Whose fault is it when orders are late?
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Sure, good deals are good, but what if you can't keep up with high demand?
During the circuit breaker, F&B merchants and delivery staff were faced with an influx of online orders, far more than they could handle.
There have been a few occasions when an increase in online orders has caused a nightmare. Restaurant and food service companies struggled to fulfill orders, while carriers had to wait longer than normal for orders to be ready.
As a result, tensions increased and fighting broke out between the two sides.
Arguments on food delivery orders
In fact, two separate arguments exploded last month.
An argument took place at the Taiwanese bubble tea brand Playmade & # 39; s Waterway Point, after the government announced that all independent bubble tea stores should be closed as part of the extended circuit breaker measures.
NAIL viral video showed a Playmade staff scolding a GrabFood rider with explets. Activated by his rudeness, the rider became aggressive, which even led to an arrest due to public nuisance.
In a Facebook post, Playmade quoted "immense pressureExperienced by staff members and delivery drivers as they had received more than 150 different orders, an average of 600 cups, during the last closing hour.
The next day, another argument It erupted between a GrabFood rider and the staff of the Burger King fast food restaurant in Ang Mo Kio, allegedly for canceled food orders.
The two parties were informed of their legal remedies and the staff was fined $ 300 for having violated a circuit breaker measure (mask removed in the video).
Through these incidents, it is clear that dealing with the increase in food delivery orders can be extremely stressful.
Sandwiched between traders and customers
Delivery brokers are placed in a delicate position as they are between F&B customers and traders.
As F&B staff wrestle with the overwhelming number of orders (as more and more orders arrive online), delivery passengers also face some level of stress and frustration.
A GrabFood driver named Jerry Toh visited Facebook on May 9 (Saturday) to expresses frustration collect orders from restaurant cus tomers during peak periods.
In his message, he shared that the restaurant staff are hostile when the delivery drivers or the drivers ask if the orders are ready.
He lamented "that there are restaurants which are not ready to operate, but which are beginning to accept online orders (anyway)".
Citing a personal experience, he said that he was told to wait 30 minutes because the restaurant was not yet open.
"Why would these restaurants do that? Not only (us) passengers should wait, but their customers should also wait," he wrote.
Food delivery is a waiting game
A driver from Lalamove, Daniel, said he had picked up an order at the Compass One soup restaurant the day before Mother's Day, and demand was already high.
When he finally received his order, it was already 6:45 p.m., more than an hour from when the order was supposed to be ready.
It turns out that they served a previous GrabFood order first, but it was already waiting 40 minutes.
When he asked the staff "how come (the order takes) so long?" The restaurant staff said to his colleague in exasperation, "He's so rude! Let him wait!"
Although her order is ready to be picked up, staff told her colleague to "place it first" when she called the number for another order, which was picked up by another delivery man.
Another food delivery driver also mentioned that he had to wait two full hours just to pick up an order from Collin & # 39; s in Northpoint City.
When contacted, Collin refused to comment on the situation.
In reddit, a user who identified himself as a GrabFood pilot claimed that "the orders were crazy" on Mother's Day and that there was a waiting time waiting about 1 to 2 hours.
Complaints from dissatisfied customers
Daniel said that although he had only been at work for almost three weeks, he had already received purchases from customers.
It was not even his fault, he said. Orders were already late when he picked them up from restaurants.
He added that he usually arrives on time to pick up orders, sometimes even 5 to 10 minutes earlier.
One of these requests came from Ah Yat Seafood, on Turf Club Road. After retrieving the work in the Lalamove app, the restaurant staff even wanted to present the order directly to the nearby car park, as it was already long overdue.
When he finally arrived at the customer's door at 9 p.m. on Mother's Day, the customer rudely spoke to me, "Do you know what time it is now?" My food was supposed to arrive earlier!
When the Vulcan Post clarified this with Ah Yat Seafood, they denied that such an accident had occurred, but said that labor will always be an issue.
F&B Bizs Fight during peak periods
Although the bubble tea incident is a good example of the difficulty for both parties whenever there is an increase in orders during peak periods, the recent Mother's Day was still a nightmare .
Given the ban on dinner, families had to order Mother's Day meals by delivery or takeout.
Angry Singaporeans have turned to social media to complain about long wait times, unmet requests, and radio silence from many restaurants.
