Grab Food Delivery, it's great but there are issues

[Jingthing]

Hi there,

 

Grab if you don't know is the Uber car service here and now they also doing restaurant food delivery (and other delivery) in Pattaya. Of course it's by motorcycle.

 

So far, so good!

 

Well I assume the food part is fairly new and they're constantly running promotions. Free delivery, 20 percent off food order, etc. so you should take advantage while that lasts because it probably won't.

 

An amazing thing about Grab vs. other food delivery services is that they are including a much wider variety of venues. Standard restaurants of course, fast food and coffee chains, but also small shophouse restaurants including some street food like with 30 baht noodles!

 

Warning though, some restaurants are all in Thai and even when there is English a lot of the Thai places don't have an item for RICE!?! So you're going to order Thai food (that isn't noodles) without rice. That's a bug. 

 

As far as I can tell so far, there is a flat delivery charge of 29 baht regardless of how far the restaurant is. I find that pretty amazing for a far away restaurant. I haven't tried to book a far away restaurant yet but I did a test order and it was still 29 baht. I assume that maybe it would be harder to get a driver for such a long 29 baht ride but again I haven't tested it. For close in rides, the drivers claim the order in SECONDS!

 

I've been tipping as well because I'm American and can't help it. Feel free to comment on that.

 

Some restaurants automatically add TAX and some don't. So I can assume it is not a Grab food policy to always add tax as it's restaurant dependent. 

 

So far I have been paying CASH but I see they have a special program with Kbank where you can do cashless payments. I haven't tried it yet and I don't know if you need a Kbank account or not.

Can someone that has used this Kbank / Grab food delivery payment service provide information on how that works? 

 

But there are some issues. 

 

First of all expect a lot of automated messages from Grab. No need to reply to those. Just close them.

 

The drivers will generally use google translate to send you messages and sometimes the messages you get are gibberish.

 

But here is the worst part and I'd like some advice about it.

 

So you pick your restaurant, you pick your food, and then INSTANTLY a driver claims it.

 

MOST of the time the driver then IMMEDIATELY sends a message asking if the restaurant has CONFIRMED the order.

 

I can tell you based on numerous orders already that the restaurant NEVER confirms the order. The order is placed, there is no time for the restaurant to confirm that they are open and have your items. Impossible in a few seconds but in my experience even if they had 5 minutes, you'd never get a message from the restaurant anyway.

 

So I haven't known how to respond to that absurd question correctly.

 

I've generally said YES but then I feel a little guilty because it's not true knowing they might get there and it might be closed or out of stock.

 

Today I tried to explain that I don't know. 

That freaked a driver out completely. He called me two times and he made it clear that by saying I don't know, he read that as I don't want the order. So I had to tell him YES (multiple times), I do want the order.

 

So the only conclusion I can make from all these experiences is that if the driver asks you if the restaurant has confirmed the order, you should only answer YES, even though they haven't confirmed or denied the order.

 

Ironically the order with the freak out turned out to not be able to fill the order. So the driver went to the restaurant and he was the one that needed to tell me that. In those cases, you are instructed to cancel the order and put in a change I suppose either to the current restaurant or another new restaurant. But you can just cancel the order completely. The driver doesn't have the power to cancel the order.

 

Yes, you're too fast, this has got to me a TRANSLATION error, right?

 

One time the restaurant was just closed. In that one case the driver didn't ask me if the restaurant confirmed. He just went there and told me. So imagine if I had said to has the restaurant confirmed to that one. 

 

Sometimes they make substitutions. So far one time they traded down and one time they traded up. Nothing upsetting or worth complaining about. 

 

Another thing is if you live in a building, sometimes they will deliver it to your door and sometimes they will make you meet them outside. Obviously if you're tipping the former is more worthy.

