According to some online chatters, popular grocery shopping startup Honestbee in Singapore has been on the receiving end of a truckload of complaints all thanks to the way they have been treating their shoppers, and thus inadvertently earning the moniker of Dishonest Bee. More gripes here, and here.
Not so honest after all
A disgruntled company staff speaks: Honestbee advertises on job sites claiming to pay $10/hr. Don’t believe it. That’s just bullshit. Complete and utter bull. Just today an email was sent out reducing our already pathetic pay from $5.00 to $4.50. Is there anywhere else that pays lower than Honestbee? I don’t think so. They keep hiring new shoppers when truth is there are a large pool of shoppers all waiting on the side for shifts at the limited shopping hubs provided. Shifts average about 2-4hrs per day. That’s seriously pathetic.
There are more shoppers than there are shifts or orders. We do not have a good time working. We have to keep informing customers that we can only shop an hour before their delivery time. This means that if you order early in the morning before the stocks arrive, we are unable to do anything about it.
Mistreating shoppers
We know that customers are unhappy, so are we. Each item that we get gives us an additional $0.20. $0.20 only. 7 cartons of Dasani Mineral Water 1.5l? Total incentive of $0.20 for the whole freaking order. We have to type in replacement ideas, take photos, key in details of the item like name and price, then if the customer does not want it when we call to suggest, we have to return the item back, sometimes having to travel between floors.
Misleading pricings
All this is done while still trying to ensure that the order items are being fulfilled on time as we still have to queue to check them out. Prices seem too good to be true? It’s probably cos they are old pricings or promo pricing input into the system to tempt customers into ordering from Honestbee. Not the price you wanted? Not their problem. How many customers have written feedbacks into their email and gotten a response? A small percentage.
Angry customers besiege Facebook page
The Honestbee Facebook page is LITERALLY FILLED WITH ANGRY CUSTOMERS [Editor’s Note: They have since disabled the SG page, redirecting it to the MY page] that have encountered problems and yet are unresolved for weeks, much less months.
Their standard is to say they will look into it. However, if it is not written in or no hooha is made over the matter, they do not have the courtesy to address the issue at hand. Honestbee indeed.
Shoppers are left to face the brunt of customers’ anger. We try to appease the customers by forwarding their complaints to customer service.
However, what much can customer service do? Their hands are tied to by the SOPs of Honestbee that generally does not put their customers first. What more shoppers. We face measly pay, we carry cartons of drinks and all to the counter for our customers.
Redmart to rise to the occasion
We understand how they feel, but Honestbee seriously don’t give a damn. We are just being used. With pay like this, anywhere else is better. Maybe it’s time to use more dependable shopping sites like Redmart. At least you know they deliver what they promise.
