‘Don’t keep tipplers waiting’ is a lesson Faircode Technologies Private Limited, a startup based in Kochi entrusted with developing a virtual queue management app for the reopening of liquor outlets, seems to have learnt the hard way.
Tipplers are hardly impressed with what they perceive as the delay in the launch of the app ‘Bev Q’ and they have sent out that message loud and clear by bombarding the startup’s Facebook page with humorous and sarcastic comments.
To its credit, the startup has taken them in the right spirit, responding with a witty repartee or two on its own.
M.G.K. Vishnu, chief executive officer, Faircode Technologies, admitted that though the kind of public attention was unprecedented, it did not affect their work.
“The relentless news coverage around the app seems to have confused the people into believing that there was a deadline for the release of the app while there was none,” he said.
When a user wondered whether the developers of the app themselves do not long for drinks, the startup responded that it was the only reason why it took part in the tender in the first place.
To another comment that it will be lauded if it brings out the app soon or dumped if it fails, the startup wanted the user to have trust before assuring that the app will indeed be a reality and that they will share a drink for sure.
Another user dangled a five-star rating for the app in the Play Store as an incentive for its quick launch while another mockingly gives a 48-hour ultimatum for the launch, failing which he threatens to go on a dharna in front of the office of the startup.
“You will be etched in the memory of a generation,” is how another user tried to encourage the startup for an immediate launch, while another says tipplers will be eternally grateful for that.
A user mocked that while usually a software developer got the stick from the client alone, in this case, even the end user was laying into the developer. The exchequer is empty and it was the duty of the startup to help Malayalis support the government as they have always done, goes another comment.
