Carthero Technologies Private Limited - Indifference towards merchant

I had booked a delivery on the runnr app which is now being handled by zomato. The partner (mr shakthi vel - mob no **********) picks up the package from my end at *.**pm. For some reason, at around *.** I decided to just check in with my customer as to whether it reached her in good condition only to find out that it hadn't reached her at all and that the delivery guy called her from halfway to the delivery location and asked her to cancel it. She said no she couldn't and that he had to deliver since I was the one who booked the delivery. I then proceed to call the delivery guy and give him the gps location of the address as well because I feel there has been some misunderstanding. An hour later the order was shown as completed and I had been charged for it.
Except my client still hadn't received the order. I immediately called customer care and had to sit through a conversation that involved the rider lying about how the customer herself had canceled the order (then why did he mark it as completed and not failed, moreover where is the returned product?) followed by the exec (mr uday) telling him to make the delivery to which he outright said no, followed by further pleading by the exec and finally the rider agreed.
When I checked back with my client at *.**pm, the order had still not been delivered, he stopped taking both our calls. Again called up customer care (spoke to mr vijay and then requested to speak to mr uday again and was put through to him)and they had the most scripted responses to give including "we will take disciplinary action", "our back end team will get in touch with you" and "we will look into the matter". I was even told that I will receive the callback by the end of the day or at the latest by the next morning.
After that, I managed to contact the rider through another number to at least get my product returned to me. During this conversation, I received a nice variety of sarcastic replies, cross-questioning, and outright back answering. Finally, at the end of the call, he said he will come to return the package to me. And no, he still hasn't done so.
As expected, there was no call back the next day and I myself had to make repeated calls and I was then told that the back end team does not work on sundays and that it will take **-** hours to look into the matter. At this point, I spoke to mr shivkumar who clearly told me that should I not receive any solution by then, that I could directly call the customer care and request for him personally.
Since that point, I have made multiple calls to customer care, tweeted several times, tagged zomato in facebook posts and have not received anything apart from the standard "please share your order details with us so we can assist you." Finally, I realized I was not going to get any solution from their end so I approached the local police to file a complaint against the rider and zomato. I was requested by them to contact the team and get the govt id/address of the rider as I only had the name and phone number at the time. When I called back customer care, I was first given a bogus customer care email id (by mr bharat), and again had to call back for the correct details. At this point, I requested to talk to mr shivkumar and was given feeble excuses by the exec as to why he was unavailable to take calls. I then requested to be connected to mr bharat to clarify the information he had given me and was then told that there is no such facility to transfer calls, which is again misinformation as just the previous day I had successfully managed to get a call transfer to mr uday. It had been over ** days since I mailed zomato requesting the details of the rider but there has been no cooperation from your end. And it was only after the police intervened that I even received any form of call back from zomato - and this not because of my direct complaints, but because of the prospect of legal action.
Furthermore even during the call back, your executive (mr gurunath) tried his best to weasel his way out of zomato taking the blame by stating things such as maybe I had been approaching the runnr team for a solution, maybe I had selected the wrong option while booking the delivery, maybe if I had approached them directly I would have my problem sorted out, none of which is what has actually happened. To add to that the second call back stated that I had made a claim that the rider has eaten the order himself.
After all this, I was contacted directly by mr srikanth and told that the matter will be resolved and that a refund will be provided for the same and was requested to outline the details of the incident and mail customer care and copy him in the mail to speed up the process. At this point, I clearly informed him that under no circumstances should the refund be made to my merchant wallet as I no longer intend to carry on business with zomato and he assured me that he would arrange for a direct bank transfer. I then shared my bank details with him via email to the customer care id as per his request. He also informed me that the rider had been delisted from the platform and that his information would be handled by the legal team as there is a procedure to be followed in these cases.
After * days, I contacted mr srikant again as no form of resolution had been made by your team and was then told that it will take *-* business days to process the refund and *-** working days to process the legal requests made regarding the rider information. Following this I even mailed the copy of the police complaint acknowledgment to back up the demand for the rider information and speed up things with the legal team. According to him I should have received a solution by **th january at the latest in all regards.
