Customer says he was charged 50 cents extra for boneless chicken at Singabola, stall owner responds

A customer was baffled when his request for breast meat at a newly-opened chicken rice stall came with a higher price tag.

In a post made on Facebook group Complaint Singapore on Monday (June 10), Shaun Koo explained how he ended up paying a total of $6 for a plate of chicken rice with an egg at SingaBola Chicken Rice due to an extra charge.

"Normally a change to boneless [meat] doesn't incur additional cost at other chicken rice stalls," he wrote.

"Here, [they] charge 50 cents extra. Win liao lor."

Some netizens shared Koo's shock at the charge, questioning why the stall would charge more for boneless meat, while others believed an additional charge was justified.

One Facebook user commented: "Debone $0.50. Next time they will charge for cutting the chicken too."

"Not all chicken rice stalls sell boneless chicken. If it's an additional request, then paying $0.50 is reasonable," wrote another netizen

Another commenter responded: "Majority of chicken rice stalls will debone for free. This practice [has been] around for many years."

AsiaOne has reached out to Shaun Koo for more information.

'We will refund him'

Singabola Chicken Rice gained media attention for being a joint venture between local actor Peter Yu and influencer Simon Khung — also known as Simonboy. The two opened the stall on June 2 alongside their business partner, Winson Ng.

When asked about the complaint, Ng told AsiaOne that the situation was a misunderstanding due to a point of sales (POS) system error.

"The stall does not charge extra for breast meat. It is supposed to be entered into the POS system just as a note," said the 31-year-old.

Explaining that he had noticed the additional charge while looking through past transactions on Monday, Ng said: "The system charged 50 cents for the request instead of it being free of charge. I have alerted our POS operator to this error already."

"If the customer comes back with his receipt, we will refund him. We hope to settle the matter privately."

Ng added that charging customers for requesting breast meat would be "ridiculous".

"We only charge 50 cents extra for chicken thigh, and $1 extra for chicken drumstick," he explained.

ALSO READ: 'Might as well pick them out myself': Diner baffled by Bukit Panjang hawker's 50-cent charge to remove beansprouts

bhavya.rawat@asiaone.com