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[UPDATE on Apr. 19 at 4:55pm: This article has been updated with a statement from foodpanda]

pandamart, an online shop run by food delivery company foodpanda, provides a quick and convenient home delivery option for groceries.

By "working directly with manufacturers and suppliers", foodpanda is able to sell and deliver groceries from 14 locations across the island with "no middle man", which creates a win-win situation as cost savings can be passed on to customers while foodpanda scores a segment of the grocery business.

But this also means that foodpanda may be more likely to be held responsible when things go wrong, as a recent customer's experience demonstrates.

Customer finds lump of mouldy cheese in packet

The customer, one Jan Rick Camara Mascarina, posted on Facebook about ordering from pandamart, receiving a defective item, and reporting it to foodpanda's customer support.

The defective item, a pack of frozen shredded cheese, apparently contained a clump affected by mould, the customer discovered.

What made things worse was the fact that he was nearly done cooking with the cheese, which he'd used to prepare a baked pasta dish for his family and a friend.

This meant that the entire dish had already been contaminated by the mouldy cheese by the time he discovered the problem.

According to the customer, the pack of cheese had been ordered, delivered, and opened on the same day, and was not past its expiry date.

Customer service offered "goodwill" voucher, but customer wanted more

foodpanda support acknowledged the customer's messages and offered a "goodwill" voucher for S$15. This would cover the cost of the cheese, which he said cost S$14.

The offer of a voucher was apparently not enough for him, however.

"What about the whole meal ruined, or at the very least - everything else I bought in the same order that also went into the pasta!?" wrote the customer in his Facebook post.

He replied by calling attention to the "premium beef and butter" which had gone into his marinara sauce base, only to end up contaminated.

On top of the financial impact that the mouldy cheese had, he also characterised the experience as a near miss for him and his family. "If we didn't even spot this my whole family could be food poisoned", he wrote back to the customer support staff.

"Is it too much to expect more than just the cheese refunded?" he wrote later on Facebook, saying that the cost of the other ingredients used in his dish exceeded the voucher's value.

He also took issue with the fact that the customer service staff said "We [foodpanda] strive to give you sweeter memories in the future", replying: "By sweet memories u mean a trip to the A&E?"

The customer support staff asked once more whether foodpanda could proceed to issue the refund voucher.

However, the customer ignored the question, asking to speak to a manager over the phone.

"This calls for Karen mode": customer demands to speak to manager

"I would like to thanks for bringing this in our notice and we will also look into this," wrote the foodpanda support staff, who also offered the voucher a third time, unsuccessfully.

Explaining his thought process on Facebook, the customer concluded that foodpanda's offer of a refund was so they could "close the case and move on", which he was unwilling to oblige.

"This calls for Karen mode", he wrote.

The customer continued to insist that the staff "escalate this to your manager", and the customer service staff eventually said that a "specialist" would contact him.

Customer claims that calls "rang only once"

The customer says that he received two consecutive calls shortly after, producing screenshots of the missed calls which "rang only once", leaving him with no time to pick up.

He then received an email from foodpanda, containing an apology, as well as the details of the voucher (or refund) being offered.

The customer took issue with how the email said that he was "unreachable" by phone, even though the phone only rang once.

After requesting once more for a call from foodpanda, the customer decided to wait by his phone for almost 45 minutes for foodpanda to call back, in order to capture evidence.

He was eventually able to record the sound of his phone ringing, followed by indistinct voices which did not respond to him after he picked up.

Customer unhappy with "template response" email, rejects voucher

The customer then received a second follow-up email which arrived in his inbox "on cue within minutes" and which misstated his order as one that was placed with a merchant in Malaysia.

The email once again offered him a voucher, requesting for his confirmation for it to be issued.

In response, the customer wrote in his Facebook post: "OK foodpanda you win. Keep the $15."

As a final salvo, the customer also uploaded a sarcastic rewriting of a foodpanda marketing slogan, changing it from "the simple joys of life" to "we find joy in giving sh*t customer service".

Response to the post

The customer's public Facebook post attracted a number of comments from those with similar experiences, who decried foodpanda's "nightmare" customer service.

Some, however, pointed out that there could have been more "give and take" in the situation and suggested that the customer's "attitude and ego" were part of the problem as well.

Replying to queries from Mothership, a foodpanda spokesperson said that the company had reached out to the customer to apologise, and that it was investigating the matter.

Here’s their statement in full:

“We are sorry for the upsetting and frustrating experience - we have reached out to the customer, to extend our apologies to him. We are currently investigating the matter, and will take the necessary steps to prevent this from happening again.”

All images via Jan Rick Camara Mascarina on Facebook