Grabtalk Part Two: The Coffee Run Challenge

We tried Grabtalk, your helpful local friend, a few months ago, when a colleague fancied a burger and beer for lunch and wasn't left particularly satisfied about the service, but also didn't rule out using it again. This time around, with our sixth-floor office lift broken (sorry, delivery man), we were crashing hard and in serious need of caffeine. Being a fair bunch here at the Beijinger, we also thought we'd give Grabtalk the chance to redeem themselves after a lukewarm first attempt.

The last time I needed coffee, I went to Starbucks on my e-bike and got coffee, only to exit Starbucks and walk straight into a conundrum: how do you ride an e-bike while holding a hot coffee on the wrong side of the road along the Third Ring Road? It was a mission doomed to fail from the very beginning. Long story short, coffee all over my clothes, people staring, e-bike nearly toppling: Just a day in the life of an addict. 

As Grabtalk can supposedly solve all your issues, I decided to save myself harm and instead get them to bring us coffee, clarifying the order a few times, before they finally confirmed it correctly. We didn't realize the order was that hilarious, though, LOL, Eko!
 

After paying through WeChat Wallet (the other option is credit card), the staff were quick to check up on whether or not the coffee had arrived. I told them it hadn't, just as someone rang to tell me some unidentified reason for a delay (they spoke very quickly, in my defense).
 

Either way, Eko signed off with peace and love, and the coffees got here, delivered by an out-of-breath but apologetic man. From beginning to end, the entire mission took 1.5 hours (or so we thought ...). A tad long, but we do accept that mysterious mistakes do happen.
 

All of the drinks arrived, finally, ice melted, but still, caffeine! But then, it turned out one of the drinks was wrong.
 

After getting back in touch with Grabtalk, which took a while, they rectified the order. And so we conclude the entire saga after just over two hours and 10 minutes after we started. I really, really want to give them the benefit of the doubt, because I want it to be possible for people to deliver me coffee in under two hours. Unfortunately, it genuinely took that long and I may just have to resort to returning to dangerous expeditions for my fix.

To get in on the action find Grabtalk on WeChat (ID: grabtalk).

More stories by this author here.
Email: margauxschreurs@truerun.com
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Images: pexels.com, Margaux Schreurs