We’ve all seen the increase in the promotion of Tipti, particularly at Cuenca Megamaxi and Supermaxi Las Americas with the orange van in the parking lot. We see the young people in orange vests waiting for an assignment or we’ve been behind them during checkout. We’re handed a Tipti discount coupon along with our receipt. When I received a promotional email recently, I thought that I would enjoy keeping these young people employed and decided to create an account to learn more about the features and the service’s ease of use before I committed to placing an order. Buckle up, this experience, as you can find discussed in an old post from 2 years ago, is, shall I say, a bit of a challenge!
Registering For an Account
This can be done via their website, tipti.market or their phone apps. This is a service dependent on finding your location for delivery or pickup, like Mercado Libre, PedidosYa and AzuTaxi. These services all present the user with a Google Maps user interface to easily move the pin to your exact location where the app probably captures for use by the driver in their app either the lat/lon coordinates or Google’s own Plus Code location system that is used by some countries with no formal addressing system.
However, what Google may display as to the address convention we know as calle and calle secundaria could be, as is in my case, a horrific mess. Inaccurate data in Maps is why most Ecuador based apps allow a user override, but I discovered Tipti does not. I’ve experienced observing taxis in Azutaxi app incapable of navigating to my pickup location via the map display on their phone, so I always override to human readable addressing that match street signs at intersections. I contacted Tipti’s Care Team via their website chat widget (they also have WhatsApp) to see if they could override and edit my address. I spent an hour in the chat and determined what edits they made were overridden by Google Maps location display data when I next logged in. I wasn’t about to use a delivery service where I had to answer a call every time from the delivery driver to help them find me. The app does have the standard free form text field labeled Reference where you can provide details to locate your home like it’s 4 houses on the right from the corner. My solution? I’m aware Google Maps allows users to submit edits to map data for Ecuador. I determined the issue could be my street according to Street View timestamp has only existed for 9 years and while labeled correctly it could not be found if the name was entered in the Maps search field. I’ve submitted “Fix A Road” map corrections for Ecuador in the past. I’m confident the correction will yield the correct location display that both the delivery person and I can view. The change will be also be seen in the other apps using Google Maps. Those of you who see Google Maps correctly displaying your location need not be concerned, but for others in my predicament, beware of this anomaly!
Once you’ve jumped the delivery location hurdle, there is more data required to complete your profile. When you enter your card payment details, you will see a message saying your card data will be validated by a debit of $3 (actually it was only $1) with immediate credit a minute later, which I can confirm occurred with no problem. There are many other features listed in the app menu to consider such as Prime membership levels with benefits such as paying cash on delivery up to $100, but those details are beyond the scope of this post. If you have a Supermaxi card registered with your cedula, you receive those cost savings that you’ll see in the cart.
Language Choice
Tipti offers its user interface default in Spanish or English that doesn’t work to change the user interface completely. I found if you choose English, searching for items is a different experience. An example:
Set to Spanish, searched on the word, ‘Lavel’ to find Lavel brand candles, search resulted in many pages of the selected store, Megamaxi’s, inventory of that brand and nothing but the candles.
Set to English, same search, results were bizarre, mainly a lot of niveles (levels), evidence of a fuzzy search setting and other results that really made no sense. Lesson learned, set the language choice to Spanish for best results.
Creating and Populating a Shopping List
Tipti allows you to build a grocery list of the ingredients in a recipe or a list of items you stock up on regularly. When you first log on, choose the store icon link where you want to search their digital catalog. To create a list, choose that menu option, Listas y Recetas. the store you’re shopping at. Create the list, then enter it to add inventory items. I chose Megamaxi. As you search for items while inside your list, for example, zapallo, the product photo is the way to identify the variety you typically buy. The button will display Add to Cart, but really you’re adding to a list. Then it allows on the same page to choose the quantity, but I found that change didn’t populate when viewing the list’s items. It’s easier to search and add, then edit the quantities needed. Within the list, there is the send all to the cart or to choose which items to send. If one or more items is currently out of stock, you’ll be presented with a popup window and the ability to choose substitutions for each. Then you either continue shopping beyond the list or enter your cart by clicking on the cart icon and make many changes there too as needed. There is the ability to add notes to each item for the shopper (don’t assume the app will translate). On the final page summary that creates your order, you have another field to add instructions, in addition to 2 check boxes, one to flag you are 65+ to get preferential treatment of order fulfillment. and the other checkbox confirms you consent to the shopper to make item substitutions in general I assume. I’d be wary about enabling that depending on your order items.
Can you shop at more than one store in one order? Yes, but you’ll see in your cart and at checkout stores comply to different delivery times, minimum value to be eligible for delivery and the 2 charges, delivery fee and commission fee if applicable. Don’t expect you’ll have one shopper at Wayra Plaza shopping for your Megamaxi items, then heading down one level to Kywi to shop there for a single delivery and single charge. Keep in mind Megamaxi and Supermaxi are listed as separate stores. Considering it’s evident Mega has the larger variety of inventory, I’m not sure why shopping choosing Supermaxi’s inventory would be the better choice.
Miscellaneous Quirks
Recently I bought Free Home brand glass food storage containers with valves in the tops where you can vacuum seal with a manual pump sold separately. Three sizes are available. I wanted to purchase more so I searched for them. I tried various synonyms for container in Spanish listed by Google Translate: recipiente, envase, contenedor, container. Finally I had to look at my old receipt to see how it was described: refractario AKA refractory, secondary translations, ovenproof, heat-resistant. Partial success, only the 1400ml size appeared. There is a form where a message is sent to the Care Team to inquire about an item you cannot find. I submitted the item description for the 1400ml, changing the description to say 800ml. I received an email a ½ hour later saying they added that size and I should see it in search results in a few days. Most of the time you’ll search using correct Spanish word and quickly find the item you usually buy.
I experienced some errors attempting to set up my test list as a recurring order allowing you to choose a day and a weekly frequency. The app design has a few non-intuitive function design choices you’ll have to get accustomed to (it’s not you, it’s the app, trust me, hang in there). My recurring order on a list primarily for weekly purchase of meats would be to choose once a week on Fridays, a choice where I assume I would get the Friday 10% discount price on meats.
I’ve made these tests, stopping short at placing an order, to document the experience for the expat community. In my case, I’m waiting to see if the Google Maps error correction results in a more accurate human readable display of my location. Worst case and Google makes no correction, I’ll make use of the fields to clarify things like… please ignore what it displays as sector name, Las Retamas, that actually is an area of Cuenca nowhere close to where I’m located!
Test shopping at Megamaxi resulted in a $3.50 delivery fee and no commission fee due to order total price. That is cheaper for me than the bus fare to Wayra Plaza and the taxi ride home lugging heavy bags, not to mention the value of time no longer spent doing this tedious chore. When I think I’m providing young people employment by patronizing Tipti, in my opinion it’s worth a trial run.
Patricia
City: Cuenca
