Collin’s Grille Says Driver Issues & Power Outage Caused Backlog
During the festive season, some Singaporeans may have decided to avoid the large crowds outside and entertain at home instead.
Thus, Christmas Combos from Collin’s Grille have proven popular, with orders sold out days before Christmas.
However, several customers have since complained that they waited hours to collect their orders – only to leave empty-handed.
Photo courtesy of MS News reader
Collin’s has since issued an apology and offered full refunds to affected customers.
One customer ordered $181.80 worth of food
One disgruntled customer, Mr Ian Soh, told MS News that he’d ordered a Combo C, which cost $138 and includes items like roast chicken and honey-glazed ham.
He also ordered 2 sets of roasted barbecue pork ribs for $32 each. His order came up to $181.80 in total.
The food was scheduled for collection at Collin’s Great World City branch on Christmas Eve (24 Dec) between 5-5.15pm.
Huge crowd waiting for orders
Mr Soh arrived at 4.45pm and was told there was a delay till 5.30pm, but the items were already on the way, he said.
As the staff were “courteous and apologetic”, they were okay to wait.
But by 5.30 pm, a huge crowd had gathered outside the outlet, and he found out that some of the customers were supposed to get their food at 4pm.
Photo courtesy of MS News reader
After demanding answers, they were told that the staff couldn’t contact the delivery driver.
However, the manager promised that the food would come at 7pm and the delivery truck had broken down so another vehicle had to be procured.
This time, Mr Soh made the difficult decision to continue waiting, as getting food from elsewhere would take more time.
No food at 7pm
However, no food arrived at 7pm and according to Mr Soh, it was obvious that nothing was coming.
He said after asking the manager, he gathered that the food “probably hadn’t even left the Central Kitchen and was clearly not on the way”.
The central kitchen, incidentally, was located at Bedok Food City.
The waiting customers were understandably more upset, and were left disappointed though they gave their particulars to arrange for a refund.
Manager should’ve told truth from the start: Customer
Mr Soh said he was angered as he had guests at home waiting for the food.
Besides having to leave empty-handed despite ordering in advance, he was also mad that the manager hadn’t told the truth from the start.
He said he’d promised the food would come, and even emphasised that it was already prepared and in the truck.
If he’d come clean from the start at 4.45pm, the customer said, they would have time to make alternative arrangements.
Instead, they spent hours waiting for food that never arrived.
It’s clear that staff on the ground were “not kept in the loop”, he added, causing them unnecessary stress and trauma.
Also, he pointed out that there were no clear instructions on when the refund would come and in what form.
Similar incidents at other Collin’s outlets
The incident wasn’t just confined to Collin’s at Great World City, either.
Another netizen, Ms Sandy Toh, said on Facebook that a similar thing happened to her at Collin’s Westgate.
She arrived at 4pm to collect her festive combo order and was told it would arrive only at 5.30pm.
However, customers who’d came at 3pm for their orders were still waiting.
At 5.30pm, there was a long queue outside the outlet, similar to Great World City’s one.
Ultimately, they couldn’t wait any longer and had to ask for a refund.
Her guests ended up helping to get some roasted meat from NTUC FairPrice, which she described as “embarrassing and upsetting”.
Many other customers were in the same boat, according to the comments left on Collin’s social media accounts.
One woman said she waited 2.5 hours for her order at the Nex outlet.
Another customer who waited 2.5 at the Northpoint City outlet claimed there were even shouts and fights outside as customers were so frustrated.
One angry netizen claimed he even had trouble getting a refund after waiting for 3 hours.
Collin’s apologises & offers refunds
Faced with boatloads of angry customers, Collin’s posted an apology on Facebook on Christmas Day (25 Dec).
They explained that the incident was due to last-minute “driver issues” faced by their 3rd-party logistics provider.
This meant more customers had to self-collect at their outlets.
Another snag was a power outage at their new central kitchen, they said, which caused a backlog of food that had to be prepared fresh.
They said customers who cancelled orders will be offered a full refund and gift voucher of the same value as their order, and asked them to email with details.
Customers not appeased
However, the apology didn’t appease some customers.
On the apology post itself, a customer took issue with the restaurant describing it as a “cancelled order”, saying it was actually unfulfilled.
Another pointed out that they’d already left their names at their outlets, so they shouldn’t have to send an email.
This is especially after the inconvenience they were put through.
Bitter taste in the mouth
Collin’s Grille is popular in Singapore for their affordable and tasty Western food.
However, this incident has obviously left a bitter taste in customers’ mouths.
Hopefully, those who had their Christmas dinners ruined will get quick and adequate compensation for their troubles.
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Featured images courtesy of MS News reader and collins.sg.
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