Grab Food Delivery, it's great but there are issues

[Jingthing]

What happened to the ability to make your meals at home?
 
Sorry for being a bit OT.

Why only do one thing?
I don't.
Cook sometimes.
Go out sometimes.
Get delivery sometimes.
Right now Grab has discounts so why not?
Code 100DAY for 20 percent off food ending today up to 100 baht total discount.

Sent from my Lenovo A7020a48 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[Jingthing]

Not only Americans give tips?

Of course not but Americans are notoriously brainwashed in that regard. It's hard to shake it entirely.

Sent from my Lenovo A7020a48 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[natway09]

In the time taken to write your rant I have made dinner, eaten it & ready for the cricket.

As a Vegetarian more reason to stock food to cook yourself

[Jingthing]

41 minutes ago, natway09 said:

In the time taken to write your rant I have made dinner, eaten it & ready for the cricket.

As a Vegetarian more reason to stock food to cook yourself

So what?

What rant?

If Grab food delivery services don't interest, what's your point for reading and posting to this topic at all?
Don't bother answering. We all know. 

[Jingthing]

32 minutes ago, Kim J said:

I am not a hater, each to their own, but such things do not fit into my mindset. I don't deny you can get good quality food delivered, but I did say predominantly junk food and you can not get away from the fact that most food deliveries consist of exactly that.

Personally If I want restaurant food I will enjoy the full experience and go sit in a restaurant.

If I find myself at home and a little peckish. I can cook myself an omelette or something similar probably quicker than it takes to place your order.

I will stick to the old fashioned ways thanks.

Again why is anyone not interested in Grab Food Delivery service posting here at all?

I may see a thread titled KNITTING TIPS. I ain't even clicking on that much less posting to it.

[Jingthing]

14 minutes ago, tomazbodner said:

In Bangkok, sorry.

That's cool. Noodles everywhere but I'm sure they're much better in Bangkok. Isn't everything? 

[madmen]

6 minutes ago, tomazbodner said:

Maybe doesn't fit the profiles of many expats here, but for Thais who hate walking (see motorcycle stand in front of every 50m deep soi) and love everything delivered, especially in the rainy season, Grab/FoodPanda/Pizza Company/HonestBee/McDonald's/KFC nailed it. Most pathetic delivery I've seen was from Pizza Company in Pratunam. The delivery guy gets on motorbike, drives no more than 20m, gets off and walks into a building. And no, it wasn't raining. Someone just too lazy to walk down and that 50 baht or whatever it costs to have it delivered was worth for him.

 

I'm lazy carrying heavy stuff from shopping malls so delivery guys are visiting my place several times every week, be it Lazada, Tesco, Tops,... lately rarely food, but when busy with no time to go out, that was also common.

 

It's the way people are here (large cities in Thailand). Love convenience and are willing to pay for it. I'm happy that this gives jobs to people in delivery/logistic business, increases business for the restaurants and shops, especially in rainy season and everyone is happy. Why bashing something that works and people enjoy? And if some expats are shaking their heads for groceries and McDonald's delivery as they couldn't imagine it in their home countries - just ignore it and cook by yourself or go out for a nice meal.

Thailand is great for this. My condo in BKK has 300 rooms and the lobby is always busy with delivery guys. Why any body would travel to a tesco is beyond me when for 60 baht they will deliver 1 item or a hundred items and yes they choose fruit and veges nicely, they know online is the future so they are good at it

[Bangkok Barry]

21 hours ago, Jingthing said:

their system has some flaws

 

In Thailand? Surely you jest.

[Jingthing]

45 minutes ago, Kim J said:

In answer to your question, some people like to live with open minds and take interest in what is going on around them, even things they might not agree with. They also like to discuss things, that way they might learn something, or even find out something that could sway their mindset.

