Heads up -- protecting your eatigo.com account

[Jingthing]

Many members here use eatigo.com I'm sure. Especially in Bangkok where there really is a great variety of participating restaurants. In case you don't know, eatigo is an app that lets you reserve a restaurant booking for a specific 30 minute time period to get discounts between 10 and 50 percent. The better discounts will be at normally off times for the restaurant. Sometimes they may work for you, and sometimes not.

 

Frankly, I wouldn't bother with the 10 percent offers, but discounts of 30 to 50 percent are definitely tempting if it's a place you want to eat at. 

 

OK, here's where the heads up part comes into play.

 

Several months ago I made a booking I couldn't show up to and I recall trying to cancel it but for some reason there was a software problem and I couldn't do the cancellation. 

 

I didn't think much about it because I wasn't fully aware of their rules and policies then, but later I got an email saying because of the no show and not cancelling if that happened two more times, I would be banned permanently from the app.

 

Seems a bit harsh especially if you use the app a lot and if the faults happened years ago, but they are free to make their own rules of course.

 

It's understandable that they have such policies though. That's because the restaurants are charged 50 baht per person per booking, so if a person doesn't show, the restaurant needs to report that to eatigo to avoid that charge.

 

I'm fully aware it's common courtesy to cancel reservations, but in this case there's a third party, the app, involved in the process.

 

Now the fun part.

 

Recently I had another booking and I realized I couldn't make it and now I realized how important it was to cancel it. But I didn't realize I couldn't make it until really close to the booking. So I cancelled the booking  only a few minutes before the beginning of the booking period according to my mobile time clock which of course would be accurate.

 

But the app rejected the cancellation!

I had assumed you could cancel the booking anytime before the beginning of the booking period but after that happened, I looked it up, and indeed that is the policy.

According to their policy you can cancel anytime before the booking period, but never after.

 

Well, I had a case where it was a few minutes before but it was rejected.

 

So the warning here is don't even try to cut it that close. I called their customer service number and by that time it was after the beginning of the booking period and they said they could do nothing.

 

To add according to their policies, you can just show up early OR late to booking period and ask the restaurant if they will welcome you for the discount booking. If they say no and you're early, you would just wait until the booking time. If they say yes and you're late, they're required to honor the same discount percentage as in the booking, even if the actual time you eat is a different or no discount. If they say no and you're late, I'm assuming (but not sure) that the restaurant will report you as a no show and that will go against your record towards banning.

 

Here is a cheeky suggestion that is definitely NOT part of their policy. Suppose you do show up LATE and they can't honor your booking. They will probably have a good reason for that such as being busy will full freight customers. It seems to me you could ask a manager if you can pay them 50 baht per person in exchange for NOT reporting you as a no show. If you use eatigo.com a lot, paying such penalties will be trivial in the long run compared to being booted off the app. 

 

Cheers!

Edited February 13, 2018 by Jingthing

[jackdd]

Or you just make a new account if your old one should get banned, costs you max 50THB for a new number if you don't have that any you can use.

[Jingthing]

17 minutes ago, jackdd said:

Or you just make a new account if your old one should get banned, costs you max 50THB for a new number if you don't have that any you can use.

Yeah, I suppose that would work, to use a new email and phone number. I'd rather avoid that hassle though. In any case, it seems to me it's a good idea for eatigo.com users to learn their rules. 

[Jingthing]

Another curious thing about my failure to cancel experience. Now I wouldn't bet my life on it, but I'm pretty sure I put that in TWO MINUTES before the deadline. 

 

In other words, with a deadline (according to their rules of being able to cancel anytime before the beginning of the booking period) of 8 P.M., 7:58. So something is off, either my mobile clock (doubtful) or they have another cutoff time policy that they don't publicize.

 

To expand on this, I know for a FACT that the story is different when you make bookings. For bookings, you can make them anything more than 30 minutes before a 30 minute slot, but not after that. 

 

For example, for an 8 PM booking you can book that at 7:29 but NOT at 7:30 or 7:31.

 

I've done that for booking that close (ONE MINUTE) numerous times. 

 

You would think they would have a similar setup for cancellations, but in my experience not.

 

So the mystery question is just how close CAN you cut it for a cancellation to still be accepted? 

Edited February 13, 2018 by Jingthing

[richard_smith237]

I imagine restaurant owners would be quite satisfied with Eatigo banning those who book and fail to cancel or cancel very late.

 

In a world of mutual convenience it’s seems the customer does not expect to offer mutual and reciprocal respect. 

 

I think the 3 ‘chances’ are pretty good and enough to show a pattern of a somewhat ‘flakey’ and unreliable customer.

 

How late can we cancel before a no show is called? No idea, but I would expect 24 hrs to be perfectly reasonable. 

 

 

Edited February 13, 2018 by richard_smith237

[Jingthing]

I reread the FAQ and what I thought it said it didn't say. It doesn't say exactly how much time before the booking you can cancel. However I do recall the customer service person saying I couldn't do it over the phone because by the time I called her it was a few minutes after the beginning of the booking slot.

So now I think that the best guess is that you can cancel 31 minutes before the booking slot but no later.

That would logically match their timing rules for making bookings.

Sent from my [device_name] using http://Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[Jingthing]

I imagine restaurant owners would be quite satisfied with Eatigo banning those who book and fail to cancel or cancel very late.
 
