Zomato fires customer care agent, apologises for ‘Hindi imposition’

As hashtags like “Reject Zomato” and “Hindi imposition” overtook social media, the food-delivery giant issued a statement and apologised for the behaviour of their customer care agent. “We are sorry for the behaviour of our customer care agent, we have terminated the agent for their negligence towards our diverse culture,” stated the company in a statement.

Zomato said that the termination is in line with the company protocols and that the agent’s behaviour was against its principles of sensitivity that they train their agents with on a regular basis.

It all began when Zomato user Vikash’s order had an item missing. The customer care agent who Vikash got in touch with told him that he is trying to get a refund but there is a “language barrier”.  Vikash responded by saying that if Zomato is available in Tamil Nadu then they should have hired people who understand the language. He asked the customer care agent to transfer the matter to someone else and get the refund.

“For your kind information Hindi is our national language. So it is very common that everybody should know Hindi little bit (sic),” said the agent.

After Vikash tweeted to Zomato and shared images of the chat, Twitterati lashed out at the company for its supposed ‘Hindi imposition’. Many, on the other hand, suggested that knowing Hindi is not imposition.

The company added that they are building a Tamil version of their app. “We have already localised marketing communication in Tamil for the state (e.g. we also signed up Aniruddh Ravichander as our local ambassador), and we are in the process of building a local Tamil call/support centre in Coimbatore,” stated Zomato.

(UPDATE: Zomato has since reinstated the customer care agent.)

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