How does the takeaway errands fake, and does the business model of errands work?

As long as it is a purchasing agent, it is possible to buy fakes, and running errands is no exception.

Image source @Visual China

On March 20th, Ms.

Li and her friends from Wuhan, Hubei Province ordered 7 dishes through the well-known chain store "Liang Liang Steamed Shrimp" through Ele.
me, and then the errand riders delivered them home.

After checking, Ms.

Li found that only one of the seven dishes was produced by the shop.
The remaining six dishes are packed in boxes of different sizes and colors.

It seems that the errand rider secretly manipulated after receiving the order, placed an order in a different restaurant to buy the same dishes at a lower price, and then delivered them to the customers' homes.

Later, Ele.

me officials also responded, saying that the platform had contacted consumers to provide advance compensation and arranged for someone to communicate with consumers on follow-up matters.
In response to possible violations of laws and regulations by errand riders, the platform has suspended the delivery personnel’s service qualifications and mobilized merchants to report to relevant departments.

This "small" matter involving only 480 yuan and 6 dishes quickly made it to the top of the hot search list, because the incident brought out more possibilities for the dark side of errands-substitute fakes, cooperate with merchants to make price differences, etc.

And so on, so many users have doubts-is it reliable to run errands? How many routines are there?

Buy on behalf of the "cat greasy"

Buy on behalf of the "cat greasy"

For users, buying "fake vegetables" by running errands will indeed leave a psychological shadow.

In response, the rider Gan's response was that the 6 dishes were purchased at other stores because they were too far away from the restaurant and worried about the long queue time.
In addition, it was raining at the time and worried about the order overtime.
"In fact, the difference with the original order is only 20 yuan.
"

Quan now contacted the staff of the restaurant in question-"Liangliang Steamed Shrimp (Water Factory)".

They said that most of the daily customers place orders directly from Ele.

The staff member said that he had never heard of such "fake dishes" complaints.

Regarding Gan's description of "worrying about overtime", the above-mentioned staff did not agree, "Generally, it can be completed within 40 minutes from order to delivery during peak hours.

"

Regarding the water bill received by Ms.

Li with "Liang Liang Steamed Shrimp", the staff replied that the water bill is not from the store, "our water bill will print the time, but there is no time on this water bill.
" Earlier, the store checked the in-store monitoring and stated that the rider involved only took one dish when he left the store, and the receipt flow showed that the rider took a grilled lobster with green onions at a price of 80 yuan.

For the rider, the water bill printing is not difficult.

Quan now finds many "order printers" on Taobao platform, which can be carried with you and connected to your mobile phone via Bluetooth.
For orders from Meituan and Ele.
me, you can make orders in seconds.

Therefore, the deduction and recovery of this incident is not difficult.

After the customer called for the errand service, the order was only the tax bill presented by the platform and did not reach the store.
Gan, who took the order, can copy the order, print the receipt, delete the original order, and place an order for grilled lobster with onion.

According to the order record presented by Gan, after receiving the order, he placed orders many times and paid for the 6 dishes in other restaurants, and delivered them to Ms.
Li.
The final payment is still based on the price given by "Liangliang Steamed Shrimp".

Once and again, it undoubtedly provided the "middlemen" with opportunities for fraud.

Part of the business cooperates with the store, users can see specific menus, such as tea, coffee, barbecue, and can directly pay according to the order; for some businesses, if the user only specifies the goods, then the payment will be based on the receipt .

In this process, the possibility of counterfeiting receipts, counterfeiting goods, and earning price differences has also arisen.
When errands are purchased on behalf of customers, after receiving the order, the rider will first pay for the customer, and then settle the bill after delivery.
The main income of the rider is the cost of errands calculated by mileage.

Running errands for distribution, frequent problems

Running errands for distribution, frequent problems

According to what Quan now understands, it is not uncommon for platforms such as Ele.
me and Meituan to make mistakes in running errands to "buy on behalf" or spend more money.

A Jiangxi netizen said in a comment that she once ran errands to buy a certain brand of facial cleanser.
She clearly stated that she would go to Watsons or other drugstores to buy, but the products she received were from grocery stores, which were obviously of low quality.
It will even expire soon.