In a world of mutual convenience it’s seems the customer does not expect to offer mutual and reciprocal respect. 
 
I think the 3 ‘chances’ are pretty good and enough to show a pattern of a somewhat ‘flakey’ and unreliable customer.
 
How late can we cancel before a no show is called? No idea, but I would expect 24 hrs to be perfectly reasonable. 
 
 

I'm posting so that people can protect their accounts. Not so much about morality lectures. Eatigo or any app can make any rules they like. The point here is so that users understand the rules and avoid problems.

I'm sure that you don't need to cancel 24 hours in advance on an app that accepts almost last minute bookings.

Cheers.

Sent from my [device_name] using http://Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[wump]

No offence, but the topic is useless. No phone number required when signing up. Creating a new account just requires a new email address. Takes less than 2 minutes. 

 

[soisanuk]

I don't use Eatigo here in Pattaya that much, but some months ago I had made a booking for 4 at a restaurant I like - but on that day, I was admitted to the Hospital (unexpected) and didn't have info I needed to cancel through them - I did call the restaurant direct to explain the problem and cancel.  But, the Thai person I talked to apparently didn't understand or pass on the information as I also received an email warning from Eatigo.

 

I answered their email warning pointing out the circumstance.  They thanked me for the explanation and said they were changing their data to show that I had honored the booking and it wouldn't count against me.

 

[Jingthing]

37 minutes ago, wump said:

No offence, but the topic is useless. No phone number required when signing up. Creating a new account just requires a new email address. Takes less than 2 minutes. 

 

No offense.

Another poster mentioned a new phone number, which is a hassle.

It's less of a hassle to use another email address.

It's been a long time since I set up my account with them so I forgot exactly what's involved. 

I'm surprised they don't require the phone number as you claim, as it's a mobile app.

I assume they want a name as well. If you used the same name, that might be flagged if it was a suspended account.

Also, so you don't think they can identify that the phone used is the same if it's the same even without a phone number?

Edited February 14, 2018 by Jingthing

[alex8912]

Very misleading title.  

[wump]

@Jingthing You can sign up from your PC. So I *assume* no phone number is needed. They could track your device ID (MAC address) but who does that? Nobody. 

 

As for "They want a name" ...you are free to choose any name you like.

You shouldn't worry about this stuff too much. If worse comes to worse just do your bookings in an internet cafe every three days or use VPN.

There will ALWAYS be a workaround as Eatigo never asks for ID.

[tryasimight]

Don't you just love first world problems. 

[Fairynuff]

3 hours ago, wump said:

No offence, but the topic is useless. No phone number required when signing up. Creating a new account just requires a new email address. Takes less than 2 minutes. 

 

Actually it’s not useless, I found it quite interesting. And if it’s usrless why bother wasting your time passing your opinion....that’s useless!!

[PerkinsCuthbert]

Life's too short.

[Jingthing]

OK, I got it.

My later guess was correct.

You are able to cancel as late as 30 minutes before the beginning of the time slot of your booking. 

I would say 31 minutes though.

 

Here it is:

https://eatigo.com/home/th/en/chiang-mai-pattaya/condition/

Quote

cancellations. ก permitted cancellations may be made at least 30 minutes prior to your reservation.

 

[Sydebolle]

Nice problem you have ............ 

[wump]

You know he is a bit of a foodie. The threat of having his Eatigo account shut down must sound like the end of the world to him 

[Jingthing]

15 hours ago, wump said:

You know he is a bit of a foodie. The threat of having his Eatigo account shut down must sound like the end of the world to him 

Not really.

The selection of Pattaya restaurants on eatigo is pathetic. 

But Bangkok is another matter.

[richard_smith237]

2 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Not really.

The selection of Pattaya restaurants on eatigo is pathetic. 

But Bangkok is another matter.

 

You wouldn't enjoy the travelling to restaurants in Bangkok though...  There are no baht-busses and hence no debate on the idiosyncrasies of 'baht bussing it' across town...  

 

That said (and less tongue in cheek) - the Bangkok eatigo selection is also fairly poor...  its primarily (and cleverly) used as a free marketing tool for number of good restaurants who offer 10% and only 10% at all times....  otherwise a plenty of dying restaurants who entered marketing too late in their game or hotel buffets...  There are not really a many good restaurants offering good deals on eatigo...  obviously, the good places don't need to, they are already busy... 

[Jingthing]

25 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

 

You wouldn't enjoy the travelling to restaurants in Bangkok though...  There are no baht-busses and hence no debate on the idiosyncrasies of 'baht bussing it' across town...  

 

That said (and less tongue in cheek) - the Bangkok eatigo selection is also fairly poor...  its primarily (and cleverly) used as a free marketing tool for number of good restaurants who offer 10% and only 10% at all times....  otherwise a plenty of dying restaurants who entered marketing too late in their game or hotel buffets...  There are not really a many good restaurants offering good deals on eatigo...  obviously, the good places don't need to, they are already busy... 

Perhaps so.

I haven't checked it recently. 

I had some good food in Bangkok using it though on my last trip there.

I don't totally agree with you that it's only crappy restaurants though. 
Yes it's used for marketing but the concept of putting asses in seats during slow times makes good business sense. 

Edited February 15, 2018 by Jingthing

[Scott]

Troll post removed.