In the age of GrabFood delivery and social media, F&B businesses should now be used to receiving honest feedback from customers, especially if it’s negative.
The operator of a hawker stall in Marsiling, however, seems to have lost their patience with bad reviews over GrabFood.
The stall has responded to many of them with grumpy and defensive replies, gaining notoriety over the Internet.
Source: Foursquare
When interviewed, the owner’s daughter said that most of the negative feedback is “groundless”.
The stall in question is listed on the GrabFood app simply as “Muslim Food Stall”, which serves local and Malaysian fare and fried chicken.
Its ratings are actually fairly good, with an average of 4.6 stars across 2,872 reviews as of Sunday (3 Sep).
Source: GrabFood app
According to the address listed, the physical stall is located in Block 21 Marsiling Lane, which is Marsiling Lane Market & Food Centre.
While most of the stall’s reviews are good, those that are negative get feisty responses.
To a complaint that the sambal sotong was salty, they curtly advised the customer, “don’t buy lah“.
Source: GrabFood app
Sometimes, they would dismiss the complaint, saying that they’ve not received other complaints.
Source: GrabFood app
Occasionally, they would threaten to cancel should the customer order from them again.
Source: GrabFood app
A customer who claimed they didn’t get peanut gravy was challenged to prove that they didn’t get it.
Source: GrabFood app
One bad review received a longer combination of some of these responses, with the stall justifying that they’ve sold 30 portions of the dish with no problems and telling the customer not to patronise them any more. They also advised them to “sendiri masak” (cook yourself).
Source: GrabFood app
Speaking of cooking yourself, that’s also another theme for the hawker stall as they seemingly believe that customers should try to cook the food themselves before they complain.
Source: GrabFood app
They apparently believe some customers need a lesson in food preparation, sometimes giving detailed explanations and once telling the complainant to “study about fish” first.
Source: GrabFood app
Another time, they implied the customer was being picky over the tenderness of their food.
Source: GrabFood app
Confoundingly, when a customer complained that they didn’t get gravy and sambal goreng with their food, the stall said the “60-year-old man” who packed the food was recovering from illness. They also said they would add the customer’s name to the reject list.
Source: GrabFood app
Most, amusingly of all, a few of the stall’s replies accused customers of having poor oral hygiene.
For example, to a complainant who described the food as bland, they said she “never brush teeth”.
Source: GrabFood app
Another customer was told that they had “ah kong teeth” and they needed to visit the dentist.
Source: GrabFood app
They also told a customer in Malay that they wanted to shut down their Grab account because people like to complain and asked them, “Never brush your teeth ah?”
Source: GrabFood app
After the stall’s grumpy replies went viral over social media, the owner’s daughter was interviewed by Shin Min Daily News.
The 32-year-old woman named only as Hani professed to be the one behind the responses.
She posted these sassy comebacks as many negative reviews were actually “groundless”, she said.
If customers gave suggestions politely, she would also respond politely, she added.
Hani said her elderly parents have been operating the stall since the 70s.
Source: Google Maps
It pains her to see the hardship they have to endure, she said, and this could also explain why she doesn’t react cheerfully to bad reviews.
Her mother decided to join GrabFood about three years ago in order to make it easier for those with reduced mobility to buy food.
Hopefully, customers don’t take the responses too badly.
In 2022, a café in Orchard Central came under fire from netizens for giving savage replies to one-star reviews on Google.
The café has since ceased operations in the mall.
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Featured image adapted from Foursquare and GrabFood app.
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