The Enshittification of Swiggy

[n1r0]

Swiggy's new business model:

• Promise a delivery time of 25-30 mins
• Accept orders
• Say no delivery partners available
• Make customers pay cancellation fee
• Profit. For basically doing nothing

So Swiggy has been irking me for a while now. Sometimes when I'm up all night, I like to order food. Who doesn't like hot French Fries in the middle of the night, right?

At first, the same delivery person would occasionally pick up another order from the same restaurant; I didn't really mind since the other locations were < 0.5 km from me, so a couple more minutes wouldn't matter. And reduced pollution, so all good.

But then Swiggy started assigning delivery orders from 3 far away locations (each in a different direction) to one delivery partner: the first person to receive their order would enjoy warm food, while the other two would get cold food. Look at this screenshot, he's literally going in the opposite direction!

While I can understand that not many delivery partners might be working at night, Swiggy should be up front about the availability of personnel before accepting an order. Baiting the customer with short delivery times, when they know they can't fulfill it is nothing short of a scam.

And when the customer tries to cancel it, charging a cancellation fee is double scam. Older screenshot for reference:

Let's break apart the bill:

• Dishes are priced 50-60% higher online than in restaurant
• No free delivery if total is less than 149 - totally arbitrary bill value
• "Platform fee" of Rs. 5 per order - WTF is this?
• Swiggy One membership which varies from person to person apparently - a way to offer loyal customers extra discount
• Packaging fee - it costs 10 bucks max, but even stores McD charge a lot for the same paper+cardboard packaging that you get for "free" at the store
• GST - because calculating and showing the total price in the menu is beyond the capability of Swiggy. Math is hard

So customer ends up paying 150-200% of actual price of dish.

But imagine paying that much and still getting cold, soggy french fries!​

When you try to cancel an order for Swiggy's fault of not delivering on time, they make you waste a lot of time talking to support, or give up and pay the cancellation fee.

Rough timeline of the latest incident: (First image in post)​

5:28 - Order accepted with promised delivery time of 25-30 mins (So max 5:58)
5:45 - App shows the delay message in first screenshot
I reach out to CS.
CS: Wait another 10 mins for rider assignment
Me: It will take atleast 8-10 mins to reach my place, how will you deliver within 5:58 if you need 10 more mins?
CS: ....
Me: Cancel the order
CS: You will be charged full bill amt. as cancellation charge. Also I can't cancel an order until the promised delivery time
Me: "Bro" even if you find a rider right now and he rides at max speed, he won't reach my place within 5:58. So explain to me exactly why I need to pay for Swiggy's inability to fulfill its promise? So cancel and provide a full refund
CS: I'm not able to cancel the order or provide refund...

So had to get a supervisor on phone and waste talk to them - 13 mins wasted because Swiggy is a greedy POS that accepted order in bad faith, and trying to con the customer into paying cancellation charge. I had to head out that day, so a delay would have been unacceptable. If Swiggy was upfront about unavailability of partners, I wouldn't even have ordered.

And don't even get me started on all the ads shown in the app: then there's this gem. Seriously Swiggy, you're promoting gambling on your app with no way to turn it off? Shame on you!

And the best sign that Swiggy has gone to shit: they wan't their "Food Back"

Sure, Swiggy, you can have your food back, even though I've already eaten it by this time. You just have to wait a bit.
Stop hiring marketing folk and focus on improving service, not screwing your customers.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Enshittification:​

Here is how platforms die:

1. first, they are good to their users
2. then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers
3. finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves
4. Then, they die

Guess which step Swiggy is at now; there's no option to NOT merge orders at all. At one point they were even offering a MEGA discount of 4 freaking rupees if you select the 2nd option:

Food delivery isn't like courier; time is of the essence. Some items become inedible if not consumed before it goes cold/warm. You either deliver it on time, or don't.

Swiggy greedily introduced Platform fee @ Rs. 2 (or was it 3?) and has since hiked it to 5. WTF do they need this for when they're already charging prices greater that the restaurant menu?

Here's the kicker: Swiggy knows exactly what they are doing. Each time I called and created a fuss about late deliveries and threatened to post on social media, this happens:

Conclusion: same as title

Has anyone else experienced a decline in Swiggy's service?

 

[AwAcS]

With Swiggy, it seems like they deliberately want to push customers to different platform. Bad customer service, bad response times no matter which city you are in, exorbitant fees under various heads, long delays, lack of riders and the list goes on and on. Opting between Swiggy and Zomato, the only difference is availability of rider and timely delivery. Zomato ain't great either in that department, I guess someone recently posted another post regarding Zomato.
Sometimes when you are really hungry, it seems to be a better option to order from BlinkIt than opting for these platforms.

 

[blr_p]

Can't say I have but then I'm not ordering in the wee hours of the morning.

