Singaporean man warns against Aljunied durian vendor with ‘unethical’ sales tactics

SINGAPORE: After an unpleasant, not to mention expensive, encounter with a durian seller at Aljunied, a man in Singapore took to social media to warn others to avoid the vendor “at all costs” due to his “unethical sales tactics.”

In a post on the COMPLAINT SINGAPORE Facebook page from earlier this month, the man wrote that the stall is located opposite the Geylang East Market & Food Centre.

When the post author first approached the vendor, he asked him if it would be okay for the vendor to open a particular fruit first and then added that if the durian was not to his liking, he could choose another one.

The vendor assured him this would be all right.

The man then chose a fruit, and when it was opened, he saw it was ripe and soft. He said he would take it and told the vendor he wanted two more.

The man then chose a small one and asked the vendor to open it. The vendor, however, put it back into the durian pile and pushed for one he chose instead, which looked bigger than the durian the man chose.

The post author wrote that he was somewhat skeptical, but the vendor told him that a bigger durian means more meat, which the post author knows is not necessarily true. The vendor then proceeded to open the bigger fruit that he chose, which the post author described as  “super hard with very big seeds.”

The man told the vendor that he did not want that durian.

“That’s when he started raising his voice and forcing me to buy it, saying in Chinese, ‘I opened it already, you don’t want? You think what?”

The post author’s mother then asked the vendor to try the durian, since he had said earlier that a durian with hard meat would be given to them for free. However, the vendor refused to do so, saying he does not eat “customer’s food.”

Although she felt that the vendor, who kept raising his voice, was being very unreasonable toward them, she did not want the situation to escalate and decided to just pay the man S$100 and leave.

The post seems to have resonated with many commenters and has been shared almost 200 times. Netizens felt the same way that the post author did, and encouraged him to report the vendor to the authorities.

Others warned against the tactics that some vendors use.

“When durian sellers insist on picking the fruits for you instead of you picking the fruits already is a red flag to walk away,” wrote one.

“If the vendor threatens you, just walk away,” advised another.

“Let’s normalize walking away and not paying if we feel threatened. Else they will just do this over and over again,” added a third.

Some commenters wrote that they have had similar experiences with this particular vendor. /TISG

Read also: Dispute over $5 durian at Bedok ends with buyer calling the police