same from ZOMATO Legends by believing them, but received a different one and it is one of the worst biriyani ever had in my life,” a customer wrote on X.
“@zomato Yesterday I ordered HYD Bawarchi Biryani from Zomato Legends, I received the 3rd class biryani, which was not from HYD original Bawarchi Biryani. And your support team denied to refund my money, why are you cheating with people, when you can not fulfill your statement,” shared another customer.
