‘Zepto helped my sister catch the flight on time,’ says Mumbai man; ‘Happy to know we were able to help,’ reacts CTO

A Mumbai man recently shared on LinkedIn how Zepto’s instant grocery delivery service unexpectedly helped his sister to catch a scheduled early-morning flight. The man named Rishabh Agarwal wrote that his sister was due to board a 6:00 am flight and had asked their mother to wake her at 3:00 am.

However, when she failed to respond, and her phone was found to be switched off, the mother and brother were concerned.

“Zepto helped my sister catch the flight on time,” he wrote.

He further shared: “My sister had a scheduled flight at 6 am and had requested my mom to wake her up at 3 am (not sure why an alarm wouldn’t suffice). At 3.15 am my mother called me panicking saying her phone was switched off. At that hour either I go to Powai from Parel (40 mins) to check on her, or I could just Zepto at her place."

Rather than travelling across the city from Parel to Powai at that hour, Rishabh chose to place an order through Zepto, hoping that the delivery partner of the instant delivery platform would ring the doorbell and alert his sister.

“Order placed at 3.20 am, Vikas bhai (delivery partner) was told about the situation and immediately agreed to help us out. He was on call with us for the next 10 mins and delivered the order at 3.30 am. On time, impeccable delivery service and an instant check on whether everything is alright."

Rishabh even added a message addressed to Zepto’s co-founders, Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya V, stating: “Thank you so much for building such an amazing platform! Zepto was a safety check for our loved ones today."

Zepto executives respond

Senior executives from Zepto responded publicly to the LinkedIn post.

Vikas Sharma, the company’s Chief Operating Officer, commented: “On behalf of Vikas Bhai (delivery partner), happy to know that we were able to help here. Thanks for the lovely post. From me, proud of Vikas to go above and beyond to fulfill customer expectations. Thank you Rishabh Agarwal for sharing it."

Chandan Mendiratta, Chief Brand Officer at Zepto, added a lighter remark: “We deliver alarm clocks, we never thought we’ll become the alarm."

Netizens react

One user said, “The most powerful features of a product are sometimes discovered by users, not designed on a roadmap."

Another commented, “This wouldn’t be possible in a gated society as the security wouldn’t let the delivery guy go up without the approval on mygate/nobrokerhood app."

An individual wrote, “So glad everything worked out! And huge thanks to Vikas bhai for stepping in like a champ. Hope your sister caught her flight comfortably."

Another user said, “It’s impressive how effortlessly you came up with this idea. Appreciate you as well for such a wonderful thought."

One individual added humorously: “I almost thought they sent the airplane itself."

However, someone said, "I have mixed feelings about this post. Someone privileged enough to board a flight is honestly exploiting someone. That's how I read it. Albeit the intention of making someone catch a flight and being a good son/ brother, it's impossible for me to ignore this blatant abuse of privilege, leading to exploitation."

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