Food aggregator application Zomato is at the center of another controversy on social media. It all started with a Twitter user complaining about the behavior of a Zomato customer care executive. When user @Vikash67456607 placed an order on Zomato, an item ordered by him was missing. He tried to find out about the missing item by talking to the customer care of Zomato. Since the customer was ordering from Tamil Nadu, the restaurant staff was able to converse only in Tamil, creating a language barrier for the executive as he could only understand Hindi. Vikas wrote, “Ordered food in Zomato and missed an item. Customer care says amount can’t be refunded as I didn’t know Hindi. Also learns that as an Indian I should know Hindi. ” Check out the tweet here:
Ordered food on Zomato and missed one item. Customer care says amount can’t be refunded as I didn’t know Hindi. I also learn that as an Indian I should know Hindi. Tagged me false because he didn’t know Tamil. @zomato Not like you would talk to a customer. @zomatocarepic.twitter.com/gJ04DNKM7w— Vikas (@Vikash67456607) October 18, 2021
(Also read: Zomato worker places order despite losing wallet; twitter reaction)
When the Zomato executive called up the restaurant in Tamil Nadu, he could not understand the problem due to the ‘language barrier’. On hearing this, Vikas asked to transfer to someone else who could understand Tamil. It was then that the executive said, “For your information, Hindi is our national language. So it is very common that everyone knows a little bit of Hindi.”
Screenshot of conversation shared Twitter, and garnered nearly 10k likes and thousands of comments. The fact that the executive called Hindi the ‘national language’ did not go down well with Twitter users.
Take a look at some of the responses:
When will schools start teaching that Hindi is not our “national language”? Absolute ignorance + pitta is what makes you angry. – Shilpa Ratnam (@shilparathnam) October 19, 2021
Dear @zomato Please ask your employees to learn Tamil if you want to run your corporate business here.. Asking a customer to learn Hindi which is not even the national language.. Sorry for that or soon you will have to install multiple apps Will face cancellation. @TRBRajaa@Tthenarasu— sharan (@sharanthangavel) October 18, 2021
@zomato Can you look into this, I faced similar linguistic issue regarding my order last month, left that issue as it may just be an unfamiliar person who may be new to customer care services, Was hearing similar issues from quite a number of friends
TIA- Kratos_GOW (@kratos_tamil) October 18, 2021
lol, if the customer service guy can’t speak tamil, but you can chat with him in english, why can’t you speak english when he called you, ruckus for political reasons, if the order was missed,
I have over 200 orders and never faced any language issue- headbanger bhavesh (@bhavesh_metal) October 18, 2021
After this incident, the hashtag #Reject_Zomato started trending on Twitter. Twitter users also shared several thousand tweets under the hashtag #HindiIsNotNationalLanguage. Some even started uninstalling the Zomato application from their mobile phones.
of zomato The official handle took to Twitter to apologize for the behavior of the customer care agent. “We hope you will give us a chance to serve us better next time. Please don’t #Reject_Zomato,” he wrote in a statement shared in English and Tamil. Have a look:
Vanakkam Vikas, We apologize for the behavior of our customer care agent. Here is our official statement on the incident. We hope you will give us a chance to serve you better next time.
please don’t #Reject_Zomato ️ https://t.co/P350GN7zUlpic.twitter.com/4Pv3Uvv32u— zomato (@zomato) October 19, 2021
According to Zomato’s statement, they sacked the agent on Tuesday morning for his negligence. “The termination is in line with our protocol, and the agent’s behavior was clearly against the principles of sensitivity to which we regularly train our agents,” he wrote. However, a few hours later the founder of Zomato… Deepinder Goyal Clarified that the customer care executive was reinstated as it was only an ‘unintentional mistake’ and was not to become a ‘national issue’. Have a look at his tweet:
On that note, we are reinstating the agent – this alone is not something he should have been fired for. It’s the ease with which she can learn and do better on how to move forward.- Deepinder Goyal (@deepigoyal) October 19, 2021
Having said that, we should all tolerate each other’s flaws. And respect each other’s language and regional sentiments.
Tamil Nadu – We love you. As much as we love the rest of the country. No more, no less. We are all alike, as different as we are.❤️- Deepinder Goyal (@deepigoyal) October 19, 2021
She wrote, “It’s not the only thing she should have been fired for. It’s the ease with which she can learn and do better about moving on.” He further said that the call center agents were young people who were in their early career and learning curve. “We should all tolerate each other’s flaws. And appreciate each other’s language and regional sentiments,” he wrote in the same source.
What did you think of the incident? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.
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