SINGAPORE: A recent incident involving Grab has ignited backlash from Singaporean customers.
It began when a Singaporean took to social media to complain about Grab being “into yet another money-grabbing opportunity” as he shared about a voucher incident after a merchant got his order wrong.
He noted that from experience, “Grab gives the refund in the form of a voucher” equivalent to the value of the missing order. Thus, he was surprised to receive two separate vouchers instead.
“Instead of giving me a voucher that is of the value of my missing item, they have decided to split it into two vouchers and made sure that I can only use one voucher at a time.
Now, the value of the voucher is small enough that it will not meet the minimum order amount, meaning I’ll have to make another two full purchases on their platform.
Grab knows well what they are doing,” he said.
“So essentially they have turned what is a mistake made by the merchant, a loss by the customer (that is me), into yet another money grabbing opportunity for themselves,” he added.
Highlighting that this wasn’t his only unpleasant experience with Grab, he questioned: “While I understand business is about making money, surely there can be room for some basic decency?
What good can there be when the public equates your organisation with scummy behaviour?”
Singaporeans online responded with disappointment, with many users expressing their intention to switch to competitors like Deliveroo and foodpanda, which reportedly offer more straightforward refund processes.
One commenter noted, “They refund directly in credit, no minimum spend needed.” Others criticised the company for what they perceive as prioritising profit over customer satisfaction.
One commenter remarked, “Grab is burning goodwill to earn a quick buck.” He also questioned the company’s long-term strategy: “Whoever approved this doesn’t care about the company’s reputation.”
“I’ve had enough of Grab’s policies,” another user added. In contrast, some users acknowledged instances where Grab did refund in cash upon dispute.
One commenter said, “I just had a dispute last month – they refunded in cash though. I had another dispute a few months back and it was also refunded in cash.”
“Contact grab support and demand for cash refund. I’ve done it a few times and they usually do give in,” another shared.
The Independent Singapore has reached out to Grab for a comment about this matter, and according to a Grab spokesperson, it is Grab’s policy to refund the missing item via the original payment method for an order.
The spokesperson added:
“We have looked into the matter and found that GrabFood vouchers were issued in this instance as the ticket was raised in the Help Centre for a separate issue.
As a result, the platform automatically issued the refund in the form of GrabFood vouchers. We have since processed a full refund of the missing item to the customer.
We are also currently reviewing our process to prevent similar incidents from happening again.” /TISG
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