Even as Jio is in the news every day for the massive funding it has been raising from global investors, all is not well with its latest e-grocery venture.
After months of speculation, Reliance Industries’ entered the grocery delivery business with JioMart in May after it received a massive investment from Facebook. At launch, with its massive financial backing, JioMart was touted to take on Bigbasket, Grofers, Swiggy and the likes. But two weeks after it went live in 200 cities and towns, seems to have let down its early customers from across the country.
Customers have taken to Twitter to complain about the quality of service and products from JioMart. Complaints on Twitter have ranged from bad quality food to rotting vegetables, to muddy items and delayed or cancelled deliveries, and orders which were prepaid but never delivered, although the app shows that it has been.
Customers have also complained of not being able to reach the customer service despite several tries. One user complained of receiving expired products as well.
@JioMart - worst service, bad packing, very bad quality vegetables.
— Arvind Bhardwaj (@arvindkbhardwaj) June 7, 2020
Worst part is after several emails to customer support no reply.. customer care phone number always comes busy...#badservice#jiomartscam #JioMart pic.twitter.com/ywe7EToK1M
Same thing happened with me and received rotten vegetables also half of my order was cancelled. Some items were different from the brand I ordered. Prices are also high from order amount.
— Priya (@Priyavishwak) June 7, 2020
Order was delivered on 1st June and today I got my refund. pic.twitter.com/uG2R7rXub1
Ordered from #JioMart with 2 days delivery which I got only after 4 days. That too with missing products. 4 products from my order no 15904867329011398W missing amounting to 287. Where as they are offering refund for only 146. WHAT LOOT@reliancejio @JioMart @JioMart_Support
— Afreen | افرین (@A2Afreen) June 4, 2020
Ordered from jiomart a couple of days back. The vegetables got delivered on time, no issues on that. But have to say, the quality of the vegetables is HORRENDOUS. Got fooled by the low price. @JioMart_Support @JioMart pic.twitter.com/emdjwB1tyo
— Priansh Hitman Pethani (@PrianshP) June 5, 2020
This is very bad experience with #JioMart
— Deepak Goyal (@gdeepak15) June 5, 2020
- Poor quality of fruits & vegetables
- Expired food items.
- No response from customer care
- my orders got declined and amount was deducted but still neither the items delivered nor amount is refunded
- Hard to communicate with care
A cursory glance on Twitter about JioMart only throws up more and more complaints.
“Vegetables are not that great even from a BigBasket at this time [given the Covid-19 lockdown] but they’re nowhere near this bad. Jio’s milk tetra packs were puffed and dirty like someone picked them up from the mud and put them directly in the bag,” one shopper told Quartz.
JioMart, a joint venture between RIL’s Reliance Retail and Reliance Jio, is now live via Jiomart.com, where it is selling staples, beverages, fruits and vegetables, snacks and branded foods, dairy and bakery, personal care, home care and baby care products.
Unlike other online grocers like BigBasket and Grofers, JioMart aims to act as the channel between the local kirana store and the end consumer, using JioMart with WhatsApp integrated into it.
With 400 million WhatsApp users in India and a kirana shop in every corner, the app was hailed by many.
Initial reports however show that while the same technique as Reliance Jio to use lower prices to lure more customers may work, a bad customer experience also means that many may never return.
JioMart could alter the industry dynamics, but execution holds the key and there are challenges, according to brokerage firm Jefferies.
The Jefferies report stated that on average, JioMart offered a 15% discount on MRP, which was marginally lower than DMart and better than Amazon and Big Basket.
JioMart hasn’t been linked to WhatsApp yet, something which is expected to be done in the coming months. It is currently running a pilot in a few areas in Navi Mumbai.