Bak Chor Mee Hawker, 29, Rants About Dishonest Customers Who Shortchange Him In Funny TikTok Video
One guy ‘paid’ him using a souvenir coin from Loyang Tua Pek Kong temple.
Taking orders, conveying them to the kitchen, packing the food and collecting payment when there’s a long line of customers during peak hours can be a chaotic affair for many hawkers and their assistants. While there are a rare few like the Nanyang Lor Mee hawker uncle who trusts his customers enough to introduce an ‘honour system’, where patrons pay and take their own change from a pool of money, other hawkers complain about getting fleeced by some customers who scurry off without paying, or who pay less than what they owe.
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Recently, Aaron Lim, 29, made a TikTok video about his encounters with customers who’ve shortchanged him at his stall, My Father’s Minced Meat Noodles, which 8days.sg featured before. The millennial, who has a degree in Business Information Systems, has been co-running the bak chor mee joint with his dad for close to seven years now, with his dad working the morning shift and him in the afternoon. Their stall in Tampines is most popular for its soupy bak chor mee.
In his video humorously titled “If they can save that petty cash by cheating, they will do it”, Aaron rants about dishonest customers, citing an example of how one ran away without making full payment. The video went semi-viral with 42K views.
“This person dabao already right, he took his money and just said ‘oh, qian yi jing fang zai na bian liao’ (mandarin for “I’ve already put the money there”), then he walked off right away”, he said.
He then goes on to say that for the $4 bowl of mee, the customer paid “two one dollar coins and one two dollar note”, one of which was an unusable Loyang Tua Pek Kong temple souvenir coin.
Ironically, a similar coin that’s believed to be given out for free by the popular temple during Chinese New Year has been listed for over $20 on Carousell. Aaron laughs and tells 8days.sg that he was unaware of this, but instead shares that “after I made the video, last week, one of the members from Loyang Tua Pek Kong temple called us and ordered 22 packets [of noodles]”, though he’s unsure if the order had anything to do with his TikTok video. It’s a pleasant ending to this incident at least.
Cheated of $29 via old PayNow screenshot
Though the shortchanging usually happens with cash, Aaron says “the coins [issue] is one example, and another is when their PayNow payments don’t go through, and they just show a screenshot from a previous transaction they made”.
Aaron recalls one such incident, where someone stiffed him of $29 despite being a return customer that Aaron recognised. “[His order] cost $29 for four packets of noodles, and he said he paid already [via PayNow]”, he shares. He adds: “At the time we were very busy so I didn’t check, but when I did later - because PayNow usually sends an email receipt - there was no email, so I was very irritated that day”.
Aaron says that the customer hasn’t returned since, and he is convinced that it was not an accident. “I’m pretty sure that the guy was trying something”, he says, explaining that “he ordered the exact same order as he did on his previous visit, and he just screenshot that old payment and reused it”.
These days, Aaron says he makes sure to check that customers pay the correct amount whenever they make big purchases, jokingly saying “aiyah, if it’s $4 and you still want to cheat me, then never mind I give it to you lah”.
Though he has encountered multiple incidents with dishonest customers, Aaron says that “this kind of thing usually only happens when it’s busy”, and not super often, luckily. Moreover, it usually involves smaller amounts with coins, so he’s “chill” about it.
Do these incidents happen more to the baby-faced hawker vs his dad? “No, no, no,” he laughs. In fact, he says: “my dad has been in this business for 30 years, so he has experienced more [cheating incidents] than me”.
My Father’s Minced Meat Noodles is at #01-190 Every Day Come Coffee Shop, 477 Tampines St 43, S520477. Open daily 6am - 8pm.
Photos: TikTok/Isellbachormee, Alvin Teo
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