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The Serangoon Garden hawker who was looking for a customer who paid S$700 for a S$7 meal, has successfully located the patron and processed the refund on Mar. 16.

The latest update was provided by the hawker, William Fong, via a Facebook post.

In the post, Fong also thanked the public for helping him spread the word.

Speaking to Lianhe Zaobao, the affected customer, surnamed Li (hanyu pinyin), shared that she didn't notice anything amiss until she received the email notification of her transfer.

Despite the hiccup, the 55-year-old said she would continue using e-payments but would be more careful when keying in the payment amount moving forward.

Stall name revealed

After the affected customer was identified, it was revealed that the erroneous transfer occurred at Tian Jin Fong Kee, a stall that specialises in dumplings.

According to the hawker's Facebook page, the stall is actually a family business founded in 1948, and Fong is the third-generation owner.

Previously, Fong explained that he didn't want to disclose his stall name because he was "not trying to promote anything other than returning the money".

Refunded customer on Mar. 16

Speaking to Zaobao, Fong said he found out that a customer had transferred the stall S$700 via DBS PayLah! at around 6pm on Mar. 14 when going through the transaction history.

However, Li's meal only cost S$7, which means that she had overpaid S$693.

As the process might take a much longer time if he refunds the amount via NETS or through the bank, Fong decided to find the customer by posting on Facebook.

Fortunately, Li managed to stop by Fong's stall on Thursday afternoon, and he refunded the amount after verifying her transaction records.

Will continue using e-payments: Li

Li explained to Zaobao that she only noticed she had overpaid after receiving the email notification about the transfer.

She believed she probably failed to check the amount properly before transferring it, as some e-payment platforms require users to key in from the second decimal place.

Takeaways from the incident

In the comments section of his post, Fong also offered some suggestions that may help prevent similar incidents from reoccurring and make it easier for hawkers to refund their overpaying customers.

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Top images via Lianhe Zaobao & Almeo Tan/Google Maps