For those who don't know, Grofers is a gorcery delivery service which has raised a ton of money for the simple task of picking up and delivering groceries from neighborhood stores to your house in 90 minutes. The idea is sound, I don't see where they make the profits, but they will surely have orders and GMV (Gross merchandise value) which would see major increases month on month in these times when time is a valuable commodity and any time saved in traveling and shopping is worth it.
The trouble with Grofers is that this startup defines shitty service. Not sure how they have managed to get so much funding from some of the biggest companies including Sequoia Capital and Tiger Global. They seem to be screwing their investors by doing a few things to inflate their numbers.
1) Take any order, no matter what (There doesn't seem to be an inventory check, they just list anything and don't actually check the store) - This boosts their order count and shows up pretty on all those investor decks they are obviously creating. I won't be surprised if they are inflating those numbers by creating orders themselves. Its been done before.
The trouble with Grofers is that this startup defines shitty service. Not sure how they have managed to get so much funding from some of the biggest companies including Sequoia Capital and Tiger Global. They seem to be screwing their investors by doing a few things to inflate their numbers.
1) Take any order, no matter what (There doesn't seem to be an inventory check, they just list anything and don't actually check the store) - This boosts their order count and shows up pretty on all those investor decks they are obviously creating. I won't be surprised if they are inflating those numbers by creating orders themselves. Its been done before.
2) Cart
Value - This drips down from the previous point. They say they are
clocking close to 1.8 crores in GMV. They should publish how much of
that is actually delivered and what they cancel at their end.
3) Delivery Promise - They promise to deliver in 90 minutes from the neighborhood stores. 90 minutes in they still don't assign any delivery person. Their call centre in a space of 10 minutes will go from, a) Not able to reach delivery boy, b) Order picked up and will be delivered in 20 mins, c) You canceled the order, d) Product not available.
They then cancel the order on the app and make it look like you actually canceled the order.
If you happened to pay by card, the refund initiation doesn't happen till you write to them and call them a couple of times. Cash on delivery orders are canceled outright without any response from anyone. They have got the metrics they want, # of orders and Order Value, so they aren't bothered about the customer.
I use online services quite a bit, and they are the lowest of the lowest in terms of customer focus and proactive spirit. I will take my business to someone who appreciates it. Their investors should scrutinize the numbers and ask the tough questions if they want to see their investment bear fruit.
3) Delivery Promise - They promise to deliver in 90 minutes from the neighborhood stores. 90 minutes in they still don't assign any delivery person. Their call centre in a space of 10 minutes will go from, a) Not able to reach delivery boy, b) Order picked up and will be delivered in 20 mins, c) You canceled the order, d) Product not available.
They then cancel the order on the app and make it look like you actually canceled the order.
If you happened to pay by card, the refund initiation doesn't happen till you write to them and call them a couple of times. Cash on delivery orders are canceled outright without any response from anyone. They have got the metrics they want, # of orders and Order Value, so they aren't bothered about the customer.
I use online services quite a bit, and they are the lowest of the lowest in terms of customer focus and proactive spirit. I will take my business to someone who appreciates it. Their investors should scrutinize the numbers and ask the tough questions if they want to see their investment bear fruit.
