Follow us on Telegram for the latest updates: https://t.me/mothershipsg

It turns out, the Mercedes driver who was accused of picking up live seafood worth S$334.50 from a shop in an industrial area off Bartley Road East and driving off without paying, really does know the boss of the business quite well, and the whole incident was a misunderstanding.

A misunderstanding

On Sep. 29, 8 World News wrote a follow-up piece on the issue, and that the owner of the business has since apologised to the customer for causing his reputation to take a hit.

What happened

Serene Qin, the boss of The Morning Catch Seafood restaurant, told the Chinese media that it was a new staff who had misheard the regular customer's name, putting it down as "Jia", when it should have been "Jiang".

The customer had ordered three American lobsters, nine mantis shrimps, nine baby abalones, and 1kg of flower crabs worth S$334.50.

Jiang informed the staff he would foot the bill at a later time as he was in a rush on collection day on Monday, Sep. 19, at around 7:50pm.

The customer did not leave any contact information, and only mentioned to the staff he knows the owner.

According to the report, Jiang, apparently, said he was able to recognise most of the staff, but was not familiar with the person who misheard his surname.

This staff member, it was revealed in the report, had only worked at the eatery for less than a month. Apparently, their Chinese listening skills aren't the best either.

The misunderstanding arose when Qin said this new staff told her about the a customer not paying and leaving, and that the customer was named "Jia", whose name did not ring a bell.

Qin then posted a message to her WeChat page three days later in a bid to find the customer.

It was Qin's husband, Desmond Lim, who subsequently put up photos of the customer's Mercedes and and bill, and wrote about the non-payment issue.

It was reported previously a police report was made.

According to 8 World News, the idea of lodging a police report came to pass as the staff was worried he would be held responsible for the S$334.50 bill.

How misunderstanding cleared up

The misunderstanding was then cleared up on Sep. 28, when the irate customer Jiang posted about the incident on social media.

Qin saw it.

She then found out Jiang was upset about what happened, naturally.

Qin said she wanted to apologise for the misunderstanding.

She also admitted that she felt especially bad when she found out that Jiang was the customer involved.

By her own admission, Qin said she is quite close to Jiang.

Jiang has since made full payment.

The Facebook post by Lim has been taken down.

Qin said this incident might have "had a negative impact on [Jiang's] reputation".

She said they will "still sincerely apologise", even though the entire matter was an unfortunate misunderstanding.

Top photos via Shin Min Daily News & Desmond Lim