Extra ingredients? Woman finds worms in yong tau foo, delivery platform offers refund of 90 cents

The fun part about ordering yong tau foo is having the freedom to choose your ingredients, but one woman got a bit more than what she bargained for with her order. 

In a Facebook post yesterday (Aug 14), Carolyn Quek shared about her experience finding worms in her yong tau foo order from Piao Xiang Mala Hotpot Yong Tau Foo and an incredulous exchange that she had with delivery platform foodpanda over that incident. 

Quek told AsiaOne that she had ordered two bowls of yong tau foo from the eatery at Rivervale Plaza via foodpanda for a total of $23.39 on Saturday (Aug 13) evening.

She said she used a voucher to claim $6 off and her final bill came up to $17.39. 

However, when her food arrived, she found to her disgust a worm clinging to a piece of vegetable in the first bowl.

She recounted to AsiaOne that her "gut feeling" told her that the second bowl may also have worms and upon checking, she indeed found another one floating in the soup. 

In her Facebook post under the username Carolyn Cess, Quek shared images of two worms laid out on a white surface, along with a video showing one of the worms clinging onto some vegetables. 

"Received two additional ingredients. Lost my appetite," she wrote in the captions, adding to AsiaOne that it was "super gross" finding those in her food. 

90 cents refund

In screenshots of her exchange with foodpanda, a customer service officer first offered her a compensation voucher of $2 to make up for the incident which Quek rejected and requested a full refund instead. 

The customer service officer then told her apologetically that foodpanda was unable to refund her as she had not provided pictures of the issue.

Quek then promptly responded by sending over more pictures of the worms.  

After which, foodpanda then offered her a meagre refund of 90 cents that would be credited to her pandapay wallet, much to her disappointment. 

"No. Oh my god. What's wrong," she responded to foodpanda in exasperation, adding to AsiaOne that she felt the delivery platform didn't take her seriously. 

After that, she said that she was offered a $1 compensation voucher where the customer service officer added that "this is the best thing [he] can provide [her]" and apologised to the woman. 

Quek shared with AsiaOne that she found it "super frustrating" having to throw her meal out and order something else.

Unhappy with the suggested solution offered, Quek emailed foodpanda and they later replied her with two options.

One is to accept a refund amount of $4.80 to be credited to her pandapay wallet plus a compensation voucher of $1 to "further express how sorry [Foodpanda is] over [her] grievances", she told AsiaOne. 

The second option is to have $4.80 to be refunded to her original source of payment made by her credit card along with a compensation voucher of $2. 

Not first time insects in her food

Quek told AsiaOne that she didn't want to accept foodpanda's offers and that she was told to wait for a "specialist" from that platform to get back to her. 

Quek also told AsiaOne that she "always gets insects in [her] food for some reason", claiming that some of the previous orders had also been made on Foodpanda. 

She shared that for those incidents, foodpanda had given her full refunds then.

According to Foodpanda's terms and conditions, the delivery platform may request photographic proof and/or additional information to properly investigate an issue with a customer's order. If they determine that the order is "not of satisfactory condition or quality", they will compensate the customer for the order or parts of the order.

Responding to AsiaOne's queries, foodpanda said that they are aware of this incident and that they are sorry that the customer had an unpleasant experience with her food order. 

"Our customer service team has reached out to her to provide a full refund, and we have also cautioned the agent on the proper processes to follow," said a foodpanda spokesperson. 

AsiaOne has reached out to Piao Xiang Mala Hotpot Yong Tau Foo and the Singapore Food Agency for comment.

This isn't the first time someone has found worms in their food either.

In July, a woman found worms in her takeaway laksa from a coffee shop along Woodlands Street 3. 

While she found this "disgusting", some netizens shared that the worm may have been added as part of the hawker's laksa recipe. 

ALSO READ: Man claims he found long, sticky object in The Fabulous Baker Boy's fish and chips, restaurant promises 'intensive investigation'

melissateo@asiaone.com