F&B Boss Says "Wrongful" Refund Requests For Food Orders Common Across Delivery Platforms

Charles tells 8days.sg that he has been offering delivery service for his bentos for the past six years. While his deliveries were largely uneventful, he says: “Once every two or three weeks we will get a ‘wrongful’ refund request.” One such request came from a customer who had ordered two of his Low-Carb Roast Chicken Zucchini Udon bowls, which includes sautéed cabbage.

In a screenshot (pictured above) of the refund request — which was sent to a food delivery platform that Charles declines to name — the customer had indicated their reason as being: “The [website] description stated sautéed cabbage but there aren’t [any] in both bentos.”

The food delivery platform then contacted Lean Bento’s staff to notify them that “we’ve charged the refund to you because the customer was not happy with how the order was cooked”.

FYI: Food delivery companies usually deduct refunds from a seller’s account, and credit it back if the seller is able to prove that the request is invalid.

Charles vigorously disputed his customer’s refund request, as he had photographic and CCTV proof that his bentos were assembled correctly before they were sent out to the recipient. “My team and I feel that there were many refunds that were wrongful. [Luckily] we can substantiate it with [evidence like] CCTV footage or a conversation,” he says.

A NUS engineering graduate, he had implemented an “internal system where we capture images of the food, bento plating and which food delivery platform it’s for, and we take a photo of [the food] with the delivery slip before it’s sent out”.

In a heated e-mail sent to the platform to dispute the refund, he says: “We refute this refund. There was no mistake. The customer has eaten up the precious cabbage and told a lie.”

The customer had included a photo of their dissatisfied food order — which Charles shares with 8days.sg — that shows a half-eaten bowl. “They substantiated their refund request with a photo showing half-eaten food, and say there’s no cabbage,” says a frustrated Charles.

He eventually got the refund dropped, with the food delivery platform informing him via e-mail that “after verification we accept your dispute and we will refund the amount claimed on your next invoice”.

According to him, the customer did not insist further on a refund. He reckons, “They could refute again if they wanted to, but they didn’t. It felt like they were trying their luck. I can’t find any way to explain otherwise.”

He maintains that his system of photographing food orders is “not meant to weaponise, it’s for our internal quality control”. However, it becomes a lifeline when he faces dodgy refund requests. “Every time an order goes out, it’s like playing Russian roulette and you don’t know where you are going to get the next blow from. The default refund policy makes it very easy for people to [nitpick]. We can only defend ourselves,” he says.

He points out that a lot of food companies do not have a habit of keeping a photographic record. “Sometimes it’s not even the customer’s fault. Something may happen during the delivery,” he says. “So if you don’t take a photo first, it opens up a can of worms where, if the customer’s order is damaged, how are you going to pinpoint who did it?”

Charles declines to single out specific food delivery platforms, as he says unreasonable refund requests are “quite prevalent across all platforms”.

He points out that “there’s a lot of power given to food delivery platforms, because some eateries — even cafes — don’t get walk-in traffic. I don’t want to villainise food delivery platforms, because I have a close working relationship with their account managers.”

But he “strongly feels” that the platforms’ refund policies “should be properly looked into”. He suggests, “Make photos a mandatory field for feedback with a [clearly-stated] expectation of how the photos should be like.”

On the websites of major players like GrabFood, Foodpanda and Deliveroo’s websites, there’s very little information provided on refunds for dissatisfied orders.

When 8days.sg called up Deliveroo to enquire about its refund policy, a call centre staff advised us to send in our substantiated claim via Deliveroo’s app or website as it’s processed on a “case-to-case basis” (our colleague, for instance, has successfully gotten a Deliveroo refund within minutes for food spillage with photo proof).

Meanwhile, GrabFood has a page for customers to give feedback about their food orders, with the option to attach photos.

On Foodpanda’s website under its terms & conditions, it’s also stated that “Foodpanda reserves the right to cancel any Order and/or suspend, deactivate or terminate your foodpanda account in its sole discretion if it reasonably suspects or detects fraudulent behavior or activity associated with your Foodpanda account and/or with your Order”.

Simply put, you have to prove with photographic evidence that your order was not up to standard, and any thwarted attempts to game the refund system may get you blacklisted.

Some of the refund requests Charles received came from customers who complained about the lack of rice in a no-carb bento and pepper-seasoned noodles that were “too spicy for me”.

Sometimes, they also gripe when an order is exactly what it’s supposed to be. “You have people ordering a Chilli Chicken Bento, and then complaining there’s chilli inside. It’s very frivolous. I’m not afraid to use the word frivolous – it is what it is,” Charles declares.

He further details, “There were also people saying ‘your salmon is very small’. Compared to what, a MacBook? We are very transparent on our website — we declare the raw weight of the ingredients because we consistently calculate it by macronutrients. We have done all we could to guide customers to the right products.”

He reckons that some small companies may “keep quiet” and oblige such refunds out of fear of losing the customer, or they simply do not have the resources like “time, effort and money” to refute the claims.

“I’m always talking to a machine, or an e-mail from the food delivery platform that comes two or three days later. After a week you feel so tired, and you’d think, it’s just an egg bento. It’s only $10.95,” he laments. “It took my staff a very long time to [muster up the courage to] tell the food delivery platforms and even to the customers that they are mistaken.”

Charles acknowledges that it’s a “grey area” when dealing with a delivery order gone awry. He cites an example of a deliveryman who delivered his bentos in heavy rain, and the packaging had gotten wet from the rain.

“The customer associates the soggy packaging with us, even though it was due to the delivery process. They didn’t ask for any refund, but we sent a gift card out of goodwill though it wasn’t our fault to begin with,” he says. “I don’t want my customers to resent someone they have never met. So I always try to go the extra mile, be understanding and look at things from both sides.”

Photos: Charles Ng/ Lean Bento