 

So I know this is wordy, sorry about that, but I guess the "takeaway" (ha ha) from all this is probably if the driver asks you if the restaurant confirmed the order, just say yes, and hope you get lucky. I feel bad for the drivers to have to work in this environment but I didn't design their system and their system has some flaws. 

 

Just as with the grab car service you are asked to rate the drivers. I always rate 5. They would probably have to vomit in my food to get a 4. Seems the least I can do. I assume they are probably rating customers too. I'm not confident I'm always getting 5s with that restaurant confirmation business.

 

So this topic is here for you to comment on the Grab Food Delivery service, your experiences good and bad, tips and tricks, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 13, 2019 by Jingthing

[jacko45k]

So what has happened to the old delivery companies? Door 2 Door and Nicks. Just seems odd using a taxi service. 

[KittenKong]

13 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Just as with the grab car service you are asked to rate the drivers. I always rate 5. They would probably have to vomit in my food to get a 4. Seems the least I can do. I assume they are probably rating customers too. I'm not confident I'm always getting 5s with that restaurant confirmation business.

When ask to rate anything out of 5 I always work on the principle that 3 is average or standard. To award 4 or 5 requires something exceptional.

[Jingthing]

So what has happened to the old delivery companies? Door 2 Door and Nicks. Just seems odd using a taxi service. 

It may be odd but its clearly going to be dominant. You can track the movement of the bike the entire way. Of course there are other delivery options and some places such as the BBQ shack in Jomtien do their own deliveries. I don't know the policies about the various options as far as a restaurant having multiple options but I doubt Grab restricts that. It seems more laissez-faire to me.

 

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[Skallywag]

13 hours ago, Jingthing said:

doing restaurant food delivery (and other delivery) in Pattaya. 

My Rant:

The day I cant get off my ass and walk or bicycle to a restaurant to feed myself is the day I have totally given up on life.

 

I mean really - too hot outside for you?  Too much rain and you don't want to get your flip flops wet? 

 

People are just getting lazy as heck in my opinion.

 

Rant over, and in all likelihood, will likely use this service sometime.  55 

At least you are providing employment to a thai guy with a motorbike

Am over 60 BTW, and also too frugal to eat/pay the cost at most brick and mortar establishments

Edited July 14, 2019 by Skallywag

[BobBKK]

Just now, Skallywag said:

My Rant:

The day I cant get off my ass and walk or bicycle to a restaurant to feed myself is the day I have totally given up on life.

 

I mean really - too hot outside for you?  Too much rain and you don't want to get your flip flops wet? 

Really - people are just getting lazy as heck in my opinion.

 

Rant over, and in all likelihood, will likely use this service sometime.  55 

At least you are providing employment to a thai guy with a motorbike

Am over 60 BTW, and also too frugal to eat/pay the cost at most brick and mortar establishments

It's not always about that?  I am veggie and live out in the sticks 45 mins away from nearest veggie place. I wanted to use 'Food Panda' but they don't deliver here so might try Grab.

[Skallywag]

13 hours ago, Jingthing said:

sometimes they will deliver it to your door and sometimes they will make you meet them outside.

Oh my buddha - you have to go outside to get your order - deal breaker for me 55

[Jingthing]

Oh my buddha - you have to go outside to get your order - deal breaker for me 55

Usually not so far in my experience. But it's annoying because it's not clear what they're going to do until they get there.

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[Jingthing]

My Rant:
The day I cant get off my ass and walk or bicycle to a restaurant to feed myself is the day I have totally given up on life.
 
I mean really - too hot outside for you?  Too much rain and you don't want to get your flip flops wet? 
 
People are just getting lazy as heck in my opinion.
 
Rant over, and in all likelihood, will likely use this service sometime.  55 
At least you are providing employment to a thai guy with a motorbike
Am over 60 BTW, and also too frugal to eat/pay the cost at most brick and mortar establishments

Like I said they have street food. You can even place ridiculously small orders like for a cup of coffee. This is the Honda Wave of the future whether you like it or not.
For me the best part is easier access to places off the baht bus circuit.

