While browsing Grab and GrabUnlimited, a man in Singapore realised that the app had charged him and his wife different delivery fees for the same order.
GrabUnlimited had charged his wife S$6.60, while his delivery fee on Grab was S$3.60.
Pointing out GrabUnlimited’s S$5.99 subscription fee, the man expressed his dissatisfaction with the price discrepancy.
The company has now addressed the issue, stating that it was due to the different browsing times.
Posting to Facebook, the OP shared that his wife subscribes to GrabUnlimited for a monthly fee of S$5.99.
Source: Facebook
According to the company’s official website, this subscription offers more deals and bonus promotions each month.
As the OP wanted to take advantage of the S$3 delivery fee discount on his wife’s account, they decided to browse for orders on GrabUnlimited.
They didn’t reach the minimum spend of S$15 for the discount, so they didn’t end up using it.
However, they came across a rather startling fact — the delivery fee was higher for GrabUnlimited.
The OP shared that the delivery fee for a non-subscriber was S$3.60. On the other hand, it was S$6.60 for his wife, a GrabUnlimited user.
He added that they made the same order at the same time as well.
Source: Facebook
The pictures he attached show that the total cost of the order on GrabUnlimited was S$19.45, while it came up to S$16.45 for a normal user.
In response to MS News’ enquiries, a Grab spokesperson said that they have spoken to the customer, assuaging his concerns.
Source: Facebook
They also explained the reasons behind the price difference.
Stressing that Grab has always been committed to keeping delivery fees fair for all users, they stated that the app “does not price discriminate between GrabUnlimited subscribers and non-subscribers”.
There could be instances where subscribers experience lower delivery fees than non-subscribers, and vice versa.
In this particular case, the price difference was apparently due to the “different market conditions” when the customer and his wife started browsing the app, as well as Grab’s system’s cache.
“Our delivery fees are determined at the point a consumer starts browsing our app, and is based on real-time market conditions, such as the number of orders from consumers and the number of delivery partners available in a specific area,” they explained.
As such, browsing the app at different times — even if only a few minutes apart — can result in different delivery fees.
The fee, Grab said, then becomes cached in the system for a short while. This is to provide a good experience for customers who may need more time to finalise their order but want to see the same delivery fee.
Grab’s checks determined that the OP and his wife began browsing the app at two different times — 12.17am and 12.20am respectively.
This resulted in two different delivery fees, which became cached until checkout.
“The different features and mechanisms that we have put in place, such as the cached delivery fee, are meant to provide a good experience for all our users,” the spokesperson shared.
“We appreciate users’ feedback and will continue to look for more ways to improve their experience.”
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Featured image by MS News.
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