Spa in Orchard Allegedly Rejected Family’s FDW as a Customer; They’ve Since Responded

I know you might’ve done a double-take at the headline: why would anyone reject any business during this downturn? Restaurants are now even inviting cockroaches into their premises.

But the righteous ones would think that this is pure discrimination while the curious ones would wonder if there’s something deeper in this story.

Well, there is. Read on.

Orchard Spa Allegedly Rejected Family’s FDW as a Customer; Spa Has Since Responded

Yesterday, a Redditor reposted his or her friend’s Instagram Stories on Reddit, and it’s been upvoted 1.2k times (i.e. gone extremely viral lah).

It all started when the person’s aunt bought a spa coupon for their foreign domestic worker through FavePay as a reward.

Before heading to the spa, they called in to book an appointment, and specifically mentioned that it was for their helper.

Image: Reddit

Everything was fine until a day before the appointment, when everything went downhill.

A customer service officer called them and said they “would not serve work pass holders and domestic helpers”,

The reason? The voucher could’ve been secretly bought by her boyfriend.

Image: Reddit

Apparently, the person on the line was allegedly “extremely rude”. The spa employee, however, agreed that it should’ve been indicated clearly.

In the T&Cs, it was indicated clearly that it’s valid for “Singaporeans, Singapore PR, EP, SP and WP holders”, but there’s no mention of domestic workers:

Image: Reddit

They then went online to check the spa’s Google review and realised they were not the only one who faced this problem; someone had the same issue two years ago:

Image: Google

I know you’re scratching your head so much that some hair is dropping.

Fret not; the spa has since responded to the weird rejection.

Consent Letter Needed

Speaking to MS News, it turns out that the spa has “a longstanding practice at the spa to only accept helpers once they have consent letters from employers.”

And the reason is consistent with what they’ve said: boyfriends.

Apparently, it turns out that there had been a history of domestic helpers going with their boyfriends to make use of the packages after the employers have purchased the packages for them.

Some domestic helpers allegedly also get their boyfriends to buy more packages for them.

Now you’re scratching your head even more: why would a spa care so much about who buys the packages? Do restaurants question who pays the bill?

According to the owner of the spa, it’s because they don’t want to “accepting helpers who go behind their employers’ backs in such a manner.

“We try not to deal with helpers like this. Our practice has been going on for a while, some employers appreciate us looking out for them.”

They will serve the domestic helpers only if they’ve a consent letter.

In fact, that consent letter from parents is also required for customers below 21 years old.

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