Food app Swiggy under heavy fire after ex and current employees accuse it of lying to investors, cheating users and restaurant owners, and creating an unhealthy environment for its staff

Yash Chandiramani, who used to own the pan-Asian restaurant Go Panda in Lokhandwala; (right) Sharan Goyal, owner of 18-month-old Where's My Cone in Bandra

An anonymous blog post written by people calling themselves ex- and current employees of the food delivery app Swiggy, which accuses the company of cheating restaurant owners and violating contractual obligations with its 'partners', went viral yesterday.

The piece, originally posted on Tumblr, is apparently co-authored by four from Swiggy's sales team, two still working there.

Plateful of problems

"We are made to lie about our market share, as well as order volumes, to restaurant owners. The worst part is that instead of helping these restaurants grow their business, we are trained to arm-twist them to increase our commissions every couple of months," the post read.

Also read: Now you can order your food faster with Swiggy's revamped app

It pointed out that most of the good reviews (only a handful) for the app were planted and paid for, detailing how the company had lied to the investors about order volumes during the latest fundraiser. "They have shaved off the December numbers in the slides in order to show a linear growth curve across all months of our existence."

The post also stated that the company had a high attrition rate because employees were unhappy by what they were made to do.

More misses than hits

mid-day spoke to a couple of city-based restaurant owners and entrepreneurs who have used Swiggy.

"Swiggy is not really an option for newcomers because their profit margins won't be more than 11-12 per cent," said Yash Chandiramani, 25, who used to own the pan-Asian restaurant Go Panda in Lokhandwala, which he sold off a few weeks back. "If Swiggy charges a commission of 15 per cent, it means the business owner needs to shell out the rest 4 per cent from his/her pocket. Restaurant owners don't realise that food aggregators are out there to make money from their business; they have to show investors their profits and don't really care about the business owners.

"I used it in 2015-16; at that time, the rates were different as they had just launched. I stopped soon after as a minimal number of orders was coming through them. The funny part was that every week they had a new person dealing with me as the old guys were all leaving."

Sharan Goyal, 22, owner of 18-month-old Where's My Cone in Bandra, said that although he was happy with the app, there were more than a fair few snags. "Their online ecosystem isn't that good. They have given us an app on the desktop that is supposed to ring every time an order is placed through it, but this doesn't happen. Their delivery boy just shows up, hands his phone over and tells us the order. This causes delays in getting orders processed," he added.

Swiggy refutes allegations

In a statement released early yesterday, the app said: "The recent blog post from an anonymous source is targeted at maligning the reputation of the organisation. The article carries inaccurate facts regarding business and order numbers. It not only references employee departures from a year-and-a-half back, but also presents details on our partners out of context and with mischievous intent... Swiggy has grown over the last few years… Our restaurant partners are at the heart of our success... Our employees are the keepers of our soul..."

Later in the day, Swiggy put up a blog post of its own, breaking down the Tumblr post piece by piece. "We do not lie about our market share or order numbers. We are the clear market leaders and we communicate the same to restaurants and partners to show them the benefits of partnering with us. Nobody will stay on the platform if they don't see value in this partnership."