Customer mad at Lau Pa Sat satay stall for meat mix-up, owner apologises and offers full refund
A customer stall has beef with a Lau Pa Sat satay stall over beef satay.
Stomper Jassy cited two incidents four days apart.
"This has happened TWICE in the same week, both during off-peak hours, from 10pm to midnight when there was no crowd," said the Stomper.
"At this point, I do not believe this is accidental anymore."
On Dec 10, she placed two separate orders:
- 20 chicken and 5 beef
- 30 chicken and 15 mutton
"I clearly repeated my order, and emphasised beef and mutton must be packed separately," recounted the customer.
"The staff gave me only one receipt. When I asked why, he said since one person is paying, one receipt is enough.
"I admit I was rushing to buy other food and did not check the receipt immediately. Yes, my mistake.
"However, there was no crowd, I repeated my order twice, and he actually looked annoyed when I reminded him to pack the beef and mutton separately."
When she took the food home in Jurong West, she discovered everything was mixed together.
"I was shocked and angry," said the Stomper.
But that wasn't all. She checked the receipt and discovered there were only chicken and beef, and no mutton.
The customer immediately called the number on the receipt.
"The response was nonchalant, dismissive and unapologetic," said the Stomper.
"The only 'solutions' offered were that I go all the way from Jurong back to Lau Pa Sat at 12.10am to exchange everything, or get a refund only for the beef portion.
"This was completely unacceptable. My family was waiting to eat. How are non-beef-eating Hindus supposed to eat this?
"I am a Muslim myself, and let me be very clear, if someone mixed chicken satay with pork and expected me to be okay with it, I would be furious. This is about basic respect.
"He refunded me, but the damage was already done."
The second incident occured on Dec 14.
The Stomper's boyfriend ordered 15 chicken and 15 mutton satay from the stall. He checked the receipt and beef was indicated instead of mutton.
She recounted: "This time, my boyfriend immediately pointed it out and questioned them: 'I asked for mutton, why did you write beef?'
"Instead of apologising, the staff laughed at him and said: 'Why you don't eat beef ah? Beef nice also."
The Stomper couldn't believe it.
"My boyfriend is Hindu," she explained. "This was extremely rude, disrespectful and unacceptable."
The Stomper shared the two incidents online to "alert everyone who patronises this shop". She warned: "Please check your receipts and your orders carefully, especially if you do not eat beef."
On Dec 15, the customer told Stomp she received a message from the satay stall owner at 5.45pm.
The message said: "I wanted to relay my sincere apology for the mix-up with your food order and for the service experience that fell short of our standards.
"Please know that we take this matter very seriously and will internally review our process to ensure customers' orders are taken accurately to prevent similar incidents in the future.
"Regarding your service experience, I will be following up with my staff to reinforce the importance of courtesy, attentiveness and sensitivity, particularly with respect to customers' dietary requirements, in order to improve our overall service standards."
The customer told Stomp the stall made a full refund of $64.10 for the first incident.
She said: "Once again, they seem to think this issue is about money. Hell, no. This only happened because the matter started gaining attention online. Suddenly, they want to sound apologetic. Where was this attitude when their staff were being sarcastic and rude, telling my boyfriend, 'Beef nice what'?
"What do you mean nice? Can I say, 'Pork nice, try once, it won't hurt you'?
"This is about respect. I am a paying customer, not someone asking for free food."
The Stomper added: "The whole problem is not about getting a refund. The real issue is the ignorance happening again and again and again.
"It has barely been a week since my last visit, and even then, I did not ask for a refund. I simply wanted my mutton satay, but I was not prepared to travel all the way from Jurong West to Lau Pa Sat again.
"This is not the first time I have bought from this shop. The satay is genuinely good, especially the sauce, which is better than the other stalls there.
"I am also a very forgiving person because I understand that working in F&B is not easy. That was the only reason I decided to give the shop another chance."