One of my main objections to services such as food delivery, apart from it encouraging people to be lazy, eat crap and contribute to ill health, is the inordinate amount of plastic and foam waste etc it produces. The junk food industry has a lot to answer for on that point and having food delivered generally makes that already woeful situation even worse. But I bet the vast majority whilst tucking into their almost cold pizza or burger will not ever give that a thought?

Perhaps open a new thread of your own on that topic instead of trying to HIJACK this one?

That would be good.

[Jingthing]

Just now, Bangkok Barry said:

 

In Thailand? Surely you jest.

Yeah but it's a Singapore company isn't it? 

[Bangkok Barry]

1 minute ago, Jingthing said:

Yeah but it's a Singapore company isn't it? 

 

And I'd bet that it works fine there. No flaws at all.

[Jingthing]

Just now, Bangkok Barry said:

 

And I'd bet that it works fine there. No flaws at all.

Well with the English stuff I would expect so! All considered it works well enough for a non-Thai speaker (me) dealing with drivers that mostly don't speak English. 

[Captain 776]

When I lived there used Meals on Wheels.   Very easy and operator confirms your order.   Used em a lot.  Never an issue

[Jingthing]

Oh, here is another quirk worth mentioning.

The promotions don't always work.

Why?

Well they have a limit on how much they're giving away on a particular day and when it's over, it's over.

For example you might put in the code ending today for 20 percent off (100DAY) and get a message that the limit has been reached, so out of luck. This is nothing to do with how much promotion discounts you've collected personally. It's about their total bucket. 

[Jingthing]

Commenting about the low delivery charge of 29 baht, near or far.

OK 29 baht might not seem so cheap if the restaurant is a few blocks away, but I am seeing 29 baht quoted for deliveries as far as from Naklua into Jomtien.

Compare to a taxi for that distance!

I am thinking that it's clear that they're recruiting a ton of drivers so thus at least they're close to the restaurants. Then they deliver it and then they are in the zone of your place where they can pick up a new trip from there. So it operates like real taxis, not the "mafia" type scene of motorcycle taxi stations where the drivers must return back to there after each ride.

So there is more efficiency at least in that.

But how can it worth it to a driver to make a very long ride for 29 baht given that I assume not everyone tips? 

Also is the cost also 29 baht in Bangkok or can we expect that to get raised a lot?

Does anyone know if Grab kicks in some money to the drivers especially for long rides?

What about the restaurants?

What if anything do they pay Grab percentage-wise?
I have noticed some pricing that looks like there might be PADDING for Grab menu orders but definitely not all of them and I haven't even confirmed that at all yet.

About tipping.

What do you think about that?

For a short ride? How much?

Medium and long ride?

What if the driver is made to wait 40 minutes at the restaurant for your food to be cooked. That's 40 minutes he's not earning money.

I'm not sure but I think a minimum of 20 baht tip is fair for a short ride with more added in special cases (long ride / long restaurant wait).

What do you think? 

[Jingthing]

Is it possible the Grab drivers read Thaivisa?

Doing another order instead of asking me if the restaurant has confirmed the order (they never do) the message just said --

CONFIRM ORDER.

 

Much better.

[Jingthing]

18 hours ago, Kim J said:

I think my points are fully valid to the discussion and fully relevant. If you do not wish people to join in with the discussion maybe you could consider the wisdom of posting it on a public forum?

 

The intention of the topic is really focused on people that may actually be interested in using the service or are already using the service and may have information to add that may be helpful and useful to others that may use the service.

Emphasis -- helpful and useful.

 

Like if I started a topic about Best Burgers in Pattaya and some militant vegan starts posting about how horrible burgers are for our health and meat is murder … well I think you get the point.

 

Such posts would be unwelcome noise for people that are actually interested in the topic. 

[Jingthing]

41 minutes ago, Kim J said:

Yes, but through rational and civil discussion, maybe I could become convinced this app is the way forward, where as currently I feel very differently about such things, by reading and discussion is the way many of us learn and progress in life.

