Famous Durian Stalls Complain About Durian Delivery Service Misleading Customers

Imagine this: you’ve just ordered durians from your favourite stall through a delivery website, and lo and behold the goods turned up on your door.

Delighted, and absolutely starving, you tuck into those bundles of goodness only to taste what seemed like rancid shit squirming in your mouth.

“Ew, wtf is this muck,” you moan as you spit out cluttery chunks of used durian. “Is this even from the durian stall I’ve loved and craved the last fifteen years? Uncle Tan, how could you do this to me?”

Feeling betrayed, you storm down to Uncle Tan’s durian stall and slam a hand on the table.

“Uncle Tan, how could you do this to me?” you whine as you slam a split durian on the table with your other hand. “I’ve supported you for sixty years and you give me this schmuck?”

“Watch your language boy, or I’ll tell your mum,” Uncle Tan fired back, before giving the durian a one-over. “This durian isn’t mine. My products are sold only when 100% ripe and fresh. This one’s more of a… 69.”

You can’t help but smirk before you remembered what you’re here for.

“What’re you talking about?” you argue. “I saw your stall on this delivery website! They said they deliver… wait, it’s just a review? That doesn’t…”

You pause; Uncle Tan was looking murderous.

“I knew it couldn’t be you, Uncle Tan.” You give your best celebrity-eyed smile. “Your durians are yi ji bang; how could it taste like that?”

And as you cower under his gaze, you can’t help but wonder:

Why did this shit even happen in the first place?

Famous Durian Stalls Complain About Durian Delivery Service Misleading Customers

The introductory paragraph might be unnecessarily long, and one filled with excess fluff, but the gist is correct:

A delivery service that has rendered its site rather ambiguous, has faced backlash from patrons and durian stalls alike.

This comes after popular durian sellers, such as Durian Prince, Ah Seng Durian and Leong Tee Durian, had received numerous complaints from patrons, who claimed to have ordered durians from these stalls via Durian Delivery’s website only to receive sub-par fruit.

According to TODAYonline, the sellers allege that it’s Durian Delivery’s website that misled consumers into thinking that it delivers durians from popular shops.

This is despite Durian Delivery’s defence, that the website clearly states its non-affiliation with the stalls in question.

Durian Delivery

What might have created the ambiguity in the first place, however, might’ve been the delivery company’s rather awkward placement of details on its site.

One feature of the site is a blog that reviews Singaporean durian stalls. One blog post on Ah Seng Durian, for instance, gives the vendor a glowing review and ends off with the following sentence:

“So, what are you waiting for? Drop by Ah Seng Durian’s store and experience the wonderful and tasty world of durians.”

And beneath that is a call to action, which is in a much bigger front:

“Get Your Durians from Duriandelivery.com.sg today!”

And below that, in a smaller font, are the words:

“Duriandelivery.com.sg delivers durians to you on the same day, fresh. 100% Quality Guaranteed or Money Back. Disclaimer: We are not affiliated nor deliver durians for the store above. Please contact them directly.”

Note: The website has since rectified things such that its disclaimer is now way bigger than its call to action.

Passive aggressiveness overloaded?

Affected consumers

On 12 June, Ah Seng Durian published a Facebook post to notify customers that it wasn’t actually affiliated to Durian Delivery.

“We do not provide any online ordering and payment system,” Ah Seng Durian noted in its post.

Another vendor that has been featured on Durian Delivery, Leong Tee, even filed a police report against the delivery firm. While the police confirmed the lodging of a report, they stated that no investigation has been conducted into the matter.

Apparently, the vendor has been receiving around six complaints a week from customers who had ordered through Durian Delivery, thinking that they had ordered Leong Tee’s durians.

To this day, it still receives complaints, though it has lessened since a disclaimer was posted on Facebook on 14 June.

“During that time, when about five people came up to us to complain about their durians, it was very bewildering and we did not know why our durians were like that. We only sell durians when they are 100 per cent ripe and fresh,” they said.

They’ve claimed to give the affected callers free durians, even though they could not have been at fault as Leong Tee’s delivery services are applicable only via WhatsApp.

Last but not least, Durian Prince has also taken to Facebook to warn its customers about Durian Delivery.

Durian Delivery speaks out

When contacted by TODAYonline, Durian Delivery co-founder Jonathan Poon expressed that they operate an honest business, and never meant to trick consumers into thinking they deliver durians from the blog-featured vendors.

Instead, Durian Delivery actually retails fruits from its own durian farms in Johor and Pahang.

And as for the cause of confusion, he believes that the company’s “generic” name might be to blame.

“Because our name is Durian Delivery, so (some customers) actually don’t really understand who we are and they just think it is a delivery service (for other vendors)… It’s not. It’s just a very generic name. So I think that’s where the confusion comes from,” he said.

According to Mr Poon, Durian Delivery receives ‘low-quality durian’ complaints daily, but added that it’s an expected part of the business since “durian is a fruit”.

In response, he said that the company provides such customers fresher durian as compensation, as long as they send photo evidence of the bad fruit with their complaints.

Netizens react

When it comes to Durian Delivery’s perceived ambiguity, it seems that just like an equation, there are two sides to it.

For instance, a TODAY reader documented his encounter on Facebook, detailing how Durian Delivery’s placement of details caused things to easily get mixed up.

“Reason being I have searched on Google: Ah Seng Durian Delivery, and their link came up top. And the title says ‘Ah Seng Durian by Durian Delivery Singapore’. How did that sound to you? If you’re not familiar with Ah Seng (I’m not), wouldn’t you think that it is ‘by Durian Delivery’?” he wrote, saying that he almost ordered from Durian Delivery thinking that it delivers Ah Seng’s Durian.

Another customer, however, felt that the delivery company’s website made things pretty clear.

“The blog post already states that it is a review. And when you order there is no description of the famous brand at all,” he said, adding that customers who got confused probably just went “too long, didn’t read”, and ended up placing orders without reading the website properly.

You can check out the website here.

And so… what do you think?

Is it the fault of Durian Delivery, which might’ve made things a tad bit confusing in the first place?

Or is it the fault of customers, who’re too quick to jump the gun without reading things clearly?