Wasn't sure if you were referring to instamart or not but it's clear you mean the restaurants.

Service has been generally good except for the odd one offs when the delivery guy holds a pizza vertical and I end up with the filling all collected at one end. That issue has been fixed by the store

My only quibble is some times I need to give them directions. Whereas the big basket people find the place every time. When it comes to logistics these guys are the best. On time, on target 5 stars all the way. Leaves amazon back in the 2000's

 

[swatkats]

Getting 10 kms free food delivery and instamart deliveries are usually fast

₹5 platform and packaging charges pisses me off. The same restuarant do not charge extra for take-away.

Paid ₹40 for three month membership. So I guess that's it.

 

[anmolbhard004]

Getting 10 kms free food delivery and instamart deliveries are usually fast

₹5 platform and packaging charges pisses me off. The same restuarant do not charge extra for take-away.

Paid ₹40 for three month membership. So I guess that's it.

how you guys are paying 40 for me its 149 still

also they have now changed one benefits
free delivery till 7km only and above 199 now.

 

[logistopath]

Here I was thinking I got unlucky on my last order. Didn't realise it is the same for many others too.
My last order was placed on a weekday, so there was no issue of too many orders. Placed an order at 6.50 PM and since my location is a little far away, I usually add a 50rs tip to the delivery guy. Did the same thing this time too. Order was confirmed and food was being prepared by the restaurant. Swiggy then says that the delivery partner will be assigned by 7.08 PM, and order delivered by 7.40 PM. However, delivery partner was not assigned even after 7.35 PM, saying that all partners were busy and they will soon find one. By 7.45 I got fed up and cancelled the order saying that even if they assign a delivery agent at that time, it would take at least 8.30 PM for the order to reach me, and since the food was already ready, it would be cold. However, I was told that since the food had already been prepared, a 100% cancellation fee would apply. Tried arguing through chat, but got the same reply again and again, so got fed up and cancelled it anyway. Waste of time and waste of money.
Although I order maybe once in a couple of months or so, I have resolved to minimize this further after this sour experience.

 

[t3chg33k]

Earlier in Swiggy you could see the bank discount in addition to the restaurant discount at the time of payment. Now they simply hide it under the coupons section for whatever reason.

Zomato went the other way round where you have separate coupon options for restaurant and payment.

Also, it takes additional tap and scroll to find the deals compared to Zomato. Not really sure why Swiggy is going the opposite way in terms of customer experience at a time they are getting ready for an IPO, which is when companies try to put their best foot forward.

Guess that is what you get in an effective duopoly with ONDC not really picking up steam.

 

[Kaleen Bhaiya]

Yeah, I have had bad experience with Swiggy, but never had the opportunity to order late at night although working late at night. So cannot really say how's the experience there. But yeah, that ₹4 saving when clubbing the order versus no incentive now is something I also observed.

I guess with many opting for ₹149/- or ₹40 seems like they are flush with cash. And with IPO means trying to get more lucrative for stakeholders.

 

[cellar_door]

You guys should seriously consider ordering directly from a restaurant. Almost every restaurant in my general ~4-5km area (even the roadside biryani guys) will happily deliver for free. You will get a cheaper price per dish. There is no delivery fee, no random charges. You wont have to pay the full amount in canx fees or whatever. And the restaurants make more money. You are actually supporting local businesses instead of a greedy dogshit app.

I am not saying this is there wherever you are located or it is fit for every situation. But most people dont even look into this option anymore. And you honestly should.

 

[n1r0]

However, I was told that since the food had already been prepared, a 100% cancellation fee would apply. Tried arguing through chat, but got the same reply again and again, so got fed up and cancelled it anyway. Waste of time and waste of money.

This is the crux of the issue - Swiggy seems so focused on number of orders that it has forgotten it actually needs to deliver the order. Wonder if switching to COD will be better

You guys should seriously consider ordering directly from a restaurant. Almost every restaurant in my general ~4-5km area (even the roadside biryani guys) will happily deliver for free. You will get a cheaper price per dish. There is no delivery fee, no random charges.

I've been considering this too. My shift to food apps was because at first the total cost was same whether I ordered online or went to restaurant to pick up myself - I'd have spent the same on fuel for my bike.

With ever increasing prices, it now seems cheaper, faster and guaranteed hot food if I go directly. Especially if I'm ordering just for myself. Unless ordering for 2 or more people, Swiggy is MUCH more expensive.


As for my midnight hunger pangs: do these "cloud kitchens" accept orders from customers directly, i.e. NON swiggy/zomato etc?

-----------------------------------

Edit:-
Update on today's order:

3:52am - order accepted, ETA 20-25 mins shown (so 4:27am max)
3:59 - delivery partner (DP) has arrived at store
4:00 - Order is ready for pickup (Store stops accepting orders at this time)
4:10 - DP is still at the store. App says he's waiting to pick up ANOTHER order
4:11 - DP finally leaves the store
4:17 - DP delivers the other order
4:23 - I receive my order

So according to Swiggy, there's no problem here. My food arrived 4 mins before the stated time right? And they managed to club two deliveries, so extra profit for them.

