RAPPI STOLE MY MONEY!

UPDATE: Rappi has since refunded my money with credits on January 24

Yes, Rappi stole my money. The delivery app charged me, refused to leave the order with my doorman (as instructed), and has thus far refused to re-deliver the order or refund it — leaving me to wonder, where is the order? Is it at the driver’s (Fredy Francisco Yam Hoil) house being enjoyed by him or his family?

Whether it is Rappi, Uber, or a host of other 3rd party delivery and or service apps, they’re all generally good until they’re not. And when they’re not, it more times than not is not the technology, but the customer service, or lack thereof.

To understand how Rappi stole my money. You first have to understand how 3rd party delivery apps work.

HOW RAPPI WORKS

By accessing the app, you have a wide variety of products and sources to choose from. These would include, but are not limited to, individual restaurants, supermarkets, pharmacies, and more. To use Rappi, you have to download the Rappi app. Next, you add your payment method delivery address, and delivery instructions. In my profile, the instructions were to deliver the order to the lobby, where my building has an attendant 24/7 to receive it.

You search for what you want, add it to the checkout, and initiate. Your credit card on file is charged, and the process begins. They provide progress notifications.

How Rappi Stole My Money

IT WORKED WELL UNTIL IT DIDN’T

It can be convenient for sure. I’ve been living in Cancun Mexico since the fall of 2020, and used the service often, ranging from ordering a pizza, to coffee, to a full meal. During the past year, however, I’ve used them to do my grocery shopping as well, every week.

Then everything changed in one order. I opened the app, and just as I had done every week, placed a grocery order from the local Chedrui Supermarket, and scheduled it for delivery the next day. One of the benefits of using Rappi was that they would deliver to my lobby while I was sleeping (if I had a late night and wasn’t awake yet) or away from the apartment. The attendant would hold it for me until I came to collect it. This worked well throughout 2023.

When I woke up this particular morning, I received an email and text message telling me that the order had been canceled hours earlier. Did I exceed the credit limit on my card? I checked. Nope.

The email read:

Subject Line

Rappi — We have canceled your order from Chedraui, Cancun Americas

The email content

Hola Bruce,

Your order from Chedraui, Cancun Americas — 47_Super has been canceled.

Because your order was already being prepared or on its way, we have generated a charge of 965.52 pesos. We understand your discomfort, but it is our responsibility to guarantee payments for our allies and their businesses.

Cancellations have no cost if the establishment has not yet started serving your order.

DID THAT SAY WHAT I THINK IT SAID?

If you’re wondering, did they just tell you that they canceled your order, did not indicate that they would redeliver it, and kept the money anyway?

Yes, they did.

Customer Service

So, I immediately opened the app and went to the Help Center, which was a waste of time because it was a prompt-based AI that just responded with pre-packaged answers.

I then reached out to them on Twitter. We went through the gymnastics of verifying what account I was referring to, and verifying that I was the owner of the account. Once that was achieved, I explained the situation. When they finally accessed my account and saw the order and history, they said the reason for the cancellation was that I was not available to receive the order.

I explained that the instructions were to leave it in the lobby and that there was an attendant on duty 24/7. Next, they claimed that to release the order to the attendant I had to be available to provide a code that they send to my phone. The problem with that is throughout 2023 I had months and months of previous orders that were all left with the attendant without any code.

Giving them the benefit of the doubt. I simply requested that they schedule redelivery. After all, the driver must still have the order, no? Did he dump it in the trash?

After going around and around with their customer service, a term I use VERY loosely, I then asked them, where is the order? You charged me for a list of products, where are they? When can you redeliver them? Silence. I’ve now written to them on both Twitter and WhatsApp several times, and to date, they have ignored my inquiries.

Here are the facts:

I placed an order with Rappi to purchase and deliver 16 items, for which I paid them 994 pesos.

I also subscribed to a monthly premium service for free shipping, yet they charged me for shipping anyway.

The driver ignored the instructions and refused to leave the order with the lobby attendant, and there is a long-established history that Rappiu can leave the orders with the lobby attendant.

Rappi has refused to respond to my request for redelivery, or refund

The driver Fredy Francisco Yam Hoil refused to deliver an order I paid for. So again I ask — where is the order and the products contained within it? Are they in Fredy’s house?

While I can understand that Rappi wouldn’t want to refund the money that was already spent, I can’t explain why they wouldn’t just redeliver the order, and why they’d jeopardize a year’s-long customer over a single order, except to say, that too many times. Big companies lose focus on their purpose — to service customers —, and instead are concerned with just pushing orders through their pipeline.

Next Steps

Being an American in Mexico, I’m familiar with the law here, and whether theft in this instance is a criminal act or one that needs to be pursued in a civil court. Some countries (i.e. India, from when I lived there) don’t cover much in terms of civil liability, it is either criminal or nothing. So I’m reaching out to lawyers via my friends here, and will see what the next steps will be.

Rating — 0

Yes, when you steal from a customer and do nothing to rectify it, or even respond to it, as a company you’ve lost all credibility. As convenient as Rappi can be, if you continue to use them be prepared to write off orders in the future if and when you don’t conveniently fit into the Rappi cookie-cutter mold. They don’t do what’s right, they do what is convenient for them.