Supper surcharge? Man says he paid extra $4 for meal at Lau Pa Sat

Does it cost extra to have supper at Lau Pa Sat? 

One diner was left puzzled after he was charged extra for his plate of fried rice and chicken wings. 

Sharing his experience on Reddit, the unnamed diner visited a Western food stall at Lau Pa Sat after attending Taylor Swift's concert on March 9.

He wrote that his meal originally cost $7.80, but he was told that he would be charged an additional $2 as it was after midnight, which he agreed to. 

As the stall owner was keying in his order into the cash register, he noticed she selected a different item. 

He tried to stop her, but was told to "wait" as she continued keying in the wrong order. 

"I was expecting to pay $9.80 but was surprised when the lady asked me to pay $11.80 and didn't give me the receipt." 

When the diner tried to ask for his receipt, he was given one with random items such as "ramyeon", "cheese", and "take-away", which added up to $11.80, the amount he ended up paying. 

He was told that the Western food stall that he ordered from was a sister company of the Korean food stall next door. 

The diner's post garnered several comments from netizens who decried the extra charge. 

They pointed out that they weren't charged extra for dining at Lau Pa Sat in the wee hours of the morning, and asked the diner to file a complaint. 

Some also questioned why the receipt showed completely different items from what was ordered. 

Surcharge was to subsidise stall cleaning fee: Stall owner 

When a Shin Min reporter contacted the person-in-charge of the two stalls, he explained that the Western food stall and Korean food stall have different owners but are both managed by him. 

The Western food stall usually closes at 10.30pm, but the Korean burger stall opens till 4am. 

Although the Western food stall had already closed on that day, they decided to re-open the stall out of goodwill as there were some customers asking for Western food. 

He decided to re-open the stall, but charge customers an extra $2 to cover the cost of the $80 cleaning fee.

Customers who placed their orders with the Western food stall were also told to make payment at the Korean stall, and were informed about the surcharge, he said.  

"Maybe the customer ordered during peak hour, and the staff accidentally told him it was a midnight surcharge, which caused a misunderstanding." 

"The burger stall has always been open till 4am and they've never implemented a surcharge. Netizens have been criticising them, which is quite unfair." 

Responding to claims that the diner was charged wrongly for his meal, the manager said that the staff keying in the order could have made a mistake as they were busy then. 

In response to Shin Min's queries, a spokesperson from FairPrice Group, which manages Lau Pa Sat, confirmed that there are no such surcharges and have since issued a warning to the stall. 

The spokesperson added that they have launched an investigation and have contacted the customer to provide a refund for the meal. 

AsiaOne has contacted FairPrice Group for more information. 

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claudiatan@asiaone.com