Zomato was founded in 2008 by Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah.
The platform provides information, menus and reviews for users of the app regarding restaurants.
Recently it went for IPO and its shares listed in NSE and BSE in India
Online food delivery platform Zomato has been on the receiving end of strong criticism from netizens after a customer shared a Twitter post where he was asked by a company executive to “know Hindi”.
The post, shared by a Twitter user from Tamil Nadu named Vikash, has now gone viral with thousands of reactions denouncing Hindi as a national language.
The hashtag #RejectZomato started trending on Twitter furiously after the tweet went viral. Zomato’s customer care has issued an apology and termed the incident as “unacceptable”.
Vikash, a resident of Tamil Nadu, faced issues with his online order and decided to seek help from a customer care executive through the chat feature in the Zomato app.
Not only was his issue unresolved, but Vikash was also told by the customer care executive that “everybody should know Hindi”.
Annoyed by the response Vikash shared some snapshots of the conversation with the executive where the person asks him to speak in Hindi and also says that it is the national language of India and everybody should know some of it.
“Ordered food in Zomato and an item was missed. Customer care says amount can’t be refunded as I didn’t know Hindi.
Also takes lesson that being an Indian I should know Hindi. Tagged me a liar as he didn’t know Tamil. @zomato not the way you talk to a customer,” he captioned the tweet.
Zomato then replied to Vikash’s tweet and termed the situation unacceptable. “Hi Vikash, this is unacceptable. We’d like to get this checked ASAP. Could you please share your registered contact number via a private message?” they commented.
One of Zomato’s founders, Deepinder Goyal, also shared his opinion regarding the matter. He spoke about being a bit sympathetic towards the employees of the company who happen to be young people. He has refused to sack the customer care executive responsible for the incident.
The words used by the promoter of zomato again invited wrath of not only tamilnadu but also from several states whose mother tongue language is not Hindi
An ignorant mistake by someone in a support centre of a food delivery company became a national issue. The level of tolerance and chill in our country needs to be way higher than it is nowadays. Who’s to be blamed here?
— Deepinder Goyal (@deepigoyal) October 19, 2021
Having said that, we should all tolerate each other’s imperfections. And appreciate each other’s language and regional sentiments.
Tamil Nadu we love you. Just as much as we love the rest of the country. Not more, not less. We are all the same, as much as we are different.
— Deepinder Goyal (@deepigoyal) October 19, 2021
However in contraction to the promoter views The official Twitter profile of Zomato India has shared a note of apology in English as well as Tamil towards Vikash.
Vanakkam Vikash, we apologise for our customer care agent’s behaviour. Here’s our official statement on this incident. We hope you give us a chance to serve you better next time.
Pls don’t #Reject_Zomato https://t.co/P350GN7zUl pic.twitter.com/4Pv3Uvv32u
The incident prompted many users to call out Zomato against the imposition of Hindi on a customer on Twitter.
Never try to impose Hindi @zomato . You send notifications on regional language, but for service do we need learn Hindi ? #Reject_Zomato#HindiIsNotNationalLanguage pic.twitter.com/kdQhV9IuXS
— Sanjay Santhakumar (@isanjay_skumar) October 19, 2021
Who said Hindi is our national language???
— sriram (@Iam_sriram18) October 19, 2021
#Reject_Zomato
Hindi is national language since when?
Strongly as a nation with all 22 languages given in 8th schedule is fine not just “ONE” with
advancement of technology language barriers and the need of one language for one nation makes no sense.#stopHindiImposition pic.twitter.com/rkAqY5z15z