On *th january, I received a call from zomato from mr arvind who said he had received my bank details and wanted to know if I had shared the bank information because I was looking to change my payment information with them, and if so what the reason for this was. He was completely unaware of my complaint and the fact that a refund was due to me and that I had an open complaint with your company and I no longer felt obliged to repeat the details of the incident to yet another employee despite having made myself clear on multiple occasions to multiple people.
I then contacted mr srikanth again on **th january as no refund had been made nor any information been given to me regarding the rider information. I was then told that the only the refund was to be completed by this date. I then informed him regarding the call made to me by mr arvind but he was adamant that refund had been initiated and offered to share the utr number with me by end of day. When I inquired about rider information, he first gave me feeble excuses saying that their team was unable to contact the rider and that the rider had supposedly been delisted from the platform, etc. I do not understand the need for this course of action to be pursued as my request was clear cut and did not involve any form of haggling from the legal team. He then proceeded to tell me that it would take longer for the legal team to resolve the matter.
That evening he shared the utr number with me - ************, without any information about the concerning bank or any other relevant information so that I could at least follow up on the payment status.
Additionally, so far, all the communication had been made to me only via phone, and other than the automated message of having received my mail, no form of communication or proof of rider dismissal or order refund has been made to me in any form of writing. Even the utr details were shared by mr srikant via personal sms and not official email.
After all the hassle involved, I have finally received the refund of rs **** late on **th january, ie ** days after the original complaint; however, till this date, I had no information provided from the legal team regarding my other request. Furthermore, I have also sent them a mail detailing out the claims I was making for the damages caused in addition to the order value, which I have detailed out below.
Finally on **.**.****, I received a call from mr aadish, who offered to send me an apology mail and even offered to credit rs **,***/- in my merchant wallet. I once again made it clear to him that I do not intend to carry on business with zomato and to not bother with my wallet. He then offered to make the deposit directly to my bank account itself. When I informed him that his compensation was a mere fraction of the damages caused, he said he would consult with his team and get back to me about what best could be done.
Two days later I finally received a mail from them, stating that they will not be offering any compensation as it is against their protocol, which is further misleading after his conversation with me prior to this. He has additionally tried to blame the lack of communication on me by stating that I contacted the wrong team despite me repeatedly making it clear that I have contacted the runnr customer care (***********) itself right from the start and only contacted the zomato customer care after being directed by his team to do so.
Please note below the claims I have outlined:
Issues like this are not just solved by refunding the customer/merchant for the order value and delivery charges. Especially in a business like mine where the orders are not your typical qsr models that can whip out products in a moments notice, but are rather highly customized products that take days to design and prepare and are moreover ordered for the events and occasions and play a large role celebrating the particular occasion. My business has suffered a great loss as I have no answer to give my unsatisfied client, not to mention the additional loss of orders that come from recommendation. My business reputation has taken a hit and especially in the days of social media where one bad review is enough to adversely affect business. I am also seeking damages for this to the tune of rs **,***/-.
Furthermore, this whole ordeal has caused me a great deal of mental stress and agony and so far it has involved me wasting ** days of my time energy and resources, trying to seek resolution by constantly having to run behind their team, making trips to the police station, seeking legal counsel, etc. For this, I am seeking damages to the tune of rs ****/- per day, and counting till the date of final settlement.
As a member of the food industry, it is my duty to the community to ensure that such kind of disservice is not repeated again, for which I demand written proof of the action taken against the staff involved in mishandling this case, right from the rider to the customer care executives that have misdirected me.
Last, but not least, I demand full and complete ownership of the faults from the company's end and an unequivocal apology for this entire ordeal to be given in writing to both me and my customer by the senior management of zomato media pvt ltd.
This level of disregard for a business and its value is not to be taken lightly. Moreover, during the peak festive season when everyone's expectations are high, having this kind of experience is truly unforgivable.


Out of all these, I have so far received a half hearted apology from mr aadish, who has not made his role in the company very clear to me. I cannot accept this apology coming from anyone but the highest management levels of zomato as they should be made aware of the nonsense happening in their company. Moreover no apology has been extended to my client that was affected by this ordeal.
He has also included in the mail that the rider has been sacked. Again, this is a partial resolution as I had clearly asked all the team members involved to be reprimanded in some way as they have collectively misled me.
I have already responded to this mail and am yet to receive any kind of acknowledgement from the team.