I'm Done with VkusVill - Here's Why

I've been using VkusVill for almost four years now, which is a pretty long time, right? Unfortunately, some changes have occurred that have made me want to say goodbye.

Recently, I saw an ad that didn't quite match up with reality, so I decided to write a review about this service, specifically about my recent orders.

Today's review will be about VkusVill and their courier delivery.

❓❓What's the service?

The app is pretty decently laid out, and it's easy to find what you need. You can even choose your favorite products. Mine isn't selected because, to be honest, I haven't made any orders over 500 rubles in the past five days. But, if I'm being accurate, I haven't made any orders at VkusVill in almost a month, and that's not exactly by design.

At first, everything seemed alright. Orders were being collected at a special pick-up point for couriers on Dорожной street. Then, a new pick-up point opened up, and they started delivering orders to me. And what wasn't an order was a letdown.

But what really got me was when I was sanctioned by this app, despite not being at fault. I'll tell you all about it today. How, due to poor order collection and delivery by the couriers, regular customers get penalized. ❓❓What's wrong with the ad, then?

I would've asked this question myself if I'd been using the service two years ago or a year ago. What's wrong with the ad, anyway? Delivery is indeed free, and it's indeed available from any order amount.

⬇️But there's one section that says it's not quite that straightforward.⬇️

But, as it turns out, there's a special note in the app, a specific section that explains that, in some cases, the order won't be from any amount. If you're making mini-orders, which they consider orders under 500 rubles, and you make more than three of them in a month, you'll get sanctioned, and your next orders will have to be at least 800 rubles.

Of course, I'll include screenshots of this section and show some comments from regular users on this topic.

Honestly, the article's content seemed pretty clear, and everything was accessible, because there are buyers who make small orders, and delivering them just isn't profitable. In theory, you could even make it a self-serve kiosk. They have a minimum delivery amount of 500 rubles, and you can only order below that in extremely rare cases if the stars align and your order total matches the minimum delivery amount. The thing is, this minimum amount changes depending on the workload. Right now, it might be 500 rubles, but an hour later it could be 800, and then 1500. And there's nothing you can do about it. It's like, come on, implement a system like that?

Here's what customers are saying in the comments:

I received this notice in August, around the 20th. At that time, there was a very informative comment from a guy about his thoughts on the situation. He said that the minimum order amount wasn't entirely his fault. And considering that prices for many products are way higher than in any other supermarket, customers understand that delivery is already factored into the cost of each item. And let's be real, many people need to make small orders sometimes.

So, why should they be penalized for that? I saw a lot of comments like this. I'll show you a couple of them. But the thing is, the story about the cost being factored into either delivery or rental and staff work is True in retail everywhere. But for some reason, they decided to add an extra fee because they thought the already high cost wasn't enough.

❗️❗️They blamed me, though!

NOW, I'll show you the timeline and try to explain what happened. I hope I get it in the right order. I might make some mistakes with the order of the orders, but I'll try to make it accessible. So, what happened in my case?

If you look at the orders, they're 50/50. Some orders are below 500 rubles, some are above 500 rubles, and some even have a negative amount. Where did these orders with a negative amount come from, and what's not right here?

I have to say, something weird happened in August. It started with a really strange loop. First, I got some frozen pierogies. And a bag of salt that I hadn't ordered. I had bought them in a box, but they were easy to mix up. But the delivery arrived quickly, and the courier left. When I unwrapped the package in the kitchen, I realized that the salt bag was torn, and the price tag said 150 rubles. The pierogies were already frozen, and they'd been squished together. It was like they were trying to make a pierogie cake instead of individual pierogies.

I wrote to customer support, and they gave me a refund in the form of store credits. Okay, and I got my first order that was over 1000 rubles, but still under 500 because I paid with credits. The order included a pistachio roll. And suddenly, when I took a bite of the roll, I realized that it wasn't worth the 500 rubles that had been refunded to me in credits - it was more like 10,000 rubles at the dentist's office.

Customer support called me for a long time about this situation. Unfortunately, I've had a lot of calls since then, and I won't be able to find that one. But they were really worried that I would sue them. And you'd think they would have learned their lesson. But then a new pickup point opened, and it started to happen with almost every order. In August, it just got to a boiling point.

I got a refund for the roll. We went to visit some friends. We decided to have tea. I ordered a cake that was over 500 rubles. But since I paid with credits for the roll, the order was still under 500. It seemed like I was the one at fault here. I mean, I paid for it with credits for the inconvenience. I'd started to get a feeling that my account had a note saying that all the leftover stuff should be delivered to me.

I was also refunded my points for the cake. A few days later, my daughter's birthday was approaching, and they delivered the cake and some flowers to her party - in pretty much the same condition as the first cake. It looked like they'd played football with it. That's completely unacceptable for food delivery. I got my points back again. They said my order was now over 2000, but less than 1000, as if it was somehow my fault that my orders are so small.

So, the question is, what's the point of penalizing me if all my orders before the points were deducted were worth over a thousand? It seems like they should take that into account, but no, their algorithms work differently, and they only look at the final total. They don't consider how much was paid with points.

I thought I'd just let it go, but I realize now that if I keep ordering deliveries to my home, they'll keep using the same pickup point, and I'll keep having issues with my orders. And since my orders are always under 500 rubles, it makes sense that I decided to switch to bike or scooter delivery and just avoid this service altogether.

My verdict.

If they'd kept delivering from the old pickup point, I'd probably just have a sad cake to bring to someone's party. But it got worse and worse with each order, so I decided to ditch this service for my own sanity. That's why I won't be ordering from them again, and I wouldn't recommend it to you either. One star from me, and that's it.