My Rant on Food Panda's Services

Hi Beauties!

My readers know how I am when I experience something really negative when it comes to a brand or a certain product. I get quite harsh and down right blunt. Today's post is about one such experience which has made me reach my breaking point. I am sharing my amazing experience with Food Panda, Please do read it till the end. In case, you find it too down right honest and harsh for your taste please leave it there. 

A few months back I was contacted by Food panda team to do a sponsored post for them as an introduction to the brand and their services. After the initial post, I was offered a Rs. 1000 voucher to order from a restaurant of my choice provided in a list. Here, I find it worth mentioning, when i did the initial post I had no idea about the voucher. Along with being a beauty blogger I share the same passion about food as well. I consider myself to be a foodie. As a resident of Lahore, its hard not to be a foodie while living in a city thats famous for its food around the globe. 

After getting the voucher code that I was supposed to utilize within a week, I decided to place and order with Olive Grill which is a desi plus continental restaurant. After placing my order online, I got a phone call confirming my order which I missed. So I called back on the number from which I had received the call and it was from Food Panda's Lahore office. The guy told me that my order is confirmed and I shall receive my order within 40 minutes. 

If you are hungry and you have ordered some delicious food, it gets hard to wait and you in your mind you keep thinking about the yummy food which was happening to me at the time of dinner. I was waiting for my food patiently. An hour passed but the delivery man never showed up. I waited 15 minutes more and then decided to ring and check what the hold up was for. Upon calling I came to know that my order has been cancelled. Imagine my shock that after 1 hour and 15 minutes of wait, I come to know that my order has been cancelled, no one informed me and I kept waiting like a fool. I call upon the company myself, only to learn that my order has been cancelled and I was not even informed. I inquired the guy as to why my order was cancelled and he had no idea. He told me that he will check with his head office which is located in Islamabad and get back to me. So right after a few minutes he calls me back to tell me what I already knew that my order has been cancelled. He knew no reason, why it happened. I asked him that if you knew my order was cancelled wasn't it his responsibility to inform me and I got the lamest reply in the history of lame replies that he did not inform me because I would have minded. I asked the sensible wise guy, that if keeping me waiting for more than an hour was a sensible idea to which he had no answer to. 

He asked me to place my order again. I was like, its already past my usual dinner time, it would take another 40 mins for the order to get delivered. His response to this was "our delivery boy is already there at olive grill, you just place the order and it shall be delivered to you within 20 minutes." I was like, how is that even possible? It takes time to prepare the order how can the order reach me in 20 minutes. But the guy was insistent that I place my order and it will reach me within 20 minutes. When I finally told him that in case it gets late anymore than 20 minutes I shall not pay, he goes quiet and tells me "sorry maam, thats not possible." I thank him and tell him that I am not placing my order.

I placed a collective order for my family which exceeded the voucher amount and was going to pay the excessive amount to the delivery boy. For someone whose parents are on regular medicine, its important they take their meals on time along with their medicines. Thank God my parents are not diabetic, anyone whose parent is diabetic can vouch that its hard for the patient to wait for food once the hunger pangs begin, they also result in a lower blood pressure. I was so embarrassed as I had asked my mum not to make anything for dinner and at 10 pm I inform her that food isn't coming. 

I put an email to the person who had initially asked me to do a post on Food Panda and offered me the voucher as well. I was informed that my matter will be investigated. Weeks passed and I got no reply. I again wrote to them and she informed me that she is ill and will get back to me. I asked her if I shall be compensated for my inconvenience and was informed that I'll get the voucher again. The thing is, I do not need your vouchers, I need an explanation as to what happened. Its been 3 months now and I am sure Food Panda must have forgotten all about me. 

The only reason I am doing this post today is to let these companies know that we are bloggers and are supposed to be treated with respect. I did the initial post without any greed. I did not even know about the voucher yet I came up with the post on my blog. If you are reaching out to a blogger to do something for you, the blogger is putting her time and effort into it and in return you are getting a mass reach and recognition for your brand. We bloggers are trusted by our readers and are like a family. If this is the treatment one gets for doing something that increased your reach and gave you more audience, I wonder how Food Panda treats its customers. I have uninstalled Food Panda app on my phone and would surely not be using it ever and neither I would be recommending it to anyone. Word of mouth is a big tool in food industry, and yes I am someone who will spread the bad word based on my experience. Brands need to take us bloggers more seriously, I am not only a dissatisfied blogger but also one hell of an angry customer Food Panda. Thank you for the humiliating treatment that made me feel so special. I am not happy with your pathetic services and am amazed how you are managing to run your business with this non serious attitude.