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[Jingthing]

When ask to rate anything out of 5 I always work on the principle that 3 is average or standard. To award 4 or 5 requires something exceptional.

That's mean spirited in the Uber type culture. Most people only grade down if there was a serious fault. Yes it's inflated but in real life if a driver or customer after a high volume of ratings has a 4 then it usually means they seriously suck.

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[Jingthing]

They also have a delivery service for other things. For example if you want to buy a hammer or something. I haven't tried that yet. It's on a separate section of the Grab menu.

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[KittenKong]

17 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

That's mean spirited in the Uber type culture. Most people only grade down if there was a serious fault. Yes it's inflated but in real life if a driver or customer after a high volume of ratings has a 4 then it usually means they seriously suck.

So scores of 1 - 3 are entirely meaningless? Perhaps best just to stick with a binary option then: good and bad. ✅ + ❎

 

Uber isnt alone in this nonsense as most hotel/restaurant review sites are the same. I tire of seeing scores of 80% awarded and then reading "this place was pretty bad and I wont be going back".

 

But am I mean-spirited? No, just precise.

Edited July 14, 2019 by KittenKong

[darksidedog]

My son is working for a relatively new delivery service called pattayameals.com

They do free delivery across Jomtien, to Naklua and the darkside out as far as the lake.

Seem to have a pretty good and varied selection of food available too at sensible prices.

Worth asking for estimated delivery time though, as they occasionally get a bit snowed under at busy times apparently.

[Jingthing]

My son is working for a relatively new delivery service called pattayameals.com
They do free delivery across Jomtien, to Naklua and the darkside out as far as the lake.
Seem to have a pretty good and varied selection of food available too at sensible prices.
Worth asking for estimated delivery time though, as they occasionally get a bit snowed under at busy times apparently.

Yeah that's also part of an international trend. Places doing meals for delivery only. Shouldn't be confused with delivery services that list several restaurants.

Anyway my feeling is that Grab food is on the road to most of the food delivery market share here.

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[Jingthing]

So scores of 1 - 3 are entirely meaningless? Perhaps best just to stick with a binary option then: good and bad. [emoji736] + [emoji735]

 

Uber isnt alone in this nonsense as most hotel/restaurant review sites are the same. I tire of seeing scores of 80% awarded and then reading "this place was pretty bad and I wont be going back".

 

But am I mean-spirited? No, just precise.

In my opinion you're not playing the expected game and sorry I do consider that mean spirited. Its not as if you're rating students for medical school. I also have respect for working class people braving traffic and getting the job done. I don't expect them to wrap my food delivery in gift wrap.

 

What would they have to do to get a 5 rating from you?

 

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[Jingthing]

One thing that I was a little dense about before. If a driver goes to your restaurant and it's closed then you can only cancel and then perhaps book another restaurant which I assume can be claimed by any other driver depending on its location. Of course you know the driver is at the first restaurant so you could order at a nearby restaurant but I wouldn't feel obligated.

 

But another case which I did experience probably suggested another kind of response. So I had an order, the restaurant was open, but they couldn't fill it. But the trouble was it was not communicated to me what they didn't have exactly. In that case I knew one of the items was kind of weird and it was probably that one. So a more polite response instead of totally cancelling the order would have been to cancel and reorder trying to choose items they probably have and message the driver that you are reordering there. Obviously not required but in real life if you go to a restaurant and they don't have some things, you usually just order something else, right? So why not do the same with a delivery. I suppose you could also call the restaurant and confirm that they do have what you're ordering on the reorder.

 

The point here is in those cases the driver has driven to the correct restaurant, you presumably said YES to the question has the restaurant confirmed the order because absurdly there is no other answer that will work, and then if you just cancel on him, he's kind of screwed. So even though I was dense before, I now realize it's proper to attempt to redo the order at that restaurant unless you really could only live with the specific order that couldn't be filled. 