But that doesn't tell the full story: in the 20 mins that my food was just sitting there, it had become cold. So while the other party that ordered after me, and received it before me, got to enjoy their warm food, I was left with cold, soggy fries yet again.

Chat support is just a bot that asked for a pic of the cold food, gave generic responses and automatically closed the ticket.

Phone support wasted 16 mins, with the "resolution" being a Rs. 50 coupon and am empty promise that this don't happen again. They were speechless when I asked them to look at my ticket history and they realized this was a repeating pattern, not a exception.

The restaurant is only 5-6 mins away, so before I used to always receive my order warm and nice. But Swiggy has decided to screw the customer by clubbing orders. My hypothesis is if they are paying DP by the kilometer, by merging orders they have cut the DP's payout by half.

Instead of paying 2 separate DPs for 2 separate deliveries, Swiggy has pocketed the payout for the shorter delivery which was enroute. If half the customers gets cold food who cares? Just increase the displayed delivery time to make their metrics look good.

Swiggy profits, while DPs make same money for more work and customer gets cold food.

 

[Kaching999]

You think swiggy is bad try using Eatclub. Honestly it is the shittiest customer support system. In fact there is no in-app customer support and only way to reach out is through e-mails. Seriously if your food arrives late of cold or you have any other problem with it you have to first e-mail them and their only response is a coupon of 150-200 and nothing else.

 

[ssslayer]

All I see is that Swiggy is highly successful.
What did you do before swiggy?
They wanted to convert you into becoming a lazy slob, demanding instant gratification fulfillment, completely dependent on their services, while they jack up the prices of the dishes on their app, ad delivery charges, add rush hour fees, packing charges, late deliveries ... and you can only crib on the interwebs and forums like techenclave while continuing to order from swiggy.

 

[kiran6680]

Wonder if switching to COD will be better

Yeah, but have you tried paying anyone in cash these days. It's a miracle if people give back even basic change.

But maybe you mean payment by UPI etc. on delivery.

My hypothesis is if they are paying DP by the kilometer, by merging orders they have cut the DP's payout by half.

If this hypothesis is correct, the screwing of DPs is more than can be expressed in simple monetary terms. This is because the most difficult and even time consuming part of their job is handling each customer :

1. finding the location,
2. making call if location is incorrect in the app,
3. making security entry in buildings,
4. customer will argue due to swiggy policy problems or app issues,
5. maybe requesting 5 star rating etc.

This is even more true if restaurants are in 5-6 minute driving distance like in your case.

 

[nRiTeCh]

I think swiggy has delivery issues mostly in south India esp. bangalore. I recently had a bad exp. with all courier cos. picking up my package in bangalore itself.
As for swiggy, I highlighted this issue last yr and surprisingly back then, similar people who now faced/ are facing this delivery issues asked me to relax. And now this discussion.

how you guys are paying 40 for me its 149 still

also they have now changed one benefits
free delivery till 7km only and above 199 now.

Depends across accounts. I too got for 40 bucks and zomato for just 30 bucks 3 months. In fact renewing zomato for just 30 40 60 etc bucks since more than a yr now..

Earlier in Swiggy you could see the bank discount in addition to the restaurant discount at the time of payment. Now they simply hide it under the coupons section for whatever reason.

Bank discount still auto-applies if you make payment with the bank card like hsbc for me. There's no discount coupon for my bank yet I get the discounted amount adjusted in my cc bill.

Zomato went the other way round where you have separate coupon options for restaurant and payment.

Zomato is trash at least in my city. I always compare both swiggy/zomato before ordering and zomato 98% fails to impress me with the final bill while swiggy, even without membership wins over the so called zomato gold.

You guys should seriously consider ordering directly from a restaurant. Almost every restaurant in my general ~4-5km area (even the roadside biryani guys) will happily deliver for free. You will get a cheaper price per dish. There is no delivery fee, no random charges. You wont have to pay the full amount in canx fees or whatever. And the restaurants make more money. You are actually supporting local businesses instead of a greedy dogshit app.

I am not saying this is there wherever you are located or it is fit for every situation. But most people dont even look into this option anymore. And you honestly should.

Its ulta for me tbh. restaurant charges are heavy compared to food apps. Unbelievable yet true except for Subways where the outlets are way cheaper than any food apps.

You think swiggy is bad try using Eatclub.

Again, having a great exp. with Eatclub been years now. No issues whatsoever and the best part is their delivery guys are way more literate than swiggy/zomato who cannot even read the building name even after standing in front of it yet calling for directions.

Lastly, you all should mention your locations so as to narrow down the situation..

