Thailand where the customer is always wrong?  "Needle in pork" experience stuns diners

 

Image: Sanook

 

Sanook reported that a Facebook user had recounted their experience at a "Moo Katha" or cook-it-yourself pork restaurant. 

 

The group of diners found what they said was a needle from a syringe in one of the pieces of pork.

 

They complained to the management and got a half hearted apology.

 

The management said they would have a word with the supplier of the meat. 

 

Not surprisingly the discovery of such an object put the diners off their meal and they decided to pay the bill and leave. 

Cue a double whammy:

 

A staff member stopped them and said they would have to pay an 80 baht "fine" for not eating all their food. 

 

Shocked by this request and telling the management they were unhappy they were given a 50% discount on the fine. 

 

Then they received only 40 baht change from a 100 baht payment. 

 

They were then told they could pay 50 baht for the uneaten food.

 

It appeared that the expression "the customer is always right" had little meaning in Thailand, at least if this post was anything to go by.

 

Source: Sanook

 

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It must be a leftover from the Wholesaler who injected extra water weight into the pork to make more money....Just never thought the syringe needle would break.

Fine for not eating the food they bought, what next fine for not finishing your beer?

15 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

decided to pay the bill

first  mistake  right  there

Edited August 1, 20205 yr by bodga

7 minutes ago, Orton Rd said:

what next fine for not finishing your beer?

Not sure I would ever be fined for that ????

No matter how hard you tried, you would have great difficulty coming on with something better than being asked to pay a fine for not finishing your contaminated food. T.I.T. Amazing.????

34 minutes ago, Orton Rd said:

Fine for not eating the food they bought, what next fine for not finishing your beer?

In many all-you-can-eat restaurants they have signs, or at least small print, that customers get charged if they put lots of extra food on their table which they don't eat.

I.e. it's no problem if they eat 1000g. But if they bring 1000g to the table and eat only 200g then they get charged.

 

I think under normal circumstances that makes sense. Because the restaurants are about all-you-can-eat and not all-you-can-put-on-your-table.

 

In this case, when the story is true, the guest should not have to pay anything. At least IMHO.

2 minutes ago, colinneil said:

No matter how hard you tried, you would have great difficulty coming on with something better than being asked to pay a fine for not finishing your contaminated food. T.I.T. Amazing.????

No, not TiT. This is not normal in Thailand.

a good story for the unwary

- so good,  Needless to say - that's even worth 'Pinning' to the Top of the Thread!

7 minutes ago, tifino said:

a good story for the unwary

- so good,  Needless to say - that's even worth 'Pinning' to the Top of the Thread!

That would needle too many people.

 

????

1 hour ago, Orton Rd said:

Fine for not eating the food they bought, what next fine for not finishing your beer?

you should be fined for making pathetic comments

2 hours ago, Orton Rd said:

Fine for not eating the food they bought, what next fine for not finishing your beer?

They will have paid a fixed price on an all you can eat basis - the charge is to stop fat greedy pigs piling up their plates with food that they cannot eat and if then goes to waste. 

 

its a good idea and is already being done in sushi restaurants in London - sloppy Thai bashing! 

2 hours ago, Orton Rd said:

Fine for not eating the food they bought, what next fine for not finishing your beer?

Common in all Moo Grata restaurants.

Was like that in 2009 when I first came here.

As others have posted, you're paying an 'all you can eat price', and that doesn't include all you can throw away.

Isn’t it a shame the article says 

 

It appeared that the expression "the customer is always right" had little meaning in Thailand

 

when the word Thailand should simply have been replaced by the restaurant name instead of tarring an entire nation due to one isolated incident. 

 

When the contributors are racist, there’s not a lot of hope is there! 

15 minutes ago, Bruntoid said:

Isn’t it a shame the article says 

 

It appeared that the expression "the customer is always right" had little meaning in Thailand

 

when the word Thailand should simply have been replaced by the restaurant name instead of tarring an entire nation due to one isolated incident. 

 

When the contributors are racist, there’s not a lot of hope is there! 

Then the restaurant could sue for defamation, best left out, but personally, I would have seeked damages all the way to the courts if they wanted to charge me for the food, let alone fining me for not eating it, some are thicker than others, really, people in business need to understand a customer can shut you down quick smart in cases like this.

