Singapore — Following a scam involving durians, a member of the public took to Facebook to complain about being ripped off by the seller.
The netizen took to a Facebook group named “Complaint Singapore” to speak up about the seller.
In his caption, he shared that he had patronized a durian stall in Chong Pang, an estate in Yishun West, several times.
“Total nightmare!” he wrote. While he wanted to identify the stall, he was unable to recall and find out its name. He estimated that he was scammed of around SGD $200 since he had purchased durians from the stall several times.
According to his post, he had purchased Red Prawn and XO durians from the stall. After receiving his purchase, he headed to a friend’s house. However, his friend’s husband later told him that the durians were actually D13 and D24 durians instead.
Wanting to seek clarification about why he did not receive what he ordered, the netizen contacted the seller via WhatsApp. They conversed using voice messages. The netizen noted that the seller did not seem repentant; the seller also added that he was merely an employee and was just following instructions from his employer.
“So long as I am selling you durian that is nice and edible, it’s not cheating already,” the seller had allegedly said.
In response, the netizen asked the seller: if a person wanted to buy an iPhone and were sold a fake one, is that acceptable?
The seller then explained that many durian stalls operated in a similar manner and that stores rarely had real Red Prawn durians in stock.
Upon hearing the seller’s response, the netizen was enraged.
“You are a bad apple. Don’t go around shaming other stalls and dragging them in when there may be other good stall owners with integrity,” he wrote in his caption.
He then contacted Lianhe Wanbao about the issue, hoping that his story would get out and people would be more aware of what they were purchasing and avoid getting tricked by unethical sellers.
At the end of his post, he leaves a piece of advice for the durian seller, telling him that everyone is having a hard time coping with the pandemic and the new changes it brought about.
“My advice to the stall owner: remember this. During this pandemic, everybody is suffering. Not just you. Don’t go around cheating people and their hard-earned money,” he wrote.
You Zi Xuan is an intern at The Independent SG. /TISG