Another user from Hunan also complained on Weibo, because he couldn’t walk away when he was in the house for dinner and cooking, so he was anxious to run errands to buy 3 catties of mutton.
In the end, 5 catties were delivered.
The meat was of average quality but the price was nearly 200 higher than expected yuan.

In addition, because errands need to be paid in advance by the rider, many users also encounter high fees.

However, the most worry points to the rider taking advantage of the loopholes and deliberately making fakes.

A Beijing user told Quan Now that he had experienced similar experiences with Ms.
Li.
When he was having a dinner with his friends, he placed an order to buy a set meal of "Grandma's Spring Cake" (this online celebrity store does not have a takeaway delivery service).
But there was no shop mark on the lunch box and tableware that the errand master finally sent.
"The spring cake tastes different.
We all think it is fake, but since there is no way to prove it, we didn't go into it further.
"

Are you hungry? On the Meituan platform, there are mainly two types of delivery personnel involved in the errand business.
One is the platform's crowdsourced riders.
They can take orders for takeout and errands at the same time.
The first category is full-time errand personnel.
For example, some companies have signed a cooperation agreement with a store, and they can hire a delivery person to do errands for the relevant store full-time.

In contrast, the delivery staff of the food delivery company have a closer relationship with the platform-they cannot accept foreign orders, but only accept orders from the platform.
Ele.
me delivery staff can only receive tips or extra fees within 50 yuan, otherwise it will violate the regulations; Meituan delivery staff do not have relevant additional income channels.

This also exposed the potential risks of this business model.
For the user, since the order is placed to the rider rather than the merchant, it is actually impossible to monitor the execution of the order.

In response to this incident, Liangliang Steamed Shrimp officially issued a statement that it will add brand-specific take-out seals to solve the hidden danger of being dropped during the delivery of dishes.
Increase dish traceability channels, and distribute store manager contact cards on takeaway orders to facilitate customers to verify at any time.
In addition, it will actively apply for the opening of city-wide distribution services with takeaway platforms, allowing consumers to directly choose familiar official brand stores for consumption.

For the responsibilities that the food delivery platform needs to bear, Fu Jian, a lawyer from Henan Yulong Law Firm, believes that the Ele.
me platform only administers the cost of running errands, while the cost of purchasing goods is at the discretion of the rider.
In the setting of the rules, the Ele.
me platform had regulatory faults and did not make the fee "dedicated.
"

Internet celebrity consumption and trust crisis

Internet celebrity consumption and trust crisis

Errands are not the main business of the food delivery platform.
Ele.
me said that the errand job industry itself was created for the convenience of life and is a supplement to foreign sales services.
There are two main types of errand players in the same city.
The first category is start-up companies such as "flash delivery" and "UU running errands" that are delivered within 30 minutes, mainly delivering important items.
The other category is run by the Internet platforms of Meituan, Ele.
me, and JD.
com.

In response, Ele.
me proposed to open up distribution services throughout the city, allowing consumers to directly choose familiar official brand stores for consumption.

To a large extent, the demand for errand business is brought by Internet celebrity shops.
Whether it's the "Liang Liang Steamed Shrimp" or the "Grandma Spring Cake", they are all well-known local "net celebrity shops".
In the Ele.
me errand business section, a special "Internet celebrity shop" column has been set up.
These include tea shops such as Hey Tea and Cha Yan Yue Se, coffee brand shops such as Starbucks, roasting shops, and even RELX e-cigarette shops.

Those shops that are legitimate, because of the long queue time, can bring a higher premium to the rider.
Moreover, the menus of these online celebrity shops often have many cosines in the same city, and there is also room for stealing credits.

Lao Bai, the delivery clerk, is worried that more similar incidents will make users no longer trust running errands.
He feels that the business of running errands essentially relies on speed and trust.
"With high efficiency and high evaluation, it is possible to receive more orders and ensure income.
Once there are a large number of complaints, it will be difficult for delivery personnel to receive orders in a short period of time.
"

Source: 20 companies

Note: All pictures in the article are reprinted on the Internet, and infringement will be deleted!

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