1 hour ago, OneMoreFarang said:

In many all-you-can-eat restaurants they have signs, or at least small print, that customers get charged if they put lots of extra food on their table which they don't eat.

I.e. it's no problem if they eat 1000g. But if they bring 1000g to the table and eat only 200g then they get charged.

 

I think under normal circumstances that makes sense. Because the restaurants are about all-you-can-eat and not all-you-can-put-on-your-table.

 

In this case, when the story is true, the guest should not have to pay anything. At least IMHO.

Totally makes sense when you see the dearth of Chinese tourists using plates to scoop up shrimp into bowls!

Anyone who is reasonable also learns pretty quickly that this is just nice etiquette. I've only had it backfire once when someone at the restaurant thought they'd try it on by doubling the amount ordered - not knowing that my tiny frame partner eats more than I do (and I'm 6 foot and do heavy lifting at the gym). Everything else got sneakily hidden under the lettuce or "fell" into the BBQ grill.

Every other place has been pretty spot on and it totally makes sense why this is the requirement when you actually understand anything about Thai culture and how the customer-business relationship sits in their social hierarchy. 

15 minutes ago, 4MyEgo said:

people in business need to understand a customer can shut you down quick smart in cases like this.

That's what the draconian defamation laws a for....  try to name and shame a bad business and you

( the wronged consumer)   end up in court !!!!

10 minutes ago, johng said:

That's what the draconian defamation laws a for....  try to name and shame a bad business and you

( the wronged consumer)   end up in court !!!!

I wonder if the 1% of the nations rich who own 67% + of the nations worth, had anything to do with setting up such a draconian law to keep themselves safe why they keep the people humble as pie.

Agree with charge to stop waste in all you can eat places.

Poor customer service still charging after the needle found.

Pity it Thailand can't name and shame.

fuji -> had a rat or yingyok <deleted> on the fruit once

 

oh sorry, no discount, you want other fruit ?

 

another resto:   iron filing from opening a can in food, saw it, oh, sorry

 

that one went bankrupt a few weeks later, that felt good

6 hours ago, ThailandRyan said:

It must be a leftover from the Wholesaler who injected extra water weight into the pork to make more money....Just never thought the syringe needle would break.

Water injecting to "up the weight" is common practice here... I gave up with pork years ago when trying to fry it in a pan like a steak, I'd end up with frothing scum coming out and almost boiling it !

6 hours ago, Orton Rd said:

Fine for not eating the food they bought, what next fine for not finishing your beer?

with this crowd, no one will ever find that out..

5 hours ago, Bruntoid said:

sloppy Thai bashing! 

Not really. In the real world the diners would not have been charged anything, let alone charged a fine. Yet another example of no common sense here, in the land where money is king over everything else, including good service. The only thing the place was concerned about was getting their cash, nothing else.

In London where a friend and I were dining they left us waiting for ages for our food, and when I went to check where it was discovered they'd lost the order. As a result, both the food and the drinks were free. Another time, similar thing, dessert was free.

 

In Bangkok, at Scruffy Murphys, my sister and I both ordered roast chicken, and mine came stone cold as if they had taken it out of the fridge and forgot to prepare it. Result was a free meal and two free Irish coffees. But in all those cases the owners were not Thai and they had better priorities - like satisfying their customers. An alien concept in Thailand.

Edited August 1, 20205 yr by Bangkok Barry

I had a similar experience at a sandwich place in Hua Hin. I bit into it, and when I happened to glance at the sandwich, there was a metal screw barely visible inside it. I told the farang owner, and he just made an "it's good to get iron from your food" joke and said it must have come from one of their appliances. No actual apology, no discount, nothing. 

6 hours ago, faraday said:

That would needle too many people.

 

????

... and start a long thread.

That is a very strange looking needle. Certainly not something I would like to see in my pork, but doesn't look like any hypodermic, maybe a sharp probe used to poke a few holes prior to dunking in water or other solution.

7 hours ago, mighty said:

you should be fined for making pathetic comments

It is the land of scam after all 

7 hours ago, faraday said:

That would needle too many people.

 

????

Pointless complaint!

7 hours ago, faraday said:

That would needle too many people.

 

????

get to  the point !!!

Removed a troll post (incomprehensible)