 

[Kaching999]

having a great exp. with Eatclub been years now

At least where I am from the delivery system is pathetic. I have had to wait for well over an hour on multiple occasions to get my food and believe me I am not exaggerating. This is even more surprising as the cloud kitchen is literally 15-20 minutes away from where I live plus they remove options on a lot of items regularly and are also closed a lot of times. Just the other day when I was trying to order a roll it was forcing me to pick the wheat base option, the other options weren't even there to choose and when I check for the same on swiggy and zomato voila! they had the other options as well. What is even the point in using their app and buying the membership when this is the type of shit that they try to pull and I repeat such incidents happen regularly, it's not even like a one off thing.

 

[n1r0]

You think swiggy is bad try using Eatclub. Honestly it is the shittiest customer support system.

Hmm interesting, I've never had issues in BLR, so never needed to actually contact CS. This might come down to individual staff performance rather than the platform itself.

But with Swiggy, I confirmed with the delivery person that they have to pick up whatever orders Swiggy assigns to them, the partners don't have a say in it.

All I see is that Swiggy is highly successful.
What did you do before swiggy?
They wanted to convert you into becoming a lazy slob, demanding instant gratification fulfillment, completely dependent on their services...

I was using Zomato and Amazon food

Serious answer: That is absolutely fine. Every business tries to capture a market share.

The point of this thread is FAILURE to provide service that I have paid for.

Imagine booking an Uber when the app says it will arrive in 5 mins, but it actually takes 30 mins to come pick you up. That's what's happening here. If no one is free, it should be communicated to customer, in which case you would not have booked at all. Also there should be an option to NOT club orders, just like you have(had?) that option for NOT carpooling.

...and you can only crib on the interwebs and forums like techenclave.

Congrats on becoming a typical Indian uncle who loves blaming the victim, and can't wait to share that opinion with the world instead of understanding and discussing the issue. Well done

 

[kiran6680]

Imagine booking an Uber when the app says it will arrive in 5 mins, but it actually takes 30 mins to come pick you up

Uber is needed for lazy slobs. Real people walk very fast. /s

 

[blr_p]

All I see is that Swiggy is highly successful.
What did you do before swiggy?
They wanted to convert you into becoming a lazy slob, demanding instant gratification fulfillment, completely dependent on their services, while they jack up the prices of the dishes on their app, ad delivery charges, add rush hour fees, packing charges, late deliveries ... and you can only crib on the interwebs and forums like techenclave.

I don't mind paying a premium for the convenience.

Go to a restaurant. Fight traffic. If it's busy then wait for a seat. Wait some more for a waiter to come. Then spend even more time for them to prepare your order. Enjoy your meal. Then fight your way back home.

Yeah, I'll just use their app...I can do lots of things while their riders get through traffic and even if it's an hour late the food is still warm and edible. I try not to reheat as that's a sure way to get sick.

I've tried numerous restaurants that I likely would never have visited. Restaurants for some reason are a booming business in Bangalore. Most will fail after the first year but I often find they are replaced by guess what... another restaurant.

To my amazement I found a sushi joint that actually does decent sushi like I used to get in NYC. Getting authentic foreign food in India is as hard as getting authentic masala Dosa in NYC. Not happening usually or overpriced and not great.

It's pricey but you're getting the real deal. I always thought if you weren't near the coast then the only place you could find sushi was in your dreams

 

[YeAhx]

I don't mind paying a premium for the convenience.

Go to a restaurant. Fight traffic. If it's busy then wait for a seat. Wait some more for a waiter to come. Then spend even more time for them to prepare your order. Enjoy your meal. Then fight your way back home.

Not to forget fast food chains where you have to order at the counter by yourself and then worry where to sit if its crowded lol. Meanwhile they take money for sauce packets (yes Im looking at you McDolund McDonald's)

I've tried numerous restaurants that I likely would never have visited. Restaurants for some reason are a booming business in Bangalore. Most will fail after the first year but I often find they are replaced by guess what... another restaurant.

That's because everyone new in the F&B industry think its easy to run a restaurant whereas even a minor inconvenience to the customer set back their restaurant from becoming popular. Not to forget just how competitive the market is and the initial investment required. Its a fast in fast out industry for majority of restaurateur.

@n1r0 OP try posting this on twitter with as much detail as possible and tag CMO, PM, Swiggy CEO, Etc literally anyone and keep making a trail of evidence. I'm 100% sure you will get at least a refund.

Don't know if it will be worth it by the end so YMMV​

 

[PunkX 75]

@n1r0 OP try posting this on twitter with as much detail as possible and tag CMO, PM, Swiggy CEO, Etc literally anyone and keep making a trail of evidence. I'm 100% sure you will get at least a refund.​

​

Don't know if it will be worth it by the end so YMMV​

*Uses the refund to order on Swiggy*