Holiday, biryani and a can of aerated drink. This is one combo a biryani lover from Hyderabad can never refuse. Add to it the term ‘free’ and the midweek holiday can turn into a mini celebration. As the cab aggregator Uber turned three, they sent text messages to their registered users about an offer: ‘Hyderabad, today between 11 am - 3 pm, we’re bringing you FREE biryani on demand. Slide over to Uber@3 view and hit request.’
Biryani, and for free? That’s an offer no Hyderabadi can refuse. So, the moment the message was read, irrespective of the time, requests flooded the app for their free biryani and the can of drinks. What happened next was a series of laughter, confusion and an interminable wait.
One Uber user living in Khairatabad waited patiently for his pack of biryani, sure that he’d be the first among his friends to get it. So he had oatmeal for breakfast, hoping his biryani packet would arrive the moment he swipes the app at 11a.m. But he was in for a rude shock. The Uber app on his android phone didn’t even load the Uber@3! A simple example of ‘wait and you shall be rewarded’ going wrong.
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Another Uber user began swiping without looking at her watch and jumped to the conclusion the offer is meant for Hitec city users only. After a couple of disappointed messages to her friends, it turned out that she had swiped the offer icon on the app at 9 a.m itself.
Then there was this couple that decided to swipe from different areas of their locality, hoping to get a pack with each swipe. One from their house and the other from another corner of the locality. Outcome? Total failure as the app showed ‘Our drivers are busy delivering at the moment, keep trying.’ Free idea dropped, the husband dashed off to Bahar in Basheerbagh just to be in time to ‘buy’ the fresh batch of biryani in the morning.
So did anyone actually get the ‘free’ biryani? One user says, “Only Uber can tell, because whenever I accessed the app, it said, ‘our drivers are busy delivering.” Well, we can’t blame anyone. After all, in Hyderabad, ‘a lot happens over a plate of biryani’.
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