Two Zepto users in Bengaluru have flagged a dark pattern in its app whereby users are charged a delivery fee even after buying a subscription. A dark pattern is a user interface that has been carefully crafted to trick users into doing things, or as it appears in the delivery app's case, trick subscribers into paying the delivery fee unless they manually opt for the free delivery.
The feature was brought to light by Prem Pradeep, a design manager at Ather Energy, and Kushal, a designer at Jar. Both are roommates.
Calling it daylight robbery, Pradeep wrote on X, "Why do I have to opt in for free delivery when I had already paid for the pass? That too hidden inside the bill summary. I don’t even know how many times I missed this already. Dark patterns are this common now?"
He was being charged a delivery fee of Rs 27 on an order value of Rs 222.
Explaining the dark pattern on Zepto, Kushal wrote, "While the Zepto pass claims to provide users with free delivery, it asks users to consciously remember and apply a coupon code while placing the order. I understand that why this is being done: Remove defaults and a percentage of users will forget to apply the coupon and Zepto gets more money. But this default is purchased by the user, why ask them again?"
He also shared a screen recording of the app which shows how the user interface works.
Tagging Zepto co-founder and CEO Aadit Palicha, Kushal called the interface a "cheap" way to monetise the app. "In an experience where it is supposed to provide delight, it is trying to play with users by testing if they can remember things. As a user who has loved the product for years, this is polluting the brand experience," he added.
Responding to the posts, other Zepto users also claimed to have discovered the dark pattern.
"I gave up on Zepto after seeing such dark patterns and getting a better catalog and service from Blinkit anyway," commented Lakshmi Narayanan G (@_glnarayanan). "Pivoted to Instamart a few months back when I saw the dark pattern, it had been since the day of launch. *it's an intentional design choice*" wrote Shreshth Arora (@AroraShreshth).
The delivery app, however, is yet to respond to the complaints.
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