Several issues, including delivery from illegally run kitchens to discounts offered for Zomato Gold members, were discussed at a meeting between the Indian Hotel and Restaurant Association (AHAR) and Zomato officials on Tuesday.
AHAR president Santosh Shetty said there are problems of compliance with rules, which are yet to be solved by Zomato. “We have instructed the officials to service the restaurants which have a legal licence, and adhere to fire safety norms under Section 394 of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation (MMC) Act. According to our reports, there are many outlets listed on Zomato who have just the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India licence.”
The AHAR also suggested that Zomato request all its partner restaurants to display their MMC Act licence numbers against the restaurants’ names on its portal.
The issue of high delivery commission rates also found mention. “The delivery commission rates are very high on Zomato. The customer has to bear the brunt as the prices of items listed on its website go up. The AHAR also raised concerns on Zomato Gold delivery discounts. The association has asked the officials to abolish the offers as it is a loss-making proposition for restaurants,” Mr. Shetty said.
Another aspect discussed was the unavailability of delivery executives. “There were cases where Zomato’s website showed the restaurant could not deliver at a particular time but the truth is the food delivery company did not have a delivery boy at that time. We have asked Zomato to share the customer’s data with the restaurants, so that they can directly deliver the food in such cases,” the AHAR president said.
The association also raised issues over food aggregators who deliver food till early morning because these are places running without proper licences.
“Duplication of names of restaurants and brands on the platform has been a source of major problems for restaurants and customers. This leads to confusion and the non-branded restaurants are trying to take advantage of the reputation of the branded ones. The AHAR has requested Zomato to put up pictures of the restaurants, so that the customer gets food from the restaurants he wants,” Mr. Shetty said.
Published - November 06, 2019 01:46 am IST
