Hawker gives away 45 packets of noodles after customer cancels order, says he feels 'appreciated' doing so
As a hawker, you encounter all sorts of customers, from rude, unreasonable ones to those who dine and dash.
But for one noodle stall operator at Timbre+, he seemed to have gotten the worst of the lot.
In a Facebook post on Thursday (Oct 20), the frustrated owner of Shuang Kou Mian announced that he was giving away 45 packets of noodles "to anyone who wants", with "no questions asked".
The reason? A disgruntled GrabFood customer claimed that the stall took too long to prepare the food and subsequently cancelled his order.
That cancelled order included some 15 bowls of laksa, 10 bowls of minced meat noodles, 10 bowls of their specialty meatball noodles and 10 bowls of signature mee sua, which came up to a hefty $285.55, he told AsiaOne.
According to the noodle stall's Facebook post, they took an hour to "cook and pack the 45 packets of noodles".
The stall owner added that anyone could visit his stall to get a bowl of free noodles till 7.30pm on Thursday. "We feel it would be a waste to throw," he explained in the post.
He also said that some of the noodles were "toppled inside the container" because the driver allegedly threw the noodles back at them.
"But don't worry it is all clean and never come out of the container [sic]!" reassured the hawker.
Over in the comments, netizens were appalled at the customer's behaviour, remarking that taking an hour to prepare such a big order was "very reasonable".
Speaking to AsiaOne, the hawker, who declined to be named, admitted he was initially rather frustrated about the cancelled order, but quickly cheered up after people came by his stall to pick up the noodles.
"I received a few calls [asking] if the noodles were available... then they came to collect it. Some were given to the cleaners in the area."
"Seeing how people are happy receiving the food made me feel so much better and appreciated," he said.
He also suggested that other merchants do something similar if they have last-minute order cancellations, as a way to reduce food wastage.
While thanking netizens for their help on Facebook, the stall owner also shared that they have a "Belanja Eat" programme, where people can pay $2.50 to sponsor a bowl of fishball noodles for someone in need.
The hawker told AsiaOne that Grab has since agreed to compensate him for the order.
AsiaOne has also reached out to Grab for more information.
According to Grab's website, the company will reimburse merchants for cancelled orders if the customer changes or indicates the wrong delivery address, or if there is no delivery partner available to pick up the order.
For orders that do not fall into the two categories, merchants can also report a payment dispute.
Back in September, an enraged GrabFood customer took to Facebook to call out his delivery rider who allegedly binned his $500 Shake Shack order.
The customer, who goes by Melvin, wrote in his post that he placed an order on Aug 11 on the Grab app.
After waiting in vain for two hours, he contacted Grab to ask about his food, and was told that it had been delivered.
Melvin eventually realised that his order had been placed next to a rubbish bin in the Basement 2 carpark of Jewel Changi Airport. He also shared that Grab only offered him a paltry $50 refund for the botched order.
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claudiatan@asiaone.com
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