Sometimes Zomato bans its services and this time Zomato is banned by the 8000 hotels and restaurants across India by making the situation worse for Zomato that is already facing a boycott on dine-in. The ban was due to the food delivery from illegally-run kitchens, abrupt discounts offered for Zomato Gold members and inaccessibility of delivery executives.
The Indian Hotel and Restaurant Association (AHAR) has decided to boycott delivery services under Zomato’s Gold program. They said “We have told Zomato that we are entirely against the Zomato Gold delivery service scheme and asked them to scrap it.”
The Indian Hotel and Restaurant Association president Santosh Shetty told Afternoon Voice that “ We don’t want illegal eateries and food makers to be promoted in the name of scheme. That is the reason we asked Zomato to stop the gold delivery service. However, there has been no action by the food collector on the same.”
In 2017 Zomato offered lucrative membership to attract more members, under this program, Zomato Gold offers members one free dish each time they place an order. However, the scheme has been opposed by the restaurant industry who allege that it hurts their profitability. AHAR has demanded scrapping of the ‘gold service’ and an end to alleged arbitrary commissions and steep discounts in addition to end providing service to non-licenced restaurants.
Arvind Ghule, the Zomato delivery boy said “Any which ways we suffer a lot, due to heavy discounts the eateries are packed with orders, they are not on mainstream lines. Picking up an order and delivering it in time is a task. The delay is not acceptable by the person who orders food. They vent all anger on us”.
Ashfaq Tamboli, Swiggy delivery boy said “Our commission is too less, that is the reason boys are not joining delivery jobs. There is no safety or security. Many times hotels and vendors do not allow us toilets or water, continuing traveling becomes difficult after slogging the whole day, hardly we earn anything to meet our needs at the end”.
Lata’s Bihari Litti Chokha centre said “we are not licensed restaurants but we make authentic home-made food, the scheme gold is actually an exploitation for us. In one price we have to deliver two. Many such unauthorized food suppliers compromise on the quality of grocery. But this scheme gave a lot of job opportunities to people like us.”