Edited July 14, 2019 by Jingthing

[abraxton]

2 hours ago, KittenKong said:

When ask to rate anything out of 5 I always work on the principle that 3 is average or standard. To award 4 or 5 requires something exceptional.

Oh my.. the challenge with these ratings is that there is you cannot assume that the middle score represents an average performance by the driver.  For example, if you use UBER in the United States when a driver has a score 1-3.9 (3.0 - 3.9  - which you would consider to be average acceptable performance ) - the company perceives that driver as deficient subject to de-activation.  And once de-activated there is no quick or standard way to resolve any problems.  The rider/customer is never told what those numbers represent  - only that 1 is low and 5 is high.  As a Grab user here I always give my driver a 5 star rating unless something is significantly out of line and within the driver's control (speeding, dirty car, loud music...).  I would do the same for food delivery if I were to use it as there is no clear standard of service articulated in the app.  And as another reader noted, this is not rating a surgeon who is giving life-saving care to folks - so if you over rate a driver - what's the harm?  These are hard - working people trying to scratch out a living. 

Edited July 14, 2019 by abraxton
Was trying to add the notify me of posts feature - was unable to. Made no changes to text/posting.

[Jingthing]

Exactly! People that aren't giving 5's just for the person doing the job to a regular level of satisfaction simply don't get the culture of these services. 

I would agree for food and hotel rating sites, it should be different and people shouldn't inflate for just serviceable food or lodging. 

But different things are different things.

[KittenKong]

15 minutes ago, abraxton said:

For example, if you use UBER in the United States when a driver has a score 1-3.9 (3.0 - 3.9  - which you would consider to be average acceptable performance ) - the company perceives that driver as deficient subject to de-activation.  And once de-activated there is no quick or standard way to resolve any problems.  The rider/customer is never told what those numbers represent  - only that 1 is low and 5 is high.  As a Grab user here I always give my driver a 5 star rating unless something is significantly out of line and within the driver's control (speeding, dirty car, loud music...). 

Fair enough. I don't actually use taxis myself so the issue doesn't really arise. For hotels and restaurants I generally only bother to make a rating if it is something other than my idea of "average", so even if I did ever use Grab I would probably also not rate at all unless the experience was unusually good or unusually bad. That seems to fit with their rating system.

[Jingthing]

I want to add that the ratings culture for these ride services might be stupid. In fact I think it is pretty stupid. But the fact remains that's the way it is and people may as well play along with the way it is. I know in the U.S. if you as a customer have a "low" rating which would be what exactly perhaps even just a 4 you are less likely to have drivers accept your ride requests. Maybe that means if its a 3 or less you're gonna be walking! So it cuts both ways.

Edited July 14, 2019 by Jingthing

[Na Fan]

You misunderstood the confirmation part.

They're not asking whether the restaurant has confirmed the order. They are double-checking with you to confirm your order. 

The reason for that is that the driver has to upfront the order with his own money. If you then change your mind and cancel your order, he'll have paid for food with his own money. Apparently that has happened many times, which now sees most of them double-checking before they order and pay the restaurant on your behalf.

[Jingthing]

30 minutes ago, Na Fan said:

You misunderstood the confirmation part.

They're not asking whether the restaurant has confirmed the order. They are double-checking with you to confirm your order. 

The reason for that is that the driver has to upfront the order with his own money. If you then change your mind and cancel your order, he'll have paid for food with his own money. Apparently that has happened many times, which now sees most of them double-checking before they order and pay the restaurant on your behalf.

Thanks for that extra detail.

I was taking the English message literally and unless you know better it's hard to take it any other way --

HAS THE RESTAURANT CONFIRMED YOUR ORDER?

I got that exact text numerous times so I have to assume that's in their canned message template.

They should fix that. 

