New Delhi: Food delivery company Zomato’s response to a customer’s complaint about being assigned a Muslim delivery executive for his food order is breaking the Internet. It has also won the app many admirers who have lauded their stance on the issue.
“Food doesn’t have a religion. It is a religion,” the company tweeted in response to the customer’s request for change of the rider. The company’s response came as a Twitter user Amit Shukla after ordering food through Zomato cancelled his order as the food delivery company had allocated ‘a non Hindu rider’ for his delivery. “Just cancelled an order on @ZomatoIN they allocated a non-Hindu rider for my food they said they can’t change rider and can’t refund on cancellation I said you can’t force me to take a delivery I don’t want don’t refund just cancel,” Amit Shukla said on Twitter.
Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal echoed his company’s stand with a firm message. “We are proud of the idea of India - and the diversity of our esteemed customers and partners. We aren’t sorry to lose any business that comes in the way of our values,” he tweeted. The company stood its ground and refused to change the delivery executive.
The response from Zomato India has received widespread support and won it many admirers. “Respect. I love your app. Thank you for giving me a reason to admire the company behind it,” former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah tweeted. Former Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi tweeted: “Salute Deepinder Goyal! You are the real face of India! Proud of you.”
Since being shared, Zomato’s tweet has collected over 26,000 ‘likes’ and more than 10,000 retweets.
Shukla, the customer who cancelled the order, had also shared the order status with a map from a locality in Jabalpur.
In a series of tweets, he also shared screenshots of his conversation with Zomato’s customer care, saying he would take up the issue with his lawyers. His tweets received angry responses from several users.
Shukla, the customer who cancelled the order, identifies himself as Pandit Amit Shukla and has the username @NaMo_SARKAAR, also shared a screenshot of the app’s chat support, through which he requested for a different delivery executive. When asked for a reason for the change, Shukla replied: “We have Shravan and I don’t need a delivery from a Muslim fellow.”
The customer care executive responded that cancelling the order would cost him Rs 237, and then said: “At Zomato, we don’t discriminate on basis of riders, I hope you understand.” Shukla tweeted that he cancelled the order without refund, and said that Zomato was “forcing us to take deliveries from people we don’t want”.
His tweets received angry responses from several users with one asking Shukla if he had ensured that the person who cooked his food was a Hindu, while another pointed out that Shukla’s vehicles run on “Muslim fuel” -- alluding to most of the oil India buys coming from Gulf nations.