However If you do not want open and free discussions or cannot accept differing points of view to your own, as I said before maybe a personal blog would be more appropriate than starting a thread on Thai visa?

Kim.

Seriously.

Do you think anyone reading your posts here actually believes that you have an open mind about trying such services as Grab Food Delivery?

You've suggested I start a personal blog before.

No need to repeat. I have already rejected that.

There is as much chance of me starting a personal blog as you becoming a regular Grab Food customer.

[Jingthing]

Back to an actual on topic content.

As I said before you can't predict whether drivers will do room deliveries or not assuming you're in a building and the building allows deliveries inside.

I've decided to not be so nice about this.

Calling for a delivery, I will NOT be dressed for going outside. 

If they arrive and make it clear they won't be coming up, well then, they will be WAITING for me to get dressed first. No need to rush. What shall I wear? The mauve pullover or the leather French lumberjack kit? Decisions. Decisions.

It would have been faster for them to come up,

I know what you're thinking. The food will be less fresh. 

A small price to pay for a little bit of passive aggressiveness.

Also don't come up? The tip will be less (not that they know because they have so many drivers).

 

[KittenKong]

5 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Doing another order instead of asking me if the restaurant has confirmed the order (they never do) the message just said --

CONFIRM ORDER.

 

Much better.

I find that even more cryptic than the original.

 

Does it mean that the order is confirmed or that they want you to confirm the order?

[Jingthing]

47 minutes ago, KittenKong said:

I find that even more cryptic than the original.

 

Does it mean that the order is confirmed or that they want you to confirm the order?

I see your point but based on the context of my previous experiences of course I understood they only wanted a response that I had placed the order and still want it. So I just answered --

Yes. Confirmed. 

 

That's something this thread is good for. To help others gain from the experiences of others with this service.

 

Never ever say anything other than YES to that question unless you actually don't want the order. 

[onera1961]

On 7/14/2019 at 4:32 AM, Jingthing said:

Yeah but it's a Singapore company isn't it? 

Yes, it is. . I use grab extensively in Bangkok and Pattaya but never ordered food. I don't like ordering foods unless late at night. Prefer going to a restaurant. 

[Jingthing]

16 minutes ago, onera1961 said:

Yes, it is. . I use grab extensively in Bangkok and Pattaya but never ordered food. I don't like ordering foods unless late at night. Prefer going to a restaurant. 

Yeah understood.

But as I said before as I don't have a vehicle this service gives access to places I would rarely or ever visit otherwise. Sure I could take a taxi there but this delivery service is much cheaper.

Also don't you ever have lazy days where you don't want to cook and don't want to go out either?

 

For me because this is a new service and there are almost always DISCOUNTS I am using it a lot, trying different restaurants and of course learning the glitches with the service. I'm sure that won't last even if they keep the discounts.

[Jingthing]

Oh.

I just realized my last order with the CONFIRM ORDER had something different about it.

 

It was one of the Grab "Preferred" restaurants.

 

Some of the dishes had built in 20 percent discounts on the menu which isn't normal.

 

But here's what was really different.

 

Fairly on in the order I got this message -- RESTAURANT IS PREPARING YOUR ORDER.

 

That was the first time I saw that message so that's very different.

 

I think the CONFIRM ORDER demand came in right away as usual before the restaurant is preparing your order message.

 

The trouble is that I can't say the exact time it took to get that message. I assume it at least means these "special" restaurants are getting the orders immediately. Are they all getting that? I'm not sure. Does it mean they had time to look at the order and could see that they could fill the order and if they couldn't fill the order, there would have been another message? I don't know.

 

Another thing is with this place it was unusually fast. That's probably mostly because it was quick cook type food but it definitely seemed as soon as the driver got there it was ready to pick up so he could leave. Compare to an order the other day where the driver was forced to wait a really long time for them to cook the food (but it was slower type food).

 

 

[Jingthing]

The stew pot thickens.

