In a bizarre twist of online shopping, a Reddit user recently shared his uncomfortable experience of receiving two ridge gourds for free after ordering Skore Skin Thin Condoms from Swiggy Instamart. The post, titled “Swiggy Instamart gave me 2 ridge gourds for free along with the condoms that I ordered,” quickly went viral in the subreddit r/india, amassing over 4,100 upvotes and 223 comments.
The user, who goes by the handle u/odysseus-23, expressed his surprise at the unsolicited addition to his order, stating that there was no option to remove the ridge gourds from the purchase. He described the interaction with the delivery person as awkward, noting, “I had an awkward exchange with the delivery guy.”
To illustrate his point, the Redditor shared screenshots of his billing and photos of the unusual order combination, confirming that the complimentary ridge gourds were included as an add-on with no way to decline the free vegetables.
The incident has ignited a wave of humour across the platform, with users chiming in with playful remarks. Some joked about being “caught off gourd,” while others speculated whether this peculiar pairing was a deliberate marketing strategy by Swiggy Instamart to attract attention.
One user commented, “I’m sure instamart is purposely sending these combo free items. Guess they know people will share it on social media and it will garner more engagement.’
This is not the first time Swiggy has sent something forcefully to a customer. Last year in October, a product designer from Bengaluru, Chandra Ramanujan, criticized Swiggy Instamart online after they automatically added free tomatoes to his order without giving him the option to remove them.
He described this practice as a “dark pattern,” which refers to design techniques that manipulate users into taking actions they might not want to take. In his post on X (formerly Twitter), he expressed his frustration, stating that he didn’t want the tomatoes and found it unacceptable that they were added to his cart without his consent. He shared screenshots of his order to illustrate the issue.
A dark pattern is a tactic used by websites or apps to manipulate users into doing things they might not want to do.Â