GrabFood Subscriber Claims His Delivery Fees Are Twice That Of Non-Subscriber’s, Company Clarifies Discrepancy

GrabFood Subscriber Claims His Delivery Fees Were Double That Of Non-Subscriber’s

As convenient as food delivery services are, the delivery fees can at times be astronomical. To get the most ideal and economical charges, some customers may resort to signing up for subscription packages.

A GrabFood subscriber, however, expressed his disappointment when he found that his delivery fees were twice that of a non-subscriber’s. He allegedly made this discovery when trying to place an order from a merchant using both accounts at the same time, for delivery to the same location.

Grab has since reached out to the user to clarify the discrepancy. According to them, the different prices were due to fluctuating market conditions — Grab has to charge accordingly if orders outnumber the number of delivery partners in the area.

Delivery charges also remain the same from the time customers first browse a merchant’s menu till they place their orders.

GrabFood subscriber claims delivery fees were higher than non-subcriber’s

On Tuesday (6 Sep), Mr Louie Lui took to LinkedIn to share his befuddling experience with GrabFood.

He explained that he and his wife had decided to order some food from LeNu at Bedok Mall.

Since he was a GrabUnlimited subscriber, Mr Lui thought it would be more sensible to order through his account. Subscribers of the monthly package apparently get to enjoy a S$4 voucher that they can use to offset their delivery charges, albeit with a minimum spend amount.

However, Mr Lui later found that there was a significant difference in the base delivery fee on his and his wife’s accounts. Mr Lui’s wife is apparently not a GrabUnlimited subscriber.

Mr Lui attached two screenshots which showed:

• the orders being made at the same time
• orders from the same eatery
• delivery to a location the same distance away

However, the difference between the delivery fees couldn’t be any bigger. While delivery on his wife’s account was just S$3.50, Grab apparently charged Mr Lui S$7 — exactly double the amount.

In essence, Mr Lui would only have enjoyed a S$0.50 discount as compared to what his wife was paying, after using his voucher.

He added that the delivery fee remained the same even after he tried refreshing the app on both phones. This, to him, indicated that the higher fee wasn’t due to surge pricing.

The LinkedIn post has since gone viral and made its way to other social media platforms.

Grab says price difference was due to fluctuating  marketing conditions

The next day (7 Sep), Mr Lui provided an update on the case after receiving a response from Grab.

In their response, Grab explained that the price difference was due to “real-time market conditions” such as the number of orders received as well as the availability of delivery partners.

According to the information they had, Grab said that “order checks” were done at 8.48pm and 8.51pm. Despite the three-minute time difference, market conditions apparently changed during that window, leading to the different delivery fees.

As for why the prices remained constant despite attempts to refresh the app, Grab said that delivery fees customers get are “cached in their (our) system”. Justifying the policy, Grab said,

We do this to provide a good experience to our consumers who may take a while to decide their final order details and would prefer to see the same delivery fee when they check their order out.

Grab further assured Mr Lui that the price difference had nothing to do with the fact that he was a subscriber.

Here is Grab’s response in full.

Cached fees let customers check out with same charges they first see

In response to queries from MS News, a Grab spokesperson provided a similar statement, saying that the delivery fees were different as the two accounts had checked their orders at two different timings.

The spokesperson clarified that their system caches the initial fees as most customers “take some time to place their orders”. The cached fees will thus provide customers a “grace period” for them to complete their orders without being quoted a different delivery fee when they check out.

They also assured customers that Grab does not discriminate prices between GrabUnlimited subscribers and non-subscribers.

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Featured image adapted from LinkedIn.