'Lapse in refund process': Foodpanda reimburses full amount to ban mian eatery after latter receives only $9.70 from $80 order

Is the customer always right?

Not in this instance, after an eatery here said that Foodpanda's refund policy almost deprived them of their hard-earned income.

Taking to Facebook on Tuesday (May 9), the MacPherson branch of KL Traditional Chilli Ban Mee shared that they received an order for six sets of meals worth $84.60 through the food delivery platform on May 5.

But four days later, they discovered that they only received $9.70 as payment for that order.

"We received an email from Foodpanda claiming that the order had missing items, which was a vague reason (for the refund)," the eatery wrote.

They said their staff "double-checked everything before putting the food on the collection table", adding that a delivery rider went inside the restaurant twice in a space of two minutes to pick up the "huge order".

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Describing how the eatery has been running for seven years, KL Traditional Chilli Ban Mee shared that it's highly unlikely that they've missed out on any ingredients. 

"We're also troubled by the fact that there's no photo or video proof from the customer to support the claim of missing items," the eatery said.

One netizen, however, felt that the eatery's post only showed "one side to the story".

"What if the customer really did only receive that food portion? Rider could have dropped the noodles or something, then proceeded to throw them away," he said.

In an update on Wednesday, KL Traditional Chilli Ban Mee shared that Foodpanda has transferred the remaining payment to them after finding the customer's refund request to be invalid.

Lapse in refund process: Foodpanda

Responding to AsiaOne's queries, Foodpanda said on Thursday that they will reimburse the full invoice amount to KL Traditional Chilli Ban Mee. 

The food delivery platform added it was alerted to the incident by the eatery. It investigated the matter and found a lapse in the refund process for this incident. 

"We are committed to helping our restaurant partners grow their business, while also ensuring that our customers have the best experience on our platform," they added. 

chingshijie@asiaone.com