Of course I eventually figured out that the message didn't mean what it said when I experimented with telling a driver that I didn't know whether the restaurant had confirmed the order.

So I'll never do that again and of course neither should anyone else.

Edited July 14, 2019 by Jingthing

[seancbk]

Maybe Grab Food is new in Pattaya, it certainly isn't in Bangkok.     I've never used it and probably never will as my building won't allow the delivery person to come up to my condo.   Defeats the whole purpose of getting delivery if I have to get dressed and go downstairs.   If I'm going to do that I might as well do what I do normally and go buy some food then take it home and cook it.   The only reason I'd order food in is if I was too lazy to walk to the supermarket which is a 2 min walk away.   

[Dexlowe]

Didn't know about the drivers having to pay for the food. Some guy with a large order pulled up at my house a couple of weeks ago. I told him he was in the wrong place. Eventually he phoned the customer who didn't speak Thai, so I took the phone and tried to find out where he lived. Way past north Pattaya and very difficult to find. He also wasn't very helpful about going out into the street to greet the driver when he got there. It was quite a way away, and the poor driver was quite crestfallen. I felt so sorry for him, as he was a nice bloke, but there wasn't much else I could do.

[Jingthing]

18 minutes ago, seancbk said:

Maybe Grab Food is new in Pattaya, it certainly isn't in Bangkok.     I've never used it and probably never will as my building won't allow the delivery person to come up to my condo.   Defeats the whole purpose of getting delivery if I have to get dressed and go downstairs.   If I'm going to do that I might as well do what I do normally and go buy some food then take it home and cook it.   The only reason I'd order food in is if I was too lazy to walk to the supermarket which is a 2 min walk away.   

Yes I'm aware that's it's been going in Bangkok but posted it here because it more recently started in Pattaya. So people in Pattaya are new to it.

 

I understand your issue with the building.

My building allows it but some might be afraid of getting fined for parking or for some reason are too lazy to try to get in the front door. 

Most times with Grab they have gone to the actual condo.

My main issue with this situation is not knowing to bother to get dressed for going out or not until the last minute.
Or even the potential of getting mixed messages and me going down and he going up.

One time with another service a driver was being an A-hole and told me he couldn't get in the door when I knew he could. So I went down and tipped him anyway.

The same guy next time magically had no problem getting in the door. Ha ha. 

 

I have a question about Bangkok. Do they still do frequent promotions such as free delivery or 20 percent off food as are regular now in Pattaya? I assume they do that during the earlier periods to get people hooked on the service and then largely drop it but just checking. 

Edited July 14, 2019 by Jingthing

[1FinickyOne]

4 hours ago, Jingthing said:

if you want to buy a hammer or something. I haven't tried that yet. It's on a separate section of the Grab menu.

In the machete section?

[dotpoom]

18 hours ago, Jingthing said:

I've been tipping as well because I'm American and can't help it. Feel free to comment on that.

Not only Americans give tips?

[Vacuum]

What happened to the ability to make your meals at home?

 

Sorry for being a bit OT.

Edited July 14, 2019 by Vacuum

[Jingthing]

There's a tiny but apparently famous noodle shop in 20m from my home and passing it yesterday, there were 4 GrabFood riders waiting for the orders there. Amazing what all must be on their delivery menu.

In Pattaya?
It's name is probably in Thai but what's the location.

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[Jingthing]

Lazy people eating predominantly junk food = fat unhealthy people. Throw in all the fake internet reviews and what do you have?? I suppose some will call it progress.

 

Grab delivery offers a wide range. From junk food as you describe to very good and not cheap restaurants.  

Such as El Greco highly recommended and very inconvenient location with transport.

Sure lazy is part of it but for those of us without a vehicle Grab food is opening options that otherwise wouldn't be practical. Keep in mind that Pattaya has a very limited public transportation system serving only the beach side well. There are dark side options too that will deliver to beach side.

 

Don't be a hater.

 

We all got to eat.

 

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