Chennai: Restaurant aggregator and food delivery company Zomato is facing flak after a consumer from Tamil Nadu claimed that a customer care executive he had called to seek refund for a missing item in his order refused to oblige only because he did not speak Hindi. With his Twitter post, in which he shared screenshots of the chat, going viral, #RejectZomato is trending on top.
After coming under severe criticism, Zomato apologised to the customer. The firm also said that they have terminated the services of the executive due to his "negligence towards our diverse culture".
The Zomato customer Tweeted on Monday: "Ordered food in Zomato and an item was missed. Customer care says the amount can't be refunded as I didn't know Hindi. Also takes the lesson that being an Indian I should know Hindi. Tagged me a liar as he didn't know Tamil. @zomato is not the way you talk to a customer. @zomatocare"
Vikas had earlier taken the matter to the customer care, seeking a refund for the item that was not delivered to him. Their long conversation shows the executive had tried to get the matter resolved initially, but could not get a confirmation from the restaurant about the order. He said he could not put across the message because of "language barrier".
Vikas then said since Zomato was doing business in Tamil Nadu, it should have hired executives who know the local language.
To this, the executive said: "For your kind information, Hindi is our national language (sic)...everybody should know Hindi little bit".
In a subsequent message, he told Vikas that there was no way he could compensate him "with anything except apology for this unfortunate incident".
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After Vikas's tweet went viral on social media, several people from Tamil Nadu, including DMK MP Senthilkumar S, expressed their disappointment over the behaviour of the executive.
Tendering an apology, Zomato said: “We are sorry for the behaviour of our customer care agent, we have terminated the agent for their negligence towards our diverse culture. The termination is in line with our protocols, and the agent's behaviour was clearly against the principles of sensitivity that we train our agents for on a regular basis.”
It added: “This customer care agent's statements do not represent our company's stance towards language and diversity.”
Meanwhile, Zomato share price which started on Tuesday with Rs 144.80 saw a sudden dip within an hour after the market opened and came down to Rs 138.45. But it started recuperating later and is on a steady rise now.