False advertising or fooling customers? A Zomato customer in Gurgaon named Sourav Mall experienced disbelief and subsequently took legal action when he received a ‘fresh’ kebab from Lucknow within an implausibly short span of 30 minutes.
The service in question, ‘Zomato Legends,’ promises to deliver hot and authentic food from iconic restaurants across various cities, including Kolkata, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Jaipur, Bengaluru, Mathura, Chennai, and Agra.
After going through the petition, the local court in Saket last month issued a summons to Zomato.
Mall had ordered four dishes from the sub service called Zomato Legends. While three of these dishes were from Delhi, one was from Lucknow. The items ordered were ‘Chicken Kabab Roll’ from Jama Masjid, ‘Triple Chocolate Cheesecake’ from Kailash Colony, ‘Veg Sandwich’ from Jangpura and ‘Galouti Kebab’ from Lucknow.
Mall, who was represented by advocates Tishampati Sen, Anurag Anand and Biyanka Bhatia it clearly shows that the food is not actually being transported from the particular city, but it was being stored at various places/warehouses of Zomato.
As per the Indian Express, Mall had also placed three other orders from different restaurants in Delhi, all of which were located at least 30km away from his home. Surprisingly, the food from these restaurants was also delivered within 30 minutes.
The Indian Express conducted its own test of the service and discovered that an order from Jaipur was promised to be delivered to Gurgaon in just 29 minutes. However, Zomato’s blog from 2022 indicated that ‘Legends’ orders would reach customers the next day, which contradicts the rapid delivery times being advertised.
“By leveraging Zomato’s vast network of restaurant partners and delivery partners, deep understanding of food technology, and insights into what our customers love, legendary dishes will be delivered from across India to you, the very next day,” it says.