When a customer ordered mala hotpot and received a bag of rubbish instead, it obviously ruined his dinner.
Moreover, it also gave rise to an impenetrable mystery: How did a foodpanda delivery order go so wrong?
The mala stall in question has explained what happened, admitting that the bag of rubbish was mistakenly sent to the customer.
They also apologised to patrons for the error.
The stall in question is Chuan Wei Mala Hot Pot, located at a coffee shop in Block 678A, Choa Chu Kang Crescent.
A stallholder of Chuan Wei, Mr He, owned up to the error, reported Shin Min Daily News.
The 46-year-old told the paper that on the evening of the order, there were only 2 employees manning the stall during the busy dinner period.
There were at least 6 delivery orders to prepare at the same time, so the pair were “very busy”.
One of the staff was clearing the trash, and he put some of it on a table in front of the stall.
Unfortunately, that was the same table that delivery orders were placed for collection by riders.
Upon checking CCTV footage, Mr He realised that the delivery rider had mistakenly taken the bag of rubbish instead.
As the wrong bag had the stall’s details on it, the rider must have misunderstood, he added.
Mr He was very apologetic for the incident, according to Shin Min.
Even though it was the delivery rider’s mistake, the stall also had to bear some responsibility, he said.
However, when Shin Min contacted the customer, he didn’t want to speak further on the incident.
The unfortunate customer had previously shared on the Complaint Singapore Facebook group that he’d ordered food from Chuan Wei Mala Hot Pot on 11 Mar.
When the “order” arrived, he said he found a plastic bag filled with wrappers, receipts, used tissue paper and even cockroaches.
Unsurprisingly, he found it “utterly disgusting”.
The post attracted much discussion on Facebook, but was taken down a while later.
Worse still, this wasn’t the 1st time the customer had trouble with his order from the same stall, he claimed.
On 8 Mar, the man had shared on the Complaint Singapore Facebook group about another strange incident.
He said he’d ordered mala from them, but instead received a “mysterious black soup”.
When MS News got in touch with Chuan Wei Mala Hot Pot on Sunday (13 Mar), they said the customer’s allegations were false and untrue.
They also said they’d lodged a police report and filed a separate complaint to foodpanda.
Now that the stall has reportedly acknowledged that a mistake was made, it’s uncertain what the status of the police investigation will be.
However, we do know that thanks to the Facebook post, they were prompted to check CCTV footage and discovered the error, reported Shin Min.
The customer’s experience with the stall certainly could’ve been better, to put it mildly.
While the apology from the stall is definitely appreciated, he perhaps deserves to get a personal explanation and some compensation too.
If the customer ever decides to order from them again, we hope he’ll have a good meal.
Have news you must share? Get in touch with us via email at news@mustsharenews.com.
Featured image adapted from Zephyr Jun Xiang Ng on Facebook and Google Maps.
He made sure all the passengers were served before taking a slice for himself.
The doctor recommended a 2-week gap between manicures to allow nails to recover.
The dog stayed with its owner until she was discharged.
Plus, stand a chance to win a BYD electric car.
Following the incident, netizens felt compelled to reconsider pork consumption.
The dog, Taohu, was inseparable from its owner, who raised it from puppyhood.