 

Last night I noticed a menu item at a restaurant that I haven't eaten at for a few years but used to go specifically for that one menu item.

 

I noticed the price on GRAB seemed quite high and definitely more than the menu at the restaurant used to be.

 

I doubted they had raised the price that much in just a few years. But it was possible.

 

So I went to the restaurant. It was exactly the same price as before.

 

So what's going on exactly?

 

I touched on this issue before. The menus on GRAB are kind of a GRAB bag.

 

Based on my knowledge some of them are menus from the restaurant with the same prices as the restaurant.

 

Yet some have higher prices compared to the physical restaurant on at least some dishes.

 

Some menus are basically a mess. Some are blank or almost blank. Quite often there is no way to order a basic portion of rice with Asian food. On the other hand for some listings, the menu is complete and very well organized. Sometimes the very same menu item is listed on the same menu for a different price! Are they really the same? How can you know?

 

So what the pizza is goin' on!?!

 

Well I think I know.

 

The price on the item that I busted a place on last night is probably from the menu of a PADDED delivery menu for another delivery service. As many know, some delivery services allow and/or encourage the restaurants to PAD their delivery menu prices.

 

So how exactly does GRAB get these menus about the restaurants? You might be surprised. I was. Really, it's kind of a mess. Caveat emptor, but I still think it's a very useful service, and hopefully over time things will become more transparent on the menu side of things. Or maybe not. 

 

Here we go:

 

 

https://m.facebook.com/groups/1379286565680870?view=permalink&id=2282103888732462&_ft_=qid.6714881579406150263%3Amf_story_key.2282103888732462%3Agroup_id.1379286565680870%3Atop_level_post_id.2282103888732462%3Atl_objid.2282103888732462%3Acontent_owner_id_new.1502180563%3Asrc.22%3Aphoto_id.10221854279415125%3Astory_location.6%3Astory_attachment_style.photo&refid=18&__tn__=%2C%3B

 

 

[Jingthing]

First order of business.

They have free delivery by code until the end of the month.

 

I must say my honeymoon is kind of over with Grab food delivery, at least for now.

 

Of course I will still use them occasionally but I'm over the first blush.

 

Why?

 

-- Too many restaurants have menus that are a mess. I eliminate all of them that won't sell rice with Asian food for example. I eliminate all that are clearly showing price padded menus.

 

-- Variety. My first impression is that there is fantastic variety. But after looking deeper into this, I'd like to see maybe TEN TIMES more restaurants. 

 

-- Texas Chicken. They have good chicken and I would never go there otherwise. But eating fast food fried chicken is like a once or twice a year thing for me. 

 

-- Far away restaurants. At first impressive but then looking at actually what's available far away, not so much. No way would I order basic Thai cook to order from Naklua going to Jomtien when I can get that IRL right where I live or if there was something special on the menu, much closer by delivery.

 

-- Special restaurants in inconvenient locations. There aren't nearly enough yet. Hopefully more will come later. Specifically I know there are a number of special restaurants in the DARK SIDE that I'm never going to go to. Well, add those and I will try them. 

 

-- 29 baht delivery fee. Will that ever really work long term for far away deliveries? Maybe that's why there aren't  many dark side listings now. Maybe never. 

[Jingthing]

I have some good ideas now on how to diplomatically nudge the drivers to deliver to your door if you're in a building.

 

Early on in the process you're likely to get a message that says something like this --

 

Wait for me.

 

Suggested answer.

 

Yes, I am waiting for you in Room x, floor x (they already have the main address)

 

You are also likely to get messages when they are nearly arrived or arrived.

 

Suggested answer --

 

I am in Room x, floor x

 

Note the tactic here. You're not demanding they do a room delivery. But you're making them make it explicit that they won't do that if for some reason they won't.

 

I think this will mostly work to get a room delivery, but even if not you're likely to get an earlier warning that you'll need to meet them outside.

 

Another thing on tipping.