As a result, their celebrations were ruined and families had to find last-minute alternatives.
One of the restaurants mentioned was the Chinese restaurant chain Dian Xiao Er.
Many of their customers have complained on the restaurant's Facebook page that they were suspended for their Mother's Day dinners when the restaurant canceled their advance orders 30 minutes before orders were supposed to arrive.
When contacted, restaurant management responded that "they are having difficulty handling advance orders from delivery platforms that have no limit on the number of advance orders by time interval and have little preparation time. "
Although they activated all their staff on Mother's Day and the outlets also stopped receiving more orders knowing that they had reached their maximum capacity, they did not could not execute all commands.
Dian Xiao Er also said that they were contacting affected customers who had canceled their orders or who had not received their orders to offer them a full refund.
This overwhelming order episode serves as an important lesson for our team to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of our business processes to better serve our customers in the future.
– Dian Xiao Er
Paradise Group, which runs several popular channels, including Canton Paradise and Paradise Dynasty, was another F&B company that had furious netizens.
According to commenters on their Facebook pageSome have not received their orders while others have received incomplete orders.
Contacted, a spokesperson said that he did deploy additional manpower at the outlets over Mother's Day weekend, but that the situation was carefree of their go.
However, it is certainly our fault that we have underestimated the volume and size of orders, which represents a stretch of logistical and operational capacity on this special occasion.
– Paradise Group
Paradise Group said that "this is the first time that Paradise Group has made a full retreat and delivery for the celebration of Mother's Day."
In addition to them, there were many take-out restaurants for the first time that were unable to handle the demand on orders.
Contrary to Dian Xiao Er's response, Paradise Group said it had in fact "limited the number of orders per delivery slot to all outlets before the weekend".
However, a quick review of GrabFood and foodpanda showed that both restaurants are in apps. Since then, we have contacted Dian Xiao Er to clarify.
Customers and F&B Bizs had problems canceling orders
According to Grab's customer service, restaurants should call the customer service hotline if they cannot fulfill orders.
After which, Grab will close the restaurant in the app and help to cancel orders.
If the restaurant operations are too busy and overloaded with orders, they can choose to suspend their operations for a specified period, added the Grab customer service manager.
Alternatively, customers can also cancel their orders via the customer service hotline.
However, some people who identified themselves as F&B traders in reddit They said they couldn't cancel orders.
Another reddit user (qwerty198317), who identified himself as a food delivery rider, said that neither the customer nor the rider could go through the hotline on Mother's Day.
It was not long in stating that passengers are not recommended to cancel the order. If the runner cancels the job, he will simply go to the next available runner. Only the customer service operator can permanently cancel the order and stop billing, he added.
To add, the user belmont_lay said that Grab's customer service hotline was not available on Mother's Day.
In fact, there was a "unexpected technical failure"With Grab.
The sharp increase in food orders on the platform on Mother's Day, combined with the failure on the platform, resulted in longer wait times and a significant increase in volume Calls to the company's hotline from both delivery partners as well as customers, said a spokesperson for Grab.
Everyone should understand
This serves as a lesson for all of us.
All stakeholders – delivery applications, F&B merchants, delivery brokers and even customers – have a role to play in smooth order settlement.
If this is a special occasion, traders should take the initiative to inform customers in advance if they do not have not the ability to respond to orders in order to find alternatives.
As for pre-orders, they should take it at least a day in advance, rather than 2 to 3 hours earlier. By closing order spaces early, this will help you have some time to manage the available orders.
Through these incidents, it is also clear that F&B traders and delivery brokers are only doing their jobs in the best possible way. That said, the two sides must tolerate each other before rush ing into disagreements or fighting.
Delivery staff can also maintain two-way communication with customers and provide them with regular updates on the status of their orders, via the chat or phone functionality of the app.
In this regard, customers must also manage their expectations when ordering during peak periods and be prepared to expect longer waiting times.
Food delivery companies like Grab should also be better prepared to handle large increases in orders because, apparently, this is not the first time (bubble tea madness) that they have encountered it.
This is a testament to the increasing pressure that people working in essential services face with increasing demand during this period.
Therefore, it will be of great help if all people understand each other in this difficult time.
Featured Image Credit: Penang Foodie / TripAdvisor