Zomato Had Planned To Ban Restaurants Based On Customer Complaints; Then This Happened!

After receiving severe backlash from hoteliers and restaurant associations on its proposal to ban restaurants having poor customer ratings in terms of food quality, online food aggregator Zomato has decided to push back the plan of implementing this rule for the time being.

According to the food aggregator, it will first seek the restaurants’ view/opinion on the issue and try to come up with ways to bolster the policy before its implementation, stated the company.

Zomato Defers Policy to Ban Restaurants Temporarily

The leading food delivery company Zomato proposed a policy that partner restaurants with complaints against food quality would be banned from the platform for a temporary period.

It had earlier set to put the policy in action starting April 18 or Monday.

However, receiving backlash and angry response from hoteliers and partner restaurants and association bodies on the banning from the platform, Zomato has deferred its date of action to May 3.

It sent an email to restaurant partners on Friday, stating that instead of going ahead with the policy, it will first seek feedback from the involved entities and find ways to strengthen the same before implementation.

“We seek feedback from all our restaurant partners and would like to understand from you how this framework can be strengthened so it can be in the best interest of all stakeholders involved,” a part of the email read.

Under the ‘Severe Food Quality’ policy by the online food aggregator, Zomato proposed it would temporarily ban restaurants if consumers complained about their food quality. 

It listed the presence of hazardous objects in food, serving non-vegetarian food instead of vegetarian, delivering the wrong type of meat, and rotten food as examples of severe food quality issues, noted an Indian Express report.

In response to Zomato’s proposal, the industry body National Restaurants Association of India (NRAI) criticized the company’s move and said that it will meet with the former next week to resolve the situation in a better manner.

“While the intent of the policy is understandable, the implementation leaves a lot of grey areas and scope for misuse. Further the action of delisting is draconian. We have initiated dialogue with the Zomato Team and conveyed our views. They will be meeting with us next week to resolve this in a better, more inclusive way, keeping all stakeholders in mind,” stated a spokesperson from NRAI.