 

I have the feeling that most of their customers are Thai and most of the Thai customers are either not tipping or doing a round up the change tip.

 

I'm guessing this by the reactions of the drivers to better tips than that.

 

So based on what I think now, I think you can just not tip if you don't want to or do a round up tip. 

 

Or step it up to a 20 which they will be happy with. 

 

Or more when you think the driver deserves it.

 

When I gave a driver 40 baht he looked truly shocked as if it was too much, not too little. 

[NiwPix]

Quite an interesting thread here that I accidentally stumbled upon. I think I may be able to clear up a few things / a few misconceptions. But first a little shout-out to Jingthing for looking out for the drivers and their income / well being. Not too many do this nowadays.

That being said, obviously they earn enough, otherwise they wouldnt accept the far delivery jobs. Even the 29 baht for "around the block" deliveries is too low for a driver to make a living off this. If they dont earn enough, they leave and look for another job. If they earn enough, they stay. It is up to the company to make sure they stay. I am 99.9% sure that they get an additional per hour rate or an adjusted delivery per task that is shown on the drivers app...not visible to the customer. They -should- earn more than minimum wage to also account for the gas they use and the wear and tear on their bike ( they probably drive 100-200km a day just doing deliveries. You can do the math what their odometer looks like after a year ).

Now, the interesting part. How does grab or foodpanda pay their drivers if the customer only pays a 29 baht ( or even free ) delivery fee? Simple: the customer pays it without knowing. Jingthing was on the right track yesterday :). for example the padthai normally costs 50 baht, on their platforms the the padthai costs 70 baht. Out of those 70 Baht, the restaurant has to give a 30% cut to the delivery company. That is "hidden" income they use to pay their drivers.

You can do the math if people order a pizza for 200 or 300 baht...they cover the cost of the driver and have a bit extra to cover other costs.

Essentially the customer and the restaurant pay big time for the delivery. Restaurant has to give 30% of each order to be allowed on their platform ( anybody who has a restaurant and / or can do simple math know you cant make any profit on that...so most restaurants upcharge their menu by 20-40% ). Customers pay an inflated price and many times also a delivery fee.

I am not that familiar with Grabfood yet, as I havent used it yet and also not available here in Ubon. But going what Jingthing is saying, the fast deliveries / responses are from restaurants on the Grab platform. As soon as you click "order" the order appears on the restaurants company phone/tablet and they accept or decline. They start preparing the food while the driver goes there. Driver arrives, food is ready or almost ready.
If they are not on their platform, driver has to go there and order and wait ( hence I believe they get an hourly wage ontop of a delivery fee ).
With foodpanda you can only order what is on their platform, because they get the 30% commission on every order that way

[Jingthing]

I know about the padding game that other delivery companies use. I don't like that.

I've looked at the Grab menus and many don't seem to be padded at all.

I agree there must be stuff happening in the background that we don't see, but I don't think it's as obvious and consistent as with the other companies. 

We may have to hear from some participating restaurant owners and/or drivers or people that know the drivers to really understand what Grab is doing. But not sure that it would be in their interest to tell us about that background stuff.

As potential customers, bottom line is going to be are these particular dishes at this particular restaurant at the posted prices worth it to me for a delivery order right now or not.

On the surface it's much less organized and much more of a free for all system based on how the menus are presented. 

Obviously there is a difference between the minority of restaurants that are directly hooked into their system vs. those that are not, but it appears to be so far most are not.

[bkk6060]

On 7/14/2019 at 9:03 AM, Skallywag said:

My Rant:

The day I cant get off my ass and walk or bicycle to a restaurant to feed myself is the day I have totally given up on life.

 

I mean really - too hot outside for you?  Too much rain and you don't want to get your flip flops wet? 

 

People are just getting lazy as heck in my opinion.

 

I can think of a great reason to use it:

I have a sexy young girl in my room and she wants to stay in bed all day....